This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide 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.

Last week I was at the Brooklyn Navy Yard (where WWII battleships were once manufactured) to check out Beta Space, a precursor to New Lab, an advanced manufacturing hub and high-tech design + prototyping center slated to open in 2015. It'll anchor a 220,000 sq ft Green Manufacturing Center (backed by $46 million from the city and state). With MakerBot cranking out 3D printers in downtown Brooklyn and Shapeways building the Factory of the Future in Queens, it feels like a new kind of manufacturing renaissance is under way in our city. Exciting times!

Also at the Yard is Steiner Studios (the largest sound stage on the east coast). Last week at NY Ideas, NYC Film Commissioner Katherine Oliver commented on how increasingly more shows were being shot in the city, apparently including a series set in Chicago.

Don't miss Funding the Best in Global Innovation III this Thursday. Showcasing some of the best international startups, including Israel's Zimperium (voted #1 in Israel in 2013), Finland's CrowdValley (a leading crowdfunding platform) and France's Augment (the top augmented reality platform in Europe). Keynote by Divya Narendra (Co-founder & CEO, SumZero). FYI, I have 2 Free Passes to the event.

Want a free Apple TV? Duh, who doesn't? Thats what the good folks at the upcoming Vision conference are promising. And you get to learn about secure mobility, cloud solutions and collaboration. Did I mention the event is free? That's a win-win, people!

This week (May 10-21) is the inaugural NYCxDesign Week, with a ton of events that will showcase and promote design across all disciplines. Nice!

Tix for the Webutante Ball (aka the REAL #nerdprom!) are selling like hot cakes! But you, lucky GarysGuide reader, get $15 off with discount code GARY15. You're welcome.

Are you excited about the first evah Book Publishing hackathon this Saturday? I know I am! $10k in prizes AND a chance to pitch to Ari Emmanuel, CEO of William Morris and also the real life inspiration for Entourage's Ari Gold. Just don't ask him to hug it out.

Don't forget: the deadline for the NYC SeedStart Accelerator Summer 2013 program is May 13 and the deadline for the Enstitute program is May 15.

Coming up next week on May 20 is a unique, interactive evening celebrating 15 years of M.O.U.S.E. (a national ed-tech nonprofit empowering underserved youth to learn and create with technology). Being honored at the event are my buddy Bre Pettis (Co-Founder & CEO, MakerBot) and Joanne Wilson (Angel Investor and Advocate, Best Buy Children's Foundation). I'll be there. Hope you can make it too.

Also coming up ... Amusemi's Summer Tech Picnic on May 19, User Experience Awards on May 21, Mobile UX in Complex Business Models on May 23 (w/ David Fine, Director UX @ Time Inc and Tim Reis, Head of Mobile & Social Solutions @ Google) and AngelHack (a.k.a. The Largest Global Hackathon Competition) on June 1.

A historic moment recently as the spire is placed on the World Trade Center, which, now at 1,776 feet, is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. Nice! Even more awesome? We might FINALLY be getting WiFi in the subway trains. Sahhweet!

And finally, here's Commander Chris Hadfield performing David Bowie's Space Oddity on board the International Space Station.

And now lets see whats going down in the Alley this week...

AppNexus Speaker Series
With Howard Lerman (CEO, Yext) and Brian O'Kelley (CEO AppNexus)
Monday (May 13), 6 p.m. @ AppNexus, 28 W 23rd St, 4th Fl

Discussion Series: The Founders & Funders Dilemma
With Elizabeth Canon (Fashions Collective), Lilly Chan (Fareskind), Sindhya Valloppillil (Helix Men), Nikhil Kalghatgi (Softbank Capital) and Jacob Brody (Mesa+ Ventures).
Monday (May 13), 6 p.m. @ Lim College, 12 E 53rd St

General Assembly Fireside Chat
Gary Swart (oDesk) in conversation with Dan Schawbel (Millennial Branding)
Monday (May 13), 7 p.m. @ General Assembly East, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl

Facebook and Girls In Tech Present: Lessons Learned and Overcoming Our Mistakes
With Goranka Bjedov (Software Engineer, Facebook), Bethany Sumner (Engineer, Kickstarter), Nikki Stevens (Director of Engg, Refinery29), Catherine Hui (Head of Technology, Bloomberg Tradebook Equity Group) and Amanda Stent (AT&T Labs research).
Tuesday (May 14), 6:30 p.m. @ Facebook HQ, 335 Madison Ave, 17th Fl

Evolving Design Communities
With Dan Cederholm & Rich Thornett (Co-founders, Dribbble), Ignacio Oreamuno (Exec Director, Art Directors Club) and Matias Corea (Co-founder & Chief of Design, Behance).
Tuesday (May 14), 7 p.m. @ Huge BK, 45 Main St, Ste 220, Brooklyn

[NYCxDesign] Designer Founders in Tech
Featured panelists are Enrique Allen (Founding member, The Designer Fund & 500 Startups and previously at Facebook Fund & Venrock), Cameron Koczon (Founder, Fictive Kin and Organizer, BrooklynBeta) and Dayna Grayson (Investor, NEA).
Wednesday (May 15), 5 p.m. @ NEA Studio, 110 5th Ave

Fashion 2.0: Retail & Big Data
With Amy Jain (Co-founder, BaubleBar), Elyse Estrada (Manager Client Services, Foursquare), Florent Peyre (Co-Founder, Placemeter), Jared Schiffman (Founder, Perch Interactive) and moderated by Elizabeth Holmes (Wall St Journal)
Wednesday (May 15), 6 p.m. @ Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave

NJ Tech Meetup 36 with Scott Belsky
With Scott Belsky (Co-founder of Behance which was acquired by Adobe). Demos by Sproute, Howndog and DJPlayerApp.
Wednesday (May 15), 6:30 p.m. @ Howe Center, Stevens Institute of Technology, 4th Fl, Hoboken

Entrepreneurs Roundtable 58
With Peter Stern (CEO of Bit.ly and Founder of Datek Online, Zenbe)
Wednesday (May 15), 6:30 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 6th Ave, 6th Fl

Meet The Innovators: The Venture Capitalists
With Joy Marcus (DFJ Gotham), Donna Novitsky, (CEO, Yiftee), Jeanne Sullivan (Starvest Partners), Kathleen Utecht (Comcast Ventures) and Ellie Wheeler (Greycroft Partners).
Wednesday (May 15), 7 p.m. @ Apple Store SoHo, 103 Prince St

Funding the Best in Global Innovation III
With David Aronoff (Flybridge Capital), Brad Svrluga (High Peaks Venture Partners), Ann Li (NYCEDC), Eliot Durbin (BOLDStart Ventures), Jalak Jobanputra (FuturePerfect Ventures), Andrew Cleland (Comcast Ventures) and others.
Thursday (May 16), 8:30 a.m. @ Dentons, 1221 Ave of the Americas

NYC BigApps + Huge App Design Night
With Jared Coken (Fitocracy), Ian Curry (Paper App), Jon Huang (NY Times), Justin Van Slembrouck (Digg), Michal Pasternak (Huge), Ian Spalter (Foursquare) and Khoi Vinh (Mixel).
Thursday (May 16), 6:30 p.m. @ Foursquare, 108 Crosby St

NYC Uncubed Spring 2013
Friday (May 17), 1:30 p.m. @ Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 W 18th St

First Ever Book Publishing Hackathon!
Win $10,000 AND get to pitch the Ari Emmanuel, CEO of William Morris and also the real life inspiration for Entourage's Ari Gold! :)
Saturday (May 18), 9 a.m. @ AlleyNYC, 500 7th Ave, 17th Fl

NYC Tech Picnic
Enjoy the outdoors with your fellow geeks and entrepreneurs. Join us for the 2013 picnic kick off!
Sunday (May 19), 2 p.m. @ Chelsea Piers, Pier 64, 64 Chelsea Piers

More events on the horizon...
MOUSE@15: Celebrating 15 Years of Inspiring Innovators on May 20 @ The Pier 61, Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers
New York Crowdfunds 2 on May 20 @ WeWork Lounge
Vision 2013 Tri-State IT Conference & Expo (hosted by PCM) on May 21 @ Hilton Woodbridge
User Experience Awards 2013 on May 21 @ Tishman Auditorium
NYC BigApps Cleanweb: Is IT the Secret to a New Energy Future? on May 22 @ The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC
Opportunities for Mobile UX in Complex Business Models on May 23 @ Venue
dd:IMPACT Groundswell: The Next Wave of Content on May 30 @ Galapagos Art Space
AngelHack NYC - Spring 2013 on Jun 01 @ Huge Inc
F.A.T. Session 2: Sales/Use Taxation for 21st Century Commerce on Jun 11 @ Marks Paneth & Shron

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide 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.

Last week I finally got to play with the (oh-so-elusive) Google Glass! It was fun to try it on, but I'm not convinced it'll take off (at least not in its current form). That's because it is simply an awkward experience from a human interaction perspective. Whether it'll turn out to be a dud like the Segway or a very early iteration like the Palm Pilot, only time will tell. Meanwhile, here's SNL's hilarious take.

Tuesday (for some reason) has historically been the busiest day of the week for tech events. Last week, I think I ended up going to eight events! (A personal best, I'm pretty sure.) One of the events was a launch party for NY Angels' Brian Cohen's new book, which I'm looking forward to reading.

My buddy Steve Rosenbaum is NYC EDC’s entrepreneur-at-large, and he's holding office hours on May 10 (12-1pm) to answer all your startup questions. Register here.

This week is NYC Creative Week, where the worlds of advertising, design and digital media collide with the arts. Nice!

Get ready for some boozing 'n schmoozing, people! Coming up in a couple of weeks (May 20 to 27) is Internet Week. With 45,000 people expected to attend over 400 parties, keynotes by Randi Zuckerberg, Jonah Peretti (BuzzFeed), Joe Gebbia (Airbnb), Joan Rivers and of course the infamous Webutante Ball, it's gonna be cray! ;)

Also coming up are WIN's Funding the Best in Global Innovation 3 (I have 2 free passes, hit me up) on May 16, Walkabout NYC (where you get to check out awesome startup offices) on May 17, Amusemi's Summer Tech Picnic on May 19 and AngelHack (a.k.a. The Largest Global Hackathon Competition) on June 1.

Quick heads-up, tickets for NY Crowdfunds (a.k.a. American Idol meets Shark Tank) are now on sale and they'll go fast like hot cakes so better get on it! ;) If you need more details, email my friend Sonali.

I take the subway. So do you. And so do 8.5 million folks every single day. And now you have the chance to help enhance the transit experience for all of us. That's by taking part in the MTA's #AppQuest, of course! There's $50,000 in prizes. Sweet! Deadline to submit your apps is August 20.

