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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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.

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! ;)

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, the fiscal cliff has been averted, the NHL lockout is over (yeah!) and William Shatner (a.k.a. Captain James T. Kirk) tweeted at an astronaut--AND got a reply back. 2013 is off to a great start already!

As you know, I got an early jump on one of my New Year resolutions (to get in great shape). Things have been going well and thanks for the encouraging emails, keep 'em coming! And I've got some more suggestions for fitness routines. Two in particular caught my eye: New York news personality Ben Aaron's Dance Walking (yes, apparently that's a thing, and the video's a viral hit) and Formula 50, rapper/mogul 50 Cent's badass six-week regimen.

FYI, deadline for the TechStars New York Spring 2013 class is January 18. So, go apply now. But first, read these excellent tips by TechStars NYC Managing Director Nicole Glaros on team, video and describing your business.

500 Startups is ramping up its presence in New York City with over 35 investments and now a brand spanking new coworking space at 28th and Park. Half of the space (20 startups) will be open to non-portfolio companies. Interested? Contact 500 Startups NY partner Shai Goldman for all the juicy details. Here's the application form.

Hearst is teaming up with the good folks at Angelhack to bring you the Fashion Hackathon: Hack The Runway next month on Febuary 9 during Fashion Week. Prizes include access to exclusive VIP Fashion Week shows and events, use of your hack in NYFW events, $10,000 in cash prizes, and mentorship from Hearst. Yup, it's going to be off the hook!

My friend Alison Flood (producer, Webby Awards / Internet Week) is throwing a little birthday bash / fundraiser to help those affected by Sandy on Staten Island (where she was born & raised). There'll be drinking, dancing and sounds by Silent Drape Runners, Steven Rojas and DJ Frankenmack. Rock on!

For the startup founders, here are two classes I'd highly recommend you check out this week - Steve Schlafman (Lerer Ventures) on How to Pitch Your Startup to NYC Venture Firms (January 7) and Aaron Holiday (DFJ Gotham) on Essential Things to Know When Forming Your Startup (January 10, livestreamed).

My buddy Vijay and his punjabi funk band BlackMahal will be in town on the 12th, performing with Nomadic Massive at Drom. They've played the Vancouver Olympics, shared a stage with Das Racist and been called awesome by Rolling Stone. So go check them out!

Random nugget: "What these people (in the late 19th century) missed was that electricity, far beyond light, was a platform for a host of new industries. Over the following years, entrepreneurs would come up with appliances--today we might call them 'apps'--for vacuuming, laundry and eventually radio and television and huge industries grew on the electricity platform." - Dave Morgan (Internet advertising pioneer and founder/CEO, Simulmedia) in a recent New York Times article.

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

A Conversation with Adaptly Founder Nikhil Sethi
When you found an ad:tech startup at age 22 without ever having worked a day in advertising, odds are high you might make a mistake or two. Learn about the good, the bad, and everything else en route to the first $10 million in transactions through Adaptly's platform last year.
Monday (Jan. 7), 6:30 p.m. @ General Assembly East, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.

Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the new Gilded Age
A reception and conversation organized by the Ford Foundation with author and leading telecommunications policy expert Susan Crawford to celebrate the release of her new book.
Tuesday (Jan. 8), 6 p.m. @ Ford Foundation, 320 E. 43rd Street

Invasion of The Hackathons
How a geek event gone mainstream is breeding innovation and unique opportunities for entrepreneurs. With Sabeen Ali (Angelhack), Jonathan Askin (Brooklyn Law School), Christopher Kennedy (48HourApps), Peter Robinson (ChallengePost) and others.
Tuesday (Jan. 8), 6:30 p.m. @ NYU Poly Tech Incubator, 20 Jay Street, #316, Brooklyn

January 2013 NY Tech Meetup
You know the drill: Five-minute, rapid-fire demos. A bunch of amazing new startups. Now hopefully you've managed to snag one of those elusive tickets!
Tuesday (Jan. 8), 7 p.m. @ NYU Skirball Center For Performing Arts, 566 Laguardia Place

New Relic Presents: Code Forward NYC - Meet the Developers Behind the Obama Campaign
Learn how the Obama for America’s focus on team building and efficiency helped them build a sophisticated cloud-based infrastructure that used big data to maximize their campaign’s success, volunteer engagement and voter outreach.
Tuesday (Jan. 8), 7 p.m. @ Grand Hyatt, 109 E. 42nd Street

FinTech Startups: VC Panel on Raising Capital in FinTech and 2013 Forecast
With Mike Cichowski (Edison Ventures), Josh Abramowitz (Deep Creek Capital), Huck O’Connor (Multiplier Capital) and Jordan Bettman (Bain Capital Ventures).
Wednesday (Jan. 9), 6:30 p.m. @ Dechert LLP, 1095 6th Avenue, 28th Fl.

