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.

Get ready, people! Summer blockbuster season is almost here, and first up is the much-anticipated Iron Man 3, which opens Friday. It already had a monster international opening ($195M in five days from 42 territories) and is the number-one film in every market. With Cinco de Mayo also on Sunday, this is going to be one fun, crazy weekend! ;)

Wanna hang out with David Aronoff (Flybridge Capital), Brad Svrluga (High Peaks Venture Partners), Andrew Cleland (Comcast Ventures) and other top investors at the Funding the Best in Global Innovation conference? Of course you do! Well, you're in luck, because I have two free passes to the event. Hit me up!

Angelhack (a.k.a. the largest global hackathon competition) is back, yo! And this time it'll take place in Brooklyn. Last year's Angelhack NYC winner was selected for the AngelPad SF incubator. The event is on June 1. Get your tickets today (and get 35 percent off with discount code GG).

This month is Database Month, which means a bunch of cool database related events. Don't miss the Office Ninja Tech Mixer & Showcase on May 2 ($5 off with code iAMninja), Innovating for the Connected Home, Living Room and TV on May 7 (hosted by Mashable, Verizon & MIT Enterprise Forum) and the Founder and the Entity also on May 7 (learn team building and evaluating the right entity structure).

If you wanna apply to be a teacher for TEALS (a grassroots program recruiting software engineers to teach computer science to high school students), applications are due by May 1. Applications for NYC Seed Start's 3rd Accelerator class are also due by May 5, plus there's an info session this evening.

Submissions for the Innovation By Design Awards are due by May 6. The awards, a celebration of the year’s most inspiring design work, are brought to you by Fast Company and Co.Design. Finalists will be featured in the October issue of Fast Company.

Summer Stage (a program of the City Parks Foundation) is looking for an app to engage its 280,000+ attendees at an annual summer-long festival. Deadline to apply is May 8.

Wanna leverage your enterprise tech experience and smarts to advise and mentor startups? Well then, check out this initiative by the NY Enterprise Tech meetup.

Could you go offline--100% unplugged, no Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even Google--for a year? Sounds crazy, right? Well thats exactly what The Verge's Paul Miller did. He's now returning in a couple of days; what do you think he missed? Live event Tuesday at 11pm.

And finally, I'm no expert, but GarysGuide member Jennifer has pointed out that this is apparently THE time to go check out the cherry blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

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

TechCrunch Disrupt NY
Rockstar speaker list including Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures), Dennis Crowley (Foursquare), David Karp (Tumblr), Chris Dixon (Andreessen Horowitz), Bill Gurley (Benchmark), Jonah Peretti (Buzzfeed) and others.
Monday (Apr. 29), 9 a.m. @ The Manhattan Center, 311 W. 34th Street

Startup Grind NYC
With Bob Dorf (author, The Startup Owner's Manual)
Monday (Apr. 29), 6 p.m. @ Pivotal Labs, 841 Broadway, 8th Fl.

Himelberg Speaker Series
The Story of Chobani Yogurt with founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya (a.k.a. "the Steve Jobs of yogurt")
Monday (Apr. 29), 6 p.m. @ NYU Stern School of Business, 44 W. 4th Street, 11th Fl.

NYC SeedStart Enterprise Accelerator: Info Session
Monday (Apr. 29), 7 p.m. @ NYU-Poly Incubator, 137 Varick Street, 2nd Fl.

US Israel Business Council (USI) Presents: TechCrunch Innovation Roadshow
Meet 17 Israeli and Brazilian startups participating at TechCrunch Disrupt. Panelists include Brian Feinstein (Bessemer), Roi Carthy (Initial Capital) and Ron Yekutiel (CEO, Kaltura).
Tuesday (Apr. 30), 6 p.m. @ Morgan Stanley, 1985 Broadway

IDEAS CITY Conference
Exploring the future of cities. Keynote by Joi Ito (Director, MIT Media Lab)
Wednesday (May 1), 9 a.m. @ The Great Hall at Cooper Union, 7 E. 7th Street

[Database Month] Future of 21st Century Databases
With Eliot Horowitz (cofounder & CTO, 10gen / MongoDB), Barry Morris (founder & CEO, NuoDB) and Bob Wiederhold (president & CEO, Couchbase).
Wednesday (May 1), 6:30 p.m. @ AOL, 770 Broadway, 6th Fl.