Deadline for Fast Company's Innovation By Design Awards is May 6. And the deadline for Hack Summer Stage is May 8.

Congrats to Mike Brown on the launch of his new venture fund, Bowery Capital. Also, congrats to Kane and Shailia on Enstitute being featured in The New York Times yesterday! The program is an alternative to college that last two years and is based on an apprenticeship model. Application deadline is May 15.

Believe it or not, there is a world beyond New York City (crazy, right?!). There's the Big Omaha Conference on May 8 (billed as the nation's most fabulous conference), 500 Startups' Mama Bear Conference on May 10 (with plenty of mamas and hopefully no bears!) and Digital Shoreditch on May 20 (a.k.a. London's answer to Internet Week). Also ERA will be having its West Coast demo day on May 8.

And finally, this Sunday May 12 is Mother's Day! So don't forget to send your mom flowers and give her a call. Or, better still, surprise her by showing up in person. :)

And now lets see whats going down in the Alley this week...

365Social:NYC Presents
An Evening With Fred Siebert (president, Frederator Studios and former president, Hanna Barbera) & Robin Raskin (former editor, PC Magazine)
Monday (May 6), 6 p.m. @ NY Institute of Technology, 16 W. 61st Street, 11th Fl.

The Atlantic Presents: New York Ideas
Gathering cutting-edge innovators with a simple goal: to draw out the strands of genius from leaders whose work and passions are changing our world.
Tuesday (May 7), 9 a.m. @ NY Historical Society, 170 Central Park West

Innovating for the Connected TV, Living Room and Home
Are you an entrepreneur, developer, investor, tech exec or other professional with a brilliant idea, product or service for the digital living room or smart home? What can you do with 100+mbps speed?
Tuesday (May 7), 6:30 p.m. @ Hotel Yotel, 570 10th Avenue

Content Meets Commerce
A discussion with Philippe von Borries (CEO, Refinery29), Hilary Peterson (Lyst) & James Nord (founder, Fohr Card).
Tuesday (May 7), 6:30 p.m. @ SoHo House, 29 9th Avenue

NY Tech Meetup
You know the drill. Five-minute, cutting-edge tech demos. 850 fellow NY Tech startuppers. One amazing event.
Tuesday (May 7), 7 p.m. @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts, 566 Laguardia Place

New York Digital Health Accelerator Demo Day
The inaugural class of health tech innovators will demo to a packed room of investors, media, and a who’s who of healthcare in New York.
Wednesday (May 8), 9:30 a.m. @ The TimesCenter, 242 W. 41st Street

MIT Enterprise Forum NYC: Healthcare IT - New Yorks Next Big Thing
Speakers include Steven Krein (cofounder & CEO, StartUp Health), Jahan Ali (SVP, Partnership Fund for NYC), Philippe Chambon (New Leaf Venture Partners) and Serge Loncar (CEO, CareSpeak)
Wednesday (May 8), 5:30 p.m. @ Pryor Cashman, 7 Times Square

The State of Angel Investing & Its Impact on Startups
Leading investors and entrepreneurs will talk about the state of angel investing and what companies need to do differently in order to secure funding
Wednesday (May 8), 6 p.m. @ Anchin, 1375 Broadway, 23rd Fl.

Turning Idealism Into Action
Keynote by Amy Schulman (Exec VP, Pfizer). Speakers include Rachael Chong (CEO and founder, Catchafire), Sophia Mendelsohn (Head of Sustainability, JetBlue), Stacy Martinet (CMO, Mashable), Claire O'Connor (Barclays Capital) and others.
Thursday (May 9), 8:30 a.m. @ Google NYC HQ, 76 9th Avenue

General Assembly Fireside Chat
With Bill Ready (founder and CEO, Braintree)
Thursday (May 9), 5:30 p.m. @ General Assembly , 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.

Investor Feedback Forum
Panelists include Josh Bruno (Bain Capital Ventures), Brian Cohen (NY Angels), Rahul Gandhi (High Peaks Venture Partners) and Jason Klein (On Grid Ventures). Startup pitches by iMect, MONTAJ, givlet, CareBooker, New Healthcare Enterprises, BUZZtheBar, P2P Cash, Zinbox and Cookbook Create.
Thursday (May 9), 6:30 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 6th Avenue, 6th Fl.

Designers + Geeks: The Web That Time Forgot
Presented by Alex Wright (Director of UX, The New York Times)
Thursday (May 09), 7 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway, 4th Floor

Go Green for Fashion NYC 2013
Featuring a live runway presentation from some of New York's favorite eco-friendly fashion designers.
Thursday (May 9), 8 p.m. @ XVI Lounge, 251 W. 48th Street

Unleash The Web With Your Pet
With Carlo Almendral (cofounder, DogBFF), Davide Rossi (founder, FitBark), Jenna Fernandes (CEO, CareBooker) and Michael Chiang (founder, MatchPuppy).
Friday (May 10), 6 p.m. @ Animal Haven, 251 Centre Street, 2nd Fl.

Apps that Close the GAP: Using Technology to Accelerate Achievement
With Jaime Casap (global education evangelist, Google), Jessie Woolley-Wilson (CEO, Dreambox Learning); Rebecca Garcia and Carl Sednaoui (cofounders, Coderdojo) and others.
Saturday (May 11), 8:30 a.m. @ Teachers College at Columbia University, 525 W. 120th Street

More events on the horizon...
Startup Lunch SoHo on May 13 @ Cupping Room Cafe
Discussion Series: The Founders & Funders Dilemma on May 13 @ Lim College
Bringing Your E-Commerce Idea to Concept on May 14 @ General Assembly East
Founders Breakfast with Chrysi Philalithes, Chief Digital Officer (RED) on May 15 @ Venue
Fashion 2.0: Retail & Big Data on May 15 @ Scandinavia House
NJ Tech Meetup 36 with Scott Belsky on May 15 @ Howe Center
Funding the Best in Global Innovation III on May 16 @ Dentons
NYC Tech Picnic on May 19 @ Chelsea Piers, Pier 64
Opportunities for Mobile UX in Complex Business Models on May 23 @ Venue
AngelHack NYC - Spring 2013 on June 1 @ Huge Inc

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide 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.

Get ready, people! Summer blockbuster season is almost here, and first up is the much-anticipated Iron Man 3, which opens Friday. It already had a monster international opening ($195M in five days from 42 territories) and is the number-one film in every market. With Cinco de Mayo also on Sunday, this is going to be one fun, crazy weekend! ;)

Wanna hang out with David Aronoff (Flybridge Capital), Brad Svrluga (High Peaks Venture Partners), Andrew Cleland (Comcast Ventures) and other top investors at the Funding the Best in Global Innovation conference? Of course you do! Well, you're in luck, because I have two free passes to the event. Hit me up!

Angelhack (a.k.a. the largest global hackathon competition) is back, yo! And this time it'll take place in Brooklyn. Last year's Angelhack NYC winner was selected for the AngelPad SF incubator. The event is on June 1. Get your tickets today (and get 35 percent off with discount code GG).

This month is Database Month, which means a bunch of cool database related events. Don't miss the Office Ninja Tech Mixer & Showcase on May 2 ($5 off with code iAMninja), Innovating for the Connected Home, Living Room and TV on May 7 (hosted by Mashable, Verizon & MIT Enterprise Forum) and the Founder and the Entity also on May 7 (learn team building and evaluating the right entity structure).

If you wanna apply to be a teacher for TEALS (a grassroots program recruiting software engineers to teach computer science to high school students), applications are due by May 1. Applications for NYC Seed Start's 3rd Accelerator class are also due by May 5, plus there's an info session this evening.

Submissions for the Innovation By Design Awards are due by May 6. The awards, a celebration of the year’s most inspiring design work, are brought to you by Fast Company and Co.Design. Finalists will be featured in the October issue of Fast Company.

Summer Stage (a program of the City Parks Foundation) is looking for an app to engage its 280,000+ attendees at an annual summer-long festival. Deadline to apply is May 8.

Wanna leverage your enterprise tech experience and smarts to advise and mentor startups? Well then, check out this initiative by the NY Enterprise Tech meetup.

Could you go offline--100% unplugged, no Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even Google--for a year? Sounds crazy, right? Well thats exactly what The Verge's Paul Miller did. He's now returning in a couple of days; what do you think he missed? Live event Tuesday at 11pm.

And finally, I'm no expert, but GarysGuide member Jennifer has pointed out that this is apparently THE time to go check out the cherry blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

And now let's see what's going down in the Alley this week...

TechCrunch Disrupt NY
Rockstar speaker list including Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures), Dennis Crowley (Foursquare), David Karp (Tumblr), Chris Dixon (Andreessen Horowitz), Bill Gurley (Benchmark), Jonah Peretti (Buzzfeed) and others.
Monday (Apr. 29), 9 a.m. @ The Manhattan Center, 311 W. 34th Street

Startup Grind NYC
With Bob Dorf (author, The Startup Owner's Manual)
Monday (Apr. 29), 6 p.m. @ Pivotal Labs, 841 Broadway, 8th Fl.

Himelberg Speaker Series
The Story of Chobani Yogurt with founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya (a.k.a. "the Steve Jobs of yogurt")
Monday (Apr. 29), 6 p.m. @ NYU Stern School of Business, 44 W. 4th Street, 11th Fl.

NYC SeedStart Enterprise Accelerator: Info Session
Monday (Apr. 29), 7 p.m. @ NYU-Poly Incubator, 137 Varick Street, 2nd Fl.

US Israel Business Council (USI) Presents: TechCrunch Innovation Roadshow
Meet 17 Israeli and Brazilian startups participating at TechCrunch Disrupt. Panelists include Brian Feinstein (Bessemer), Roi Carthy (Initial Capital) and Ron Yekutiel (CEO, Kaltura).
Tuesday (Apr. 30), 6 p.m. @ Morgan Stanley, 1985 Broadway

IDEAS CITY Conference
Exploring the future of cities. Keynote by Joi Ito (Director, MIT Media Lab)
Wednesday (May 1), 9 a.m. @ The Great Hall at Cooper Union, 7 E. 7th Street

[Database Month] Future of 21st Century Databases
With Eliot Horowitz (cofounder & CTO, 10gen / MongoDB), Barry Morris (founder & CEO, NuoDB) and Bob Wiederhold (president & CEO, Couchbase).
Wednesday (May 1), 6:30 p.m. @ AOL, 770 Broadway, 6th Fl.

