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! ;)

Cynthia Germanotta, a cofounder of the Born This Way Foundation (also known as Lady Gaga's mom), was a judge for the event, and encouraged kids to build apps that will help promote online cooperation and being better digital citizens. (No cyberbullying, kiddos.)

"Youth live online so it's important for them to understand how to use it wisely and productively and for good," Ms. Germanotta told Betabeat. "The earlier you can make that happen the better."

The MacArthur Foundation's Connie Yowell said that the hackathon is a one-day kickoff event to help launch the foundation's overarching digital media and learning competition.

"Our goal today is both to launch the broader set of activities to have a core set of people in New York who really get this work and to begin to create the first set of apps and curriculum of programs that we can put on the Family Online Safety Institute platform for good sites so people can see that these are thing to try to also develop and create," she said.

At the end of the hackathon, the winners were awarded prizes totaling $48,000. Winners included Congregate, a tool to help kids 13 and over learn and participate in democracy, and Cyberstoop, a community that helps teens locate businesses that offer free wifi and technology tools.

"Coming out of this we will be inviting libraries and museums and other nonpofits to host other events around the country and htis is what we're doing with the Born This Way Foundation so that youth can have the opportunity to create programs like this too," Ms. Yowell added.

Build me some apps to distract from the fact I've missed the train, again. (Photo: flickr.com/anniemole)

Your smartphone is useful for more than Bejeweled now that there's Wifi in many stations, and the MTA is trying to use that connectivity to make your commute better. (Just don't ask when your train is getting a countdown clock.)

This weekend, techies gathered in Brooklyn at NYU Poly's MetroTech Center campus for the first official, MTA-approved transit hackathon. Participants threw together a total of 17 submissions judged by authorities like Rachel Haot, General Assembly cofounder Matt Brimer and AT&T New York president Marissa Shorenstein.

The winner, taking home a not-too-shabby $5,000 (fronted by AT&T): SubCulture.FM, which would make it easier for you to find singles from your favorite subway buskers. Musicians who sign up for the program get QR codes that'll direct fans to a downloadable link.

Unfortunately, that woman who plays the Love Story theme on a recorder on the N train probably hasn't released a single, and as yet, there's no app for IRL muting your least favorite musicians.

Taking second place was MTA Sheriff, an app which would allow you to report subway problems like that one perpetually broken-down escalator, and third went to Accessway, which helps wheelchair-bound and visually-impaired folks get around the system.

This hackathon was actually just a kick-off. The winners are also now in the running for the App Quest competition, a virtual challenge that'll run until late August, also sponsored by NYU Poly, AT&T and the MTA. Anyone who's willing to work with an MTA data set or API can compete for an additional $40,000 in prize money.

Word to the wise: Anyone who hacked a way to block the urine smell would be idolized citywide as a hero.

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.

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.

"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! ;)

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.

I recently visited a friend at her offices in Union Square. As she gave me the grand tour, she pointed at a room: "That used to be Andy Warhol's office." I paused. THE Andy Warhol? Yup! Apparently the building became home to Warhol's Factory back in 1973. It struck me that in today's world of Twitter and Instagram and fans and followers and micro-celebrities, Warhol's "15 minutes of fame" quote had finally come true.

Speaking of factories, as I made my way out of the building I ran into one-man idea factory Seth Godin and his son Alex. Seth had recently come out with a new book (via Kickstarter),  The Icarus Deception, which I was eager to sink my teeth into, and Seth was excited about an event I'm co-organizing next month: The Big Apple Smackdown a.k.a. Silicon Alley's First Annual Ping Pong Tournament! FYI, I'm raffling off 5 FREE Passes to this invite-only event. So apply today and keep your fingers crossed! ;)

Applications for the Fall 2013 Masters of Engineering program at Cornell NYC Tech are now being accepted! Deadline is March 15. Questions? Email admissions@tech.cornell.edu.

The deadline is bearing down on us for Competition THRIVE, which NYC EDC (with Baruch College) created to seek innovative strategies for helping immigrant entrepreneurs succeed. Five semi-finalists get $25,000 and the grand prize winner gets $100,000. Apply by this Thursday, March 7.

Congrats to Raspberry Pi on their first birthday! With over a million Pis sold, this is one New York startup I'm very excited about. It feels like New York City is very much at the center of the Maker Movement, with Kickstarter, Quirky, MakerBot, BugLabs, Etsy and Shapeways all here right in our backyard.

