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.

You get an Oscar. And you get an Oscar. Everyone gets an Oscar! Well, maybe not everyone, but spreading the love was very much the theme of Hollywood's big night, with awards divided fairly equally among Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Les Miserables, Django, Skyfall and others. Best photobomb goes to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and @RichardDreyfuss took home best tweet: "I always dreamed that the score of one of my films would be used to play people off at the Oscars. We did it, Steven!" :) Also, really liked Ben Affleck's heartfelt and emotional acceptance speech: "‎It doesn't matter how much you get knocked down in life, you gotta get back up." Word.

BUZZtheBar is a new mobile app (iPhone and Android) that allows you to order & pay for drinks on your phone. They're throwing an awesome launch party on March 5: classy 1940s meets modern-style boozing, games, giveaways and more! And with the discount code "GarysGuide," you can also get in for FREE. Offer only valid for the first 50 users, so ya better hurry! Once you sign up, you'll also get a $10 credit in the app. Nice. :)

Heard of Startup Chile? They give you $40,000 to spend six wonderful, relaxing months in the lovely country of Chile. Sounds crazy right? Well, of course you also have to work on your startup while there. But still--tempting. Deadline is March 11.

Speaking of $40,000, what if I told you you could get the same amount right here in New York City and in only four months? Say hello to the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator! Early application deadline is March 7.

And speaking of deadlines, applications for the Cartier Women's Initiative Awards are due by March 8.

If you have a high-school kid who's interested in tech/design, AIGA is offering a few free workshops this Sunday where they could learn how to make a mobile app, learn about graphic design or publish an e-book. This is part of their Inspire/Make Teen Program. Also check out TEALS, a grassroots program that recruits software engineers to teach computer science to high school students. Love this idea! More info here. They're looking to recruit up to 50 software engineers here in New York City and there's an information session next Monday on March 4. Interested? RSVP here.

Heard of International Business Week? They're a one-week program (March 4 to 10) bringing entrepreneurs from around the world to Israel to expose them to the nation's unique ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship. Interested? You can apply here.

Our "ULTIMATE Guide to SXSW Parties" is now at a whopping 225 events! Hope y'all have been busy RSVP'ing :) Some of the recently added parties I like: the Wall Street Journal Pool Party, Made In NY & American Express Sunset Rooftop Cocktails, Salesforce Rooftop VIP Party and the ff Massive Party. You had me at pool party!

FYI, the Red Tie for SXSW sponsorship is now sold out! But the demand is still strong so I'm opening up Overflow Sponsorship Slots on my lapels. Email me if interested!

My buddies @ General Assembly are giving away an Insider Access ticket for two to Silicon Valley. Roundtrip flights, hotel, tours of Apple, Facebook, Google, meetings with Sarah Lacy and Dave McClure and much more. Here's the link. Just promise me you'll come back to New York City. You will, right? Don't make me have to come there and get you!

Ever dreamt of having a 3D-printing pen that would let you draw sculptures in midair? Well, who says dreams can't come true? I give you The 3Doodler!

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

Entrepreneurs Roundtable 55
With Dayna Grayson (partner, NEA New Enterprise Associates)
Monday (Feb. 25), 6:30 p.m. @ NYU Stern, 44 W. 4th Street

The Elevator Pitch Roundtables and Workshop
With Brad Gillespie (IA Ventures), Micah Rosenbloom (Founder Collective), Ellie Wheeler (Greycroft Partners), Matt Witheiler (Flybridge Capital) and Lisa Wu (Norwest Venture Partners).
Tuesday (Feb. 26), 9 a.m. @ Orrick @ CBS Building, 51 W. 52nd Street, 23rd Fl.

Silicon Harlem Launch Party + Around The Way Launch Party
Silicon Harlem supports tech entrepreneurs of color and creates technology-enabled job opportunities. Come network with the Harlem Tech Community!
Tuesday (Feb. 26), 6 p.m. @ MIST Harlem, 46 W. 116th Street

Brooklyn Tech Meetup
With Mark O'Neill (CTO, Thrillist). Demos by Tutonic and Advisoray.
Tuesday (Feb. 26), 7 p.m. @ Brooklyn Law School Feil Hall, 205 State Street, 22nd Fl., Brooklyn

AIPAC Technology Division: Launch Event w/ Dan Senor
Featuring Dan Senor, coauthor of Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle.
Wednesday (Feb. 27), 6 p.m. @ Bloomberg Tower, 731 Lexington Avenue

DUMBO Startup Lab Demo Day
Panelists include Owen Davis (NYC Seed), Ryan Armburst (ff Venture) and Harrison Weber (The Next Web).
Wednesday (Feb. 27), 6 p.m. @ DUMBO Startup Lab, 68 Jay Street, #718

Engineering @ Scale: Scaling Right Media - Architecting for hypergrowth
A fireside chat with Matt Philips (cofounder, Right Media) and Brian O'Kelley (CEO, AppNexus)
Wednesday (Feb. 27), 7 p.m. @ AppNexus, 28 W. 23rd Street, 4th Fl.