Future of Media Panel
With Angela Tribelli (CMO, HarperCollins), Kate Lee (Director of Content, Medium) and Shafqat Islam (CEO, NewsCred).
Wednesday (Jan. 9), 6:30 p.m. @ Cooley at The Grace Building, 1114 Ave of the Americas, 46th Fl.

General Assembly + Warby Parker New Year's Resolution Party
An exclusive event to celebrate the new year, at Warby Parker's Annex showroom. In keeping with the resolutions theme, fill-in-the-blank postcards will be handed out to help you make and keep your resolutions.
Wednesday (Jan. 9), 7:30 p.m. @ Warby Parker Annex, 819 Washington Street

StartUP Series sponsored by WeWork
With Matthew Manos (CEO, verynice), Farrah Bostic (founder/Creative Strategist, The Difference Engine), Jared Cocken (chief product officer, Fitocracy), Oscar Torres (cofounder, zenplaya) and Pamela Castillo (cofounder, Market Publique). Emcee'd by Cindy Gallop (founder, MakeLoveNotPorn).
Thursday (Jan. 10), 6 p.m. @ Art Directors Club Gallery, 106 W. 29th Street

NJ Tech Meetup 32
With Bob Dorf (co-author, Startup Owners Manual)
Thursday (Jan. 10), 6:30 p.m. @ Stevens Institute Of Technology, Babbio Center, Hoboken

Investor Feedback Forum
Investor Panelists include Brad Harrison (Brad Harrison Ventures), Eric Hippeau (Lerer Ventures), Geoff Judge (iNovia Capital) and William Reinisch (Paladin Capital Group). Startup Pitches by Glyph, Curioos, Vestorly, NimbusBase, Epion Health, FreshNeck, MOWA and Sumpto.
Thursday (Jan. 10), 6:30 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 6th Avenue

Startup GC Panel #2
With Craig Abruzzo (general counsel, Birchbox), Nithya Das (legal counsel, AppNexus), Mark Silverstein (legal counsel, Spotify) and Benjamin Singer (associate general counsel, Gilt Groupe).
Thursday (Jan. 10), 8 p.m. @ General Assembly , 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.

API Hackday NY
Bringing developers together for an all-day coding fest focused on building apps and mashups with APIs. Brought to you by Twilio, SendGrid, Ordr.in, Singly, IKANOW, OpenTok & Mashery.
Saturday (Jan. 12), 8 a.m. @ Alley NYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

More events on the horizon...
Soho Startup Lunch on Jan. 14 @ Cupping Room Cafe
Enterprise Technology Meetup on Jan. 15 @ Cooley
1st Bronx Tech Meetup on Jan. 16 @ Majora Carter Group
Social Retail Summit #4 on Jan. 17 @ Dumbo Spot
Benefits of Cloud for Video & Image on Jan. 17 @ Anchin
Legal Essentials for Startups: Part 3 - Intellectual Property Protection on Jan. 22 @ Anchin
UX Design and User Experience Optimization Trends on Feb. 6 @ Anchin
Hearst Fashion Hackathon 2013 on Feb. 9 @ Hearst
Investor Feedback Forum (New York) on Feb. 14 @ Microsoft
Social Media Week NY 2013 on Feb. 18 @ Metropolitan Pavilion

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.

Terribly saddened by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victims, and hopefully we can all come together and figure out how to never ever let something like this happen again.

Plenty more holiday parties this week. The one event you don't wanna miss is the Queens Tech Meetup Holiday Party. QTM has quickly raced to almost a thousand members, and this Wednesday they've assembled a rockstar panel of women in NYC tech including Rachel Haot (Chief Digital Officer, New York City), Reshma Saujani (Founder, Girls Who Code and former New York City Deputy Public Advocate). Jessica Lawrence (Managing Director, New York Tech Meetup) and Helen Marshall (Queens Borough President and Coalition for Queens). Long Island City is happening, yo!

Who wants high-speed broadband fiber goodness at their business? You do! The NYCEDC may be bringing you the Christmas gift you always wanted. It's called the NYC Fiber Challenge. Winners receive free fiber build-out to their business, an overall value of up to $7 million for all winning businesses over two years. The application deadline is 2pm on December 27. Go get 'em! If you wanna learn more, there'll be a few workshops this week in Long Island City and Brooklyn.

