During the Q&A period, Dawn Barber, cofounder of the New York Tech Meetup, asked Mr. Schumer what he thought of the role of the technology community would play in the city's future.

The topic has been received with considerable skepticism recently, particularly after Mayor Bloomberg waved his pom-poms at a press conference yesterday trying to lure more startups to New York.

The event--hosted at Buzzfeed's perky Flatiron headquarters--was light on actual news. Mr. Bloomberg officially announced the "Made in NY" label invented for the entertainment industry could now be applied to tech companies. While he was it, he also launched an online hub, We Are Made In NY. The site builds on the pre-existing Made in NY map, which let's tech-happy workers search for which startups are hiring or where to find investors. It also provides links to apply for resources subsidized office space or broadband connectivity.

However, as Kevin Roose noted over at Daily Intel, in order to qualify for that "Made in NY" sticker, companies have to have 75 percent of their technology development based in New York City. That eliminates major employers like Facebook and Google, who can make a bigger impact on the jobs market. Those types of companies are motivated more by "talent arbitrage"--luring engineers from other strong sectors (hi, Wall Street!) who might be open to taking tech jobs if they don't have to leave New York.

Thus Bloomie's brand of PR push doesn't work on them, Mr. Roose argued:

" . . . they're incentivized when they want to reduce their tax burdens, when they want to open a new market, or when they can get something in a satellite location that they can't get at home. Mayor Bloomberg isn't proposing any new tax breaks for start-ups, but he could convince West Coast–based computing giants like Apple, Microsoft, or Genentech to expand their New York presence by pointing out the vast engineering talent that exists here and can't be moved. That alone would create more New York jobs than convincing a hundred small start-ups to set up shop."

What's more, as The Awl's Choire Sicha pointed out today, the nebulous resources highlighted on the We Are Made In NY page won't necessarily move the needle for smaller startups either.

This morning's breakfast offered Mr. Schumer an opportunity to respond to some of those concerns, albeit indirectly. He mentioned his proposed immigration bill, which allows STEM (science technology engineering and math) graduates to "get a green card attached to your diploma," as a way to attract technical talent to New York, "because we’re the most hospitable place for immigrants anywhere in the nation."

"I’m a competitive New Yorker, so I like to see us do better than everybody else," he said. Mr. Schumer predicted the tech sector would be "one of our great futures," noting venture capital reports that show New York as second only to Silicon Valley in venture funding and a bigger percentage of growth in funding here.

This time around, he added, the promise is "not illusory the way it was in 2000." By way of proof, he offered the following anecdote:

"It's much stronger and deeper. I talk to experts in California. Eric Schmidt, the head of Google, told me that he gets more productivity per worker out of the 3,000 Google workers here--per person, per dollar--than out of the 13,000 people in Mountain View in their headquarters."

Huh, wonder what they're putting in the food trucks at Googleplex East?

Mr. Schumer didn't offer any further explanation, so it's impossible to say whether that enhanced productivity-per-dollar is because GOOG found a way to marshall New York neuroses or just because engineers in the Valley are paid a prettier penny. But that certainly sounds like the kind of stat that might interest Facebook and Twitter.

If City Hall does decide to start publicly courting the big boys, it might want to tread lightly. There's such a thing as being too welcoming.

The whole crew's here!

Guess Mayor Bloomberg isn't going to close out his third term partying in swinging London, after all. Today in the hipper-than-thou surroundings of the BuzzFeed offices (BTW? sad lack of actual cats), he announced a new all-out, city-backed push officially expanding the "Made in NY" branding (created for the entertainment industry) to the tech business.

"We're spreading the word, hopefully drawing even more tech companies to the five boroughs by taking a couple of steps today," said Mayor Bloomberg.

Companies with at least 75 percent of their production in the city now includes tech firms can apply to be "Made in NY" certified, meaning they can display that spiffy little logo (or as it was described in the announcement, the "mark of distinction") on their site. Everybody's getting stickers, in other words!

There was quite the crowd crammed into a central atrium in the BuzzFeed offices, including New York Tech Meetup's Jessica Lawrence, omnipresent Chief Digital Officer Rachel Haot, Songza's Elias Roman, LearnVest's Alexa von Tobel, and BuzzFeed's Jon Steinberg. Before we could get into the details, we were treated to a somewhat makeshift slideshow of "5 Animals Who Are Not Disappointed in Mayor Bloomberg."

The city is launching a website aggregating various resources for entrepreneurs (from permitting how-tos to free public Wifi hotspots), as well as information for people thinking of taking up residence in Startupland, including the Mapped in NY roundup of companies hiring (900 looking to fill 3,000 jobs, at last count) and where to take coding classes.