SPLAAATTT!!! That's the sound of my Google Calendar finally buckling under the weight of all my SXSW RSVPs, now at a mind-numbing 330 parties! Good God. What kind of monster have we created?! FYI, I have two FREE passes to Rovio's SXSW BBQ & Pool Party! Each pass is good for 1 person + 1 guest. Yes, the Mighty Eagle will be there.

In other SXSW news: My friend Irina will be doing TechCab Confessions at SXSW, giving attendees a free ride in exchange for their video confession of a technological sin. We're once again partnering with the good folks at Shoutem to create the Austin Party Guide app, so make sure to download it. And finally, to get everyone in the mood, my buddy Brian Shields (IncubateNYC) has created this mixtape with DJ B-Hen. 

If you're not going to SXSW, there are still plenty of events happening in New York City including The 5th Annual NxNYC, The Anti-SXSW and South by Southside.

Mark your calendars, because coming up next month, on April 25, is what's shaping up to be the lagest tech startup event in the world--AND it's free. I give you: New York Tech Day!

Finally, check out Fred Wilson interviewing Jack Dorsey at the NYU Entrepreneurship Festival last week. These are two guys at the top of their game. Jack talks about his favorite book (Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea), his admiration for Bieber, his love of sailing, his short-lived career as a tailor, why he chose Fred as investor, his dreadlocks-and-nose-ring days and more.

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

BRITE 2013 Conference
Speakers include Shiv Singh (PepsiCo), Kaaren Hanson (Intuit), Liz Schimel (Meredith), Charles Duhigg (New York Times), Kerry Trainor (Vimeo), Michael Hagan (LevelUp) and others.
Monday (Mar. 4), 8 a.m. @ Columbia University Lerner Hall, 2920 Broadway

Founders@Fail: How To Build A Community
With Mark Peter Davis (founder, Kohort), Amanda Hesser (founder, Food52), Kathryn Minshew (founder, The Muse) and Jen Rubio (head of social, Warby Parker)
Monday (Mar. 4), 6:30 p.m. @ General Assembly East, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.

Art and Technology: Wendi Murdoch and Jerry Yang
Monday (Mar. 4), 6:30 p.m. @ Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue

The Future of Food - A talk at the Museum of Natural History
Join plant geneticist Paul Gepts, economic journalist Fred Kaufman, ethicist Paul Root Wolpe, and intellectual property lawyer Rochelle Dreyfuss for an intellectual feast about the future of food.
Tuesday (Mar. 5), 6:30 p.m. @ American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 77th Street

Crowdfunding Cleaner Waterways With +POOL
A discussion on how design can transform cities and improve the environment. With the founders of +POOL (a Kickstarter project that raised $40,000 to design a floating swimming pool in the East River that'd filter 500,000 gallons of water every day)
Tuesday (Mar. 5), 6:30 p.m. @ Huge Brooklyn, 45 Main Street, 2nd Fl.

Tech Tuesday
The Return of Tech Tuesday with GrandLife and Fueled: Pre-SXSW Edition
Tuesday (Mar. 5), 7 p.m. @ Tribeca Grand Hotel, 2 6th Avenue

BUZZtheBar Launch Party! (Free with discount code GARYSGUIDE)
Classy 1940s meets modern-style boozing, games, giveaways, and just a darn good time! Free with discount code GARYSGUIDE.
Tuesday (Mar. 5), 8 p.m. @ Hotel Chantelle, 92 Ludlow St

March NY FinTech Startups Demo Day!
Featuring EquaMetrics, Vestorly, TradeEmbark and more.
Wednesday (Mar. 6), 6:30 p.m. @ Dechert, 1095 6th Avenue, 28th Fl.

Inaugural Latino Tech Meetup
Wednesday (Mar. 6), 7 p.m. @ ThoughtWorks, 99 Madison Avenue, 15th Fl.

Accelerating Startups - Introduction to DreamIt NYC
Learn about DreamIt NYC Summer 2013 program. With Mark Wachen (managing director, DreamIt NYC).
Thursday (Mar. 7), 12 p.m. @ NYU-Poly DUMBO Incubator, 20 Jay Street, Ste 312, Brooklyn

The Future of Education #2: Innovation in K-12 Learning
With Andrea Coleman (CEO, Office of Innovation at NYC Dept. of Education), Ivan Cestero (Avenues: The World School), Leigh Ann Sudol-DeLyser (Academy for Software Engineering: AFSE NYC) and Lyel Resner (NYU Stern & Startup Box: South Bronx)
Thursday (Mar. 7), 7 p.m. @ Avenues: The World School, 259 10th Avenue

Women 2.0 Founder Friday NY
Happy International Women's Day! Come celebrate.
Friday (Mar. 8), 6 p.m. @ Google NYC, 111 8th Avenue

NY Gaming Meetup and Games.com Hackathon
To celebrate the launch of the new Games.com platform.
Saturday (Mar. 9), 1 p.m. @ AOL Ventures, 770 Broadway, 6th Fl.

