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.

Happy Community Manager Appreciation Day to all ye community managers out there! You guys 'n gals are on the front lines engaging with customers every day, putting out fires, making your customers smile, fostering conversation. Community is important and you guys are making it happen. Stay awesome! :) To celebrate, bitly is organizing a breakfast this Friday and later this month is the Community Manager UNconference.

My buddy Eyal and the good folks at WIN are organizing a must-attend conference later this month on February 21: Funding the Best in Global Innovation. There'll be a rockstar lineup of speakers including David Pakman (Venrock), Brian Cohen (NY Angels), Kirill Sheynkman (RTP Ventures), John Frankel (ff Ventures), David Kidder (Clickable), Esther Dyson (angel investor) and more. GarysGuide readers get a special 30 percent off, using the code "ecosystem." WIN, for the record, is on a mission to create a top-notch global ecosystem connecting the New York venture community with leading international tech startups.

The Lawrence Field Center for Entrepreneurship at Baruch College, the CUNY Institute for Virtual Enterprise (IVE) and IBM are hosting the inaugural SmartPitch Challenge to celebrate New York City as a center for innovation and new business development. Nice! The challenge kicks-off this Friday on February 1, and it's open to current students at New York colleges and universities.

Don't forget, the much-anticipated Lemonade Heroes Yacht Party is this Wednesday. The attendee list is shaping up to be pretty amazing, and of course I'll be there rocking the red carpet in my red tie ;-) Hope to see y'all there. (FYI, the boat will be docked. So, tempting as it sounds to take her out to sea and head for the Caribbean, it's prolly not gonna happen.)

Random Nugget: "Innovation is hard because 'solving problems people didn't know they had' and 'building something no one needs' look identical at first." - Aaron Levie (founder and CEO, Box).

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

MIT Clean Energy Prize NYC Kickoff
The world's premier student competition for early-stage clean tech ventures, with over $300K in prizes.
Monday (Jan. 28), 6 p.m. @ Morrison & Foerster, 1290 Avenue of the Americas

Data Privacy & Protection Day Town Hall & Breakfast
With Deborah Marrone (FTC), Milan Patel (Special Agent, FBI), Clark Russell (Asst. Attorney General, Internet Bureau, New York), Craig Spiezle (Exec. Director, Online Trust Alliance) and others.
Tuesday (Jan. 29), 8 a.m. @ Baruch College - William and Anita Newman Conference Center, 151 E. 25th Street, 7th Fl.

Mobile Payments Roundtable
With Jay Bhattacharya (Zipmark), Alex Taub (Dwolla), Yitz Mendlowitz (Paay), Jeff McGregor (Dash), Micah Bergdale (Bytemark), David Olk (ShopKeep), Neil Platt (Fiserv), Jim Schinella (Manilla) and others.
Tuesday (Jan. 29), 8:30 a.m. @ Frankfurt Kurnit, 488 Madison Avenue

Brooklyn Tech Meetup
With Victoria Brown (CEO, BigThink), GetGlue and Behance.
Tuesday (Jan. 29), 7 p.m. @ Feil Hall at Brooklyn Law School, 205 State Street, 22nd Fl., Brooklyn

Fashion+TechNY Meetup with AngelHack & Hearst Media
With Liza Kindred (Third Wave Fashion), David Goldberg (FreshNeck), Jill Sherman (Modalyst), Melissa Fudor (inSparq), Michael Rosom (Eye On Response), Sabine Seymour (Moondial) and Vale Kerbage (Leechee NY).
Tuesday (Jan. 29), 7 p.m. @ Hearst Interactive Media, 300 West 57th Street

Lemonade Heroes Yacht Party featuring a chance to Audition for a TV Series!
A night of dancing, mixing & mingling. On a yacht. With a chance to audition for an entrepreneurship TV series!
Wednesday (Jan. 30), 6 p.m. @ Hornblower Inifinity, 353 West Street, Pier 40

Entrepreneurship in the Beer Industry
With Chris Gallant (GM and cofounder, Bronx Brewery), Justin Philips (owner and operator, Beer Table) and Jordan Elpern-Waxman (founder, Craft Beer Co).
Wednesday (Jan. 30), 7 p.m. @ Professor Thoms, 219 2nd Avenue

DreamIt Health Road Show (NYC)
Meet the managing directors of DreamIt Health, network with other healthtech entrepreneurs and get your questions answered about their inaugural accelerator program.
Wednesday (Jan. 30), 7 p.m. @ General Assembly West, 10 E. 21st Street

Start-Up City: If You Can Make it Here ... Part 1: Getting Into the Game
With Rachel Haot (Chief Digital Officer, Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment), Mo Koyfman (Spark Capital), Clifford Schorer (EIR, Columbia Business School), David Rose (Gust), Rob Fassino (XO Group) and moderated by Bianca Bosker (senior tech editor, Huffington Post).
Thursday (Jan. 31), 6 p.m. @ Long Island University (Brooklyn Campus), 1 University Plaza, Brooklyn

Digital Dumbo dd:SOCIAL 4 Year Anniversary
Thursday (Jan. 31), 6:30 p.m. @ The DUMBO Loft, 155 Water Street, Brooklyn

Start-Up City: If You Can Make it Here ... Part 2: Tales from the Alley
With Ben McKean (founder and CEO, Savored), Vinicius Vacanti (cofounder and CEO, Yipit), Kathryn Minshew (founder and CEO, The Daily Muse), Kellee Khalil (founder, Lover.ly), Hursh Agrawal (cofounder, Branch) and moderated by Caroline McCarthy (business marketing manager, Google).
Thursday (Jan. 31), 7:30 p.m. @ Long Island University (Brooklyn Campus), 1 University Plaza, Brooklyn

