With the launch of the travel vertical, the members-only flash sales site treads more heavily into the territory of others who have been working on travel packages and other experiences for much longer.

Several other daily deals and flash sales sites have already gotten into the business of offering travel packages, including Groupon’s partnership with Expedia and Gilt Groupe’s high-end, exclusive vacations on its own Jetsetter.com.

The company’s new Lot18 Experiences will offer a twist, focusing exclusively on wine and gourmet food-themed excursions, from vineyard tours to dinners at well-known restaurants.

New York-based Lot18, which has raised roughly $13 million from investors, including the founders of Amazon-owned Diapers.com, has 550,000 members and has sold more than 500,000 bottles of wine.

The capital was expected to be used for launching new verticals; the launch of Lot18 Experiences coincides with the company’s one-year anniversary.

When it goes live today, travel packages will include a seven-week trip to several of the world’s major wine regions (Bordeaux, Napa, Mendoza, South Africa, Italy, Spain, Germany and Portugal). On a smaller scale, there will be one-night-only offers, such as food and wine pairing dinners at Auberge du Soleil in Napa and Le Bernardin in New York.

It will also launch soon in Chicago, Los Angeles and other major cities, through a network of partner sites to be announced later.

In addition to wine and experiences, the site offers gourmet food products, such as olive oil, chocolate, caviar, coffee and more.

According to several sources close to the situation, Apple CEO Steve Jobs–who is on a health-related leave from the company–is definitely considering an appearance at its big iPad 2 event tomorrow.

But the possibility–which would be a big sensation at the San Francisco gathering and has been subject to great speculation–is also just as definitely not confirmed as yet, stressed sources.

If he did appear, sources said, Jobs would make at least a brief appearance on stage along with other top company execs in showing off Apple’s latest version of it hugely popular tablet.

The new device reportedly has a sleeker look, as well as a camera and other improvements, changes that tech’s top showman would certainly love to tout and that his legions of fans would like to see him introduce.

But what BoomTown would like to see would be more of a focus on the iPad 2 itself, rather than armchair diagnoses of Jobs’s fitness based on any appearance he might make.

That’s no small thing, given the appalling series of photos and video that have surfaced recently, which show the Silicon Valley icon from the worst possible angle and looking quite gaunt.

As I have written before, and as you can see from the photo above taken at last year’s D: All Things Digital conference interview, it is clear Jobs has suffered due to his bout with a form of pancreatic cancer.

Due to nutritional issues, his weight has suffered, one of the key reasons Jobs seems to have taken this latest leave.

That said, in recent weeks, he has made all kinds of public appearances both at Apple’s Cupertino campus and in Silicon Valley restaurants, including a high-profile dinner with President Barack Obama. Jobs sat immediately to the left of the president.

If he decides to make another outing tomorrow, it is certainly with the knowledge that everyone will be trying to figure out his health from a stage appearance.

That’s a risk for Jobs, of course, who relishes in introducing Apple products in presentations that typically garner well-deserved accolades.

Given how innovative most of those products are, what would be a welcome change in the coverage of Jobs’s personal struggles would be to show a level of respect to him by paying more attention to what bells and whistles the iPad 2 has rather than to how his jeans are fitting.

There is no question, with its latest iteration, Apple is making sure consumers realize that it is coming out with a second, flashier version, even before other manufacturers–mostly using the new Honeycomb version of Google’s Android mobile operating system–are still scrambling to get their initial competing devices to market.

That’s the truly dramatic story to watch here, rather than needlessly rubbernecking about the struggles of one man–albeit, a very significant man–to regain his health.

For the bargain-basement price of $10,000, you will receive a one-night stay for four in the Penthouse at the Fairmont in San Francisco, a four-course dinner, a commemorative Tiffany china set for four, monogrammed robes, Bulgari amenities–and not just any rental car, but a Maserati Quattroporte for the day.

