Observations from the Conde Nast Portfolio lunch

Conde Nast Portfolio, the new business glossy slated to debut next year, held a lunch on Thursday in New York with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and FishbowlNY was there to observe and take notes.

Some key points, according to its posting, were:

— Big advertisers like Fed Ex, Johnny Walker and others — are interested and snooping.

— Portfolio execs say that despite what looks like a crowded field — business mags for top execs — only 20 percent of top execs read Fortune, Forbes or Business Week. Meaning, they say, there’s a lot of room.

— There are a lot of execs with a lot of publishing experience over there pushing the product — even if they’re not completely sure what it is, yet. They’ve already started to divide up sales categories among them — liquor, travel, etc — and are still recruiting.

— It was the typical careful Condé job, nice flower arrangements on the tables, a big sign with “Portfolio” behind Schmidt when he spoke with [editor Joanne] Lipman, signs stenciled or painted or something on the stone walls downstairs at the Four Seasons. No tchotchkes, yet, though.

More here. Can’t wait for the tchotchkes. My all-time favorite business journalism tchotchke is the BusinessWeek breath mint container.

Meanwhile, Women’s Wear Daily’s Sara James gave Lipman a positive review: “Condé Nast executives were likely reassured by Joanne Lipman’s first public performance as editor in chief of the company’s forthcoming business magazine, Condé Nast Portfolio. On Thursday, Lipman conducted a lively interview with Google chief executive officer Eric Schmidt before a crowd of several dozen potential advertisers and journalists at the Four Seasons.”