Matter Ventures, a new incubator for media startups supported by The Knight Foundation, KQED, and Public Radio Exchange will be holding an information session on December 18th from 6:30 to 8:30pm at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Inaugural class begins in late February and the deadline for applications is January 6th.

In other news, Manhattan's hottest new museum is ... MoMath! It's the first math museum in the U.S. and, true to its name, math pervades every aspect of the design--even the cafe, where the walls are made of Tetris-like puzzle shapes called pentominoes, and the tables are arranged as a knight would progress on a chessboard. The museum is located at 11 E. 26th St (north of Madison Square Park) and open everyday from 10 to 5. So go check it out and don't forget to take your kids (and nieces and nephews) along. It's about time we made an effort to make math cool and fun!

And if you're looking to check out GPS shoes with LED lights, a high-tech music box, Rotobooths and 3D printers, head on over to the WIRED popup store in SoHo (583 Broadway). It's open 11am-7pm Tuesday to Sunday through December 23rd.

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

NJ Tech Meetup 31
With Tony Haile (CEO, Chartbeat)
Monday (Dec. 17), 6:30 p.m. @ Howe Center Bissinger Room, Stevens Institute of Technology, 4th Fl., Hoboken

NYTM Meet the Board of Directors Candidates Event
NYTM members and the candidates running for a seat on the New York Tech Meetup board of directors.
Monday (Dec 17), 6:30 p.m. @ Projective Space L.E.S., 72 Allen Street

Second Screens and Social TV Roundtable
With Alex Iskold (founder/CEO, GetGlue), Tom Boland (SVP, Social@Ogilvy), Jesse Redniss (SVP digital, NBC / USA Networks), Michael Hussey (CEO, PeekAnalytics), David Beck (VP/GM of social media, Univision) and others.
Tuesday (Dec. 18), 8:30 a.m. @ SNR Denton, 1221 6th Avenue

NYC Data Business Meetup #11
Presenters include Oren Falkowitz (cofounder & CEO, sqrrl), Eric Frenkiel (cofounder & CEO, MemSQL) and Dhruv Bansal (cofounder & CSO, Infochimps).
Tuesday (Dec. 18), 6 p.m. @ Bloomberg LP, 731 Lexington Avenue, 7th Fl.

December NY Enterprise Technology Meetup
Featuring keynote by Fred Wilson (partner, Union Square Ventures). Demos by tracx, JouleX and SoMoLend.
Tuesday (Dec. 18), 6:30 p.m. @ Cooley, 1114 Avenue of the Americas, 46th Fl.

Windows 8 Launch Celebration!
A night of wine and cheese networking hosted by Microsoft, in celebration of the company's latest OS.
Tuesday (Dec. 18), 6:30 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 Avenue of Americas

Introduction to the NYC Startup Community + Founders Panel
With Neil Blumenthal (cofounder, Warby Parker), Brad Hargreaves (cofounder, General Assembly) and Kathryn Minshew (cofounder, The Daily Muse).
Tuesday (Dec. 18), 7:30 p.m. @ Warby Parker Annex, 819 Washington Street

Queens Tech Meetup 5 & Holiday Party
With Rachel Haot (Chief Digital Officer, New York City), Reshma Saujani (founder, Girls Who Code and former New York City Deputy Public Advocate), Jessica Lawrence (Managing Director, New York Tech Meetup) and Helen Marshall (Queens Borough President and Coalition for Queens).
Wednesday (Dec. 19), 6:30 p.m. @ See Exhibition Space, 25-25 44th Drive, Long Island City

NYC Gaming December: Demo Night
Demos by Kristen Harris (Taptiles), Mike Weiksner (Tip or Skip), Dat Nguyen (Smart Kick), Vianel Aquino (Waveology), Noah Sasso (BaraBariBall) and Muse Games (Guns of Icarus).
Wednesday (Dec. 19), 6:30 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, 6th Fl.

New Work City Holiday Festival
Arts & crafts & drinks & music! Holiday-themed drinks and activities will abound, and there might even be a surprise up their sleeves!
Thursday (Dec. 20), 10 a.m. @ New Work City, 412 Broadway, 2nd Fl.