TechCocktail NYC Mixer & Startup Showcase
Thursday (May 2), 6:30 p.m. @ Projective Space L.E.S., 72 Allen Street

Queens Tech Meetup 7
Mobile Tech with Sonar, WeHostels, Uber, Tracks and AT&T.
Thursday (May 2), 7 p.m. @ Hunter's Point Plaza, 47-40 21st Street, 10th Fl., Long Island City

Insight@NYU
With Justin Stefano (cofounder & co-CEO, Refinery29), Jason Baptiste (founder, OnSwipe), Zeeshan Zaidi (founder, HostCommittee), Gregory Besner (CFO, SecondMarket) and others.
Friday (May 3), 9:30 a.m. @ Helena & Martin Kimmel Center for University Life, 60 Washington Square S.

Mothers (hack) Day
A one-day hackathon to build apps for your moms.
Saturday (May 4), 8:30 a.m. @ The Alley NYC, 500 7th Ave, 17th Fl.

NYC BigApps Healthy Living + Lifelong Learning Hackathon
Mega-hackathon, taking over two floors of the Huffington Post, for teams competing in two competition tracks: Healthy Living and Lifelong Learning. $10,000 in prizes. Nice!
Saturday (May 4), 10 a.m. @ Huffington Post, 770 Broadway

More events on the horizon...
Innovating for the Connected TV, Living Room and Home on May 7 @ Hotel Yotel
Women Entrepreneurs Rock the World 2013 on May 8 @ Altman Building
New York Digital Health Accelerator Demo Day on May 8 @ The TimesCenter
Investor Feedback Forum on May 9 @ Microsoft
Funding the Best in Global Innovation III on May 16 @ Dentons
NYC Tech Picnic - 2013 Kick Off on May 19 @ Chelsea Piers, Pier 63
Opportunities for Mobile UX in Complex Business Models on May 23 @ Venue
AngelHack NYC - Spring 2013 on Jun 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.

Last week was crazy. First, the pope resigned (last time that happened? 1415). Then, a 55-foot-wide meteor crashed into the little Russian town of Chelyabinsk, sparking a 300-kiloton blast. Whoa. And then, an asteroid narrowly missed Earth (by a mere 17,000 miles). Yikes. Aaaand then....then everybody really went crazy and started doing the Harlem Shake! Google's doing it. So are Facebook and Linkedin. Even my friends at WeWork, BuzzFeed, CollegeHumor, NYU Stern & ERA have gotten in on the action. There's a cute puppy version and even a bookmarklet. Yup, it was a crazy, crazy week indeed!

Wanna hang out with David Pakman (Venrock), Esther Dyson (angel investor), John Frankel (ff Venture Capital) and other top investors at the Funding the Best in Global Innovation conference this Wednesday? But of course you do! I have a couple of free passes; email me if interested. (You also get 30 percent off with discount code "innovation").

My buddy Steve Rosenbaum (NYC EDC’s entrepreneur at large) is doing another virtual office hours tomorrow (12-1pm) to answer all your startup & entrepreneurship questions. Register here.

This week is Social Media Week. What does that mean? Why, a ton of social media events, of course! ;-) Three events I like are: New York City's Tech Future, The State of Civic Technology and Health Tech Innovation in NY.

This Wednesday at the Museum of Jewish Heritage is Running Away with the Band, a revealing conversation with music industry legend Ted Cohen (three decades in the business helping shape the careers of The Who, Prince, The Beach Boys, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and Van Halen). Go check it out.

Our "ULTIMATE Guide to SXSW 2013 Parties" list is shaping up quite nicely! 115 events and counting. Hopefully y'all have been smart and RSVP'd. You have, right? Here's a few you're gonna like: Klout Afternoon Delight, Innovation City, The MoPub, Metamarkets, Prolific Interactive Party, OpenWeb Pool Party and Mashable's MashBash. Rumor also has it that last year's uber-popular Conduit Corner is coming back, but this time as a carnival! Stay tuned for more details ;-)

I've been to photo hackathons, fashion hackathons, local hackathons, even food hackathons. And then, I came across a brain hackathon. Yeah, you heard that right. My buddy Ramzi Abdoch (whose team, Swatchit, won the Decoded Fashion hackathon, congrats!) told me all about it. One of the rules? Your project must involve a brain-computer interface. Yup, better watch out, the Matrix is coming, people!

