This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka "The Guy with the Red Tie"), Founder of GarysGuide, Mentor at ER Accelerator and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

NYTM Board Elections
So, with all the eating 'n drinking 'n partying, u probably didn't realize that election season is upon us. Well, the NY Tech Meetup elections that is. And if you thought the GOP Presidential Nominations debates were crazy entertaining, welllll... wait until ya get a peek at the candidates jostling for a seat on the NYTM Board of Directors. That includes Alexis Goldstein, Ben Kessler (CrowdTap), Brandon Diamond (Hacker Union), Dan Healy, David Tisch (Managing Director, TechStars), Eric Friedman (Foursquare), Evan Schreiber, Gregory Schnese (Product Marketing, Kikin), Izzy Johnston, Jalak Jobanputra, Jesse Landry (Biz Dev, iTechArt), Jonathan Askin (Professor, Brooklyn Law School), June Cohen, Matthew Knell, Murat Aktihanoglu (Founder, ER Accelerator), Phil Thomas di Guilio, Shai Goldman (Silicon Valley Bank), Wei Zhao (Founder, Seatig) and Whitney Hess (UX Consultant). Phewwwww, quite a list, huh? Well, my money is on Senor Tisch of course (Incubator honcho? check. Reality tv star and runway model? check. Beloved by the NY Tech community? check. check. check.). But hey, as with any elections, you can never tell until the final vote has been cast and counted, right? Who knows what kind of dirt the candidates are digging up about each other right now ;) Click here to get the inside scoop on all the candidates and click here for ur chance to meet the candidates this evening @ New Work City and hear their pitches.

Stay tuned for my "Parties, Parties and Mo' Parties Edition: Part 2" next Monday.

And now, lets pull back the curtains to see what crazzzy holiday partying madness is going down in da Alley this week...

Startup Lunch
Lunch by yourself? Not fun. Lunch with other startuppers? Awesome sauce! :)
Monday, 1 p.m. @ GreenSquare Tavern, 5 W 21st Street

Big Data Drinkup NYC #3 - Special Cassandra NYC Edition
The place to be to get hammered and talk big data with other fellow quants, predictive analytics enthusiasts, machine learning wonks and data geeks. Ok u can stop drooling now.
Monday, 6 p.m. @ Dewey's Flatiron, 210 Fifth Avenue

Managing Excellence at Your Startup with Justin Kan
Before we all started over-sharing our lives on facebook 'n foursquare 'n twitter, there was Justin Kan from Justin.tv, the original, location-based, camera-on-the-head perpetual life-streamer.
Monday, 6 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway 4th Floor

Holiday Networking - For Entrepreneurs, Investors & Small Businesses
Party with Entrepreneur Week, The NJ Tech Meetup, DoItInPerson.com, Nolcha, Global Fashion Brands, Entrepreneurs Roundtable, Kayweb Angels, Ultra Light Startups and more.
Monday, 6 p.m. @ Duo Restaurant & Lounge, 72 Madison Avenue

NY Music Tech Meetup
If you love music and you love tech then of course u'll love an event called Music Tech, right? ;) Demoing will be eMusic, EarCandyGo, iHeartRadio, iJukebox, Cull.tv, Spin and The Orchard.
Monday, 7 p.m. @ Knitting Factory, 361 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn

NYVC: Speaker Series with Steve Schlafman from Lerer Ventures
Lerer Ventures Principal (and former VP BizDev, StickyBits/Turntable fm and Director of Venture Investments, Kraft Group), Stevel Schlafman talks about his chameleon-ic career.
Monday, 7 p.m. @ 36 East 12th Street

NYC Winter VC & Angel Event & Holiday Cocktail Party
With Howard Morgan (Partner, First Round Capital), Mary Anne Rooke (Managing Director, Angel Investor Forum), Katherine O'Neill (Executive Director, Jumpstart NJ Angel Network), Aaron Holiday (Managing Partner, BR Venture Fund), Peter Lehrman (Angel Investor) and Jim Nichols (Angel Investor, ARC Angel Fund).
Tuesday, 2 p.m. @ Top of the Garden, 251 West 30th Street 16th Floor

Pitch to VCs at Entrepreneur iEvening
With David Teten (ff Ventures), Heather Gilchrist (RAK Tech Fund), Allan Grafman (Mercury Capital), John Ason (Angel Investor).
Tuesday, 3:30 p.m. @ Herrick, Feinstein LLP, 2 Park Avenue

A Celebration of Global Entrepreneurship
Partying is fun but u know whats even better? Partying for a good cause! NYC’s top female entrepreneurs are celebrating the holiday season by throwing an exclusive cocktail benefit to support female entrepreneurs in Haiti, through the female-founded nonprofit, The Adventure Project.
Tuesday, 7 p.m. @ The Ainsworth, 122 W 26th Street

Its your business, Make an Impression
CoWorking Guru Tony Bacigalupo and the New Work City folks team up with HP for a night of networking, food, spirits and demos!
Tuesday, 7 p.m. @ New Work City , 412 Broadway Floor 2 , NYC

#CMPNY Version 4.0: Content + Conversation
Exploring innovation around texts + tech with demos and dialogue. With Corey Menscher (CoFounder, Findings), Marc Lizoain (CoFounder, Urtak), Paul Canetti (CoFounder, MagAppZine) and David Lee (CoFounder and Executive Creative Director, TWBA).
Tuesday, 7 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway 4th Floor