TechCocktail NYC Mixer & Startup Showcase
Thursday (May 2), 6:30 p.m. @ Projective Space L.E.S., 72 Allen Street

Queens Tech Meetup 7
Mobile Tech with Sonar, WeHostels, Uber, Tracks and AT&T.
Thursday (May 2), 7 p.m. @ Hunter's Point Plaza, 47-40 21st Street, 10th Fl., Long Island City

Insight@NYU
With Justin Stefano (cofounder & co-CEO, Refinery29), Jason Baptiste (founder, OnSwipe), Zeeshan Zaidi (founder, HostCommittee), Gregory Besner (CFO, SecondMarket) and others.
Friday (May 3), 9:30 a.m. @ Helena & Martin Kimmel Center for University Life, 60 Washington Square S.

Mothers (hack) Day
A one-day hackathon to build apps for your moms.
Saturday (May 4), 8:30 a.m. @ The Alley NYC, 500 7th Ave, 17th Fl.

NYC BigApps Healthy Living + Lifelong Learning Hackathon
Mega-hackathon, taking over two floors of the Huffington Post, for teams competing in two competition tracks: Healthy Living and Lifelong Learning. $10,000 in prizes. Nice!
Saturday (May 4), 10 a.m. @ Huffington Post, 770 Broadway

More events on the horizon...
Innovating for the Connected TV, Living Room and Home on May 7 @ Hotel Yotel
Women Entrepreneurs Rock the World 2013 on May 8 @ Altman Building
New York Digital Health Accelerator Demo Day on May 8 @ The TimesCenter
Investor Feedback Forum on May 9 @ Microsoft
Funding the Best in Global Innovation III on May 16 @ Dentons
NYC Tech Picnic - 2013 Kick Off on May 19 @ Chelsea Piers, Pier 63
Opportunities for Mobile UX in Complex Business Models on May 23 @ Venue
AngelHack NYC - Spring 2013 on Jun 1 @ Huge Inc

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide 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.

It was cool to shake hands with astronaut Ron Garan at the NASA Space Apps Hackathon this weekend! Congrats to NYC SpaceCal and Tiny Sea Bots, who'll be going on to the global competition, as well as all the other honorees:  Droid Hopper, Chillin' On Mars, Versioning Goat, Asteroid Mapper, Star Map Sculpture, WhyWeExplore, Spacerac.es and Le Big Blue.

This Thursday is NY Tech Day (a.k.a. the world's largest startup event). Free mocktails from BuzzTheBar when you walk in! Don't forget the after-parties, like the Big Data bash with Knewton and Get Acquainted with Acquaintable.

This Friday is the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA) Demo Day. Good luck to all!

Next week is the Digital Content NewFronts where the likes of Google, Yahoo, Hulu, AOL and others will be showcasing original video content. Also coming up on May 7 is Innovating for the Connected Home, Living Room & TV, hosted by Mashable, Verizon and the MIT Enterprise Forum. It'll focus on ideas for new products and services for today’s high-speed-connected home.

Deadlines: April 30 is the last day to apply for the Co.Labs and Target Retail Accelerator. The winner gets a cool $75,000 and the chance to work with a leading innovator in the retail space, plus seven finalists will get $10,000 each. Applications for Matchpoint East are due April 29. It's an exclusive opportunity for health-tech entrepreneurs to meet large stakeholders like Kaiser, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Aetna. Yup, that can open doors! Innovate Health is also inviting locals to develop commercially viable technologies for urgent healthcare problems. Deadline is May 2.

Plus, the deadline for the National STEM Video Game Challenge has been extended to May 1. Last but not least, don't forget that the 30 percent early-bird discount (code: 'garysguide') for the Funding The Best In Global Innovation Conference expires May 1.

If you go to lots of conferences and events (like I do), I'd recommend you check out an app called Bizzabo. Its goal is to maximize your networking and help you discover new business opportunities. With TechCrunch Disrupt and Internet Week coming up, this might be just the ticket!  :)

You know what I'm excited about? The CitiBike Share Program, that's what. I think I can see myself riding a CitiBike around town--though maybe wearing my suit and red tie and riding a bike sounds a bit crazy. But hey, this is New York City. Registration for the program is now open. They launch in May so get a jump on it, people!

And finally, today is April 22, so Happy Earth Day, y'all! Hopefully Elon Musk will soon figure out a way to get us to Mars. But until then, remember we only have one planet to live on. So let's take good care of it!

And now let's see what's going down in the Alley this week...

The Phat Startup Presents: Music Tech, Funding & Branding in Hip Hop
Q&A with MICK (previously known as DJ Mick Boogie), who has worked with some of the most talented artists in the world including Jay-Z, Eminiem, Alchemist, Talib Kweili and Mobb Deep.
Monday (Apr. 22), 6 p.m. @ SkillShare HQ, 407 Broome Street

Mobile Health: from smart phone apps and sensor streams to behavioral biomarkers
A discussion on mobile health followed by a reception. With Professor Deborah Estrin (Professor of Computer Science, Cornell Tech Campus and Professor of Public Health, Weill Cornell Medical College)
Tuesday (Apr. 23), 5 p.m. @ NYU Africa House, 14A Washington Mews

NYC Data Business Meetup #15
With Alex Hawkinson (CEO, SmartThings), Peter Semmelhack (CEO, Bug Labs), Jon Bruner (O'Reilly), Steve Schlafman (Lerer Ventures) and Phin Barnes (First Round Capital).
Tuesday (Apr. 23), 6 p.m. @ Bloomberg LP, 731 Lexington Ave, 7th Floor

Brooklyn Tech Meetup
With Aswini Anburajan (Director of Partnership Development, BuzzFeed) and Ky Harlin (Data Scientist, BuzzFeed). Demos by Montaj and Feely.
Wednesday (Apr. 24), 7 p.m. @ Brooklyn Law School Feil Hall, 205 State Street, 22nd Fl., Brooklyn

#techdrinkup - Open Bar Party - NY tech + SF tech for Immigration Reform
Helping raise awareness for March for Innovation, a seriously awesome cause helping steer immigration reform to help the tech community big time.
Wednesday (Apr. 24), 8 p.m. @ The Hudson Bond, 215 W. 40th Street

NY Tech Day
A massive science fair for entrepreneurs to exhibit their startups to thousands of consumers, investors, first adopters, job-seekers, major companies, press and media.
Thursday (Apr. 25), 10 a.m. @ Pier 92, 711 12th Avenue

NY Tech Day After-Party: Big Data Bash
With Knewton and BuzzTheBar. Complementary cocktails for the first 50 guests and 50 drink codes will be given away at the Knewton booth.
Thursday (Apr. 25), 5:30 p.m. @ Hudson Common at Hudson Hotel, 356 W. 58th Street

NYC BigApps Rackspace Pitch & Projects
Learn about telling stories, purpose driven development & nailing your pitches & projects. With Cameron Koczon (BrooklynBeta and TeuxDeux)
Thursday (Apr. 25), 6:30 p.m. @ Harvest, 16 W. 22nd Street, 8th Fl.

Business Development and E-Retail
With Amy Jain (BaubleBar), Dana Mauriello (Etsy), Amanda Peyton (Grand St), Adam Schwartz (Bustedtees), Justin Semine (Harrys) and Alex Taub (Dwolla). Moderated by Eric Batscha (AppNexus).
Thursday (Apr. 25), 7 p.m. @ AppNexus, 28 W. 23rd Street, 4th Fl.

Music Startup Meetup: Entrepreneur Stories - Rap Genius
With Mahbod Moghadam (Cofounder, RapGenius)
Thursday (Apr. 25), 7 p.m. @ Union Square Ventures, 915 Broadway, 19th Fl.

Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA) Demo Day
By invitation only. Startups include Acquaintable, Cognical, Consignd, EasyPairings, Monaeo, Startist, Suitey, TheSquareFoot, Trendalytics and Vocalize.
Friday (Apr. 26), 8:30 a.m. @ IAC, 555 W. 18th Street

Start-Up City Conference
With Scott M. Stringer (Manhattan Borough President), Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) and NYC Mayoral Candidates.
Friday (Apr. 26), 8:30 a.m. @ New York Law School, 185 W. Broadway

#ArtsTech Unconference
With Daniel Doubrovkine (Artsy), Kathryn Jones (Virtual Arts), Ariele Krantzow (Wix), Cesar Kuriyama (1 Second Everyday), Allison Goldberg & Jen Jamula (Blogologues) and others.
Saturday (Apr. 27), 9 a.m. @ AOL HQ, 770 Broadway

TechCrunch Disrupt NY Hackathon
The hack is back and better than ever!
Saturday (Apr. 27), 12:30 p.m. @ Manhattan Center, 311 W. 34th Street

Tribeca Hacks Festival
Discover the projects created over 48 hours at the inaugural Tribeca Film Festival hackathon. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres will be served.
Sunday (Apr. 28), 6 p.m. @ Center for Social Innovation, 601 W. 26th Street, #325

More events on the horizon...
Entering the European Market: Lessons from Serial Entrepreneur & Investor Jos White on May 1 @ Venue
Office Ninjas Tech Mixer & Showcase on May 2 @ Alley NYC
Innovating for the Connected TV, Living Room and Home on May 7 @ Hotel Yotel
May 2013 NY Tech Meetup on May 7 @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts
Funding the Best in Global Innovation III on May 16 @ SNR Denton
NYC Tech Picnic - 2013 Kick Off on May 19 @ Chelsea Piers, Pier 63
AngelHack NYC - Spring 2013 on Jun 1 @ Huge Inc

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide 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.

Last night I co-hosted the Big Apple Smackdown! (a.k.a. The Silicon Alley Ping-Pong Tournament) at Spin NYC with my friends Nihal of LocalResponse and Vijay of VSCPR. Congrats to Artsy's Benoit Corda for emerging victorious! And a big thank you to everyone who came and made it such a fun, memorable night! :)

Last week I was down in DUMBO, and I bumped into a Fox 5 News crew. They wanted to know the dealio with all the stickers on my red tie. "It's advertisements, you know, like a walking billboard," I explained. Minds blown, they decided to film a short segment about it. At this rate, my tie might need its own agent.

Congrats to my buddy David Rotbard and the good folks at MicroOffice for being selected by Mayor Bloomberg and the NYCEDC to develop, launch and operate Harlem Venture Space (a.k.a. Harlem Garage), a new business incubator on 118th Street that'll launch this summer.

NYC SeedStart's third accelerator class starts in July and will be focused exclusively on enterprise software. Smart! They're partnering with local VCs (RRE, Starvest, Contour, Safeguard) and large enterprise partners (SAP, CA, Deutsche Telekom, Amazon). There's an info session event on April 29. Applications are due midnight of May 5. So get on it! Speaking of deadlines, don't forget applications for the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator's Summer 2013 class are due April 19.

I'm a big fan of Reshma Saujani and the awesome work she's been doing with Girls Who Code. She's also running for public advocate of NYC. Next week, on April 24, Jack Dorsey (cofounder of Twitter and Square) will be hosting an event for her. I'll be there.