Health 2.0 NYC: Crystal Ball Charity Gala 2012
With Esther Dyson (angel investor) and Bryan Sivak (CTO, HHS).
Thursday (Dec. 20), 5:30 p.m. @ Club 39, 303 West 39th Street

No Office Holiday Party 2012
Wyatt Cenac, Sexy Santa Photo Booth, DJ Steve Reynolds (Party Like It's 1999), Karaoke + more!
Thursday (Dec. 20), 8 p.m. @ Littlefield, 622 Degraw Street, Brooklyn

More events on the horizon...
ConnectNYC Fiber Challenge: Application Deadline on Dec. 27 @ NYCEDC
The Product Group January 2013 on Jan. 3 @ MTV Networks / Viacom
January 2013 NY Tech Meetup on Jan. 8 @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts
Startup GC Panel #2 on Jan. 10 @ General Assembly
Enterprise Tech Meetup on Jan. 16 @ Microsoft
Law to Tech Breakfast Panel on Feb. 22 @ General Assembly East

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.

Winter is coming.

No, I'm not talking about the weather (though it has been getting chilly lately). Nor Game of Thrones (FYI, season 3 begins on March 31 for those keeping track!). I'm talking about the growing perception in Startupland that the good times might really be coming to an end (for now). Following last week's post by Fred Wilson was this one by PandoDaily's Sarah Lacy, talking about the Series A crunch and how as many as thousand companies who've received seed rounds won't be around in six months. Then there's this one by TechCrunch's Alexia Tsotsis, arguing that the Series A crunch actually extended to Series B, C and D. So what should entrepreneurs make of all this? Do what ya should be doing anyway--focus on building an insanely great product that customers really want and start thinking about monetization early. Personally, I think this is the best time to build a company.

My buddy Steve Rosenbaum (founder/CEO of Magnify) is NYCEDC’s Entrepreneur at Large, and he'll be doing virtual office hours (via Google Hangout) to answer all your startup and entrepreneurship questions. Register here.

I have a couple of free tickets to the upcoming Mobile Loco conference in San Francisco on December 11. Speakers include Andrew Mason (Groupon), Bill Gurley (Benchmark Capital), Don Dodge (Google) and others. If interested, just shoot me an email at gary@garysguide.com with your Name, Title and Company. We'll pick two randomly selected winners.

The annual Amazon AWS Startup Challenge deadline is at midnight this Wed (December 5). This year there'll be four grand prizes (gaming, big data, consumer apps & business apps). Each prize includes $50,000 in cash + $50,000 in AWS credits. Nice!

And the deadline for nominating a startup for the Crunchies (co-hosted by TechCrunch, GigaOm and VentureBeat) is this Thursday (December 6).

In case ya missed TechDrinkup last week, a casting team from Bravo's Start-ups did show, looking for NYC-edition characters. Here's Betabeat's writeup, with all the juicy details.

Going slightly off-topic ... I'm in fairly good shape but I've been feeling the urge lately to find a kickass fitness regimen and get in reaaalllly great shape. But with a ton of holiday parties coming up, I'm wondering if I should start now or wait until after the holidays? Hmmmm ... If anyone has any interesting fitness or diet routines to recommend, feel free to email me.

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

TEDxSiliconAlley 2012
The theme is Rise of the Machines and the keynote speaker is Ray Kurzweil (The Singularity Is Near). Also includes Bre Pettis (founder, Makerbot), Francessca Ferrando (philosopher of posthumanism & visiting scholar at Columbia), Jincey Lumpkin (attorney & Huffington Post sex columnist) and Ken Segall (creative director of Apple's "Think Different" campaign).
Monday (Dec. 3), 9:30 a.m. @ Terminal 5, 610 W. 56th Street

Lean Startup Conference Livestream
Keynotes by Marc Andreessen, Steve Blank, Beth Comstock and Eric Ries.
Monday (Dec. 3), 12 p.m. @ WeWorkLabs, 175 Varick Street, 4th Fl.

Windows Apps Labs Launch at WeWork Labs
Access to the newest Windows 8 devices (including Microsoft Surface). Also Bing Fund, the new angel fund and incubation program backed by Microsoft, will be dropping in to talk about the program.
Monday (Dec. 3), 6 p.m. @ WeWork Labs, 175 Varick Street

NY Mobile First: App Pitch Showdown
With Nihal Mehta (ENIAC Ventures), Sim Blaustein (Bertelsmann Venture Capital), Charlie O'Donnell (Brooklyn Bridge Ventures), Chieh Huang (Zynga NY) and Heather Hromoho (Millennial Media).
Monday (Dec. 3), 7 p.m. @ Alley NYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