Tech@NYU DemoDays
Students across NYC take the stage to showcase what they've been working on!
Saturday (Mar. 9), 3 p.m. @ eBay HQ NYC, 625 6th Avenue, 3rd Fl.

More events on the horizon...
NYTECH Presents: Legal Essentials for Startups - Intellectual Property Protection on Mar 11 @ Anchin
NY Enterprise Tech Meetup on Mar 12 @ Cooley
Entrepreneurs Roundtable 56 on Mar 13 @ NYU Stern School of Business
Unleash the Beast: How to Hack a Hackathon Save the World and Make Your Parents Proud on Mar 14 @ Internet Media Labs
Investor Feedback Forum on Mar 14 @ Microsoft
The Future of 3D Manufacturing - Brooklyn Style on Mar 18 @ Brooklyn Law School - Moot Court Room
March 2013 NY Tech Meetup on Mar 19 @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts
Mobile UX Design Four-Part Series: Theory, Science, Optimization & Design on Mar 20 @ Frankfurt Kurnit
Design for Manufacturing Summit #3 on Mar 21 @ Dumbo Spot
Big Apple Smackdown: Silicon Alleys 1st Annual Ping-Pong Tournament! on Apr 14 @ SPiN New York
NY Tech Day on Apr 25 @ Pier 92

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

Into all that drama jumped Decoded Fashion with an exceedingly practical idea: a fashion hackathon where industry insiders tell techies what's actually lacking in the market. In other words, rather than the umpteenth street style photo-sharing apps, how about the next Fashion GPS, a digital tracker for samples and look books used by designers like Lanvin, Dior and many, many more.

The hackathon, which took place at AlleyNYC in Midtown last weekend--Betabeat was one of the judges--began with a panel of designers like Rachel Roy and Uri Minkoff, founder and CEO of Rebecca Minkoff, who stressed the need for innovation in areas like managing manufacturers, analytics tools around a product's success rate, and getting the right items in front of the right customer when they're ready to buy.

Decoded Fashion, which was founded in 2011 by Liz Bacelar, acts as a liaison--introducing startups and emerging technology to leaders in fashion and retail through events and discussions. Stephanie Winston Wolfkoff, the ringmaster of Fashion Week, is Decoded Fashion's co-executive producer. The organization is supported by the Council of Fashion Designers of America and the hackathon winners were chosen based on a number of factors, including how well the hacks would further the mission of the CFDA. (Top prize: $10,000 and CFDA will build your app.)

There's been some grumbling about corporate hackathons of late--and the "fine line between engaging and exploiting." But in a Series A crunch, Decoded's set up seemed like a call for rationality, at least to us. There were also plenty of familiar Silicon Alley faces by way of tech bona fides. Mentors included Startup Bus conductor Mike Caprio, Andy Hagerman from The Design Gym, and Status Chart founder Chris Kennedy, whom we named one of the most poachable players in tech in last Spring.

In addition to getting the right balance of fashion vs. tech and startup folks vs. industry big wigs, the crowd of about 300 was also markedly diverse.

"I’ve been to many hackathons before. I’ve never seen a fashion hackathon with that much diversity of thought--this diversity of race, with this diversity of gender," a 7-months pregnant Ms. Bacelar told the crowd. "We’re 40 percent female here today and I’m so so proud. We didn’t recruit for that, it just happened. It shows how technology is changing and I’m so proud of it so thank you."

And, seriously, you've never seen such a well-dressed bunch of bleery-eyed coders. We spotted knee-high shearling boots, two shimmering gold numbers (one worn by Tumblr fashion evangelist Valentine Uhovski--a fellow judge) and plenty of leathah.

Unlike your traditional hackathon, the five finalists chosen had from Sunday until the grand finale, which will happen on the runway at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week with a keynote from Zach Posen and Dennis Crowley. Yes, like QR codes, apps are about to make their big tent debut.

So despite concerns about vaporware, judges were looking for ideas that would present well in a couple weeks--with advice from mentors like Kevin Ryan along the way. (Notable considering some of the chosen few sounded like future Gilt Groupe acquisitions.)