The package normally costs $20,000, but for the next six days on LivingSocial’s travel site, it will be sold for 50 percent off. Still a little out of your price range? Well, if you can scratch together $2,000, you can enjoy a one-night stay for two in the Presidential Suite (without the china set and other extras), another half-off deal.

Hardly the usual dinner out or day-spa offer, but seven packages (mix unknown) have already been purchased!

The penthouse deal may be one of the most expensive yet to pop up as the race heats up between the various players competing for a foothold in the relatively young space of offering heavily discounted items in return for selling high volumes.

Another big-ticket item that sold recently was on the flash-sales site Gilt Groupe, which was offering 2011 Volkswagen Jettas for $5,995 (or 63 percent off the regular price of $15,995). Quantities were limited to three.

Gilt Groupe also has its daily deals business, called Gilt City, which offers premium and often luxurious deals in several U.S. cities. It also has a companion travel site, called Jetsetter, that offers exotic trips around the world or even closer to home. A current offer on the site is for ritzy digs at a New York City hotel for $205 a night (including a shower with a view).

In an interview with Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder of LivingSocial.com, late last year, he said that the company is increasingly putting the focus on hand-crafted curated packages, which will help them differentiate from market-leading Groupon or the dozens of other clones hitting the market.

If you ask us, a $10,000 one-night stay in a San Francisco hotel would count as an eye-catcher.

It’s hard to know if this package is truly a bargain, since prices on hotel rooms can vary so drastically, and this deal isn’t really found anywhere else.

But if you take their word for it, the one-night stay for four in the penthouse normally fetches $10,000 a night. The exclusive china set costs $1,600. The monogrammed robes, Bulgari amenities and rental Maserati…well, we don’t know.

Here’s a description of the penthouse from the listing: “Your decadent digs in the recently renovated eighth-floor Penthouse feature three bedrooms, a formal dining room that seats 60, a two-story circular library with gold-leaf rotunda, a Persian-tiled billiard room, and an expansive terrace where Sean Connery famously received a haircut in ‘The Rock.’”

Is there a pull-out couch? Heck, I’m sure someone would be willing to sleep on the floor.

Just in case you are wondering, the fine print is tolerable.

The deal expires at the end of the year, the driver must have insurance, be at least 25 and have a valid driver’s license, and reservations are required.

To those who care intensely about this kind of stuff–which would be pretty much everyone in the tech ecosystem–Apple will hold its much-anticipated event on March 2, where the tech giant seems poised to unveil a new version of its hugely successful iPad, according to multiple sources.

As in, iPad 2! Or, as BoomTown is now officially nicknaming it: iPad Too!

Analysts expect the iPad 2 to be thinner than its predecessor and feature an improved display, as well as front-facing camera and Facetime video chat support. And some reports suggest it will be powered by one of Qualcomm’s multimode chips and will run on both GSM and CDMA-based networks around the world.

In its last earnings calls, Apple said it had sold nearly 15 million iPads, since it went on sale last spring.

This is a very big deal, although Apple will be facing increased competition with the launch of a passel of tablets coming from numerous manufacturers, most of which are using the Honeycomb version of Google’s Android mobile operating system.

According to several sources close to the situation, the Wednesday date in a little more than a week is firm and will take place in San Francisco, the scene of many such Apple events.

In that case, the venue is likely to be the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

It’s not clear when Apple will begin sending out its famous invites for the gathering, but I am guessing soon, in order to get the Apple faithful to the proper level of froth.

(The image above is from one of my favorite previous save-the-dates.)

Now that this date is confirmed–at least by me!–the next round of speculation will be around whether Apple CEO Steve Jobs will appear or not. Sources said he is considering it.

He is currently on leave to deal with ongoing health issues, although has been sighted all around Silicon Valley at various places. In addition, Jobs sat right next to President Barack Obama at a high-profile meet-the-tech-moguls dinner in the area last week.

In other words: Let the media frenzy begin!