Think Commerce Summit
Rockstar speaker list including Jon Miller (former CEO, Digital Media Group, News Corp), Bob Pittman (chairman & CEO, Clear Channel), Ben Lerer (CEO, Thrillist), Eric Hippeau (partner, Lerer Ventures), Shana Fisher (Highline Venture Partners), Ezra Kucharz (president, Local Digital Media, CBS), Nick Lehman (president of digital, NBC Universal) and others.
Tuesday (Dec. 4), 12 a.m. @ Chelsea Piers - Pier 60, 23rd Street and 11th Avenue

Xconomy Forum: Mobile Madness New York
With Rich Miner (Google Ventures), Roger Ehrenberg (IA Ventures), Peter Flint (Polaris Venture Partners), Joe Essenfeld (Jibe), Eric Koester (Zaarly), Robby Stein (Yahoo), Jalak Jobanputra (FuturePerfect Ventures), Rahul Sood (Bing Fund) and others.
Tuesday (Dec. 4), 2 p.m. @ NYC Microsoft Office, 1290 6th Avenue

December 2012 NY Tech Meetup
You know the drill. Five-minute, rapid-fire demos. A bunch of amazing new startups. Now hopefully you've managed to snag one of those elusive tickets.
Tuesday (Dec. 4), 7 p.m. @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts, 566 Laguardia Place

TechHub NY - A Very Merry TechHub
Networking, hosted drinks and bites, DJs, photo-booth action, and more.
Wednesday (Dec. 5), 6:30 p.m. @ Ace Hotel, 20 W. 29th Street

Pitchcrawl 2.0 - Angel Investor / Entrepreneur Mixer
Investors include Marissa Campise (Venrock), Lucas Nelson (DFJ Gotham), Rahul Gandhi (High Peaks Venture Partners), Mark Wachen (DreamIt Ventures), Peter Flint (Polaris Venture Partners), Charlie Kemper (Revel Partners & ERA), William Peng (Raptor) and others.
Wednesday (Dec. 5), 7 p.m. @ To be decided

Columbia Engineering Entrepreneurship Night
Arguably among the most influential technology entrepreneurs over the last decade, Bill Campbell and Ben Horowitz will discuss the new NYC tech boom, how it is driving the East Coast startup ecosystem, and how NYC entrepreneurship is giving Silicon Valley a run for its money.
Thursday (Dec. 6), 6 p.m. @ Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 W. 18th Street

Water Collective Holiday Party
An evening of open bar, hors d'oeuvres, silent auction, and raffle to celebrate a new year of clean water and economic empowerment.
Thursday (Dec. 6), 7 p.m. @ Top Of The Garden, 251 W. 30th Street, 16th Fl.

Celebrate the Arts with AlleyNYC (Holiday Party!)
Just pure partying and having fun with awesome people.
Thursday (Dec. 6), 8 p.m. @ AlleyNYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

Investor series with Erik Norlander of Google Ventures
Google is one of the largest companies and a frequent dream strategic partner, investor, acquirer. Hear from the inside how it works as well as the acquisition process.
Friday (Dec. 7), 4 p.m. @ The Lab, 122 W. 26th Street, 5th Fl.

Hack // Meat
Bringing together technologists, entrepreneurs, creatives, policy experts, non-profit leaders and industry executives to develop technologies and tools that help democratize meat.
Friday (Dec. 7), 6 p.m. @ Grind, 419 Park Avenue South, 2nd Fl.

TimesOpen Hack Day
A day filled with learning, coding, tinkering, having fun and hanging out with some of the best developers in NYC.
Saturday (Dec. 8), 10 a.m. @ The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, 15th Fl.

More events on the horizon...
Women in Wireless Holiday Party on Dec. 10 @ SoHo House
Charity Ball 2012 on Dec. 10 @ 69th Regiment Armory
FashInvest 2012 Capital Conference on Dec. 11 @ Fashion Institute of Technology
10 Startup Mistakes to Avoid on Dec. 11 @ Orrick at The CBS Building
Damsels in Design 2012 Holiday Soiree on Dec. 11 @ Museum of the City of New York
Perfecting Your Business Development Strategies on Dec. 12 @ Anchin
Ultra Light Startups: Investor Feedback Forum on Dec. 13 @ Microsoft
StartupBus: Accelerate NYC 2012 on Dec. 15 @ The Alley
December NY Enterprise Technology Meetup on Dec. 18 @ Cooley
Windows 8 Launch Celebration! on Dec. 18 @ 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.