Decoded Fashion Hackathon
Saturday (Feb. 2), 10 a.m. @ The Alley, 500 7th Avenue, 17th 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

More events on the horizon...
February 2013 NY Tech Meetup on Feb. 5 @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts
Business Insider Presents: Social Commerce Summit on Feb. 6 @ Pier 60
Critical New UX Design Optimization Research on Feb. 6 @ Anchin
Startup Singles Pre-Valentines Day Happy Hour on Feb. 6 @ Tom & Jerry
Advanced LinkedIn Marketing: Beyond the Request to Connect on Feb. 7 @ Infor
Hearst Fashion Hackathon 2013 on Feb. 9 @ Hearst
Tech@NYU DemoDays on Feb. 9 @ eBay NYC
February 2013 NY Enterprise Technology Meetup on Feb. 12 @ Cooley
Investor Feedback Forum on Feb. 14 @ Microsoft
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
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! ;)

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.

A couple of months ago, while attending the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to chat with a ton of upcoming startups, and I noticed a surprisingly higher-than-usual number of enterprise-focused companies. Yesterday Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson wrote an interesting post highlighting how the consumer web might be entering a stage of maturation as the action shifts from the desktop to mobile, where it's becoming increasingly harder to reach scale. 500 Startups' Dave McClure has an excellent rebuttal post on the topic.

Another one of my favorite tech bloggers Y Combinator's Paul Graham wrote a terrific must-read essay last week on startup ideas. Quoting PG: "The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It's to look for problems, preferably problems you have yourself" and "Live in the future and build what seems interesting."

In other cool news, City24/7 is turning a bunch of pay-phones across the city into touchscreen smartscreen kiosks. This is the first experiment of its kind in the country, and they'll be rolling out 250 of these in a pilot project. Down in Nolita, 3D printer startup MakerBot just opened their first MakerBot Store at 298 Mulberry where you'll be able to get your hands on the printers, filaments, pre-made items 'n more. Nice!

ERA Accelerator's Winter 2013 application deadline is this Friday (November 30).

Don't miss TechDrinkup this Thursday, where folks from Bravo will be in the house doing an open casting call for the NYC edition of their show Startups. That's right. Reality TV stardom is within your grasp!

Also a couple of Sandy fundraisers / benefits this week: Goodnik and New Work City are hosting the 'Mustache-Sandy' event on Friday, and then there is the #NYTechResponds hackathon benefit on Saturday. And coming up next week are TEDxSiliconAlley: Rise of the Machines with guest Ray Kurzweil on December 3 and the AlleyNYC Holiday Party on December 6.

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

Business Insider: Ignition - Future Of Digital
With Dr. Mehmet Oz (The Dr. Oz Show), Jill Abramson (The New York Times), Jeffrey Bewkes (Time Warner), Don Graham (The Washington Post Company), Jeff Weiner (LinkedIn), Bradley Horowitz (Google) and more.
Tuesday (Nov. 27), 9 a.m. @ Time Warner Center, 10 on the Park, 60 W. 60th Street

Media Preview 2013
Panelists include Saul Hansell (Founder, Sii and former New York Times tech correspondent), Reed Phillips (media investment banker, DeSilva + Phillips), Emily Steele (media and advertising correspondent, Financial Times) and Lee Stimmel (head of creative agency, Columbia Records).
Tuesday (Nov. 27), 6 p.m. @ Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, 488 Madison Avenue

NYC Gaming November: Demo Night
Demos by Joshua DeBonis (Meriwether), Scott Rapp (Instreamia), Greg Irwin (BigTwist), Eric Schwertzel (Garfield's Collectibles), John Nguyen (Super Bunny Breakout) and Ien Cheng (Grasshopper).
Tuesday (Nov. 27), 6:30 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 Avenue of the Americas

MakeIt NYC: Secrets of Kickstarter Panel
With CW&T (creators of the Pen Type-A), Bitbanger Labs (creators of Remee, the REM-enhancing lucid dreaming mask), Hickies, Josh & Eric (creators of the Mason Shaker) and Yury & Joel (creators of the Pulse Sensor).
Tuesday (Nov. 27), 7 p.m. @ University Settlement - Speyer Hall, 184 Eldridge Street

Ultra Light / NY Angels Novemberfest Showcase
A startup showcase and free beer provided by local beer entrepreneurs such as Kelso, Bronx, Rockaway, Harlem and Brooklyn Brewery.
Wednesday (Nov. 28), 6 p.m. @ Alley NYC, 500 7th Ave, 17th Fl.

NYU Founders Showcase
Three startups from the NYU-Poly incubators and three student startups will pitch. Judges include Peter Flint (general partner, Polaris Ventures) and Jorge Torres (VP, Silas Capital).
Wednesday (Nov. 28), 6 p.m. @ Varick Street Incubator , 137 Varick Street , 2nd Fl.

Ad Age & Food Network Present: Brand Hacks
Hacking the food category. Six finalists pitch their concepts and the grand prize winner is revealed.
Wednesday (Nov. 28), 6 p.m. @ The Darby, 244 W 14th Street

Dwolla + Derby Jackpot Party!
Bet on horses. Booze on alcohol.
Wednesday (Nov. 28), 7 p.m. @ Tavern on Third, 380 3rd Avenue

Is Curation an Art or a Science?
A discussion with Techmeme's Gabe Rivera.
Wednesday (Nov. 28), 7 p.m. @ Outbrain HQ, 39 W. 13th Street, 3rd Fl.