At the president’s right hand, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg; at his left, Apple CEO Steve Jobs. And when Obama looked across the centerpiece, there were the piercing eyes of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. Note that Jobs and Google CEO Eric Schmidt are safely separated, in keeping with the first rule of dinner-party seating–avoid fistfights.

The theme of the evening’s conversation? Said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, “The president specifically discussed his proposals to invest in research and development and expand incentives for companies to grow and hire.”

[Image credit: Flickr/WhiteHouse]

President Obama will dine with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and a handful of other top Silicon Valley executives at a private dinner at the home of venture capitalist John Doerr. The conversation topics of the evening: American innovation, education and clean energy, and quite a few others, I’m sure, given the guest list.

According to a White House official, other attendees include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, Cisco CEO John Chambers, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Stanford president John Hennessy, chairman and former CEO of Genentech Art Levinson, and Westley Group’s managing partner and founder Steve Westly. Oddly absent: HP CEO Léo Apotheker. Perhaps, Ellison’s attendance canceled his out….

Now comes the backpedaling. Of course.

Today, well-known Silicon Valley angel investor Ron Conway sent a missive to his favorite missive publisher, TechCrunch.

It was a “clarification” of his earlier “leaked” email to Super Angels in which he lambasted them for a controversial dinner at Bin 38 in San Francisco.

At which one of his partners at SV Angel Partners was in attendance. At Conway’s insistence, as it turns out.

Oops.

Also in the say-what department, a blog post in TechCrunch today about how its TechCrunch Disrupt conference was not going to be all AngelGate read:

“The fact that some of them may or may not have had discussions that may or may not have been inappropriate is, in the end, a sidenote.”

BoomTown can’t mock that epic Silicon Valley statement any more than it does all on its own.

But, after the first decoding, here is the final one for Conway’s words, and then it’s time to leave this circus to the panel tomorrow:

Ron wrote: Last Thursday TechCrunch published a leaked email from me to some angel investors who attended the Bin 38 dinner.

This is the last time I am going to say anything about this topic since we must focus our attention back where it belongs…with the entrepreneurs and helping them build great companies!

Translation: Jazz hands!

And, as usual, MySpace’s Sean Percival does a great illo of the Super Angel menu at Bin 38, which I neglected to post last week:

Ah, there’s nothing like a manly hissy fit amongst a passel of white dudes in Silicon Valley to open the fall television viewing season!

In this latest episode of “Glee,” a group of Super Angel Cheerios–who apparently like a good bottle of Kistler or two–plot to stop the entrepreneur kids from getting to the valuations they’ve been working so hard to inflate.

Dave “Sue Sylvester” McClure uses his bullhorn blog to call foul about a not-naming-names-but-still-really-mad-as-hell story of collusion by that creepy kid from the school newspaper who wants to blackmail Rachel into a date.

Well, that got the gleek club’s teacher, Mr. Ron Conway, mighty irked, and so he wrote an email–which was somehow, in some way “leaked”–to express his various, sundry and decidedly complex feelings.

Thus, the need for a thorough decoding:

Ron wrote: Subject: Super Angels Gathering

Translation: I myself am a Super Duper Angel and therefore am not at all hurt that I was not invited to the fancy wine restaurant called Bin 38, which I would so enjoy.

Not. At. All.

Sigh. I love a good Kistler chard.

Was Sacca there?

Ron wrote: I want to share my views on the two gatherings you had in June and this week and what they represent in my opinion.

I want to clarify once and for all my total disagreement with your values and motives for being investors.

Translation: I was not there, but this does not stop me from completely going all Judge Judy–indicting, trying and convicting you, and despite the fact that one of my own partners was at the faux-controversial dinner.

I do this with a sense of righteous indignation that shall endear me to the entrepreneurs I would so dearly love to steal right out from under you.

Ron wrote: I have stated consistently for year that I invest because I love helping entrepenuers and watching them learn and succeed.

