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.

Mayor Bloomberg and the NYCEDC recently launched a prototyping competition, where six lucky winning teams will get an opportunity to prototype new products while receiving studio space from sponsor NYDesigns and mentorship from industry leaders Shapeways, Adafruit Industries, and Honeybee Robotics. Alison Hodgson and Miquela Craytor from the NYCEDC will be at the Hardware Startup Meetup today to explain the competition and take any questions.

The Worldwide Investor Network (WIN) is organizing a two-day conference this Tuesday (November 13-14), bringing together ten tech startups from around the world intimately engaging and pitching to the New York venture community. Speakers include David Teten (ff Ventures), Habib Kairouz (Rho Capital), Ed Sim (BOLDstart Ventures) and Kirill Sheynkman (RTP Ventures). Students can get 50 percent off using the discount code "innovation." And if you're a CEO/VC interesting in participating and sharing best practices, email my friend Eyal Bino at eyal@worldwidein.com.

The Partnership for New York City Fund and Accenture have announced a search for top fintech innovators who will work with global financial institutions to bring their ideas to market. Winning companies will be part of the FinTech Innovation Lab, a 12-week program that helps early and growth-stage fintech innovators accelerate product development and gain exposure to top-level financial industry executives. Applications are due by December 19.

New York City recently announced the H.E.L.M. (Hire Expand in Lower Manhattan) contest, its latest initiative to bring more startups into Manhattan’s growing tech scene, which promises up to $1.2 million in funds to startups looking to reside in Lower Manhattan. Applications are due by noon on November 30. And there'll be an event this Thursday where you can mingle with the judges including Reddit's Alexis Ohanian, restauranteur Danny Meyer 'n others.

This Saturday is AngelHack (which is putting together one of the biggest hackathons ever) and they will be donating 100 percent of the proceeds from here out to Sandy relief efforts.

Heard of 37 Angels? They're a community of women investors committed to funding early-stage startups. This Thursday they're organizing a pitch event at NYU with five to eight cross-sector pitches.

Next week, Ray Kurzweil, the bold futurist and author of the bestseller The Singularity Is Near, will explore the limitless potential of reverse-engineering the human brain to create more intelligent machines. You can't miss that!

If you're a startup, don't forget to check out the "Who Would You Fund" TechStartup Challenge 2012, which I'll be judging. It's a contest to find the best startup pitch videos out there. Add your startup promotion video and you just might win the opportunity to make a live pitch to the ARC Angel Round Capital Fund! Deadline is today (Monday) 11:59pm.

Going slightly off-topic... growing up I was always a huge fan of the James Bond movies (no wonder I'm always dressed to kill). This year is Bond's fiftieth anniversary and the latest flick, Skyfall, is seriously awesome. Go see it!

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

Uncubed NYC (Scout and Scale)
NYC's biggest startup hiring event.
Monday (Nov. 12), 12:30 p.m. @ Altman Building, 135 W. 18th Street

NJ Tech Meetup 30
Feature speaker is Brian Cohen (Chairman, NY Angels and first investor in Pinterest)
Monday (Nov. 12), 6:30 p.m. @ Howe Center, Stevens Institute of Technology, 4th Fl., Hoboken

New York City Pinterest Meetup #6
Panelists include Jenny Layne Cardon (Gogobot), Diego Saez-Gil (WeHostels) and Ava Fedorov (Beyond NYC).
Monday (Nov. 12), 7 p.m. @ WeWork Lounge, 154 Grand Street, Ground Floor

Funding The Best In Global Innovation
A two-day event bringing together a global ecosystem, developed to close the gap between U.S. investors and top investment opportunities overseas.
Tuesday (Nov. 13), 8:30 a.m. @ SNR Denton, 1221 6th Avenue

Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA) Happy Hour
Meet some ERA1, ERA2 and ERA3 companies, mentors and learn more about ERA's Winter 2013 program.
Tuesday (Nov. 13), 6 p.m. @ WeWork Labs, 175 Varick Street, 4th Fl.

NY Enterprise Technology Meetup & Afterparty
Demos by Badgeville, Namely, Vaultive and eZ Systems.
Tuesday (Nov. 13), 6:30 p.m. @ Cooley, 1114 Avenue of the Americas, 46th Fl.