MITEF: Investing in Aerospace Entrepreneurship: Air Traffic Management, Unmanned Systems
Stuart A. Auerbach (Ampersand Capital Partners), Mark Cherry (Aurora Flight Sciences), Courtney Graham (NASA), Adam Harris (SpaceX), Don Thoma (Aireon) and Laurence Vigeant-Langlois (Sikorsky Innovations).
Thursday (Nov. 29), 5:30 p.m. @ Holland & Knight, 31 W. 52nd Street

Digital Cocktails: The Investment Landscape-Seeds, Angels and Incubators

Panelists include Phin Barnes (First Round Capital), Tony Bacigalupo (New Work City), Gordon Crovitz (Former Publisher, Wall Street Journal), Micah Kotch (NYC Accelerator for a Clean and Renewable Economy) and Jeffrey Silverman (Laconia Ventures).
Thursday (Nov. 29), 6 p.m. @ The Wix Lounge, 10 W. 18th Street

#techdrinkup - NY Tech Holiday Party
A party for NYC's brightest and savviest people in tech. Oh, and folks from Bravo will be in the house, doing an open casting call for the NYC edition of their show Startups. Yup.
Thursday (Nov. 29), 7 p.m. @ Ava Lounge @ Dream Hotel, 210 W. 55th Street.

Mashable Media Summit 2012
With David Carey (president, Hearst Magazines), Alexis Ohanian (cofounder, Reddit), Kay Matadi (head of entertainment & media, Facebook), Jason Seikin (SVP, PBS Interactive), Bonita Stewart (VP partner business solutions, Google), Raman Kia (exec director digital strategy, Condé Nast) and others.
Friday (Nov. 30), 9 a.m. @ The TimesCenter, 242 W. 41st Street

GIVE GOOD Market
Organized by the New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE). The goal of the market is to provide a highly-curated event that promotes successful women-owned businesses that produce supremely crafted sustainable fashion and goods this holiday season.
Friday (Nov. 30), 11 a.m. @ Starrett Lehigh Building, 601 W. 26th Street

Goodnik & New Work City Movember / Sandy Relief Fundraiser
Raising money for Movember and Sandy Relief Efforts. This 'Mustache-Sandy' event will include beer & wine, a shaving station, photobooth, faux mustaches for anyone who didn't grow one and maybe even a Burt Reynolds movie.
Friday (Nov. 30), 7 p.m. @ New Work City, 412 Broadway, 2nd Fl.

Sanitation Hackathon NYC
In partnership with the World Bank's Water Practice and ICT units, mobilizing an unprecedented level of collaboration from sanitation & water experts, designers, software developers, engineers, health professionals & students to develop breakthrough innovations for improving access to sanitation for the world's poor.
Friday (Nov. 30), 7 p.m. @ Alley NYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

More events on the horizon...
TEDxSiliconAlley 2012 on Dec. 3 @ Terminal 5
Founders@Fail: The Dos & Donts of Pitching Ad Agencies on Dec. 3 @ General Assembly
December 2012 NY Tech Meetup on Dec. 4 @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts
Vator Splash NY 2012 on Dec. 5 @ Le Poisson Rouge
Designers + Geeks on Dec. 6 @ General Assembly
Celebrate the Arts with AlleyNYC (Holiday Party!) on Dec. 6 @ AlleyNYC
FashInvest 2012 Capital Conference on Dec. 11 @ Fashion Institute of Technology
Ultra Light Startups: Investor Feedback Forum on Dec. 13 @ Microsoft

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 you all probably know about the High Line. But have you heard about the LowLine? Cofounders Dan Barasch and James Ramsey are aiming to convert an abandoned trolley terminal beneath Delancey Street into an extraordinary subterranean public park. That's right--it's an economic revitalization opportunity.

But it's more than that. It also represents cutting-edge design and a new generation of green technology and  lies at the heart of a broader global discussion about the potential of remnant urban infrastructure and the need for cities to reinvent the meaning of space--above and below ground.

So go check it out, get involved and if you're living it up in the Hamptons these days, make it out to their Cocktail Fundraiser at Water Mill on August 4, organized by Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital and others.

Don't forget to sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom, either--that is, if you haven't already done so. It's being signed by all of us folks who believe that a free and open Internet can bring about a better world!

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

BarTech: Retro Computer Show & Mixer!
Where else will you be able to play with the first "portable" (or luggable, anyway) computer, the PONG home gaming system and floppy disks that are bigger than your head!
Monday (July 23), 6 p.m. @ Alley NYC, 500 Seventh Avenue, 17th Floor

MakeIt NYC July Maker Show-And-Tell
Featured guest are Bitbanger Labs, the creators of Remee, a user-programmable lucid dreaming mask. Yes, you heard me right.
Tuesday (July 24), 7 p.m. @ Houston Street Center, 273 Bowery

Google NYC Tech Talks: The Distributed Camera: Modeling the World from Online Photos with Noah Snavely
We live in a world of ubiquitous imagery. The number of images at our fingertips is growing at a seemingly exponential rate. Taken together, these billions and billions of images can be thought of as constituting a distributed camera. Want to learn more?
Wednesday (July 25), 5:30 p.m. @ Google NYC, 111 8th Avenue

Fashion 2.0: The Future of Digital Publishing
With Simone Oliver (Fashion Editor, New York Times), Melanie Schnuriger (GM, fashion & beauty digital media, Hearst Magazines), Matt Edelman (CEO, Glossi.com) and Jake Levine (GM, Digg).
Wednesday (July 25), 6 p.m. @ Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue

DreamIt NYC Tech Olympics sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank
Competitions will include: ping-pong, foosball, soccer shootout, air races and rock paper scissors. Prizes and medals will be awarded! There will be plenty of beer, snacks, fine conversation, and very little bloodshed.
Wednesday (July 25), 6:30 p.m. @ DreamIt Ventures NYC, 330 W. 38th Street, Suite 300