Hardware is hot these days, and this Saturday is the inaugural Hardware Freedom Day, a worldwide celebration of open source hardware. Hack Manhattan (Manhattan's only public hacker space) is celebrating with displays of open hardware created by their members. They're also doing the Super Tech Tuesday event.

April 22 is Earth Day, and so Goodnik is organizing the Helping Hacks Green Earth Day Hackathon this Friday. And if you wanna hang out with a real, live astronaut this week, you're in luck! :) Check out the Space Apps Hackathon Kick-Off Party this Friday, featuring Astronaut Ron Garan, who'll be there as NASA's ambassador.

Coming up: April 25 is NY Tech Day (the largest tech startup event in the world!). April 27 is the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon (tickets will go fast!). And May 2 is the Office Ninjas Tech Mixer & Showcase, a must-attend event for office professionals who love tech and the hottest new tools.

On May 16, my buddy Eyal and the Worldwide Investor Network (WIN) are organizing the awesome Funding The Best In Global Innovation conference, an event I highly recommend (terrific panels and speakers). Early birds get a 30 percent discount (til May 1) with the code "garysguide." Foreign tech startups can apply here. Deadline is April 19.

Ever wanted to participate in a show that's American Idol meets Shark Tank?! You know me--I deliver! Meet NY Crowdfunds, which will have an all-star lineup of judges including Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia and basketball legend Earl Monroe. It's on May 20, and there are a limited number of spots for contestants and studio audience. Contact my friend Sonali for more info.

This week is the Tribeca Film Festival. I'd recommend getting the future of film pass to get special access to the technology and innovation events.

And now lets see whats going down in the Alley this week...

AllThingsD: Dive Into Mobile
With Eric Schmidt (Google), Mike Schroepfer (CTO, Facebook), Michael Sippey (VP Product, Twitter), Gary Kovacs (CEO, Mozilla), Noam Bardin (CEO, Waze), Jan Koum (CEO, WhatsApp), Evan Spiegel (CEO, Snapchat) and others.
Monday (Apr. 15), 9 a.m. @ The Ritz-Carlton Battery Park, 2 West Street

NJ Tech Meetup 35
With Brad Feld (Cofounder, Foundry Group and TechStars and author, Startup Communities)
Monday (Apr. 15), 6:30 p.m. @ Stevens Institute of Technology - Howe Center, 1 Castle Point Terrace, 4th Fl., Hoboken

NYU Founders Forum
Three founders from the NYU-Poly incubators and three student founders from across NYU will present their startups. Judges include Owen Davis (NYC Seed), Brendan Dickinson (Canaan Partners), Tom Loverro (RRE Ventures), Frank Rimalovski (NYU Innovation Venture Fund) and Yaron Eitan (Selway Capital)
Tuesday (Apr. 16), 6 p.m. @ NYU Stern School of Business, 44 W. 4th Street, M5-50

PandoMonthly Presents
A Fireside Chat with Lewis DVorkin (Chief Product Officer, Forbes Media) interviewed by Adam Pennenberg
Thursday (Apr. 18), 6 p.m. @ Projective Space L.E.S., 72 Allen Street, 3rd Fl.

NYC Startup Job Fair Presented by AT&T
Connecting talented job seekers with exciting NYC-based startups.
Friday (Apr. 19), 12 p.m. @ IAC HQ, 555 W. 18th Street

Goodnik Presents: Helping Hacks Green - Earth Day Hackathon
Focusing on environmental-related projects in recognition of Earth Day (April 22).
Friday (Apr. 19), 6 p.m. @ Alley NYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

NASA Hackathon Kick-Off Party feat. Astronaut Ron Garan
The 2013 International Space Apps Challenge is fast approaching and astronaut Colonel Ron Garan will be there as the official NASA ambassador! A RARE opportunity to get up close and personal with a real astronaut. :)
Friday (Apr. 19), 6 p.m. @ AlleyNYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

BUZZ the Bar & The Professional Wingman Present: The Happy Hour BUZZ
A hot new weekly after-work series, celebrating the start of a new season, the rising temperature & the newest way to order drinks!
Friday (Apr. 19), 6 p.m. @ EVR, 54 W. 39th Street

2013 International Space Apps Challenge led by NASA
A two-day hackathon during which citizens from around the world work together to solve challenges relevant to improving life on Earth and life in space
Saturday (Apr. 20), 9 a.m. @ AlleyNYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

NYC BigApps Jobs and Economic Mobility Hackathon
Come build apps that help New York City’s underserved residents find gainful employment, develop workforce skills, and/or access worker support services.
Saturday (Apr. 20), 10 a.m. @ School of Visual Arts (SVA), 136 W. 21st Street, 5th Fl.

Hardware Freedom Day
Open hardware created by Hack Manhattan members on display.
Saturday (Apr. 20), 5 p.m. @ Hack Manhattan, 137 W. 14th Street.

More events on the horizon...
Women Innovate Mobile: Behind The Pitch on Apr 22 @ AppNexus
Ideas Are Worthless Conference on Apr 23 @ Goodwin Proctor @ The NY Times Building
NYTECH Presents: Designing for Touch on Apr 24 @ Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz
NY Tech Day on Apr 25 @ Pier 92
Hackathon at TechCrunch Disrupt NY: April 27-28 on Apr 27 @ Manhattan Center
Entering the European Market: Lessons from Serial Entrepreneur & Investor Jos White on May 01 @ Venue
Office Ninjas Tech Mixer & Showcase on May 02 @ Alley NYC
Funding the Best in Global Innovation III on May 16 @ SNR Denton
NYC Tech Picnic - 2013 Kick Off on May 19 @ Chelsea Piers, Pier 63

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide 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.

R.I.P., Roger Ebert. Over the years I've learned a lot from Mr. Ebert, inspired not only by his style of writing and communicating but also by his personality and approach to life. Check out this TED talk he gave--"Remaking My Voice"--and here's a wonderful essay from his book Life Itself: A Memoir.

Also R.I.P., Allen Stern. I was very sad to hear about this. Allen was one of the early tech bloggers--he ran CenterNetworks covering startup news and later started CloudContacts. I frequently ran into him at tech events and he was a genuinely awesome, nice person. He'll be missed.

On a happier note: Did you know that it's National Robotics Week? Robotics has become a critical element of innovation today, and it's helping kids get interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Which is awesome :) So don't miss New Frontiers in Robotics: Extending Human Reach, scheduled for tomorrow. I'm still waiting for my own Jetsons-style robot (or better still a Terminator!) but, in the meantime, meet the smartphone robot Romo.

Two NYC BigApps events this week. On Wednesday is the jobs and economic mobility event (learn about solving challenges related to unemployment) at the Robin Hood Foundation. On Thursday is the data visualization event (learn leading-edge visualization techniques) at the Huffington Post.

L'Oreal is looking for three groundbreaking companies led by women for their annual Women In Digital Next Generation Awards. You can nominate someone here! Past winners have included my friend Kathryn Minshew (The Daily Muse), Vivian Rosenthal (Gold Run) and Doreen Bloch (Poshly).

Also check out the Core Innovators Mega Challenge, a contest to find the best new financial product or service for America's middle class. Cash prize of $10,000. Questions? Contact Victoria at victoria@corevc.com.

Congrats to my buddy Jason Saltzman and the folks at AlleyNYC on their recent partnership with RackSpace. Also congrats to the winners of NYCEDC's Next Top Makers! (That would be Nautilus Bowl, MyBell, The Power Clip, Bonus Table, Tangeez and Slide Table.)

The NYC Dept of Education is challenging software developers to submit apps and games that enhance math teaching, learning and engagement for our middle schools. Deadline to submit is April 10. The NY eHealth Collaborative is sourcing innovative and exciting designs that can be used to design a patient portal for New Yorkers. Submit your ideas by April 11.

And if you're interested in applying to the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, remember to submit your application by April 14.

In case you're distracted by taxes, remember there are several deadlines April 15, for applications to the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program, submitting your entry for the User Experience Awards and for applying to be a mentor at the Academy for Software Engineering (AFSE).

And finally, here's a Roger Ebert quote I really like: "I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization." Well said.

And now let's see what's going down in the Alley this week...

The 5th Annual Shorty Awards
Hosted by Felicia Day. Presenters include David Karp, Coco Rocha, James Urbaniak, Miss Teen USA, Kristian Nairn, Hannibal Buress, Carrie Keagan, Chris Hardwick and others.
Monday (Apr. 8), 6:30 p.m. @ TheTimesCenter at NY Times, 242 W. 41st Street

British Invasion
Investor panel includes Thatcher Bell (DFJ Gotham) and John Frankel (ff Ventures). Demos by Love Home Swap, Blottr, Footfall123 and Platter.
Monday (Apr. 8), 7 p.m. @ Greenhouse, 150 Varick Street

[Tech@NYU Startup Week] Innovating in NYC
With Elias Roman (founder, Songza), Robby Stein (founder, Stamped - sold to Yahoo) and Greg Leppert (founder, Svpply - sold to eBay).
Tuesday (Apr. 9), 6 p.m. @ Ebay NYC HQ, 625 6th Avenue, 3rd Fl.

April NY Tech Meetup
You know the drill. Five-minute, cutting-edge tech demos. 850 fellow NY Tech startuppers. One amazing event.
Tuesday (Apr. 9), 7 p.m. @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts, 566 Laguardia Place

A Conversation with Tommy Mottola
With Tommy Mottola (one of the highest-profile execs in the history of the music industry) on the release of his autobiography Hitmaker: The Man and His Music.
Wednesday (Apr. 10), 3:30 p.m. @ Global Center for Academic & Spiritual Life, 238 Thompson Street, C95 Auditorium

LeanUX NYC
Speakers include Cindy Gallop (MakeLoveNotPorn), Heather Gilchrist (Socratic Labs), Ryan Jacoby (Collaboration Fund), Johanna Kollman (Sidekick Studios), Tomer Sharon (Google) and others.
Thursday (Apr. 11), 8 a.m. @ NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, 44 W. 4th Street

[Tech@NYU Startup Week] Investing in NYC
With Eric Hippeau (Lerer Ventures), David Hirsch (Metamorphic Ventures) and Roger Ehrenberg (IA Ventures)
Thursday (Apr. 11), 6 p.m. @ NYU Law Vanderbilt Hall, 40 Washington Square S., Room 210

Investor Feedback Forum
Investor panelists include Somak Chattopadhyay (Tribeca Venture Partners), Owen Davis (NYC Seed),
Micah Rosenbloom (Founder Collective) and Peter Valhouli-Farb (Bessemer Venture Partners). Startup Pitches by Nero Commerce, SolarList, Nutmeg Education, UPlanMe, FreshGrad, Wavicle, Gift.Rs and CreativeWorx.
Thursday (Apr. 11), 6:30 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 6th Avenue, 6th Fl.