I am honored that entrepenuers share their crystal ball views of the future of innovation and technology with us and respect the guts it takes to start a company.

Translation: Here’s where I spread it on thick.

Just a small town geek
Livin’ in a lonely world
He took the midnight train goin’ anywhere (actually Palo Alto).

Just a city boy
Born and raised in a very nice crib in San Francisco.
He took the midnight limo goin’ anywhere (except not to Bin 38).

Some Supers in a smoky room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can collude all night
It goes on and on and on and on.

Ron wrote: At SV Angel we try to reciprocate by adding value any way we can.

I think that actions speak louder than words and SV Angel has always been a friend of entrepenuers and we focus our business to help entrepenuers achieve success.

Translation: I might not be able to spell “entrepreneur,” and perhaps an SV Angel partner was present and accounted for at this dinner, but please instead focus on my jazz hands that are telling a tale of entrepreneurial adoration.

Ron wrote: The world of startups would be a better place if you spent less time complaining about deal structures, terms, vc’s, and valuations etc and the cars you drive, and just helped entrepenuers build their companies.

Translation: I have never complained about such things, except in the video below, in which I do.

Particularly about Porches. Um, Porsches.

Ron wrote: The Free Enterprise system is very efficient…why not let the marketplace demands decide on these issues, its worked for many many years. These startups are binary…they succeed or fail so why waste time on deal structures, terms, vc’s, and valuations etc and just help entrepenuers build their companies.

Translation: From this moment out, there will be no more convoluted term sheets from me. I am just going to leave a barrel full of money by the door of my “entrepeneur”-paid-for-it apartment and any nerd can grab a handful or two.

Ron wrote: In my opinion your motives are driven by self serving factors around ego satisfaction and “making a buck”.

My motives and values are very different.

Translation: To paraphrase a line from the upcoming movie about Facebook–which is one of my investments, in case I did not mention it:

Making a buck isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Making a billion bucks!

Ron wrote: They are so different I want to be up front with you and recognize this and disengage from any involvement with you. I will not be a hypocrite.

I think you have a different value set and lets agree to disagree and not have to even engage in any idle chit chat or discussion of any sort….ever.

Translation: Super Duper Angels are from Venus, Super Angels are from Mars.

Ron wrote: Furhermore, I regret David Lee was involved in the gatherings. I am sure he does too.

We talked about the first dinner and I encouraged him to write the email above and withdraw…I know he was uncomfortable with both gatherings…where no one was there to speak up for the interests of the entrepenuers.

Translation: David Lee, my partner, was very uncomfortable at the gathering. Which is why he went twice.

Two times, to make sure he was completely regretful.

One. Then two. He felt just awful.

To be fair, the wine was superb.

Ron wrote: By now you are rolling your eyes and saying “Ron’s a ___________(fill in the blank)…and who is he to pass judgement…..

We are all entitled to our opinions.

‘
Translation: How about this fill-in-the-blank: Ron’s a little old to be throwing mud pies at the other investors in a digital sandbox.

We are all entitled to our opinions.

Ron wrote: I am just being honest and transparent….the way most of the entrepenuers I invest are…

What do you think the entrepenuers you have funded are thinking right now.

Translation: Does this sound like pandering to the cheap seats, while also engaging in some not-so-subtle self-aggrandizement? Perish the thought!

But here’s what I hope they are thinking–let’s all dump the Super Angels and go back to Silicon Valley’s original Sugar Daddy Ron.

Ron wrote: This is despicable and embarrassing for the tech community in my opinion.

Can you learn from this ?

Translation: Oh, dear–here’s the part where Mr. Schuester sums up what all the kids learned this week, perhaps via a poignant song. I hope it’s not from “Cats.”

Ron wrote: Please keep this confidential even though I know that will be hard since two of you let your egos take over and show Arrington how important you are by telling him you were headed to a “secret” angel gathering.