SMASH Summit with 500 Startups, Fred Wilson, & More
Learn how to hack and dominate customer acquisition. Covering new “hack-tics” & strategies for Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and more.
Thursday (July 26), 9:30 a.m. @ Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1605 Broadway

Social Retail Summit Summer 2012
With Ashley Heather (cofounder & CEO, Dotbox), David Goldberg (president, StyleCaster), Fatma Yalcin (cofounder & CEO, Curisma), David Fudge (director of consumer engagement, Bonobos), Mark Curtis (founder, Enter:New Media). Moderated by Liza Kindred (Third Wave Fashion).
Thursday (July 26), 3 p.m. @ The Dumbo Spot, 160 Water Street, Brooklyn

Digital DUMBO July
A celebration of the city's innovation spaces.
Thursday (July 26), 6:30 p.m. @ Dumbo Loft, 155 Water Street, Brooklyn

Queens Tech Meetup 2
With Skillshare, OKFocus, Aereo and Brooklyn Bridge Ventures.
Thursday (July 26), 7 p.m. @ Hunter's Point Plaza, 47-40 21st Street, 10th Floor, Long Island City

Inside Startups Club, Featuring Fitocracy, Sonar, and Vimbly
Featuring speakers Richard Talens (cofounder & CTO, Fitocracy), Jared Cocken (chief product officer, Fitocracy), Brett Martin (founder & CEO, Sonar), and Sam Lundin (founder & CEO, Vimbly).
Thursday (July 26), 7 p.m. @ OMGPOP / Zynga NY Office, 166 Crosby Street, 11th Floor

More events on the horizon...
CrowdFunding Conference on Jul 30 @ NY Hilton
Inside BizDev: How Ad Agencies Can Make Big Brands Love You on Jul 30 @ General Assembly
UWS Startup Breakfast on Jul 31 @ Aroma Espresso Bar
Social Curation Summit on Jul 31 @ New Yorker Hotel
August NY FinTech Startups Meetup feat. Second Market on Aug 01 @ Day Pitney Law Offices
eCommerce Hack Day 2012 on Aug 04 @ Alley NYC
Design for Manufacturing Summit on Sep 20 @ Dumbo Spot

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.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and a chance to catch your breath after all the craziness of the past few weeks!

In case you missed it, here are my highlights blog posts for Internet Week (nerd proms, rooftop parties, Will Arnett DJ’ing, Michael Stipe sightings) and The Webby Awards (Steve Jobs tribute, Richard Dreyfuss, Bjork, Patton Oswalt, cat memes).

The Annual User Experience Awards #UXAwards is coming up soon on June 12. It'll showcase great user experience in digital products and services. An all-star jury including Union Square Ventures, Google, AOL, Razorfish, Huffington Post, Creative Good, UPA and IXDA and followed by a cocktail reception. Get your tickets now.

And now let's see whats going down in the world of Silicon Alley tech this week...

Startup Roundtable 13 with David Rose
With David Rose, a serial entrepreneur (Gust) and active angel investor (NY Angels)
Tuesday (May 29), 6 p.m. @ NYU Stern Kaufman Management Center, 44 W 4th Street, Rm 2-60

Digital Media MBA May 12 Happy Hour
Boozing and schmoozing with other startuppers.
Tuesday (May 29), 6:30 p.m. @ Solas, 232 East Ninth Street

Aging2.0 May Meetup and Summer Cocktail Party
Speakers include Steve Dean (Partner, Prehype), Tal Ziv (Founder & CEO, Silver Living), Ryan Frederik (Principal, Point Forward Solutions) and Gil Blander (Founder, President, and Chief Scientific Officer, Segterra).
Wednesday (May 30), 6 p.m. @ The Hallmark Battery Park City, 455 North End Avenue

Entrepreneurs Roundtable 47
Guest speaker Lawrence D. Lenihan (Managing Director, First Mark Capital)
Wednesday (May 30), 6 p.m. @ NYU Stern Rm 2-60, 44 West 4th Street

NY Location-Based Apps Meetup: Demo Day III
Demos by Stamped (a new way to recommend only what you like best), GateGuru (revolutionizing how travelers experience their “day-of” travel), MyCityWay (a real time app designed to transform your hand held device into a mega-utility tool for navigating the urban scene) and RentHackr (helping find the best apartments before they hit the market).
Wednesday (May 30), 6:30 p.m. @ Meetup HQ, 166 Crosby Street, 9th Floor

Social Innovation Demo Night
Hosted by Alexis Ohanian (Co-Founder, Reddit). Demos by Amicus (Seth Bannon), Catchafire (Chris Maguire) and CauseCart (Michael Geer).
Wednesday (May 30), 7 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway, 4th Floor

Beyond the CPM Roundtable
Panelists include Larry Harris (Pubmatic), Todd Anderman (Jumptap), Mark Lehman (Todacell) and Tom Sipple (TapJoy).
Thursday (May 31), 8:30 a.m. @ Loeb & Loeb LLP, 345 Park Ave

Digital DUMBO - dd:IMPACT Conference
Panelists include Amy Cao (Foodspotting), Kasey Fleisher Hickey (Evernote), Alex Rein (Kelvin Natural Slush), Mike Lee (Studiofeast), Raquel Pelzel (Tasting Table), Mollie Chen (Birchbox), Jen Rubio (Warby Parker), Randy J. Hunt (Etsy), Jeremy Fisher (Wander), Alex Rainert (foursquare), Allan Yu (Svpply), Anthony Volodkin (Hype Machine) and others.
Thursday (May 31), 1 p.m. @ The Dumbo Loft, 155 Water Street, Brooklyn