Hack+Startup by First Round Capital
Bringing together engineering leaders to direct technical discussions on crafting superior software. The theme this time around is working with data.
Thursday (Feb. 28), 6:30 p.m. @ AppNexus, 28 West 23rd St, 4th Fl

Speakeasy - A New Monthly Happy Hour for Community Managers
Hosted by Tina Yip (R/GA), Zack McCune (R/GA), Sarah Judd Welch (LoyalCX), Allie MacPherson (TEXT 100) and Arielle Calderon (Gotham Inc).
Thursday (Feb. 28), 7 p.m. @ Percolate HQ, 481 Broadway, 2nd Fl.

Startup! Real Stories & Life-saving Tips
With Rick Webb (Tumblr, angel investor), Allison Goldberg (Managing Director & VP, Time Warner Investments), Ryan Freitas (cofounder, About.me), Gino Zahnd (cofounder, Cozy) and others.
Thursday (Feb. 28), 7 p.m. @ Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue

2nd Annual NYU Entrepreneurs Festival
Rockstar group of speakers including Jack Dorsey (Twitter, Square), Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures), Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines), Alexandre Douzet (TheLadders), Rachel Haot (Chief Digital Officer NYC), Dan Porter (CEO, OMGPOP) and more.
Friday (Mar. 1), 10:30 a.m. @ Tisch Hall, 40 W. 4th Street

NYC EDU Startup Weekend
Friday (Mar. 1), 6 p.m. @ Alley NYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

ITP Presents: Big Screens
Friday (Mar. 1), 6:30 p.m. @ IAC, 555 W. 18th Street

More events on the horizon...
BRITE 2013 Conference on Mar 04 @ Columbia University Lerner Hall
Founders@Fail: How To Build A Community on Mar 04 @ General Assembly East
Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator Happy Hour on Mar 04 @ Galway Pub
BUZZtheBar Launch Party! (Free with discount code GARYSGUIDE) on Mar 05 @ Hotel Chantelle
Spacebrew: A Toolkit for An Open Internet of Things on Mar 07 @ General Assembly
In NYC for SxSW? Join us for Brunch! on Mar 10 @ Venue
Unleash the Beast: How to Hack a Hackathon Save the World and Make Your Parents Proud on Mar 14 @ Internet Media Labs
Investor Feedback Forum (New York March) on Mar 14 @ Microsoft
March 2013 NY Tech Meetup on Mar 19 @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts
Mobile UX Design Four-Part Series: Theory, Science, Optimization & Design on Mar 20 @ Frankfurt Kurnit

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.

Hola folks,

Batten down the hatches. Stock up on the liquor (and food). Bring out the candles and flashlights. Because Hurricane Sandy (a.k.a. #frankenstorm) is almost upon us. And now, at almost a thousand miles wide, it definitely has our attention. Hopefully by this time y'all are safely at home (and not still slumming in Zone A) with eyes glued to the twenty-four-hour news coverage, watching weathermen expound on "cones" and "surges."

As you know, the MTA has shut down all subway and buses, and pretty much every event on Monday has been cancelled or postponed including AllThingsD's Dive Into Mobile conference, Google's Android event, Facebook's engineering open house and our own Big Apple Smackdown Silicon Alley ping-pong tournament (which will be re-scheduled).

At this time, the Tuesday events (and the rest of the week) seem uncertain too. They're still listed below, but I'd highly recommend you confirm first with the event organizers. In the mean time, stay safe, keep your fingers crossed that the storm turns out to be a mild one and don't forget to check Miguel Bloombito's Twitter feed for the latest updates!

Lots of really awesome events coming up in the next few weeks ...

November 8 is the city's preeminent startup event, Ingenuity, organized by the New York Venture Capital Association (NYVCA). Who's coming? Tim Armstrong (CEO, Aol), Julius Genachowski (chairman, FCC), Mike Richter (New York Rangers), Bob Pittman (CEO, Clear Channel), Michael Barrett (Chief Revenue Officer, Yahoo) and many more.

Also on November 8 is Red Innova, an intimate event to create a better understanding of Latin American Internet market opportunities and trends. Featured speakers include Martín Varsavsky (FON), Fabrice Grinda (OLX), Andrew Mclaughlin (Betaworks) and Matías Recchia (Vostu).

On November 9 is Capital On Stage, an unconventional conference about funding where, in a twist, top-tier investors will present themselves to the world’s finest Internet startups. David Aronoff (Flybridge), David Teten (ff Ventures), Tom Wisniewski (NY Angels), Brad Svrluga (High Peaks), Lucas Nelson (DFJ Gotham), Jahan Ali (NYC Investment Fund) and others.