NYC BigApps Data Visualization Event
With John Pavley (CTO, Huffington Post), Alexander Chen (creative director, Google Creative Lab), Lauren Talbot (chief programmer, Mayor's Office of Analytics) and others.
Thursday (Apr. 11), 6:30 p.m. @ Huffington Post, 770 Broadway

#techdrinkup - Official Kickoff Party for the Lean UX Conference
A party for NYC's brightest and savviest people in tech to get together at exclusive NYC venues and mingle over drinks and food.
Thursday (Apr. 11), 8:30 p.m. @ Lilium at the W Hotel, 201 Park Ave S.

PSFK Conference 2013
Speakers include Neil Blumenthal (Warby Parker), Julius Marchwicki (Ford), Abigail Posner (Google), Dan Barasch (Lowline), Benjamin Dyett (Grind) and others.
Friday (Apr. 12), 9 a.m. @ Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place

Assembled Food
With Benzi Ronen (Farmigo), David Bloom (Ordr.in), Geoff Bartakovics (Tasting Table), Jen Pelka (Tumblr), Josh Hix (Plated), Julia Bainbridge (BonAppetit)
Marguerite Mariscal (Momofuku), Wiley Cerilli / CEO (SinglePlatform) and others
Saturday (Apr. 13), 11:30 a.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.

Big Apple Smackdown: The Silicon Alleys Ping-Pong Tournament!
Featuring DJ Premier of Gang Starr + Bunny Love. Hosted by Gary Sharma (GarysGuide), Nihal Mehta (LocalResponse) and Vijay Chattha (VSCPR)
Sunday (Apr. 14), 6 p.m. @ SPiN New York, 48 E. 23rd Street

More events on the horizon...
AllThingsD: Dive Into Mobile on Apr. 15 @ The Ritz-Carlton Battery Park
ERA Summer 2013 Happy Hour With MicroOffice on Apr. 15 @ MicroOffice
Kingpins of Silicon Alley on Apr. 15 @ Bowlmor - Union Square
April 2013 NY Enterprise Technology Meetup on Apr. 16 @ Cooley
Hack'n Jill: Mastering the Technical Interview on Apr. 16 @ AppNexus
2013 International Space Apps Challenge led by NASA on Apr. 20 @ AlleyNYC
Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo on Apr. 22 @ Jacob Javits Convention Center
Women Innovate Mobile: Behind The Pitch on Apr. 22 @ AppNexus
NYTECH Presents: Designing for Touch on Apr. 24 @ Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz
NY Tech Day on Apr. 25 @ Pier 92
Women Entrepreneurs Rock the World 2013 on May 8 @ Altman Building

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide 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.

So Google just launched Google Nose (smelling is believing!) and Google Maps now has a Treasure View mode, while Virgin is creating a glass-bottomed plane, Twitter will start charging $5 per month for vowels and Youtube is shutting down. Hmmmm... either I am hallucinating or it must be April Fools Day!

I recently came across something awesome: brainstorming sessions between George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Lawrence Kasdan for the movie Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark (easily one of my all-time faves). There were five consecutive nine-hour, day-long sessions, and it's fascinating to see their thought process as the characters and story are fleshed out. Here's the New Yorker's abbreviated take.

Hola, Jersey peeps! It's Newark Tech Week, and a bunch of stuff is happening including TEDxNJIT, #blackhack Newark, STEM Education Day, The Future of Newark Tech and more. And hey, you just might run into super mayor Cory Booker at one of the events!

Also coming up is NYU Startup Week, with a bunch of events including Hack Days, a keynote interview with Jason Goldberg of Fab.com, Investing in NYC, Innovating in NYC, Demo Days, hackNY Hackathon and more!

The Makery is hosting a pop-up Makerspace (part shop and part workshop) until April 30, with a bunch of awesome events planned including Make Your Own Drawing Robot, 3D Design + Printing and Bring Your Doll or Toy to Life (yikes!).

Heard of the National STEM Video Game Challenge? Inspired by President Obama's Educate to Innovate campaign, it's a competition to motivate interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) learning among America's middle and high school kids. How? By tapping into their passion for playing and making video games. Nice! Deadline to enter the challenge is April 25. They even have a couple of workshops this week, on Wednesday and Saturday.

Girls Who Code's Summer Immersion Program is coming up. Deadline to apply is April 15.

A few more odds and ends to remember: The Kaplan EdTech Accelerator is having an info session tomorrow. The folks at fashion startup Missionelle are throwing an Art of Seduction gala this Thursday. Monday of next week are the 5th Annual Shorty Awards. Also on Monday is The British Invasion, organized by UK Trade Invest and VentureOutNY, with demos by hand-picked UK startups and a networking party afterward.

Also coming up soon: The Big Apple Smackdown (aka the Silicon Alley ping-pong tournament) that I'm co-organizing. :) It's going to be an epic night of beats and bounce with the city's startup peeps duking it, out including Gilt Groupe's Kevin Ryan, First Round Capital's Phin Barnes, Seth Godin and others. Also, I'm giving away five free passes.

Remember Startup Chile? Well here's another interesting accelerator. It's called TechPeaks and they'll give you €25,000 to go build your startup in the Italian Alps, in the Trentino region of Northern Italy to be precise. The deadline to apply is April 5.

And now let's see what's going down in the Alley this week...

Ad Think: Emerging Tech in Advertising
With Brian Cohen (Chairman, New York Angels), Andreas Dahlqvist (vice chairman, McCann Erickson NY) and Nihal Mehta (founder and CEO, Local Response and partner, ENIAC Ventures)
Tuesday (Apr. 2), 6:30 p.m. @ The Advertising Club HQ, 989 Avenue of the Americas, 7th Fl.

Kaplan EdTech Accelerator (powered by TechStars) Founder Information Session
With Kaplan's Investment and Corporate Strategy team (Kate Eberle Walker and Phil Schwarz) and TechStars (Dave Drach, VP and Daniel Feld, Director of Operations)
Tuesday (Apr. 2), 7 p.m. @ Kaplan HQ, 395 Hudson St.

Entrepreneurs Roundtable 57
With Brad Burnham (Union Square Ventures)
Wednesday (Apr. 3), 6:30 p.m. @ NYU Stern School of Business, 44 W. 4th Street

April FinTech Meetup: Selling your Products & Your Company to the Banks
With Rishi Nangalia (Goldman Sachs), Dmitri Galinov (FastMatch), Jessica Taylor (Morgan Stanley), Bina Kalola (Bank of America), Jose Marques (Deutche Bank) and Jason Kunreuther (Barclays)
Wednesday (Apr. 3), 6:30 p.m. @ Dechert, 1095 6th Avenue, 28th Fl.

Demo Night for NYC Journalism & Media Entrepreneurs
Demos by Bibliocrunch, Skillcrush, Marquee, Spundge, Tagasauris and NowThisNews
Wednesday (Apr. 3), 6:30 p.m. @ CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, 219 W. 40th Street

The Startup Kids Screening
A documentary about young web entrepreneurs. Interviews with the founders of Vimeo, SoundCloud, Kiip, InDinero, Dropbox, FoodSpotting and many others.
Wednesday (Apr. 3), 8 p.m. @ Tribeca Screening Room, 375 Greenwich Street

Blueprint Health Demo Day
Come meet thirty amazing healthcare entrepreneurs who are twelve weeks into building and growing successful businesses.
Thursday (Apr. 4), 1:30 p.m. @ By Invitation Only

Newark Tech Week: TEDxNJIT - Connections / Digital Everywhere
Speakers include Guy Story (CTO, Audible), Carlos Dominguez (SVP, Cisco), Michael Smith (Chief Digital Officer, Forbes Media) and others.
Thursday (Apr. 4), 5 p.m. @ NJIT Jim Wise Theater Kufrian Hall, 154 Summit Street, Newark

Unleashing the Power of Data to Help Change the World
An out-of-this-world technology networking party and panel discussion on citizen science and data visualization.
Thursday (Apr. 4), 6 p.m. @ AlleyNYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

NYU Stern EEX Entrepreneurship Summit 2013
Keynote by Michael Wolf (founder, Activate; former president, MTV, and an early mentor to Mark Zuckerberg). Startup Crawl through Warby Parker, ZocDoc, Foursquare, Betaworks, Fab.com and more.
Friday (Apr. 5), 12:30 p.m. @ NYU Stern , 44 W. 4th Street

FinTech Hackathon
Bringing together FinTech developers and designers to develop financial products and discover new technologies.
Saturday (Apr. 6), 8:30 a.m. @ AlleyNYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

More events on the horizon...
The 5th Annual Shorty Awards on Apr. 8 @ TheTimesCenter at the New York Times
British Invasion on Apr. 8 @ Greenhouse
April 2013 NY Tech Meetup on Apr. 9 @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts
[NYU Startup Week] Hacking NYU - DemoDays on Apr. 10 @ John Paulson Auditorium
Investor Feedback Forum on Apr. 11 @ Microsoft
Assembled Food on Apr. 13 @ General Assembly
Big Apple Smackdown: Silicon Alleys 1st Annual Ping-Pong Tournament! on Apr. 14 @ SPiN New York
ERA Summer 2013 Happy Hour With MicroOffice on Apr. 15 @ MicroOffice
Kingpins of Silicon Alley on Apr. 15 @ Bowlmor - Union Square
2013 International Space Apps Challenge led by NASA on Apr. 20 @ AlleyNYC
Women Innovate Mobile: Behind The Pitch on Apr. 22 @ AppNexus
NYTECH Presents: Designing for Touch on Apr. 24 @ Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz
NY Tech Day on Apr. 25 @ Pier 92
Women Entrepreneurs Rock the World 2013 on May 8 @ Altman Building

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide 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.

First things first: Mark your calendars for this Sunday March 31, when Game of Thrones returns for Season 3. Finally!

The city recently announced NYC BigApps 2013, the fourth annual BigApps competition, an ongoing series of software challenges to promote government transparency and innovative new technologies. It's your chance to solve big issues with data and design and maybe win $150,000 in prizes. There are also a series of events planned, starting with the BigApps expo and hackathon at eBay next week, on April 6.

Kaplan and TechStars are partnering to launch the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, a three-month intensive program for ten startups in New York City from June to September. What kindsof companies are they looking for? Apps, platforms, K-12, higher ed, professional ed, and everything in between. Deadline is April 14. You can apply here, and there's an info session on April 2. Contact Phil Schwarz at edtechaccelerator@kaplan.com with any questions. 

The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and the NYC EDC are partnering on a new initiative called Design Entrepreneurs NYC, a free, intensive mini-MBA program for local fashion design business folks. The program kicks off May 30 and the application deadline is midnight on Sunday, March 31.