Enterprise Insights: Advertising Innovation
Speakers include Albert Azout (CEO / Co-Founder, Sociocast), Aniq Rahman (President, Moat), Eric Porres (CMO, RocketFuel) and Nikhil Sethi (CEO & Co-Founder, Adaptly).
Thursday (May 31), 6 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, 6th Floor

NY Future Mobility Meetup
Bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, developers and mobility enthusiast for an evening of live demos, discussions and networking.
Thursday (May 31), 7 p.m. @ BMW i Ventures, 95 Morton Street

Women 2.0 Founder Friday – New York
Hang out with fellow women startup founders & entrepreneurs.
Friday (Jun 01), 6 p.m. @ Makovsky + Company, 16 East 34th Street

Friday Night Dinner: Tech Tech Tech BOOM
With Adam Hirsch (former COO Mashable and current Chief Digital Officer for DoSomething.org).
Friday (Jun 01), 7 p.m. @ 92Y Tribeca, 200 Hudson Street

More on the horizon...
Entrepreneurs! Protect & Secure Your Intellectual Property on Jun 05 @ Marks Paneth & Shron LLP
Venmo App Release Party on Jun 05 @ Hotel Chantelle
June NY FinTech Startups feat. Pay Perks and Bloomberg Ventures on Jun 06 @ Day Pitney
PDF:Applied: The Civil Society Hackathon on Jun 09 @ General Assembly
BarCamp NYC on Jun 09 @ Microsoft Offices
Personal Democracy Forum 2012 on Jun 11 @ NYU Skirball Center
Hack and Jill on Jun 15 @ AppNexus
Games for Change Festival on Jun 18 @ NYU Skirball Center
AngelHack Summer 2012: New York on Jun 23 @ Microsoft Offices

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 follow him at @garysguide and reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

Looks like it's going to be a pretty crazy week. A bunch of Creative Week events, the monthly mammoth NY Tech Meetup, a chance to gorge on tacos while downing tequilas, lots of hacking, a conversation with Fred Wilson (the #1 Internet VC despite what the Forbes Midas list might have us believe), not one but TWO tech karaokes and ... a tech picnic! What more could anyone ask for, right? And all this is actually leading up to even crazier stuff next week as Internet Week arrives. I guess we can call this the storm before the storm? :)

NYC Creative Week: One-on-One with Morgan Spurlock
An intimate conversation with the author and creator of Super Size Me, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and A Day In The Life Of.
Monday (May 07), 5 p.m. @ Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main Street, Brooklyn

#Rethink VC with Fred Wilson
With rockstar venture capitalist and blogger, Fred Wilson (Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures).
Tuesday (May 08), 8 a.m. @ Grind, 419 Park Ave S

NYC Creative Week: Future of Storytelling
With James Manos Jr. (Emmy-Award winning writer & producer of Dexter, The Shield, The Sopranos), Andy Breckman (Co-Creator, Exec Producer & writer of Monk) and Gerard Bocaccio (Producer, Professor at NYU Tisch School of Arts). Moderated by Sharad Devarajan (CoFounder & CEO, Liquid Comics).
Tuesday (May 08), 4 p.m. @ Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main Street, Brooklyn

Websdays Tequila & Taco Tuesday
Schmooze your way around a room full of the web's best and brightest.
Tuesday (May 08), 7 p.m. @ SideBar, 118 E 15th St

Bnchmrk
With Jon Steinberg (President, BuzzFeed), Rachel Sklar (Change The Ratio), Ian Schafer (Deep Focus), Cindy Gallop (If We Ran The World), Greg Galant (Shorty Awards) and others.
Wednesday (May 09), 7 a.m. @ Metropolitan pavilion, 125 West 18th Street

Startupalooza NJ
With Aaron Price (DFJ Gotham), Heather Gilchrist (Rak Tech Fund), Peter Kestenbaum (1099 Partners), Donna Usiskin (Edison Ventures), Tom Olenzak (Robin Hood Ventures), David Beatty (Golden Seeds) and more.
Wednesday (May 09), 1 p.m. @ New Jersey Institute of Technology, 150 Bleeker St, Newark

Best Practices: Secrets of the Serial Entrepreneur
With Fabrice Grinda (prolific angel investor and cofounder & CoCEO, OLX) and Dennis Mortensen (founder & CEO of Visual Revenue).
Wednesday (May 09), 6:30 p.m. @ The Stern School @ NYU, 44 West Fourth Street

May 2012 NY Tech Meetup
You know the drill: 5-minute, cutting-edge-tech demos. 850 fellow NY Tech peeps. 1 amazing event. Now if only I could get a TaskRabbit or Exec to snag me a ticket :)
Wednesday (May 09), 7 p.m. @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts, 566 Laguardia Place

Digital DUMBO - Creative Week Celebrates Brooklyn Hosted by Huge
Featuring drinks, music, a photobooth by Boothify and GE’s THROTTLE UP, an interactive hologram experience, live at 56 Water Street!
Wednesday (May 09), 7 p.m. @ St. Ann's Warehouse, 38 Water St, Brooklyn

New York Digital Health Accelerator (NYDHA)
NYDHA is a program run by the New York eHealth Collaborative and the NYC Investment Fund for early and growth stage digital health companies developing cutting-edge tech in care coordination, patient engagement, analytics and message alerts for healthcare providers.
Thursday (May 10), 5 p.m. @ The TimesCenter, 620 8th Avenue

Ultralight Startups: Investor Feedback Forum and Pitch Showdown
With Brian Cohen (NY Angels), Brad Harrison (Brad Harrison Ventures), Ben Siscovick (IA Ventures) and Laurel Touby (Mediabistro.com and startup investor/advisor). Pitches from Thomas Kincaid (Jauntlet), Sherry Lombardi (Hulafrog), Ryan Brogan (1xRUN), Vyacheslav Kaushan (Indulgy), Dan Vallejo (The Mutual), Beverly May (MiniDates), Samer Hamadeh (Zeel) and Rodrigo Fuentes (CallTrackingFox).
Thursday (May 10), 6:30 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 6th Ave, 6th Floor