November 2012 NY Tech Meetup
You know the drill by now. Five-minute, rapid-fire demos. A bunch of amazing new startups. Now hopefully, you've managed to snag one of those elusive tickets.
Tuesday (Nov. 13), 7 p.m. @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts, 566 Laguardia Place

Women 2.0 PITCH NYC 2012 Conference & Competition
Learn from successful women entrepreneurs who started Cisco, Match, Meebo, DailyWorth and more with networking + mentoring.
Wednesday (Nov. 14), 8 a.m. @ Manhattan Center, 311 W. 34th Street

The Inside Story of Election 2012: Fast Politics and Faster Media Meet a Rapidly Changing Electorate
With Peter Hamby (CNN), Ben Smith (BuzzFeed), Molly Ball (The Atlantic), Sayu Bhojwani (The New American Leaders Project) and David Catanese (Politico).
Wednesday (Nov. 14), 8:30 a.m. @ The New School, Theresa Lang Community Center, 55 W. 13th Street, 2nd Fl.

NY Business Expo 2012 (in Association with NYEBN)
With Jeff Bussgang (Flybridge Capital), John Frankel (ff Ventures), Peter Shankman (HARO), Dan Porter (OMGPOP/Zynga) and others.
Wednesday (Nov. 14), 12 p.m. @ The 69th Regiment Armory, 68 Lexington Avenue

Investor Feedback Forum - Future Energy
Panelists include Andrew Garman (New Venture Partners), Arrun Kapoor (SJF Ventures), Jim LoGerfo (Earthrise Capital) and Willem Rensink (Shell). Startup pitches by Lucidity Lights, Kohilo Wind, ReNew, ThermoLift, Solstice Power, KiteFarms, Re-Nuble and Algepower.
Wednesday (Nov. 14), 6:30 p.m. @ NYU, W. 4th Street

The Brooklyn Startup Scene: Brooklyn Coworking Spaces & Their Entrepreneurs
Presenting spaces include Bat Haus CoWorking (Bushwick), Dumbo Startup Lab (Dumbo), The Yard (Williamsburg) and The Secret Clubhouse (Williamsburg).
Wednesday (Nov. 14), 6:30 p.m. @ Dumbo Startup Lab, 68 Jay Street, #718, Brooklyn

NY Video Nov 15 2012 Meetup
Demos by CrowdSurf tv, Rawporter, Liveu, Shelby tv and Pond 5.
Thursday (Nov. 15), 6:30 p.m. @ AOL HQ, 770 Broadway, 6th Fl.

Appular Presents A F#@K Sandy Event- Geeks Give Back
Don’t take anymore of Hurricane Sandy’s $h!t, grab some shots instead! Show the world how real New Yorkers face Mother Nature’s wrath by joining us for some downtown cocktails, geeky gossip, and cheeky NYC charity.
Thursday (Nov. 15), 7 p.m. @ White Rabbit, 145 E. Houston Street, New York

7th Annual Ivy Sports Symposium
With Bob Bowman (CEO, MLB Advanced Media), Rick Cordella (NBC Universal), Will Dean (CEO, Tough Mudder), Tracy Dolgin (CEO, YES Network), Billy King (General Manager, Brooklyn Nets) and others.
Friday (Nov. 16), 8 a.m. @ Alfred Lerner Hall, Columbia University, 2920 Broadway

Sustainability Hackathon - hosted by BMW i Born Electric Tour NYC
Help create a more sustainable future.
Friday (Nov. 16), 7 p.m. @ BMW i Born Electric Tour in NYC, 1095 6th Avenue

AngelHack Fall 2012 New York City
Join 2,500 hackers this fall for the HACKathon of hackathons! $500,000 in hosting and over $50,000 in Sponsor Prizes!
Saturday (Nov. 17), 9 a.m. @ The AlleyNYC, 500 7th Avenue

More events on the horizon...
Future of Fashion Startup Series on Nov 19 @ Projective Space - L.E.S.
Ray Kurzweil: Engineering The Brain on Nov 20 @ Kaufmann Concert Hall
Business Insider: Ignition - Future Of Digital on Nov 27 @ Time Warner Center, 10 on the Park
MakeIt NYC: Secrets of Kickstarter Panel on Nov 27 @ University Settlement - Speyer Hall
NYTECH Fall Networking Cocktail Reception on Nov 29 @ National Showroom
tilt@vc: ff Venture Capital on Nov 29 @ ff Venture Capital
Mashable Media Summit 2012 on Nov 30 @ The TimesCenter
Vator Splash NY 2012 on Dec 05 @ Le Poisson Rouge
FashInvest 2012 Capital Conference on Dec 11 @ Fashion Institute of Technology

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

Yes, please. (Image courtesy of Gojee)

Hungry? The good folks at Gojee are launching a new mobile app, designed to replicate the aesthetic experience of the slick recipe site. It's now available for download on Android, iPad and iPhone; if you're a cautious downloader, check this demo first. The site now boasts more than 500,000 members and was a finalist for a 2012 Crunchie Award in Design--alongside Path and Pinterest.