Translation: Yes, don’t leak this by any means. Not by email, which works perfectly if you use your personal Gmail account.

I also have no idea how every investment strategy deck I do somehow reaches TechCrunch in its entirety.

It’s a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a Gmail–you know, in case you did not know, I was a very early investor in Google (GOOG).

Ron wrote: Dave McCLure…pls try not to blog about this and cause silicon valley more embarrassment with your unprofessional classless writings

Translation: Yes, Dave, leave the unprofessional classless writings to the professionals. Like BoomTown!

Ron wrote: Note: I did not include those who were at the gatherings who I don’t know well enough to form an opinion around their motives or values.

Translation: You’re next if you keep messing with my Super Duper Angel investing business.

Don’t stop believin’ that.

And here’s Ron unplugged:

While in Washington, D.C., this week, BoomTown got to go to a dinner in honor of comic Kathy Griffin.

Griffin’s reality television show is called “My Life on the D List,” and we’re proud to share the same terrific letter.

She made much hay of her relationship with Apple (AAPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak on the show, so there’s yet another tech link.

And, in the video–in which she talks about her lobbying on Capitol Hill to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding gays in the military–she also uses a very naughty term for tweeting on Twitter.

So, apropos of it being Friday, here’s the video of Griffin, who also told me she is a big fan of the Flip digital video camera:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100319/my-life-on-the-d-list-meets-all-things-d/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20090527/opening-dinner-photos/ http://allthingsd.com/20090527/opening-dinner-photos/#comments Wed, 27 May 2009 13:00:31 +0000 Adam Tow http://d7.allthingsd.com/?p=701 Following the session with Twitter’s Evan Williams and Biz Stone, D7 attendees enjoyed dinner in the Palm Courtyard of the hotel, taking the opportunity to greet friends and network with colleagues.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090527/opening-dinner-photos/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20081027/party-at-larrys-crib-netsuites-10th-anniversary-dinner/ http://allthingsd.com/20081027/party-at-larrys-crib-netsuites-10th-anniversary-dinner/#comments Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:00:41 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=5627

BoomTown has been lagging in getting up this lovely video I did from a dinner party last Thursday, thrown for NetSuite’s tenth anniversary, which was held at one of billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s many houses–this one in the tony Pacific Heights section of San Francisco.

NetSuite (N) is one of the pioneers in the broadly termed software-as-a-service space, selling an “integrated web-based business software suite, including Accounting software/ERP software, CRM software, and Ecommerce software.” Essentially, that’s hosted software solutions for medium-sized businesses or divisions of larger companies.

Zzzzzzzzzz, right?

Actually, it is an important topic, as businesses actually do begin to embrace the idea of putting themselves increasingly in the so-called cloud, which is Silicon Valley’s trendiest term du jour.

It is a topic, in fact, that Microsoft is going to be blabbing about all week, starting today. The SaaS space, including its cloud computing efforts, will be Topic A at its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.

In any case, after a lovely tour of Ellison’s house–Ellison co-founded the company with former Oracle (ORCL) exec Evan Goldberg and has been a major NetSuite investor–by NetSuite’s PR guru Brooke Hammerling, and some dinner chatter, I did an interesting video interview with NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson about the direction of the sector.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081027/party-at-larrys-crib-netsuites-10th-anniversary-dinner/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20080606/the-mystery-of-the-canceled-yahoo-dinner-solved-or-is-it/ http://allthingsd.com/20080606/the-mystery-of-the-canceled-yahoo-dinner-solved-or-is-it/#comments Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:16:55 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080606/the-mystery-of-the-canceled-yahoo-dinner-solved-or-is-it/

Recently, BoomTown, along with a passel of press, was invited to an outreach dinner, set to be held on June 9 at a San Francisco venue, with some top Yahoo (YHOO) execs.