New York Tech Karaoke Meetup
As always, happy hour til 8, free song with every drink purchase, $1 per song, free to attend event.
Thursday (May 10), 7 p.m. @ Karaoke Cave, 9 East 13th Street

NYC Tech Picnic - Beta
Come outside and enjoy the day with the NYC Tech Community. Bring food and a blanket to sit on.
Saturday (May 12), 11 a.m. @ Central Park, 65th St and East Drive

More on the horizon...
Internet Week New York 2012 on May 14 @ 82 Mercer
NYU ITP Spring Show! on May 14 @ NYU Tisch School of Arts
Founders@Fail: Jay Silverstein of Revolution Health on May 15 @ General Assembly
New York: Tech City A Breakfast Conversation with Seth Pinsky, Rachel Sterne, Daniel Huttenlocher and Craig Gotsman on May 16 @ Eventi
SponsorHub & BizBash Mixer on May 16 @ Merc Bar
NYC BigApps: Civic Hacking, Startup Success on May 17 @ The Space, Inc. at Chelsea Market

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

Esty's Dumbo office via Fred Wilson on Foursquare

At an industry breakfast yesterday, the commercial real estate brokers at Cushman & Wakefield announced that New York City has reached a tipping point: For the first time since 1999, the information and media sector (including technology) beat out financial services terms of office leasing.

In the first quarter of 2012, information and media accounted for 27.8 percent of office leasing by square footage, compared to the financial sector's 26.3 percent. "New York is not just a financial town anymore,” Cushman's managing director Ken McCarthy told the Real Deal.

You don't have to tell Dumbo. Yesterday, the Brooklyn Paper reported that commercial vacancy rates in the neighborhood are down to 2 percent, prompting city planners to try to make Downtown more appealing to Brooklyn's creative class. "Everyone in the tech industry wants to be in DUMBO," said the paper. And here we thought the ideal spot was spitting distance from Union Square Ventures.

Betabeat reached out to real estate broker Chris Havens, an expert in Dumbo's cobblestone streets and East River vistas, to find out more.

According to Mr. Havens, who pegged the vacancy rate at 3 percent, it's a matter of capacity. Dumbo has 1.26 million square feet of leasable office space across just nine buildings, which Mr. Havens said was equivalent to "a few blocks in Midtown South." One hundred and fifty leases have already been signed in the last year and a half.  "This has been building for a long time and it has a lot more to do with the economy," he said noting the proliferation of graphic design, affiliate marketing, consumer tech, architectural, and other creative startups in Dumbo. "It's getting tighter and tighter and tighter."

Mr. Havens said three counties in the country dominate in terms of creative business tenants: L.A. county, New York county, and Kings county. "Brooklyn is booming. In fact some people think there are more creatives in BK than Manhattan," he said, but added a note of skepticism, "Who knows?"

In Dumbo, the two biggest tech tenants are Etsy, "an Ebay for twee people," as the Brooklyn Paper describes it, and Wireless Generation. The amount of space those two companies have taken up has "pushed other tenants out," said Mr. Havens.

But don't founders want to be General Assembly-adjacent? "There’s way more tenants like this in Union Square," Mr. Havens admitted. "But this is $27 dollar [per-square-foot] space. So it doesn't matter what people like in Manhattan."

For Brooklyn residents that want to work close by, there are increasingly fewer options, he said. "There's no space in Fort Greene. Gowanus is tight too. They don’t like Downtown."

As the Brooklyn Paper notes, neighborhood groups are trying to do something about that.

"The DUMBO Improvement District, Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Downtown Brooklyn Partnership have joined forces to launch a task force seeking ways to nurture the borough’s tech sector, both inside DUMBO and beyond. That includes making Downtown more palatable for startups by improving streetscapes, creating a shuttle-bus system between the startup neighborhoods, and providing attractive commercial space."

We're inclined to go with commenter SwampYankee, who wrote, "Because anyone that works in software for a living will tell you a really cool nabe is essential to delivering a quality product in a timely manner. Talent really has nothing to do with it." But maybe we're just jelly. Betabeat is stuck in The Observer offices at Hell's Kitchen, which aside from some standout tacos and a Shake Shack outpost, really lives up to its name.

(Two Trees)

Dumbo—the quasi-acronym for "Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass"—is the former manufacturing neighborhood in Brooklyn that's recently taken on the nickname "Silicon Beach," and it continues to rack up digital cred. Despite slim pickings for good restaurants and coffee shops, the sleepy neighborhood is looking more and more like a sliver of the Bay Area nestled within the better borough. Trailblazers Etsy, Huge LLC and Wireless Generation have expanded their leases and new tenants are signing on, including Armchair Studio, LLC, a graphic design, communications and computer programming company and Type/Code LLC, an interaction design and development company. 

The Flatiron District is popular with VC firms and web 2.0 startups, Madison Ave. is popular with the older startups like Facebook and Twitter that need to interface with advertisers, Soho is popular with content-based startups and Chelsea is popular with ... Google. But design, branding and development consulting seems to be where Dumbo's carving its niche.

Two Trees Management, the father-son group that holds the leases for all the above companies, is playing this up to its advantage. The management company also recently signed leases for Plausible Labs Cooperative, Inc., a mobile software consultancy company, Lovaro LLC, a product design and branding company, and Tippr, LLC, an e-commerce site.

"I've been with the company for eight years and the past year has been one of the busiest years," said Caroline Pardo, director of leasing for Two Trees. "The interest is coming from Manhattan, it's coming from companies all over, from new startups outside of even New York."