My buddy Steve Rosenbaum, NYC EDC’s Entrepreneur-at-Large, is holding office hours on March 26 (12 p.m. to 1 p.m.) to answer all your startup questions. Register here.

Betabeat is bringing back The Pitch! The ten startups with the most votes by midnight on Thursday, March 28, will have their pitch vetted on camera by Nikhil Kalghatgi (SoftBank Capital) and Steve Schlafman (Lerer Ventures), vying for the chance to take home $10,000 in funding.

You've probably heard of Startup Bus and some of you may know of the Startup Ship. Now I give you the Startup Plane! British Airways recently announced the first of its UnGrounded innovation lab flights that will assemble a hundred tech luminaries at 30,000 feet on a flight to London on June 12 to devise a platform for connecting tech talent with big problems around the world. Crazy, huh? So what's next? Startup Rocket? (Come to think of it, that's not that crazy. Elon Musk, call your office.)

If you have an innovative technology idea or solution to fill an unmet need in type 2 diabetes care delivery, then you should check out the Healthcare Innovation World Cup. Prize money totaling $75,000. Finals in New York City on May 10. Deadline to enroll is March 31.

And now let's see what's going down in the Alley this week...

The Test Tube
It’s like speed dating, but for usability testing. Over the course of an hour and a half, you'll be paired up with 5-6 other NYC companies and take turns to giving and getting feedback on your ideas.
Tuesday (Mar. 26), 5 p.m. @ We Work Labs, 175 Varick Street, 4th Fl.

Hack SummerStage Kick-Off Event
A challenge to developers to build an app that engages the 280,000+ attendees of SummerStage's annual Summer Long Festival.
Tuesday (Mar. 26), 6:30 p.m. @ We Work Labs, 175 Varik Street, 8th Fl.

Want to Be on TV? How to Get Noticed by Media
You've heard the fairy tales. Get a plug by Oprah or The Today Show, and your business skyrockets. But how do companies really get media coverage? Learn from Colleen DeBaise (Entrepreneur.com), Marissa Feinberg (Green Spaces), Rod Kurtz (OPEN Forum) and others.
Tuesday (Mar. 26), 7 p.m. @ Green Spaces, 394 Broadway, 5th Fl.

General Assembly Presents: Heart Beats
Hosted by Matthew Brimer. With special guest DJ Sean Glass. For one night, leave your work at work and come for an evening exclusively devoted to your deepest non-professional passions.
Tuesday (Mar. 26), 7 p.m. @ Tribeca Grand Hotel, 2 6th Avenue

How I Transitioned: Stories of Transition from Corporate America to Startups
With Vinay Jain (formerly Skadden, now at Shake), Leonard Li (formerly Oracle now at General Assembly) and Veeral Shah (formerly BNP Paribas, now at Equitally).
Wednesday (Mar. 27), 6:30 p.m. @ Alley NYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

March MakeIt NYC: Cubes, Manufacturing & More
With Keith Ozar (3D Systems) introducing the Cube and CubeX 3D printers and Matt Behr introducing 3Sourceful, an upcoming service that helps makers find their manufacturing mojo.
Wednesday (Mar. 27), 6:30 p.m. @ NYC EDC, 110 William Street

Startup Grind NYC
Fireside Chat with Andrew Rasiej (founder, Personal Democracy Media and chair, NY Tech Meetup)
Wednesday (Mar. 27), 6:30 p.m. @ Center for Social Innovation, 601 W. 26th Street, #325

Rise of the Female Entrepreneur
With Kate McAleer (Bixby), Sanchali Sundaram (Ingo), Jane Zhu (SleepBot), Melissa Shin (Dagne Dover), Sam Stephens (Oatmeals) and Courtney Spritzer (SocialFly NY)
Wednesday (Mar. 27), 6:30 p.m. @ NYU Kaufman Management Center, 44 W. 4th Street

Business+Startup by First Round Capital & Foursquare
With Eric Friedman (Foursquare), Chris Fralic (First Round Capital), Scott Pollack (American Express), Wiley Cerilli (SinglePlatform), Lauryn Ballesteros (The Leadership Symposium), Kenny Herman (SinglePlatform) and Anand Chopra-McGowan (General Assembly).
Wednesday (Mar. 27), 6:30 p.m. @ Foursquare HQ, 110 Crosby St

Fashion Disrupted: How Tech Is Changing The Way Consumers Shop
With Mike Hofman (Glamour), Bryan Wolff (Bonobos), Jyothi Rao (Gilt Groupe), Sarah Paiji (Snapette), Claire Mazur (Of A Kind) and others.
Wednesday (Mar. 27), 7:30 p.m. @ WeWork Lounge, 177 Lafayette Street

NYC Gaming March: Demo Night
Demos by Death Goat, Super Jetroid, Beat Blocks, Warping War Pig, Story War, Organic Panic and Worm Run.
Thursday (Mar. 28), 6 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 Avenue of the Americas

The 2nd Columbia University Earth Summit: Driving Collaborative Solutions
In light of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy, this year's Earth Summit focuses on Driving Collaborative Solutions, bringing business and social leaders together with academics and students to foster the new leadership required by today’s complex world.
Thursday (Mar. 28), 7 p.m. @ Columbia University Faculty House, 64 Morningside Drive

Open Tech NYC
How open source is driving the NYC tech scene. From locally grown open-source projects to startups and big enterprises that run on open source to new organizations and collaborative models.
Saturday (Mar. 30), 9:30 a.m. @ Hunter's Point Event Space, 47-40 21st Street, Long Island City

More events on the horizon...
Opening Party for F.A.T. GOLD: Five Years of Free Art & Technology on Apr. 1 @ Eyebeam
Kaplan EdTech Accelerator (powered by TechStars) Founder Information Session on Apr. 2 @ Kaplan HQ
Taboola Talks: #ContentYouMayLike with The Weather Company & WIRED on Apr. 3 @ Taboola HQ
Entrepreneurs Roundtable 57 on Apr. 3 @ NYU Stern School of Business
Startup Demo Night Series #16 (ft Mo Koyfman) on Apr. 4 @ Chadbourne & Parke
FinTech Hackathon on Apr. 6 @ AlleyNYC
Startup Brunch on Apr. 7 @ East Village (TBA)
British Invasion on Apr. 8 @ Greenhouse
Big Apple Smackdown: Silicon Alleys 1st Annual Ping-Pong Tournament! on Apr. 14 @ SPiN New York
Kingpins of Silicon Alley on Apr. 15 @ Bowlmor - Union Square
2013 International Space Apps Challenge led by NASA on Apr. 20 @ AlleyNYC
NYTECH Presents: Designing for Touch on Apr. 24 @ Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz
NY Tech Day on Apr. 25 @ Pier 92
Women Entrepreneurs Rock the World 2013 on May 8 @ Altman Building

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

Justin Bieber's manager Scooter Braun, singer/songwriter Tori Kelly, IRL Productions' Emily Gannett and billionaire / Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban at Conduit Corner @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide 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.

This was my sophomore outing at SXSW ('Spring Break for Nerds!') and it was every bit as epic and intense as the first one. Five days of non-stop boozing 'n schmoozing 'n pool partying 'n BBQing 'n celeb meeting  'n concerts with little-to-no sleep can take its toll. I feel like a HERD of elephants ran over me! Now that I've put that mental picture in your head, let's dive in.

My 2013 SXSW actually began right here at La Guardia airport, where I ran into bunch of local tech peeps en route to Austin, including Newscred CEO Shafqat Islam. There was a storm coming, but luckily we got out before it hit. In fact, my flight left half an hour EARLY, if you can believe that, so thank you, United. (Of course, the return flight was delayed by an hour, so there went all the hard-earned goodwill. Oh well.)

As I landed in Austin, the good folks @ my buddy Greg Tseng's startup Tagged had a warm welcome party with gift bags, photo ops and a chauffeured ride into the city. I could get used to this!

To the uninitiated, most of the action at South By happens within a ten-block radius of downtown Austin, where around 30,000 attendees descend for Interactive. It's like a college campus really. As I walked around, I spotted many familiar faces: "Great to see you again!" "Where you staying?" "You sticking around for music?" and the most common - "You coming to my party?!" I wish I could go to everyone's parties!

Picking up my credentials at the convention center, I noticed the girl prepping my badge had a Hack 'n Jill card. "You're into coding?" I asked. "Yes! I'm starting to learn!" Noticing I was from New York, she added, "I'm a big fan of Girl Develop It and Sara Chipps! I follow her on Twitter!" Her enthusiasm was infectious and I promised to introduce her. That's what SXSW is all about, people.

The Keynotes

There was the much-anticipated fireside chat between Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Wired's Chris Anderson. Musk spoke of his hope that humans will someday be able to make it to Mars and admitted he'd like to take the journey himself: "I would like to die on Mars, just not on impact." Well, I don't think I wanna die on Mars, period, but I'd definitely fancy a weekend getaway!

There was Al Gore's insightful chat with the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg. Mr. Gore's coming out with a new book, The Future, and he talked about how the luddite fallacy (that technology destroys more jobs than it creates) could actually come true, the emergence of the global mind, an unfortunate focus on growth instead of progress and a dramatic shift in global power. Tongue-in-cheek, Mr. Gore confessed: "I had a business partner called David Blood. We wanted to call our company Blood and Gore but our investors wouldn't let us!" On a more serious note, he said, "The future of democracy may well depend on the continued freedom and independence of the Internet."

Al Gore with Walt Mossberg @ SXSW 2013

Elon Musk with Chris Anderson @ SXSW 2013

Hardware replaced social as the star of the show, and several 3D-printing companies had a strong presence at the festival. My buddy Bre Prettis, CEO of Makerbot, gave the opening keynote introducing their newest product, the Digitizer, which will scan real-world objects into 3D-printable digital files. Very cool!

Another device getting attention was the Leap Motion 3D motion-control, which, using a USB connection, creates four cubic feet of space to interact with a computer. The controls are similar to using a touch screen computer in the air. Sweet!

But the biggest star of SXSW though wasn't Mr. Musk, Mr. Gore or Mr. Pettis. It was Grumpy Cat! The cat (whose real name is Tardar Sauce a.k.a. Tard) drew long lines (and I mean realllly long) snaking around the block and beyond to get a picture taken with his famously grumpy face. And he didn't disappoint. (Apparently he had a lot of demands, too.)

Grumpy Cat with Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley @ SXSW 2013

The Marketing & PR Stunts

SXSW has never been short on marketing gimmicks and stunts, and this year was no different.

Ride-sharing startup Lyft offered free piggyback rides with men wearing pink mustaches. Uber brought back its pedicabs and Sidecar also offered free rides around town. Payments startup Dwolla put golden tickets inside chocolate "Dwolla bars" and hid them around Austin.