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! ;)

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of Gary's Guide 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 was all about hacks, hacking and hackathons. But guess what? We aren't done yet! There's much more hacking goodness coming your way. :)

First up, my buddy Greg Gopman is bringing AngelHack back to New York City next month, on November 17. This time, Angelhack is bigger than ever (2,500 hackers across 11 cities). Winners will be put through AngelHack's six-week Hackcelerator program and flown to Silicon Valley to present to A-list judges like AngelList's Naval Ravikant, Robert Scoble, and Google Venture's Wesley Chan, competing for over $650,000 in prizes. So go sign up!

Ad Age and the Food Network are joining forces to hack the food industry. They're calling on the best and brightest tech startups and entrepreneurs to evolve the Food Network’s local strategy.

AT&T is organizing the Aspire Mobile App Hackathon this Friday, in partnership with the Mayor’s Truancy Task Force and NYC Digital. The admirable goal? Improving attendance rates in New York City’s public schools.

The Shared Learning Collaborative (SLC) is organizing a Camp and Codeathon on October 20, bringing together educators and developers to work together in creating new applications for teaching and learning and to identify quality online content for the classroom.

M_RGE is trying to flip the traditional hackathon model on its head by having designers pitch developers--because design should be as important in winning as technology.

If you're a hacker who's into machine learning, then Machine Learning + NuoDB is the event for you. Speaker John Myles White literally wrote the book on Machine Learning for Hackers.

And finally, Hack 'n Jill have joined forces with the NY Tech Meetup, Girl Develop It, and Control Group to organize Hacksgiving, a hackathon for social, global, and greater good to address big issues, improve inefficient systems and make the future better together.

This week is also Beyond Beta, a series of events that are part of an extended version of Brooklyn Beta (the small but friendly web conference). There are open houses (Union Square Ventures, Birchbox, 10gen), talks (Hack+Startup, Betaworks: The Slow Web), happy hours (Chloe+Isabel) and more.

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

Music:Tech Meetup
Demos by Conduit, CyberPR, GeoRiot, Groovebug and SwarmFM.
Monday (Oct. 8), 7 p.m. @ Knitting Factory, 361 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn

LearnVest LIVE
With fashion designer Cynthia Rowley, Marie Claire editor Joanna Coles, Top Chef judge Gail Simmons, Gilt Groupe cofounder Alexandra Wilkis Wilson and others.
Tuesday (Oct. 9), 5 p.m. @ Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street

Founders@Fail: How To Bring Bad News to Your Investors
With Danny Schultz (DFJ Gotham), Andrew Cleland (Comcast Ventures), Rudina Sesari (Fairhaven Capital) and Owen Davis (SeedStart).
Tuesday (Oct. 9), 7 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway, 4th Floor

October 2012 NY Tech Meetup
You know the drill. Five-minute cutting-edge tech demos. 850 fellow NY Tech startuppers. One amazing event!
Tuesday (Oct. 9), 7 p.m. @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts, 566 Laguardia Place

Brooklyn Beta
A small, friendly web conference aimed at the "work hard and be nice to people" crowd.
Wednesday (Oct. 10), 10 a.m. @ Invisible Dog, 51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn

Navigating the Digital World
Featuring New York City Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne Haot.
Thursday (Oct. 11), 8:30 a.m. @ Bakehouse, 113 Horatio Street

PandoMonthly Presents: A Fireside Chat with Dennis Crowley
Dennis Crowley is the cofounder and CEO of Foursquare. You may know him from ads for BestBuy and Gap, as well as pretty much every story ever about the ascendency of New York's tech scene.
Thursday (Oct. 11), 6 p.m. @ Projective L.E.S., 72 Allen Street

Investor Feedback Forum
Investor panelists include Avi Fogel (Majorlee Investments), Rahul Gandhi (High Peaks Venture Partners), Bradley Harrison (Brad Harrison Ventures) and Habib Kairouz (Rho Capital Partners). Startup pitches by ACE Group, Jamplify, NestEgg, FreeTheFrame, Grafighters, MeebleMail, Fiestah, Delve and Flavorpill Gel.
Thursday (Oct.11), 6:30 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 6th Avenue

German Innovation Showcase German Tech meets Silicon Alley
Investor panel includes Yanev Suissa (New Enterprise Associates), Mark Fasciano (Canrock Ventures) and Thatcher Bell (DFJ Gotham Ventures). Presenters include Florian Roellig (Poachee), Danny Schaarman (T!M Solutions), Rolf Henning (Edicos) and others.
Thursday (Oct. 11), 6:30 p.m. @ Greenhouse, 150 Varick Street