The finalists included Coveted, a universal checkout platform for brands on Tumblr. That one is already in operation, as one of the hackers demonstrated by buying a $250 pair of sunglasses live during the demo. Fashion Dashboard, which analyzes how consumers are interacting with your brand, was another winner for displaying how Prada store windows are popular on Instagram and Foursquare check-ins on H&M. 42 was chosen for its attempt to measure and personalize in-store experiences, as opposed to offline ones. Then there was Avant-Garde, which wants to help with excess inventory by looking at the social media activity of customers on your mailing list. Lastly, SwatchIt is an app designed to help with inefficiencies of sourcing material from, say, rural parts of India so that designers can send questions and get a yes or no response to a database of artisans.

You can check out more information about the projects via Hacker League.

The five finalists will be whittled down to three before the 14th. Now we just have to figure out if there's anything in our closet that won't get us kicked out of the tents.

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.

Congrats to the Ravens for winning the Super Bowl! Best of the commercials? That'd be Chrysler's So God Made A Farmer ad. Beyoncé rocked the half-time show (and flashed the Illuminati sign?). Yes, there was a brief blackout, enough to unleash a torrent of funny tweets. Oreos won the night, social-media wise. And finally, there was Shaq, lip-syncing to Beyoncé's "Halo." 

R.I.P., Mayor Koch. You will be missed. New York is the greatest city in the world. But there was a time when the future looked bleak, and Mayor Koch deserves some of the credit for bringing the city back from the brink.

The NYC EDC is planning the 4th Annual BigApps competition. Help them out by completing this brief survey by Friday. Also, wanna help the city reinvent the payphone? Submit your prototype idea by February 18. Demo Day is March 5.

PILOT Health Tech NYC is an awesome new program that matches early-stage healthcare technology companies with key New York healthcare service organizations. It will provide funding of up to $100,000 each to 10 innovative pilot projects. Deadline is February 10. And GE and StartUp Health are announcing a three-year entrepreneurship program to provide expertise, resources and growth opportunities for consumer health companies. Deadline to apply is February 8.

Check out the New York State Collegiate Business Plan Competition. Current undergrad and grad students from New York City colleges are eligible. Deadline for applying is midnight of March 1. For more details, contact Lesley Stroll.

Love is in the air! And that means I've got a few Valentine's Day-themed events for you this week: Startup Singles Happy Hour, The Chocolate Business at a Glance and Dating & Technology.

This Saturday is the much-anticipated Hearst Fashion Hackathon. Prizes include access to exclusive VIP Fashion Week shows, use of your hack in NYFW events, mentorship from Hearst, and $10,000-plus in cash prizes! And speaking of Fashion Week, hope to run into some of you there later this week.

Congrats to Alex, Sachin, Rameet, Alexis, Vipin, Carter and many other friends for getting selected to the NYC Venture Fellows program. And congrats to Eugene Chung, the new Managing Director of TechStars NYC!

More interesting events this week: PandoMonthly (with First Round's Josh Kopelman), A Peek Into the World of Digital Art (with the New Museum's Lauren Cornell) and The Impact of Digital on Movie Going (with NBC Universal's Jon Gibs). And coming up: One of a Kind, where you can donate your old startup t-shirts, on February 13. And on February 16 comes HackInteractive (in partnership with CampInteractive), for hacking solutions to solve problems in student learning today.

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

The Impact of Digital on Movie Going: Jon Gibs SVP Research NBC Universal
AppNexus President Michael Rubenstein will host a fireside chat with Jon Gibs (SVP Research, NBC Universal).
Monday (Feb. 4), 6 p.m. @ AppNexus, 28 W. 23rd Street

Ultra Light Startups Investor Feedback Forum
Panelists include Arie Abecassis (DreamIt Ventures), Jordan Bettman (Bain Capital), Eliot Durbin (BOLDstart Ventures) and Mark Lodish (Solon Mack). Demos by MyBillRegistry, LienLog, Minteye, Merocrat, Epion Health, Threadmatcher, Standbuy and Handybook.
Tuesday (Feb. 5), 6:30 p.m. @ NYU Stern, 44 W. 4th Street, KMC 1-70

The Japan Society Presents: How to Create Your Own Humanoid
With Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro (director, Intelligent Robotics Lab at Osaka University), Erico Guizzo (senior editor, IEEE Spectrum) and Heather McKnight (founder, Marilyn Monrobot).
Tuesday (Feb. 5), 6:30 p.m. @ Japan Society, 333 E. 47th Street

February NY Tech Meetup
You know the drill. Five-minute demos. A bunch of amazing new startups. Now hopefully you've snagged one of those elusive tickets!
Tuesday (Feb. 5), 7 p.m. @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts, 566 Laguardia Place

From Wall Street to Silicon Alley
With Charles Birnbaum (Foursquare), James Moran (Yipit), James Queen (Spotify) and Nihar Singhal (SeatGeek).
Tuesday (Feb. 5), 8 p.m. @ General Assembly East, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.