"Since I'm going to be unemployed in 315 days I'm starting to pay more attention to this now," Mayor Bloomberg noted.

But of course, why simply roll out a website when you can create an enormous marketing campaign? And so, you can expect to see this video everywhere you turn online, with print equivalents splashed onto buses passing you by on the street. Finally, something you can point out that'll impress your Nana, even if she still has no idea what your adtech company does! Companies can also create their own Made in NY videos, like so.

"Our true hope is that perhaps a young child is riding on the subway, sees that image on the subway and says, 'Maybe I'll consider taking an extra math course or an exta science course and entering that field,' and perhaps another engineer joins the company and helps to take it to the next level here in New York City," Ms. Haot explained the campaign.

She also put a cheerful gloss on the lengthy list of readily available startup jobs: "It's good to know if that gig doesn't work out or if that startup doesn't work out, there are literally thousands of other opportunities that are available to you here in New York City." Consider us reassured.

It seems BuzzFeed also provided more than a venue and the opportunity to show a picture of the mayor with a zebra. "We worked closely with the mayor's office to create the social content ad campaign for We are Made in NY," said President and COO Jon Steinberg. The site even made up one of its listicles, "11 Reasons To Start A Company In New York City," complete with GIF of the mayor high-fiving Mr. Met.

Everyone will also doubtless be fascinated to know that Mayor Bloomberg has made the switch to an iPad Mini, which makes his distracted fiddling during other speakers' comments slightly less noticeable. Now that's innovation.

Here's the ad you'll soon be seeing everywhere:

Mr. Zahn. (Photo: CCNY)

We thought manufacturing had departed New York for the foreseeable future, and yet suddenly there's a building boom right here in the five boroughs. Shapeways is building a factory out in Long Island City; now City College's Grove School of Engineering is getting its very own incubator, focused on "devices and manufacturing," the Daily News reports.

What's next? We start eating local oysters again? (Yes, please.)

The Daily News says:

The Harlem center will provide equipment, financial resources, incentives and engineering and business guidance. The goal is for students to build prototypes and products and then learn how to market them.

The incubator will open its doors in mid-September.

Covering much of the cost, with a $1 million donation: Irwin Zahn, a native Brooklynite and CCNY engineering school graduate, class of '48. Mr. Zahn founded an electronic connectors company in New York, before picking up stakes and going west, young man, landing in Southern California. Having sold the company, he now devotes his time to philanthropy, through his Moxie Foundation. (On the basis of that name alone, we suspect he's actually minor character from Captain America. Hey, the timing works.) San Diego State University and the University of California at San Diego have already benefitted from his largess, establishing similar programs on his dime.

The yardstick for success? Well, he's not looking for a spinoff machine:

"The measure of whether it is successful or not is how many companies it gives birth to," Zahn told the Daily News. "These companies hire people and they spend money in the community."

The Daily News notes that the Zahn Center will also include a fabrication lab, thanks to a $440,000 grant from Scott Stringer's office. Is there a Manhattan political figure who's isn't angling for some tech-related goodwill?

The Made in NY Digital Map

It was sticky and rainy outside, but scores of people showed up to see Mayor Bloomberg shake his tech pom-poms today at Internet Week HQ. The Mayor trudged to 82 Mercer to announce a new initiative alongside chief digital officer Rachel Sterne, NYCEDC president Seth Pinsky and--surprisingly--Josh Miller, the cofounder of Branch.

So what exactly did Mr. Mayor have up his sleeve? Turns out it was a new interactive map that displays the locations of tech companies around New York City. A sidebar also displays which of these companies are currently hiring.

The map "also locates the offices of investors, making it an excellent tool for entrepreneurs in search of capital, and includes over 30 tech incubators," he said. "We expect this map to be another tool that helps propel our tech industry forward."

Ms. Sterne elaborated, "Right now, there are over 600 startups, investors and incubators listed on the map, and we invite others to submit their company because this is an interactive resource."

Ms. Sterne also said that over 320 companies on the map are hiring, equating to "more than 1,000 open jobs in New York. The message is loud and clear: New York City is open for business."

So much rah-rahing was starting to make us nauseous. After Mr. Pinsky spoke, Mr. Miller then took the podium and briefly listed three reasons why he decided to move Branch back to NYC, the last of which was, "I much prefer a slice of New York pizza to a San Francisco burrito."

Finally it was the press's turn to ask questions. We were dying to ask the Mayor if he's keeping to his New Year's resolution to learn how to code.

Unfortunately, we never got called on. Maybe next time, Mr. Mayor.