There were tacocopters, a hologram of a saleswoman, and even Cap'n Crunch got in on the action! Taskrabbit had a rabbit-y van, Hootsuite had an owl-y bus and Highlight had ice-cream trucks. There was even a Game of Thrones pedicab which proved very popular with my friends. (Season 3 will be here in two weeks!)

Lyft Piggyback Rides @ SXSW 2013

Craig Newmark in the Game of Thrones Pedicab @ SXSW 2013

Hook-up site Bang With Friends (you know the one I'm talking about!) promoted its one-off site, Bang With SXSW, a way for attendees to meet and mate. As if that wasn't servicey enough, they also distributed thousands of condoms all over town. Yes, VCs, they are looking for funding.

My friend Adam Ludwig of RRE has a new app coming out, called Albumatic. To promote it, they decided to sponsor a popular local Korean+Mexican fusion truck called Chi'lantro. Anyone who downloaded the app got free food! That's where a whole bunch of us went after the Foursquare party. FYI, their Kimchi Fries are killer! (Feeling FOMO yet?)

RRE's Adam Ludwig with Box Group's David Tisch @ SXSW 2013

Scumbag Steve with Startup Bus' Jon Gottfried @ SXSW 2013

In one of this year's better stunts, journalists and companies received packages purportedly from a mysterious startup calling itself YamTrader.com (an online marketplace for yam enthusiasts and traders). Each both contained a set of instructions and ... a YAM, with the promise that if you brought your yam to SXSW, you could trade it in for a $50 Amex gift card. Apparently it was all on behalf of TriNet, an HR and payroll cloud services company. Hey, $50 is $50!

Appular's Haley Hammerling with Yam Trader @ SXSW 2013

All-in-all, nothing groundbreaking but thank God there was none of those controversial homeless hotspots from last year.

About Town

Like last year, there was no break-out app. Seems everyone was worn out from trying too many apps with no clear value proposition. (Not to mention a lot of them tend to be battery hogs!)

But I will give an honorable mention to GroupMe, an old SXSW favorite. I joined a bunch of groups for SXSW and they were definitely helpful.

A bunch of my friends--Tal Flanchraych, Erica Swallow, Jamie Roth and Jason Kende--participated in Startup Bus (a seven-hour hackathon on wheels) from New York and San Francisco to Austin, where participants teamed up to pitch ideas and build startups.  Congrats to CareerMob (Startup Bus NY) for winning the competition! They help Army vets translate their war experience into a resume.

Tal Flanchraych, Jamie Roth & others in Startup Bus @ SXSW 2013

NBA legend Shaq is a big guy. And apparently, he's a big nerd, too, because he was all over South By and (in his own words) "like a kid in a candy store!" Fun facts: Did you know Shaq has a masters degree in business administration? And that he bought a lucrative stake in Google before its IPO in 2004? Interested in having Shaq as an investor? He's taking video pitches via one of his startup investments, Tout.

Shaq with Brian Solis @ SXSW 2013

The housing situation at SXSW gets crazier and crazier every year. The hotels are long gone, as are the motels and even the Airbnbs. I had friends who were seriously considering either renting an RV or driving down from Round Rock every day. One startup helping ease the pain was my buddy Diego Saez-Gil's WeHostels, which rented out a block of rooms at the Firehouse Hostel at affordable rates, right in the heart of downtown. It seemed like every other New York City tech person I met was staying there, including Amicus' Seth Bannon, The Daily Muse's Kathryn Minshew and many of the Startup Bus folks.

My friend Polina (cofounder of travel startup Wanderu) had hired a monkey (yes) named Miki to endure a bunch of gawking strangers in exchange for some top-notch compensation (bananas?). I agreed to a photo shoot. Miki sat on my shoulder and posed as planned. That's when things started going a little crazy. First he became fascinated with my hair, then he discovered my business cards in my suit pocket and proceeded to take them out one at a time and lick them and hand them around. He's a natural!

Gary and Miki @ SXSW 2013

On monday morning, Conduit Corner played host to the Change The Ratio / TheLi.st Mimosa Brunch. It was TheLi.st's SXSW debut and it seemed like everybody was there. Along with TheLi.st cofounders Rachel Sklar and Glynnis MacNicol, there was Travel Channel's Nisha Chittal, Digital Undivided's Kathryn Finney, Marie Claire's Lea Goldman, AARP's Tammy Goldman, The Daily Muse's Melissa McCreery, Tech Lady Mafia's Erie Meyer, Startup Institute's Christina Wallace, Google's Anthea Watson-Strong, Dot Complicated's Randi Zuckerberg, Make Love Not Porn's Cindy Gallop, NASA Mohawk Guy Bobak Ferdowsi, Gui.de's Leslie Bradshaw, Fashism's Brooke Moreland and Ashely Granata, SXSW's Rebecca Feferman, Mediabistro's Laurel Touby, Tumblr's Rick Webb and Microsoft East Coast Startup Evangelist Tereza Nemessanyi (who was also the co-host).

TheLi.st's Rachel Sklar and Microsoft's Tereza Nemessanyi at the Change The Ratio / The Li.st Mimosa Brunch at Conduit Corner @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

MakeLoveNotPorn's Cindy Gallop and Dot Complicated's Randi Zuckerberg at the Change The Ratio / The Li.st Mimosa Brunch at Conduit Corner @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

On my way to one of the (many) pool parties, I bumped into Airbnb founder Brian Chesky and his entourage. They were fascinated to see the stickers all over me and wanted to know what the deal was. So I told them what the deal was. "Wait, so you get paid for that?" "Yup." I elaborated on my grand plans to have a real-time, geo-targeted, visual ad network on the tie. Minds blown ;) The Airbnb founders had famously bootstrapped their startup selling Obama O's and Capn McCain cereal boxes. I was learning from the best.

The Parties

Finally, as even a SXSW virgin knows, it's really all about the parties. The partying starts early and continues 'til the wee hours (when everyone makes a mad scramble for one of Austin's 270 cabs).

There was the Verizon / Mobi rooftop barbecue party. I was about to ask third-generation pitmaster and mercurial BBQ legend J. Mueller "Why no sauce?" but then thought better of it.

There was my buddy Scott (Laughing Squid) Beale's annual Calm Before The Storm party, where I ran into pioneering videoblogger Steve Garfield and CNET-journalist-turned-Evernote-evangelist Rafe Needleman. I caught up with Charlie Todd, founder of  ImprovEverywhere. A documentary about them, We Cause Scenes, was premiering at the SXSW film festival on Sunday.

I also met Rusty Blazenhoff of Laughing Squid, Aubrey Sabala of Sailthru, actor Seth Herzog (a member of Jimmy Fallon's late night troupe) and Echo's Chris Saad, who gave me the skinny on his space Villa, which is apparently San Francisco’s newest, hottest entrepreneur mansion. We could use something like that in New York ;) I also met the folks behind the amazing short Cicada Princess, nominated at the festival (and funded through Kickstarter, of course).

There was the annual Dachis Group party at Cedar St .Courtyard, where I ran into folks from vacation rental giant Homeaway, which apparently is headquartered in Austin and employs over 1000 people. Who knew? They invited me to a Sunday breakfast, where I had the best Bloody Mary. I later bumped into a local Austinite buddy, Bijoy, who was recently anointed by CNN as the secular high priest of the Austin tech scene. And his hair is as crazy as mine!

There was the popular Made in NY / American Express party on the rooftop of FEED House, where it seemed as if the entire New York tech scene had teleported itself. Attendees included NYC Commissioner of Media & Entertainment Katherine Oliver, NY Tech Meetup's Jessica Lawrence, Gust's David Rose, Social Media Week's Toby Daniels, Box Group's David Tisch, NYC EIR Steve Rosenbaum, NY Times' Nate Silver, NYC Chief Digital Officer Rachel Haot and others. A bunch of us discovered there was a roof to the roof, where we hung out with MakeLoveNotPorn's Cindy Gallop and Gust's Justin Stanwix and got the best views of downtown.  Cindy had given an awesome talk about the future of porn which, rumor has it, was as well attended as Al Gore's talk on the future of the world.

View from the roof-to-the-roof at the Made-in-NY / American Express party @ SXSW 2013

Splash House Party w DJ Sean Glass @ SXSW 2013

There was the Awesomest Journalism party (thrown by my friend Jenny 8. Lee) which was chock-full of, you guessed it, journalists and news-focused startups. I ran into Jonathan Dube (CBS), Sandeep Ayyappan and Tom Weingarten, cofounders of Delve, Vinay Jain (Shake), Shafqat Islam (Newscred) and a bunch of others.

There was the Fast Company Grill party where I met Splash co-founder Ben Hindman. I also ran into my AlleyNYC buddies Jonathan Ende, Jason Saltzman and Michael Gold. Michael was organizing a big TechDrinkup SXSW Edition event in a couple of days.

There was the amazing Booze Cruise, organized by Macallan, where a bunch of us including WeWork Labs founders Matt Shampine & Jesse Middleton, Flybridge Capital's Dave Aronoff, TravelZoo's David Ambrose, Trinet's Jennifer Daniels and Jasmine Cortez, and several folks from DUMBO-based Prolific Interactive spent a wonderful, relaxing afternoon away from the madness of downtown Austin. Of course, when you combine amazing Macallan whisky with delicious macaroons (which we all got to take home) followed by a ride back in the party bus with lights flashing, music blaring, AND a pole, things can get a little ... uhhh ... crazy.

Macallan Booze Cruise @ SXSW 2013

Macallan Booze Cruise @ SXSW 2013

Late night walking down 6th street I ran into the "other" Gary, Gary Vaynerchuk, hanging out with Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (who had brought back his Happiness party bus). Gary did office hours in Austin and hosted his secret wine party (now an annual South By tradition). The guy sure keeps busy!

There was the popular late-night scene at the (supposedly haunted!) Driskill Hotel bar, where I ran into a ton of folks including Flavorpill cofounder Mark Mangan, Twitter investor Jeff Pulver, TechCrunch's Ryan Lawler, DFJ's Lucas Nelson, the Roku team, Business Insider CTO Pax Dickinson, SAI's Alyson Shontell, Mashery's Colin McCabe, Neuaer's Dave Mathews and many others.

Tip: While the Hilton is a better bet if you want easy access to the convention center and panels, The Driskill (if you can afford it) is THE place to stay during SXSW because of its proximity to all the parties. Walk out of The Driskill at 2am (which is when everything in Austin starts shutting down) and you will see familiar faces appear like magic everywhere on the street around you.

