Last night Jen and I went to the launch of the HuffPost UK, the popular news site whose model is to have “influential and knowledgeable minds” weigh in on all kinds of topical issues. The amazing thing is that people like Sarah Brown, Alastair Campbell and Ricky Gervais, all contribute. For free.
We’re very excited that they have asked BritMums to contribute as well (Yes, we scratched our head at that one too).
The main feature of the launch at Millbank Tower was this bizarre panel that included Richard Bacon, Alastair Campbell, Celia Walden, Kelly Osbourne and Arianna Huffington, the brains behind the HuffPost. They talked about current events, mainly phone hacking and super injunctions. It was very Question Time confrontational, and sort of entertaining, but the highlight was the cool Twitter stream that was projected on the big screen behind the panel.
We were invited to ask questions and share thoughts using #huffpostuk. Lots of witty things were going up, showing the intellectual capacity of the crowd. It reminded me a bit of Uni, where students would one-up their peers piping up with something like “when Sir Robert Walpole was Prime Minster in 1676…” Anyway, my tweets were not witty. I wanted to know where Arianna got the fab blouse she was wearing.
This one, embarrassingly, got a few chuckles from the audience.
I was pleased when Arianna answered the question on Twitter.
I immediately googled Dominco Vacca, turns out he’s an Italian designer. There are no prices on the web site, so if I keep writing for free I most likely won’t be purchasing anything from his collections soon 😀
I was very impressed with Arianna, she is truly enchanting, taking the time to work the crowd. She came by and said hello, and I introduced myself as the one who asked about her blouse. She laughed, and told me Vacca was one of her favourite designers. The only thing I could think of to say was to show of my limited multi-lingual knowledge and tell her that vacca meant cow in Spanish.
Oh well.
Here’s to more bloggers from BritMums contributing to the Huffington Post UK, hopeful you will be more articulate than moi.
Some more pics:
Jen with a glass of wine… (no surprise there)
Jen with Kelly Osborne.
Jen chatting with Arianna Huffington.
-Susanna (A Modern Mother)
Babes about Town
Monday 11th of July 2011
LOL @Karin I think Jen looks rather more suspicious than adoring in that one... and 'vacca' means cow in spanish? I love it! Sounds like a fun event.
Wooden Toy Shopper
Friday 8th of July 2011
huffingtonpost is a very good news site no doubt, and the UK version, although still a long way to go (what's with the random US news?) is quite a good read. however i'm slightly suspicious about the fact that she sold the american version for a few hundred million dollars based on free content written by other people that have never been paid a penny. this share of the sale wasn't ever split with the writers. i wonder why, because the site wouldnt be what it is today without those contributers in the first place. seen this guardian post on it? http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/apr/12/arianna-huffington-post-sale just something to ponder about.
Karin
Friday 8th of July 2011
I quite like the look of adoration that Jen is giving Arianna! And what's up with the acorn hat on the girl in the video? Yikes! Very cool you two are! Am mucho jealous! ;) :) Karin
Metropolitan Mum
Friday 8th of July 2011
I am watching out, no doubt about it. Glad that you managed to focus on the important things in life and asked about her blouse, classic! :-)