Nicco Mele’s new book, “The End Of Big,” delves into the impact and lessons of new technology across a wide political, economic, media and social spectrum — a spectrum reflected in the diverse cross-section of Washington political and media leaders, campaign veterans, current and former government officials and business and new technology leaders who turned out in force to fete Mele at “The End of Big” book party hosted by Connie Milstein, Tammy Haddad, Doug Wilson, Joe Trippi and Jeff Trammell last night at the Jefferson Hotel.
Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Doug Wilson and former Howard Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi – who shared a small, windowless office in Denver as senior members of the ill-fated 1988 Gary Hart for President campaign – introduced Mele, seen as the guru of Dean’s high-tech leap from obscurity to front-runner status throughout most of the 2004 Democratic primary campaign. “Little did I know when I shared that small space in Denver with Trippi that he would be responsible for the emergence of an unknown to national prominence, someone who would transform the national political landscape, “ Wilson told the crowd. No, it was not the former Governor of Vermont: it was the man who merged high-tech and politics, Nicco Mele.” Trippi, now a frequent political commentator and international political consultant, introduced his protégé recalling that the hard-working Mele made sure he and his team also took time to appreciate the world around them: “I caught Nicco and his crew away from their desks once and found them outside.” Trippi said. “ ‘We were just looking at the sunset’, Nicco told me. I yelled at them and said ‘Do you think Kerry’s people are looking at the sunset? Bush’s?’ He gave me a look that shut me up.”
Mele, seen as a “godfather” of a field that has expanded exponentially in the past decade, and mentor and role model for young practitioners responsible for Barak Obama’s unprecedented use of social media to attract voters, galvanized the crowd with his comments about the impact technology continues to have on all aspects of life. He held up his smartphone to the crowd and told them that the phone case had been made using his new 3-D printer, and that future models would enable people to “print” everything from shoes to rifles.
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