Bro Down We're not sure what we could add to make this more perfect: Thrillist has hired Gene Newman, Maxim's digital editorial director, to serve as general manager, overseeing all web and mobile content. Let's hope the lad mags are paying attention, lest Thrillist drink their milkshake on the sly. 

Material Girl We first introduced you to Material Wrld--a fashion-forward online marketplace that aims to provide a non-hideous alternative to Ebay, back in March. After testing their concept with online pop-up stores in the spring, the founders have finally launched a beta version of the site. The announcement promises that "Material Wrld fills the gap between content discovery sites and online marketplaces." All sellers will be "screened and curated," meaning the wares look like this lovely dress, rather than this affront to good taste.

Heavenly Creatures Speaking of staffing up: We hear that AngelHack is looking for a (paid!) New York City organizer to TCB locally. The next hackathon takes place November 17 - 18; hit them up if you've got a taste for the role of impresario.

Watching the Watchers DailyMotion has introduced two brand-new ways to see the site: Mosaic mode, which you might recognize as basically Pinterest; and Feed mode, which--no great surprise, considering that name--looks more like the Facebook newsfeed. Perhaps best of all for all the commercial-haters out there (i.e., most of us), for now, during the beta stage, neither format will include pre-roll advertising. Not that we've got anything against adorable ads for Velveeta before our Nicki Minaj vids or anything.

Back to School Yesterday New York-based ecommerce company Quincy Apparel--which aims to offer customizable clothes at off-the-rack prices--debuted its first full collection, as well as a complete redesign of the website. Fortunately for our wallets, the company missed payday.

Get Schooled Timed to the thematically appropriate holiday of Labor Day, the Young Entrepreneur's Council debuted #StartupLab, which is described as "a free virtual mentorship program that will deploy America's top young startup founders to help retool and train the current workforce into a more entrepreneurial one." Featured mentors for the year include Rent the Runway's Jennifer Fleiss and Indiegogo's Slava Rubin. It's probably not time for the presidential candidates to quit worrying about their job programs, though.

Fashionable Streaming IMG Fashion has teamed up with Rightster and YouTube to offer live-stream and video on demand content from Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York. The partnership allows press to access and easily embed videos directly from one streamlined site.

Chillin' at AngelHack's spring hackathon. (Photo: flickr.com/angelhack2012

The latest entrant to New York's burgeoning roster of hackathons: AngelHack, which starts June 23. And the organizers have already wrangled quite a lineup of locals. Alex Taub and Michael Schonfeld from Dwolla will be running the event, with an assist from Erin Tao (Photo Hack Day), Frank Denbow (of Startup Weekend), and Angelhack's own Nick Frost. Rachel Sklar will MC. Judges include Lerer Ventures principal Steve Schlafman; NYC Seed director Owen Davis; and Thrive Capital investor Chris Paik.* Hackathon HQ will be Microsoft's midtown outpost.

As for the attendees, they've sold around 480 tickets, and, with some attrition expected, that puts the expected number of attendees around 300. "Our tickets aren't free, either -- we do have some free tickets, but the majority of those are paid. So we're pretty excited to see the turnout and what we can do in that space," Mr. Gopman said.

The breakdown among signups thus far is 70 percent developer, 15 percent business, 10 percent designer, and 5 percent user experience.

Nor do the festivities end there, because the New York hackathon is merely the first leg of a nationwide competition. Parallel events will also be happening in Seattle, Boston, and San Francisco. Local judges will choose the top seven or eight teams, who'll then get three weeks to refine their projects.

"We'll partner them with some mentors and some friends that we have that can help them basically do some user experience and product design and make their idea a more scalable idea," Mr. Gopman told us.

AngelHack will then fly winners to San Francisco, where 20 to 25 teams from around the country will compete in a final event on July 12. Judges include TechCrunch writers, Google Ventures partner Wesley Chan, and head of Facebook mobile developer relations James Pearce. Rewards await the most impressive teams: First and second place will receive $25,ooo in seed capital, as well as $60,000 in free Azure hosting (courtesy of sponsor Microsoft, which just kicked in two Bizspark Plus accounts as a grand prize). The event prize pool is up to $230,000, Mr. Gopman tells us.

Mr. Gopman is extremely confident about his event's prospects. "I think we're going to have the best hackathon to ever take place in New York," he told Betabeat.  "The numbers are up there, the people running it are up there, the prizes are up there, the judges are pretty solid."

New York, that sure sounds like a challenge.

*Disclosure.