[Beyond Beta] Chloe + Isabel Happy Hour with VC Q&A
Chloe + Isabel will join forces with General Catalyst VC Jonathan Teo to discuss emerging business model trends in technology startups during a short Q&A.
Thursday (Oct. 11), 6:30 p.m. @ Chloe + Isabel, 122 Hudson Street

[Beyond Beta] Hack+Startup by First Round Capital & Facebook
First Round Capital and Facebook are bringing together engineering leaders to direct technical discussions on crafting superior software.
Thursday (Oct. 11), 6:30 p.m. @ Crosby St Hotel - The Screening Room, 79 Crosby Street

James Altucher and Jerry Colonna: Finding Your Way as an Entrepreneur
An evening of conversation with blogger James Altucher and CEO coach Jerry Colonna ... at a church. You cannot miss this!
Thursday (Oct. 11), 7 p.m. @ Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 150 W. 83rd Street

AT&T Aspire Mobile App Hackathon
Have an idea for an app to improve attendance rates in New York City’s public schools? Then attend this special edition of AT&T Mobile App Hackathon, organized with NYC Digital and the Mayor’s Truancy Task Force.
Friday (Oct. 12), 6 p.m. @ AT&T, 33 Thomas Street

Film Experience Hackathon
Judges include Christina Warren (Mashable), Marc Schiller (Bond Strategy and Influence), Craig Hatkoff (Tribeca Enterprises), Lance Weiler (Filmmaker), Julia Kaganskiy (Creators Project) and Jessica Brillhart (Google Creative Labs).
Saturday (Oct. 13), 9 a.m. @ Meet at the Apartment, 101 Crosby Street

More events on the horizon...
Pivot Conference on Oct 15 @ Crowne Plaza Times Square
Entrepreneurs Roundtable 52 on Oct 16 @ NYU Stern
October NY Enterprise Technology Meetup on Oct 17 @ Cooley
Talk NYC Presents: 2nd Annual Tech Madison Avenue Conference on Oct 17 @ Crosby Street Hotel
Queens Tech Meetup 4 on Oct 17 @ See Exhibition Space
The Future is Robotics + Software on Oct 18 @ Venue
Ignite NYC 15 - Truth is a Moving Target: Oddities Anomalies and Wonders with Data on Oct 22 @ Sheraton New York Hotel
New York Software Engineers (NYSE) Job Fair on Oct 23 @ AlleyNYC
NYTECH Presents: Apple vs. Samsung: What The Case Means to Software Development and UX Design on Oct 23 @ Morgan Stanley
Protect Your Code | IP Law + Founders Experiences on Oct 25 @ AlleyNYC
All Things D: Dive Into Mobile on Oct 29 @ The Ritz-Carlton Battery Park
Hack'n Jill: Hacksgiving on Nov 09 @ Appnexus
AngelHack Fall 2012 New York City on Nov 17 @ The AlleyNYC

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 Gary's Guide 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.

The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is looking for the most creative, innovative and amazing infographics to illuminate the fact that New York City is the best city in the world for business. Enter the NYC Best for Business Infographic Design Competition to win cash prizes, get a poster size print of your work signed by Mayor Bloomberg, have your work viewed by tens of thousands of people, and earn bragging rights as the City's top infographic designer. Infographics must incorporate the dataset provided by NYCEDC. Submission are due September 21.

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

Designing News You Can Use (for iPad)
D.W. Pine (Time), Dirk Barnett (Newsweek Daily Beast) and Josh Klenert (Huffington Post) share their strategies for designing news for multiple platforms. Moderated by Joe Zeff (designer of The Final Hours of Portal 2, Solar System for iPad and The Elements for iPad).
Monday (Sept. 10), 6:30 p.m. @ Huffington Post , 770 Broadway, 6th Floor

A NYC Gaming Conversation: Music + Games
With Bill Wilson (VP digital strategy & business development, NARM), Sinjin Bain (VP business development, EA), Cheryl Gehbauer (head of licensing, Harmonix Games), Dave Pettigrew (SVP of music licensing, Warner Chappell Music) and Amanda Santana (director of music licensing & brand partnerships, Warner Brothers Records). Moderated by Andie Simon (former SVP interactive media, Warner Music Group).
Monday (Sept. 10), 7 p.m. @ William and Anita Newman Conference Center, Baruch College, 151 E 25th Street, Room 750