"Tech and creative types" want to be around other tech and creative types, she said. Most referrals are from current tenants, she said, and a majority of prospective tenants don't have broker representation.

Two Trees has been targeting startup tenants, even though such companies can be difficult tenants—just because they occasionally explode and grow so fast that they need to constantly be signing new leases. Namely, Etsy and the agency Huge—Two Tress' anchor tenants in the 2.0 district.

It certainly seems as if tech could begin to dominate the up and coming neighborhood—but a look at the list of tenants shows a good mix. The neighborhood was able to establish free wireless internet for all. Now, if there were only a great deli... and perhaps another subway line. Or more Taxis.

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

Spoiler Alert!
Walter Isaacson's long-awaited bio about Steve Jobs comes out today. But if I know u folks well, y'all just want a quick 'n dirty review to be able to hold ur own in any water cooler conversation this week, no? So here goes ... (deep breath) ... "Jobs wanted to wage thermonuclear war on Android, was obsessed with Autobiography Of A Yogi (read it every year, only book on his iPad), almost licensed Mac OS to Compaq (but had second thoughts about giving away the 'crown jewels'), was deeply influenced by Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma, wanted to revolutionize the textbook industry next, thought he had finally cracked what an Apple television would be like, was 50-50 on whether God exists and hated on-off power switches." Phewwww. There u have it. You're welcome.

The 'Gary' Halloween Costume
So yeah, Halloween is right around the corner and u know what means ... a whole buncha tech+Halloween flavored shindigs all over town. Now I know u folks are busy figuring out ur perfect outfit--maybe dressing up as ur favorite startup founder or VC or as a Tech Bubble or a Signed Termsheet or ur favorite Social Networking App or a Fail Whale or an Angry Bird or a Siri-enabled iPhone or whatever. But here's the dealio ... I better not catch u dressed up in a black suit, white shirt & red tie with a giant 'fro and 70s style mutton chop sideburns, 'k? Oh, who am I kidding? No one is pimping for the 'Gary' Halloween costume to take off this year more than me! ;)

Deals & Discounts
As always, a bunch of tasty deals and discounts for my peeps including classes at GA, the Raise Cache fashion extravaganza, Silicon Valley Human Rights conf, Dave McClure's Warm Gun conf and more.

And now, lets journey into the heart of the Silicon Alley beast to see whats creakin' this week...

The Startup Lifecycle: Your Company, from Idea to Maturity
Taught by Fred Destin, a VC in NYC.
Monday, 8 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway 4th Floor

The World Technology Summit & Awards 2011
The event where u get to hang out with cool folks doing innovative work. Speakers include Ray Kurzweil (Singularity Summit), Kati London (Zynga), Steven Howe (Center for Space Nuclear Research), Poppy Harlow (CNN Money), Jeff Kluger (Time) and more.
Tuesday, 7 a.m. @ Time & Life Building, 1271 Avenue of the Americas

GA Digital Buffet: Data and APIs
If you live, breathe and dream in the wonderful world of APIs then you're guaranteed to like this one. With Doug Rushkoff, Matthew LeMay, Chris Castiglione, Rob Spectre and Akshay Patil. Yeah, that Doug Rushkoff.
Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway 4th Floor

ERA Halloween Party at Webster Hall!
So you mean we can network with other cool startup entrepreneurs AND meet potential investors AND get to dress up in our fave Halloween costumes? Now thats just crazzzy talk.
Wednesday, 6 p.m. @ Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street

Digital Media MBA October Happy Hour
Learn about a bunch of cool projects people are working on, including improving efficiency of taxi dispatch systems at NYC airports, creating a film & new media incubator, helping muni agencies better leverage social media, growing the reach of NYC Life (Channel 25) and much more.
Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. @ Solas, 232 East 9th Street

Location-Based Apps Demo Day Meetup
Location-based apps are hot. Demo days are hot. Here's what u get when u bring all that hotness in one place. Presenting will be Yog, Getgame, Matchbook, Jauntlet, Citymaps and others.
Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. @ Aol Ventures, 770 Broadway

PGA New Media Council: Smart TV - Producing For Pixels
If u are the type who starts hyperentilating everytime someone blogs, tweets or whispers about the fictional (so far) but oh-so-desirable Apple Television, then u have bigger problems this event may be right up ur alley. In the hot seat talking about Smart TVs will be Rachelle Zoffer (Interactive TV at Verizon), Felicia Wong (Showtime), Eva Bask-Karlsson (Samsung Electronics), Vamsi Sistla (Telvetto) and Anne-Marie Roussel (Sharp Labs). Moderated by Chris Pfaff.
Wednesday, 7 p.m. @ Theresa Lang Auditorium The New School, 55 West 13th Street

Be One of the Cool Kids: An Introduction to Ruby on Rails
Wait, whaa...? I thought the cool kids preferred to code in Fortran, no?
Wednesday, 7 p.m. @ Skillshare HQ, 407 Broome Street

BKTK - Tech, Design, Social Media and more in Brooklyn
Wherein you learn how to deal with situations where "your collaborator has turned into a dictator."
Wednesday, 7 p.m. @ Bitmap Creative Labs, 300 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn

Spotify NYC Developer Meetup
Spotify fanboy? Then, u my friend, cannot miss this event. Hang out with Spotify's community manager Andrew Mager who'll demo their platform, engineer Ricardo Santos who'll show off their backend and recruiter Howard Smith who'll tell u how to get a job there. And yep, there'll be free food and booze. But what I really wanna know is how to prevent my guilty pleasure songs & playlists from accidentally popping up in my facebook newsfeed. About time we got that fixed.
Wednesday, 7 p.m. @ Spotify NYC, 76 9th Avenue, 11th Floor

