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February 02, 2010
Stuck in an Elevator at the New York Times
How does someone get to have a 75+ minute tweetup in an elevator at the New York Times? I'm not exactly sure, but yesterday it happened to me.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the New York Times to attend what turned out to be an amazing discussion of social media and the Haiti Disaster. The session was moderated by Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum and the speakers included my friend Ann Curry (@AnnCurry) from NBC News and the Today Show together with Rob Mackey (@RobertMackey), staff writer The New York Times, Erik Parker (@theparkerreport), a journalist who was in Haiti when the earthquake struck and Jason Cone (@MSF_USA), communications director, Doctors Without Borders. I attended the session to hear their first hand accounting of their experiences in Haiti.
After the session was over I was talking to Ann Curry and we were amongst the last of the people to leave the room. What happened next became surreal. Nine of us went into the elevator on the 15th floor at the New York Times and what should have been a 20 second ride down to the ground level turned into a 75+ minute experience as we got stuck in an elevator when the elevator missed the lobby level and went about one and half more feet below the lobby.
Turned out the elevator had an amazing cast of characters which included: Ann Curry; Jennifer Preston (@NYT_JenPreston), Social Media editor of the New York Times; Geo Geller (@GeoGeller) my friend who made it a point to document the experience; Ann Blinkhorn (@annblinkhorn) an executive recruiter; Phil Thomas DiGiulio (@holaphil), Co-founder @pegshot; Alex Howard (@digiphile), Associate editor, SearchCompliance.com; Todd McCarty the new Senior Vice President, Human Resources at the New York Times and one person who preferred to be invisible.
Moments after we were stuck, @NYT_JenPreston was the first to press the alarm which got the immediate attention of building maintenance. Almost immediately the cameras came on and photos were taken by @GeoGeller and video was captured by @holaphil. In a few minutes the air was turned in the elevator and the doors were jammed open by an inch or two. When that happened we relaxed and got comfortable while we waited to be rescued from the elevator.
I tried to tweet but my cell phone coverage was in and out but I was finally able to share my tweet "Stuck in the elevator with @anncurry @geogeller @holaphil and 5 others in New York Times building."
The conversations that happened during the time we were together in the elevator were fun and enjoyable. It helped that everyone was relaxed and friendly. The experience turned into a pretty amazing and unplanned tweetup and a chance to get to know a bunch of people whom I would never would have otherwise had a chance to spend time with.
About 75 minutes later the doors to the elevator were opened and we all walked out of the elevator. Afterwards we posed for a few photos, shared a few hugs and finally left the building.
When I woke up this morning I read about my experience of being trapped in an elevator in Gawker and branded as an "internet ubernerd." The world then became very surreal when Ann told our story in the opening of the Today Show by sharing the video captured by @holaphil. You can watch the opening of the Today Show by clicking here.
Last night was reminder that at any time an ordinary moment can become extraordinary.
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Tags:social media, twitter, Geo Geller, Ann Curry, Jennifer Pressman, Phil Thomas DiGiulio, Alex Howard, Jeff Keni Pulver
Posted by jeff on February 2, 2010 11:40 AM | Permalink
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Comments
zOMG how do you get yourself in these situations? LOL. I'm so sorry you were stuck in an elevator, but the whole thing was/still is highly entertaining!
Posted by: Christine Cavalier, PurpleCar at February 2, 2010 06:45 PM
Let's see, I think you were just saying something about Serendipity. This is it!
Posted by: Becky McCray at February 2, 2010 12:58 PM
You do get yourself into some odd scrapes Mr Pulver...
Posted by: James Poulter at February 2, 2010 11:58 AM
That is truly surreal - just goes to show how interconnected everyone is, and how quickly these stories can get picked up! I'm glad you all had a good experience as a result of this strange ordeal. All the best!
Posted by: Rosie Clarke at February 2, 2010 11:49 AM
If the elevator is only a couple of feet below the floor you wanted it is usually pretty easy to force the doors open. Just grab the doors and yank. Just be careful crawling out of the elevator.
Posted by: Jim at February 2, 2010 11:43 AM