This was somewhat of a big deal, given the typically cave-dwelling mentality of the company in recent days, due to the drama of the Microsoft (MSFT) takeover bid that has jacked Yahoo’s typically skittish approach to press relations up to dangerously shy levels.

Thus, the appearance of a herd of important ones felt epic: Network head Jeff Weiner, along with a trio of SVPs–Front Door and Network Services’ Tapan Bhat, Brad Garlinghouse, who heads Yahoo’s communications and communities arenas, and Yahoo Search’s Vish Makhijani.

The point? To talk up all the various initiatives at the company and to try to focus on the actual operating units, rather than the endless MicroHoo drama that has consumed every little bit of mindshare related to Yahoo.

The operating units at Yahoo have, in fact, been largely kept out of the acquisition maelstrom, except for being drawn in to comment on the feasibility of various schemes like a Google (GOOG) search-ad outsourcing deal.

Then the dinner was canceled last week suddenly, with organizers blaming scheduling issues.

That move set tongues wagging at Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif., HQ, of course, and sources inside the company began to pepper BoomTown with two key theories.

The first: That Yahoo was very close to a deal with Microsoft, which could come over the weekend, and therefore it did not want to be trotting key execs in front of the press at what might be a delicate time.

While the cancellation of the dinner apparently came from corporate, at this moment–which could change at any moment, of course–that seems unlikely.

While many feel like Microsoft’s only way to best rival Google is to renew its efforts to buy Yahoo and is the only true option that would give the software giant any kind of real scale in the search arena, several sources told me that Microsoft is currently in a wait-and-see holding pattern as it considers its various alternatives.

“Microsoft is in no rush with Carl Icahn doing all the heavy lifting,” said one source, referring to the hopping-mad billionaire investor who is waging a proxy fight against Yahoo.

Another said the company is in a deep evaluation mode on what to do with plenty of time to contemplate its options, especially since Microsoft now has major Yahoo shareholders pining for a $33 per share price, rather than the higher figures once bandied about.

And, except for the threat of a Yahoo-Google search-ad hookup, which has been pending for a while, noted the source, “[CEO Steve] Ballmer does not have to move yet.”

BoomTown, of course, has disagreed with this strolling-in-the-park mentality, because if Microsoft is truly committed to the online ad space, it has to just take a flyer and buy Yahoo.

But an even more intriguing second theory surrounded Weiner (pictured here), the high-profile exec who is in charge of Yahoo’s many products from content to email to search to communities.

Several execs at Yahoo suggested to me that the reason for the cancellation was because he might be on his way out the door soon, a rumor that was started when Weiner took two weeks off upon the recent birth of his first child (Hey, congrats! Try to get sleep before colic starts in!) and then extended the leave two more weeks.

But after a bit of BoomTown sleuthing, it seems that a Weiner departure is not imminent–at least for now–and that he is likely to be back on the job after he perfects the art of swaddling. (Some advice for Jeff: Surrender now.)

But the notion of what the future holds for high-ranking execs like Weiner got me thinking that it is likely Yahoo will have to grapple with the issue more seriously in the coming months.

And the question of how Yahoo is going to hang onto top talent–while it sits in what is essentially a limbo until its August board meeting resolves the Icahn fight–is a very important one going forward.

Because if Yahoo manages to remain largely independent, there will still be the nagging question of who should be the leaders of the company, especially given the buzzsaw that CEO Jerry Yang and President Sue Decker have been and will continue to go through.

And, if it gets bought, likely by Microsoft, a lot of key execs will obviously be faxing off their resumes, despite what are likely to be huge retention packages.

In both cases too, one must factor in sheer exhaustion brought on by the turmoil among the Yahoo troops, which cannot be underscored enough.

In many more conversations I have had with employees of late, there is a decided increase in the weariness factor with the situation and a feeling that the road ahead will be even more daunting.

And how to overcome that will be perhaps the greatest mystery of all for Yahoo’s leadership to solve going forward.

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