There was the awesome Wall Street Journal pool party where I ran into WSJ bloggers Sarah Needleman and Rubina Fillion. "We're big fans of GarysGuide!" Why, thank you, guys! I ran into The Daily Muse's Kathryn Minshew and her cofounder Alexandra Cavoulacos lounging in the pool. Thrillist's Ben Lerer, Buzzfeed's Jon Steinberg, Barbarian Group's Benjamin Palmer, Mediabistro's Laurel Touby, Betaworks' Jonathan Basker, Morris+King's Andy Morris, Shorty Awards's Greg Galant, Wander's Jeremy Fisher, Sonar's Brett Martin, Fashism's Brooke Moreland, #DominateFund's Ben Parr and a ton of other heavy hitters were there. It was good to see Rick Webb there (after he threated to skip SXSW this year). It's just not a party without Rick! :)

WSJ Rooftop Pool Party at the Ashton Austin @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

There was the Fashion Brain Bar at the W, organized by my friends from Projective Space, James Wahba and Lauren Zapata. I caught with my West Coast buddy Gregarious Narain (founder of YCombinator startup GetChute and previous VP Product at Klout). Also ran into Internet Week's Caroline Waxler and Cheekd founder Lori Cheek (congrats on the recent engagement!). The W Austin, as I've been told many times, is the #1 place in Austin for hooking up. Good to know?

Later that afternoon, a bunch of us went to the Getty Images party, conveniently just a few floors down at the W. I caught up with my old friend Melinda Lee, who is the Deputy GM at Getty Images Music. I ran into Nathaniel McNamara & Mike Weiksner, founders of the hot social commerce startup Tip or Skip. I learned some interesting facts about the app and what makes it tick and how users earn "sway." It's all about curation, really, which I can relate to. Also had a nice chat with Alix Boulud of LVMH.

There was the Angry Birds Toons pool party which takes the prize for most SWAGGED-OUT party at SXSW. (And that's saying something.)There were giant angry birds plushies everywhere, and there was even an angry bird in a giant slingshot, aimed towards the pool. (No, it was not working. Yes, we tried.) Peter Vesterbecka (the Mighty Eagle himself) was there of course, excited about the launch of the new cartoon series, Angry Birds Toons.

Peter Vesterbeca (Mighty Eagle) at the Angry Birds Toons Pool Party @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

There was the annual GroupMe party where pretty much everyone ended up that night. I chatted with Flybridge Capital's Caitlin Strandberg, PivotDesk's Efrem Weiss and Adamant Technologies' Sam Khamis and Artem Mikhlin.  I ran into my buddy, iOS developer Pablo Quinteros, who introduced me to Dan Benjamin, founder of 5by5.tv, a popular web video and podcasting networking affectionately called 'NPR for Geeks!' :)

Later, I headed over to the SHFT party with my buddy Greg Gopman (cofounder, Angelhack) and Megan Berry (cofounder, RebelMouse). There I ran into a bunch of my West Coast pals including Altimeter Group's Brian Solis, Yammer's Maria Ogneva and The Next Web's Ken Yeung. Entourage star (and local Brooklyn boy) Adrian Grenier was in the house. Adrian (who cofounded brewery startup ChurchKey) is also the cofounder of SHFT with film producer Peter Glatzer.

I caught up with an old friend Jonathan, who told me he wanted to introduce me to the West Coast version of myself. It turned out to be Bravo reality TV star, Hermione Way. She pulled me close and whispered in my ear "I'm going to the Four Seasons. Come along?"

Adrian Grenier introducing The Skins at SHFT WreckRoom @ SXSW 2013

Shepard Fairey Wreckroom at SHFT WreckRoom @ SXSW 2013

In Conclusion

So there you have it, folks. Another amazing SXSW. I head home with literally a ton of potential deals, partnerships and followups. I'm going to cherish the new connections & friendships made, old ones re-kindled and of course the wonderful, random conversations in hotel lobbies and waiting in line for late night tacos. I love Austin. Its a wonderful, laid-back city with great weather and a penchant for keeping it weird with the friendliest people and the yummiest BBQ. I'll be back!

But as my flight started its descent into LaGuardia and I saw familiar landmarks on the horizon, I smiled. I was now in a New York state of mind.

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide 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.

"And as long as I've got my suit and tie, I'm-a leave it all on the floor tonight..." Yup, I've got JT's new single (with Jay-Z) stuck in my head. "Suit & Tie," that's how I roll ;).

Heard about the NYC Schools Gap App Challenge? The New York City Deptartment of Education is challenging software developers to submit apps and games that enhance math teaching and engagement for our middle schools. A worthy cause, indeed! The deadline for submission is April 10.

Greylock's Josh Elman (who's worked at both Facebook and Twitter) is putting together a conference on How To Build Great Products next month (April 12) in San Francisco. It's by-invitation-only and limited to top product managers. Fit the bill? Apply here!

My buddy Jonathan Askin and a team of his students at the Brooklyn Law Incubator and Policy Clinic are launching first-to-disclose. As you likely know, the U.S. just moved from a “first-to-invent” to a “first-to-file” regarding patents. It'll probably make it more difficult for small inventors to fend off larger enterprises in the rush to the patent office, and the aim of first-to-disclose is to help counterbalance the new rules. Check it out.

The 2013 UX Awards (celebrating great digital UX created by outstanding professionals) is now accepting submissions. Deadline is April 15.

And now let's see what's going down in the Alley this week...

The Future of 3D Manufacturing - Brooklyn Style
With Robert Steiner (director of product development, Makerbot), Duann Scott (designer evangelist, Shapeways) and Brian Jepson (editor, Make Magazine). Moderated by Jim Kohlenberger, recently chief of staff for the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy.
Monday (Mar. 18), 7 p.m. @ Brooklyn Law School Moot Court Room, 250 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn

Business Development Pre/Post-Acquisition: How my job changed?
With Chris Watson (Groupon), Tanuj Parikh (GroupMe), Scott Britton (SinglePlatform), Drew Stern (BuddyMedia), Andrew Ferenci (Spinback) and Alex Taub (Dwolla). Moderated by Eric Batscha (AppNexus).
Monday (Mar. 18), 7 p.m. @ AppNexus HQ, 28 West 23rd Street, 4th Fl.

NYC Data Business Meetup #14
With DJ Patil (Greylock), Jeff Hammerbacher (Cloudera), Ben Werther (Platfora) and Ron Bodkin (Think Big Analytics).
Tuesday (Mar. 19), 6:30 p.m. @ WeWork, 154 Grand Street

March NY Tech Meetup
You know the drill. Five-minute cutting-edge tech demos. 850 fellow New York tech startuppers. One amazing event.
Tuesday (Mar. 19), 7 p.m. @ NYU Skirball Center For Performing Arts, 566 Laguardia Place

NYEdTech Meetups Startup Showcase: Spring 2013 Edition
Learn about Lessonwriter, Intellidemia, Parlor, Neverware, ImagiLabs and BiblioNasium.
Tuesday (Mar. 19), 7 p.m. @ Knewton, 100 5th Avenue

Structure:Data 2013 by GigaOM
Speakers include Michael Abbott (Kleiner Perkins), Tamara Budec (Goldman Sachs), Gaurav Dhillon (SnapLogic), Michael Driscoll (Metamarkets), Bhaskar Ghosh (LinkedIn) and others.
Wednesday (Mar. 20), 8 a.m. @ The Chelsea Piers, Pier 60

New Work City Member Show & Tell!
With presentations by Jonny Goldstein (Envizualize), Avishai Weiss (Apartable), Eytan Daniyalzade (Stylr), Matt Hanley (Let Sister) and Harry Raymond (Shindig).
Wednesday (Mar. 20), 6 p.m. @ New Work City, 412 Broadway

Working Together on Your Startup: Co-Founders and Co-Working
Demos by Trello, Psych, Mani Diaries and Uprise Art.
Wednesday (Mar. 20), 7 p.m. @ CultureFix, 9 Clinton Street

Design for Manufacturing Summit #3
With Matt Burnett (Makers Row), Frank Russo (Fabricating), Matthew Bolton (SparkFun), Haytham Elhawary (Zahn Center for Entrepreneurship) and others.
Thursday (Mar. 21), 3 p.m. @ Dumbo Spot, 160 Water Street, Brooklyn

Silicon Dragon Alley 2013: Digital Media Innovators Venture Capitalist Mavericks & Dealmakers
Rockstar group of panelists including Jim Robinson (RRE Ventures), Alex Iskold (GetGlue), Jimmy Maymann (Hufftington Post), Brian Cohen (NYC Angels), Ross Goldstein (DFJ Gotham), Porter Bibb (MediaTech Capital Partners), Kamran Ansari (Greycroft Partners) & others.
Thursday (Mar. 21), 5 p.m. @ NASDAQ, 4 Times Square

#TechinMotion: Women in Tech Panel
With Anna Khan (Bessemer), Nikki Stevens (Refinery29), Merrill Ferguson (Jirafe), Cailin Nelson (Turntable.FM), Carol Mirakove (Bitly) and Lindsay Bressler (OpenSky).
Thursday (Mar. 21), 6:30 p.m. @ The Alley, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

New York Video Meetup
Presentations by Robert Green (Conde Nast Entertainment), Saul Hansell (Sii Media), Eric Feinstein (Deltatre) and Adrienne Schmoeker (Catchafire).
Thursday (Mar. 21), 6:30 p.m. @ Columbia University, Broadway and 116th Street, Uris Hall, Room 301

Hello Etsy at Pratt: Reimagine the Marketplace
With Chad Dickerson (CEO, Etsy), Chris Anderson (author, The New Industrial Revolution), Robin Chase (founder, Zipcar) and others
Friday (Mar. 22), 5 p.m. @ Pratt Institute, 200 Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn

IBM Code Rally Hackathon
Teams of developers will spend a day modifying game mechanics and artifical intelligence to create a turbo-charged (virtual) racing machine!
Sunday (Mar. 24), 9:30 a.m. @ General Assembly East, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.

More events on the horizon...
Want to Be on TV? How to Get Noticed by Media on Mar. 26 @ Green Spaces
Fireside Chat with Andrew Rasiej on Mar. 27 @ Center for Social Innovation
Champagne Privacy on a Beer Budget on Mar. 27 @ Cooley at The Grace Building
Fashion Disrupted: How Tech Is Changing The Way Consumers Shop on Mar. 27 @ WeWork Lounge
Open Tech NYC on Mar. 30 @ Hunter's Point Event Space
Opening Party for F.A.T. GOLD: Five Years of Free Art & Technology on Apr. 1 @ Eyebeam
FinTech Hackathon on Apr. 6 @ AlleyNYC
Big Apple Smackdown: Silicon Alleys 1st Annual Ping-Pong Tournament! on Apr. 14 @ SPiN New York
Kingpins of Silicon Alley on Apr. 15 @ Bowlmor - Union Square
Hack'n Jill: Mastering the Technical Interview on Apr. 16 @ AppNexus
NY Tech Day on Apr. 25 @ Pier 92
Women Entrepreneurs Rock the World 2013 on May 8 @ Altman Building

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)