By Guest Author Jacob Nahin

Cream-colored walls. Cushioned sofas. The smell of succulent Indian food wafts through the air and reaches my nostrils. “It’s going to be a filling night,” I think. I was right.

Photo courtesy Kevin Winston

Digital LA, founded by Kevin Winston and known for its hip mixers and stacked panels, held its “Entertainment Goes Social Panel” August 13 at the Writer’s Guild of America in LA My expectations going into the event were modest, for no other reason than I like to go with an open mind. Besides, it was going to be a little difficult to beat the tweet-up with LA-tech noteables Daniel Egan and KW before the panel. I won an Xbox 360 at TwiistUp a couple weeks earlier and Daniel passed off the prize to me at a nearby Starbucks. ‘Turns out the best was yet to come.

Photo courtesy Kevin Winston

When I stepped into the brightly lit room at the WGA, a line was already formed out the door. A sold out night, and with good reason. Samosa House catered the event and supplied us all with tasty snacks. Of course there was wine. Digital LA wouldn’t be the same without wine. But enough about the food.

Photo courtesy Kevin Winston

The crux of the event was, without a doubt, the phenomenal panel. We’re talking writers and reps from entertainment rags like LA Weekly and Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and LA Times. People like Alexia Tsotsis (LA Weekly, @alexiatsotsis)), Andrew Nystrom (LA Times, @latimesnystrom), Andrew Wallenstein (@THR), and Abe Burns (Variety, @variety). What I loved most about this panel was the two-way conversation between the audience and the panelists…over Twitter. It was as if there were 20 different conversations going on simultaneously. Check this tweet out from @hollywoodlvwork who was at the event:

“hollywoodlvwork: #digitalla. Panelists are reading tweets about them as they talk. Dude in the back just got called out for what he wrote. LOL”

Viva la multitasking! Remember what I was saying about the line out the door?

One final note: usually panels sadly stay away from touchy topics and purposefully avoid confrontation, in other words, they’re sterile. This panel was vibrant and fully of discussion, often disagreeing with one another and offering up good, logical points and counterpoints. Kevin Winston knows how to match people up and based on my previous experiences at Digital LA events, this one took it to a different level. As one tweet-er put it:

“JulieSpira: This has been the best panel yet at #digitalla. Thank you @kevinwinston @wganewmedia for the “Entertainment News Goes Social””

Jacob Nahin is a freelance journalist for new media, social media, technology, gaming, and all things geek.