I'll take healthcare for $50 billion please, Alex
Forget all this social-mobile-local SoLoMo stuff. If you really wanna take a swing at making a real difference and changing the world, u my friend need to understand the complexities and intricacies of the bajillion dollar healthcare market. Speakers include Dr Martin Cohn (Chief Medical Scientist, IBM) and Mark Anderson (CEO, AC Group).
Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. @ New York Institute of Technology, 16 W 61st Street 11th Floor

Talk NYC Presents: The Business of Data
With Jason Cavnar (CoFounder, Singly), Drew Bartkiewicz (VP, Mashery), Tye Rattenbury (Data Scientist, R/GA), Andy Clark (Exec Creative Director, R/GA) and Wade Leak (Deputy General Counsel, Sony Music Entertainment).
Wednesday, 6 p.m. @ Frankfurt Kurnit Klein Selz, PC, 488 Madison Avenue 10th Floor

Under30CEO Holiday Startupalooza featuring Peter Shankman
Pssst, wanna learn a few outrageous PR stunts that actually work? HARO Founder Peter Shankman spills the beans.
Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. @ Empire State Building, 350 5th Avenue 60th Floor

Winning at Your Game with James Altucher
Ya know, its not everyday u get to hear from a guy who sold his first company, started his second company on a napkin, raised $100 million, had a great apartment + family + $15 million in the bank, ended up losing it all, pulled himself back up, started and sold another company to TheStreet, raised a hedge fund and became a best selling author.
Wednesday, 7 p.m. @ Dorsey & Whitney LLP, 51 West 52nd Street

The Health 2.0 NYC Holiday Party
With folks from StartupHealth, mentors from Blueprint Health, VCs from New Leaf Partners, Jean Luc Neptune from Health 2.0, Angel investor Esther Dyson and more.
Wednesday, 7 p.m. @ Lido Deck at the Three Sheets Saloon, 134 W 3rd Street

Hack and Tell: Round 14: Lets multiple some primes!
As always, 5 minutes to show off your hack, and 5 minutes for the audience to applaude, cry, laugh, inquiry, snore, chew, stand, sit, dance, grow and interact :)
Wednesday, 7 p.m. @ Spotify HQ, 76 9th Avenue Ste 1110

Digital Breakfast: Media and Tech Preview 2012
With Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (Media Editor, Financial Times), Tariq Walker (VP Creative Development, AOL), Reed Phillips (Managing Partner, DeSilva+Phillips) and Betsy Morgan (who went from ultra-liberal Arianna Huffington's Huffington Post to ultra-conservative Glenn Beck's The Blaze).
Thursday, 8:30 a.m. @ Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, 488 Madison Avenue 10th Floor

Build an International Startup From Your Dorm
Thrive Capital partner, brazilian social gaming heavyweight Vostu co-founder and Ivanka Trump bro-in-law, Josh Kushner will teach ya how to turn ur dorm room code-athons into real startup gold, Zuck style.
Thursday, 5:30 p.m. @ Polytechnic Institute of NY, 5 MetroTech Center, Brooklyn

Investor Feedback Forum and Pitch Showdown
Graham Lawlor is back with yet another awesome edition of Ultralight Startups. Panelists include Greg Cangialosi (CEO, Nucleus Ventures), Owen Davis (Managing Director, NYC Seed), Nihal Mehta (General Partner, ENIAC Ventures) and Marc Michel (Managing Partner, Metamophic Ventures). Startuppers pitching include Duy Huynh (Taap.it), Robert Petti (Resoomay), Richard Zelson (MyStream), Joshua Dern (Reqoop), Aaron Sylvan (Lemonade Heroes), Maya Landesberg (I Had Cancer), Gavriel Wolf (Indiewalls), Andrew Cohen - Brainscape) and Philip Reichen (LocalUncle).
Thursday, 6:30 p.m. @ NYU Stern, 44 West 4th Street

NYC Data Business Meetup
Anything and everything u need to know about the upcoming data revolution. Organized by Matt Turck (Bloomberg Ventures) at their beautiful offices in midtown.
Thursday, 6:30 p.m. @ Bloomberg LP, 731 Lexington Avenue 28th Floor

Anatomy of the Startup Deck
Having difficulty squeezing your 500 page startup business plan into a 10 slide deck? Or maybe even 6 slides as preferred by USV's Fred Wilson? Well then let Thrive Capital handyman and RaiseCache runway model, Chris Paik, show u the ropes.
Thursday, 7 p.m. @ SkillShare HQ, 407 Broome St #5A

Lean Startup Machine NYC
Want to imbibe some lean startup goodness? Then come to another awesome edition of Trevor Owens' LSM. With a rockstar list of speakers and mentors including Hilary Gosher (Insight Venture Partners), Lucas Nelson (DFJ Gotham), Antonia Abraham (Betaworks), Christina Cacioppo (Union Square Ventures), David Teten (ff Venture Capital), Emily Hickey, Josh Seiden (LUXr), Murat Aktihanoglu (ER Accelerator), Rachel Sklar (ChangeTheRatio) and more.
Friday, 5 p.m. @ Venue To Be Decided

The Barbarian Group 10th Birthday Party
In case u were wondering if there was a holiday party out there where you could celebrate like a deranged 10 year old, this is it.
Friday, 8 p.m. @ The Bowery Hotel Terrace, 335 Bowery

More on the horizon...
NY Gaming December Meetup on Dec 12 @ General Assembly
NJ Tech Meetup 20 on Dec 12 @ Stevens Institute of Technology
SkillShare Holiday Party on Dec 12 @ Von
Founders@Fail with Amol Sarva of Peek on Dec 13 @ General Assembly
Entrepreneur Week | Holiday Party on Dec 13 at Private Residence Terrace
NYU ITP Winter Show! on Dec 18 @ NYU ITP

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends!

Disclosure.