TEDxSiliconAlley
Chris Grayson had a dream. To bring a lil' bit of the magic of TED to our backyard one day. And so he has. Introducing the inaugural edition of TEDxSiliconAlley with an all-star speaker lineup including Scott Heiferman (Meetup), Max Haot (Livestream), Alexandra W. Wilson (Gilt Groupe), Avi Muchnick (Aviary), Siobhan Quinn (Foursquare), Elena Silenok (Clothia), Anna Akbari (NYU), Jack Mason (IBM), Tor Myhren (Grey), Alexander Rea (Skinny), Nicole Tricoukes (Motorola), Faris Yakob (MDC Partners), Rana Sobhany (iPad DJ) and more. [It's sold out, despite being $100. --ed.]
Thursday, 1:30 p.m. @ Grey Advertising, 200 Fifth Avenue

New York Mobile App Developer (MAD) Meetup
Its a mad, mad, mad world ... of apps.
Thursday, 6:30 p.m. @ Magnani Caruso Dutton, 138 West 25th Street

Ignite: Lean Startup at Pivotal Labs
Since y'all have been such nice folks, Ignite organizer Tikva Morowati has decided that this month we're getting a 2nd (BONUS!) Ignite event in partnership with the Lean Startup folks. How do u like 'em apples! :) Presenting will be Alex Weinberg (SnappSchool), Brandon Root (Friendzy), Brian Sowards (GiftSquid), Deirdre Lord (Megawatt Hour), Giff Constable (Lean Startup Meetup), Jacob Brody (MESA), Josh Seiden (LUXr NYC), Kareem Kouddous (CrowdTap), Katia Beauchamp (Birchbox), Lee Hoffman (Veri), Michele Tepper (EnergyHub), Noah Kagan (AppSumo), Rachael Chong (Catchafire) and more.
Thursday, 6:30 p.m. @ Pivotal Labs, 841 Broadway

Digital DUMBO: The Haberdashery Sponsored by Bing
Yes, yes, Digital Dumbo is awesome. But u know whats even more awesome? When they invite The Bumbys (That would be Gill and Jill Bumby. No, those are not their real names) to give u a "fair and honest appraisal of your appearance." Intrigued? I know I am.
Thursday, 6:30 p.m. @ Dumbo Loft, 155 Water Street

App Store Revenue Optimization
Want to take down Angry Birds and make a bajillion dollars in the process? Well of course u do! So go get the inside scoop from Andrew Cohen of Brainscape and get crackin' on that killer app of urs.
Thursday, 8 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway 4th Floor

Techdrinkup Tech Takeover of Halloween (School Girls & Nerds) Costume Party
More tech + halloween craziness. Got a hawt costume to show off? You might just snag urself a free bottle of Patron XO or Ultimate Vodka. Sounds like a boozy party, all right.
Friday, 9 p.m. @ G 50 Lounge, 208 East 50th Street

More on the horizon...
Social Media World Forum North America on Nov 1 @ Javits Center
November NY Tech Meetup on Nov 2 @ 92 Street NY
GA + GLabs present: Ben Lerer, Co-Founder & CEO of Thrillist on Nov 2 @ General Assembly
Mashable Media Summit on Nov 4 @ The Times Center
CNet Gotham Live on Nov 9 @ Openhouse Gallery
Raise Cache: A Celebration of NY Tech and A Benefit for hackNY on Nov 17 @ State Armory

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends!

This week in New York tech news and associated items:

DISRUPT APPROACHETH. The TechCrunch mega-conference starts with a hackathon at Pier 94 on May 21, which anyone who has walked through Times Square in the last three days knows is the Rapture. Actual "conference" conference starts Monday and ends with an afterparty Wednesday. Here's the agenda. Lots of NYC celebs--Arianna, Moot, Kevin Ryan, Fred Wilson, Kickstarter, Tumblr, Foursquare, etc., plus Californians Ron Conway, Paul Graham, Ashton, Sequoia Capital--doing fireside chats and things.WHEN THE RAPTURE COMES, WE WILL BE AT MICROSOFT. The free demofest BarCampNYC6, held at Microsoft, is sold out for Saturday but has 76 tickets left for Sunday.

ZAARLY IS GNARLY. The location-based, real-time marketplace is now available in New York, but no one delivered the gum we offered $10 for.

WANDERFLY 2.0 LAUNCH: Facebook Connect integration, "Wanderlists" trip management tool and new buttons, plus Facebook-powered forums and an even slicker redesign.

B2B DEAL SITE LAUNCHES. "New York-Based MarketSharing Launches B2B Deals Ranging From Office Necessities to Lifestyle Services... MarketSharing provides businesses with high quality, deeply discounted (50-80%) daily group deals on products and services ranging from necessity items and supplies to lifestyle products and services."

OFFICE MASCOTS. Just when you thought their office space couldn't get any cuter. A puppy chihuahua crashing at the Etsy HQ needs a home.

NERD FETE. For the bookish entrepreneurs: Book Expo America Opening Night Party at Le Bain, hosted by Electric Literature and Flavorpill.

MEANWHILE, IN BROOKLYN. A mobile-friendly Digital DUMBO is next Thursday at 6:30, at the Dumbo Loft, featuring AT&T reps, pretzel crisps and PBR, and a Samsung Infuse 4G giveaway. Also, Digital DUMBO is started a workshop series at reBar; first one is on community management next week.

AND MEANWHILE, EVEN FARTHER. Shorty-winning tweeter Cory Booker, mayor, is hosting a mini-conference--iBreakfast--tomorrow, May 19; Hoboken Tech Meetup on Monday, May 23.

Got an announcement for the start-up news roundup, which posts Wednesday afternoons? Email tips@betabeat.com.