September Enterprise Technology Meetup (ft Enterprise VC Panel)
Panelists include David Aronoff (general partner, Flybridge Capital Partners), Matt Turck (managing director, Bloomberg Ventures), Jeanne M. Sullivan (general partner, StarVest Partners), Raju Rishi (venture partner, Sigma Partners) and Mark Birch (angel investor). Demos by Digital Reasoning and Smartling.
Tuesday (Sept. 11), 6 p.m. @ Cooley, 1114 Avenue of the Americas

Digital Money Unconference-- From NYPAY and Consult Hyperion
Panelists include Brett King (author, Bank 2.0, and cofounder, Movenbank), Dave Birch (director, Consult Hyperion; chair of London's annual Digital Money Forum), James Anderson (SVP mobile, MasterCard), Steve Mott (BetterBuyDesign), Duncan Goldie-Scot (Board Member, Microfinance Club NY), Alberto Jimenez, (director global mobile solutions, Citi), Marc Hochstein (executive editor, American Banker) and Deborah Baxley (principal, Capgemini).
Tuesday (Sept. 11), 10 a.m. @ Google , 111 8th Ave

Silicon Valleys Power Broker in NYC, 1 Night Only
Twitter, Dropbox, Facebook, Path, Pinterest and Square all have one thing in common.... they're represented by the myth, the legend, THE power broker of Silicon Valley - Ted Wang.
Tuesday (Sept. 11), 6:30 p.m. @ The Alley, 500 7th Avenue

September 2012 NY Tech Meetup
You know the drill by now. 5-min rapid-fire demos. A bunch of amazing new startups. Now hopefully you've managed to snag one of those elusive tickets!
Tuesday (Sept. 11), 7 p.m. @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts, 566 Laguardia Place

Ignite NYC 14: Fails, Facepalms, and Spinouts: Stories from the Other Side of Failure
Including such talks as College Dropouts: Kanye West, Steve Jobs & Me, Who's Afraid of Salt, Failure Club and Nobody Knows I'm a Superstar.
Wednesday (Sept. 12), 6:30 p.m. @ Tishman Auditorium, 66 W 12th Street

BigScreen LittleScreen September Classic
On the agenda are On My Block Films (Mary Crosse), Glove and Boots (Vincent Bova and Damien Eckhardt-Jacobi), Lego Monster Fighters (Steve Lettieri), Tracy Morgan in 140 Characters (Matt Semel) and Brokelandia (Eric Silver).
Wednesday (Sept. 12), 6:30 p.m. @ Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, 636 11th Avenue

Enterprise Insights: Working with Big Brands
With Alex Horovitz (Partner & COO, AppOrchard), Art Chang (Founder & CEO, AppOrchard), Shawn Cheng (Digital Strategist, BBDO), Tad Martin (Co-founder & CEO, Collective[i]) and Amit Avner (Co-founder & CEO, Taykey).
Thursday (Sep 13), 6 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 Avenue of the Americas

Investor Feedback Forum
Investor Panelists include Somak Chattopadhyay (partner, Tribeca Venture Partners), Owen Davis (managing director, NYC Seed) and Danny Schultz (cofounder & managing director, DFJ Gotham Ventures). Startup pitches by Dimitris Alexiou (Cargofy), Aubrey Levy (Mobcaster), Michael Weinberg (Wizpert), Satjot Sawhney (TapFame), Ned Gannon (eBrevia), Yori Gabay (InstallFree), Saul Hansell (Sii.TV), Jason Keck (Stereotypes) and Rohit Sood (InAJiffy).
Thursday (Sept. 13), 6:30 p.m. @ Columbia University - Schapiro Center, 530 W 120th Street

A Conversation With Columbia University's first Chief Digital Officer, Sree Sreenivasan
Thursday (Sep 13), 6:30 p.m. @ NewsCred, 27 West 24th Street

More events on the horizon...

From Wall Street to Silicon Alley on Sep 19 @ General Assembly
Design for Manufacturing Summit on Sep 20 @ Dumbo Spot
Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator Demo Day on Sep 21 @ Venue
Startup Weekend NYC on Sep 21 @ AlleyNYC
Mashable Social Good Summit on Sep 22 @ 92nd Street Y
Entrepreneurs Roundtable 51 on Sep 27 @ NYU Stern Room 2-60
Daniweb Presents: Advertising, Marketing and Media Mayhem! on Oct 02 @ Slate Lounge
FOCUS100 Symposium and Pitch Bootcamp on Oct 05 @ Ogilvy & Mather
NYTECH Presents: Author Series with Andrew Blum on Oct 11 @ Citrin Cooperman
Talk NYC Presents: 2nd Annual Tech Madison Avenue Conference on Oct 17 @ Crosby Street Hotel

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