Review of LunchMeet

Eddie Codel and Irina Slutsky, hosts of the tech-savvy interview show LunchMeet, have been sitting down with startups, CEOs, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs since October 2006. Self-proclaimed “geeks” (the pair founded Geek Entertainment TV a month before they started episodes of LunchMeet) and lovers of independent media, it’s fitting that LunchMeet is produced by PodTech, an Internet-television and podcast network devoted to technology, business, and media. Though their subjects are not particularly well known outside of the tech world, Codel and Slutsky still manage to conduct well-paced, smart interviews that even the most tech illiterate might find compelling.

Codel and Slutsky cover the entire spectrum of technological events, whether Web-based, like progressive dating site Consumating, or grounded in mobile technology, like market research distributor Embrace Mobile. The hosts are based in San Francisco, a hub for technological development (not to mention delicious looking lunch sandwiches), so the majority of LunchMeets are conducted in the Bay Area. Shot informally with a single stationary camera, most interviews are fairly lengthy – a discussion with AdBrite

president Philip Kaplan about their recently revealed InVideo player lasts over a half hour. Both hosts clearly know their stuff, but their laid-back interview styles and knowledge of emerging technologies makes LucnhMeet the perfect stop for tech novices.  Neither interviewer assumes much from the audience, so this is a show that any viewer can enjoy.

Despite the name of the show, one of the most interesting interviews takes place not over lunch in San Fran, but halfway around the world in Austria. Standing up, no less. Shot on location in Vienna, Codel spoke with Slovenian organization Cyberpipe about media literacy and open source technology in Eastern Europe.