Business Insider Presents: Social Commerce Summit
Rockstar list of speakers including John Caplan (OpenSky), Ben Fischman (Rue La La), Chris Fralic (First Round Capital), Michelle Lam (True&Co), Doug Mack (One Kings Lane), Chris Bolte (WalmartLabs) and others.
Wednesday (Feb. 6), 8 a.m. @ Pier 60, 23rd Street and 11th Avenue

Canadian Technology Accelerator Demo Night
Demos by I Think Security, Organimi, Ooka Island, Picatic, Sweet IQ and Wedding Republic.
Wednesday (Feb. 6), 6 p.m. @ AppNexus, 28 W. 23rd Street, 4th Fl.

Startup Singles Pre-Valentines Day Happy Hour
Is your Valentine this year your startup team members? That might be good for your startup, but not for your social life!
Wednesday (Feb. 6), 6 p.m. @ Tom & Jerry, 288 Elizabeth Street

Projective Space Demo Night
Demos by Topi, Gander, Get Maid, Martini, Offmap, SeedInvest, DataNitro and Wun Wun.
Wednesday (Feb. 6), 6:30 p.m. @ Projective Space L.E.S., 72 Allen Street, 3rd Fl.

Wearable Computing Meetup
With Eric Migicovsky (creator of the $10M Kickstarter-funded Pebble Smart Watch)
Wednesday (Feb. 6), 7 p.m. @ Pivotal Labs, 841 Broadway, 8th Fl.

PandoMonthly Presents
With Josh Kopelman (founder & managing director, First Round Capital)
Thursday (Feb. 7), 6 p.m. @ Projective Space L.E.S., 72 Allen Street, 3rd Fl.

Startup Funeral
All proceeds will go to HackNY, supporting the next generation of hackers.
Friday (Feb. 8), 8 p.m. @ New Work City Funeral Home, 412 Broadway, 2nd Fl.

Hearst Fashion Hackathon 2013
Prizes include access to exclusive VIP Fashion Week shows & events, use of your hack in NYFW events, mentorship from Hearst Corporation and $10k+ in cash prizes!
Saturday (Feb. 9), 9 a.m. @ Hearst, 300 W. 57th Street, 3rd Fl.

Science and the City
A hackfest dedicated to Citizen Science for Cities. Examples range from tracking your trash, studying the bacteria in your wallet, building social networks for cyclists or preparing for the next hurricane.
Saturday (Feb. 9), 9 a.m. @ NYU ITP Tisch School of Arts, 721 Broadway

Tech@NYU DemoDays
Hosting students from around the city to demo off cool projects they have been working on. Followed by a short talk from Greg Leppert (cofounder, Svpply).
Saturday (Feb. 9), 5 p.m. @ eBay NYC, 625 6th Avenue, 3rd Fl.

More events on the horizon...
Cocktails & Conversation with Joanne Wilson & Rohini Dey on Feb. 12 @ Vermilion
February 2013 NY Enterprise Technology Meetup on Feb. 12 @ Cooley
Mobile + Commerce Demo Night on Feb. 13 @ AOL Ventures
February Growth Hacker Meetup (with Cezary Pietrzak from Appboy) on Feb 13. @ NYU Stern School of Business
Electric Locomotive (with Dane Atkinson, CEO of SumAll) on Feb. 13 @ The Kraine Theater
One Of A Kind Party: Open Bar / Clothes Donation by StartupThreads, Amicus, AlleyNYC & Coalition for Queens on Feb. 13 @ 1OAK
Columbia Business School PE/VC Conference on Feb. 15 @ Alfred Lerner Hall at Columbia University
HackInteractive on Feb. 16 @ General Assembly
Social Media Week NY 2013 on Feb. 18 @ Metropolitan Pavilion
NYTECH Presents: Killer Strategies from the Worlds Greatest Innovators on Feb. 19 @ Morgan Stanley
Funding the Best in Global Innovation II on Feb. 20 @ SNR Denton
AIPAC Technology Division: Launch Event w/Dan Senor on Feb. 27 @ Bloomberg Tower

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