My friend Shaherose Charania (Founder of Women 2.0) is organizing the highly anticipated Women 2.0 Pitch conference on November 14. Keynote speakers include female founders of Match.com, Cisco, Oxygen Network, Urban Decay and talks and panels feature women entrepreneurs who've run super successful Kickstarter projects and grown massively successful companies from the ground up. Don't miss it!

The good folks at the upcoming Angelhack hackathon (on November 17) are offering a few free tickets to GarysGuide members. Just use the discount code GG.

When the theme of an event is 'Rise of the Machines' and the keynote speaker is author Ray Kurzweil (The Singularity Is Near and the recent How To Create A Mind), all I can say is--sign me up! That would be the upcoming TEDxSiliconAlley event on December 3. Other keynoters will be Bre Pettis (founder, Makerbot), Francessca Ferrando (Philosopher of Posthumanism and visiting scholar at Columbia), Jincey Lumpkin (Attorney and Huffington Post sex columnist) and Ken Segall (creative director of Apple's "Think Different" campaign).

And if you're a startup, don't forgt to check out the "Who Would You Fund" TechStartup Challenge 2012, where I'll be one of the judges. 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.

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

The {c}0dEd Costume Carousal!
A Halloween celebration of the New York coworking startup community.
Wednesday (Oct. 31), 7 p.m. @ Alley NYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

NYC UNCUBED (Startup and Scale)
Bringing together emerging companies and talented attendees in an exciting and informative environment that showcases startup culture.
Thursday (Nov. 1), 1 p.m. @ The Altman Building, 135 W 18th Street

Food Network and Ad Age Present: Brand Hacks
Six startups will be selected to pitch partnerships, new tech and integration ideas to a panel of top Food Network execs and industry pros. The best idea receives $25,000.
Thursday (Nov 1), 6 p.m. @ Food Network Studios, Chelsea Market, 75 9th Avenue

Behind the scenes at Gawker: Publishers, Brands and Native Ads
Get the scoop on Gawker's native ad process, strategies around scaling, building effective, measurable products and more.
Thursday (Nov 1), 6 p.m. @ NewsCred, 27 West 24th Street, Ste 202

Start-Up City: If You Can Make it Here Part 2
With Josh Miller (founder, Branch), Ben McKean (cofounder & CEO, Savored), Vinicius Vacanti (cofounder & CEO, Yipit), Kathryn Minshew (CEO & cofounder, The Daily Muse), Kellee Khalil (founder, Lover.ly) and moderated by Rachel Sklar (Change the Ratio).
Thursday (Nov 1), 6:30 p.m. @ NYIT Auditorium, 1871 Broadway

State of the Startup: Politics
With Mattan Griffel, Harrison Weber, Alexis Ohanian, and Reshma Saujani.
Thursday (Nov 1), 7 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.

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 (Executive Director Digital Strategy, Condé Nast) and others.
Friday (Nov 2), 9 a.m. @ The TimesCenter, 242 West 41st Street

2012 NYU Entrepreneurs Festival
Rockstar speaker list including Jack Dorsey (cofounder Twitter and Square), Herb Kelleher (cofounder & former CEO, Southwest Airlines), Alexandre Douzet (cofounder & COO, TheLadders) and Rachel Sterne Haot (Chief Digital Officer NYC).
Friday (Nov 2), 12:30 p.m. @ Tisch Hall, 40 W 4th Street

NYC Startup Weekend FinTech Edition
Bringing together financial technologists with the goal of building consumer and enterprise financial applications with tools provided by several API and data partners.
Friday (Nov 2), 6 p.m. @ The Alley NYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

Foursquare Hackathon
Build something amazing and you might just find yourself ringing the NASDAQ closing bell, rocking tickets to SXSW, partying with an action figure version of yourself, or wearing the infamous Foursquare hackathon TITLE BELT.
Saturday (Nov 3), 9 a.m. @ Foursquare HQ, 568 Broadway

November DemoDays
Part of the NYU Entrepreneur Week. Students take the stage to showcase what they've been working on.
Saturday (Nov 3), 5:30 p.m. @ Pivotal Labs, 841 Broadway, 8th Fl.

More events on the horizon...
Founders@Fail: Pitching Publishers on Nov 5 @ General Assembly
Ad:Tech New York on Nov 7 @ Javits Convention Center
Daniweb Presents: Publishers meet Advertisers Cocktail Mixer on Nov 7 @ Highland Park
Ingenuity 2012 on Nov 8 @ New World Stages
NYTECH Fall Networking Cocktail Reception on Nov 8 @ National Showroom
Capital On Stage on Nov 9 @ Goodwin Procter at NY Times
Hack & Jill: Hacksgiving on Nov 9 @ Etsy
Funding The Best In Global Innovation on Nov 13 @ SNR Denton
Women 2.0 PITCH NYC 2012 Conference & Competition on Nov 14 @ Manhattan Center
AngelHack Fall 2012 New York City on Nov 17 @ The AlleyNYC

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