A few weeks ago, I raved about the food at Danny Meyer's Maialino. Later that day, I got an email from Danny himself, appreciative of my enthusiasm. A few days ago, I ran into him in person. He remembered my comments and thanked me again. There's a lesson here for all founders and CEOs: Always be aware of your customer, appreciate their feedback (good or bad) and always make them feel special. If Danny can do it while running an empire of 24 restaurants, so can you! (I also highly recommend you check out his book, which is chock full of business wisdom).

And to all my Jewish friends, I wish you (in advance) Happy Purim! (Hope you enjoy your Se`udat Purim!)

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

[SMW] We Built This City: The State of Civic Technology
With Jessica Lawrence (New York Tech Meetup), Noel Hidalgo (Code For America), Lara Torvi (NYC Dept. of IT & Telecomm), Beth Viner (IDEO), Betsy Scherzer (NYC EDC) and others.
Tuesday (Feb. 19), 2:30 p.m. @ Bloomberg Tower, 731 Lexington Avenue

Confessions of a Social Butterfly: Managing the Future of Social Media
With Jeanette Horan (CIO, IBM), Fred Santarpia (Chief Digital Officer, Conde Nast Entertainment) and others.
Tuesday (Feb. 19), 6:30 p.m. @ Capitale, 130 Bowery

Funding the Best in Global Innovation II
With David Pakman (Venrock), Brian Cohen (New York Angels), Matt Turck (Bloomberg), Kirill Sheynkman (RTP Ventures), John Frankel (ff Venture Capital), Esther Dyson (angel investor), Ellie Wheeler (Greycroft), Adam Ludwin (RRE), Ann Li (NYCEDC) and more.
Wednesday (Feb. 20), 8:30 a.m. @ SNR Denton, 1221 Avenue of the Americas

Running Away with the Band
A revealing conversation with music industry legend Ted Cohen (three decades in the business helping shape the careers of The Who, Prince, The Beach Boys, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and others).
Wednesday (Feb. 20), 12 p.m. @ The Museum of Jewish Heritage, 33 Battery Place, The Pit

Get To Know DreamIt Ventures (Happy Hour)
Wednesday (Feb. 20), 6 p.m. @ Bulls Head Tavern, 295 3rd Avenue

NYC Data Business Meetup #13
With Mike Simone (global head, CitiData platform), Emile Werr (head of enterprise data architecture, NYSE EuroNext) and Raj Patil (former data innovation CTO, UBS). Talks by Quantopian, Plaid and ZestFinance.
Wednesday (Feb. 20), 6 p.m. @ Bloomberg Tower, 731 Lexington Avenue

The Intersection of Tech & Media in NYC
A Conversation with Rachel Haot (Chief Digital Officer, NYC)
Wednesday (Feb. 20), 6 p.m. @ TimesCenter @ The New York Times Building, 242 W. 41st Street

[SMW] Its Complicated: Dating and Relationships in the Digital Age
With Sam Yagan (cofounder & CEO, OkCupid), Brian Schechter (cofounder & Co-CEO, How About We) and others. Moderated by Joyce Chang (executive editor, Cosmopolitan).
Wednesday (Feb. 20), 9:30 p.m. @ Hearst Tower, 300 W. 57th Street

[SMW] New York Citys Tech Future
With Alan Patricof (Greycroft Partners), Ann Li (NYC EDC), Jonathan Bowles (Center for an Urban Future), Steve Rosenbaum (entrepreneur-at-large, NYCEDC) and others.
Thursday (Feb. 21), 9:30 a.m. @ Bloomberg LP, 731 Lexington Avenue

Lean Startup Meetup: Fireside Chat
With Charles Adler (Cofounder, Kickstarter).
Thursday (Feb. 21), 7 p.m. @ Meetup HQ, 632 Broadway, 9th Fl.

Queens Tech Meetup 6
With Wiley Cerilli (CEO and founder, SinglePlatform, sold to Constant Contact for over $100M). Demos by Derby Jackpot and Falcon.
Thursday (Feb. 21), 7 p.m. @ Hunter's Point Plaza, 47-40 21st Street, 10th Fl., Long Island City

Tails and Rails: Tech Innovation for Pets and People
One-day hackathon bringing together technologists to build a better life for pets. Develop apps for pet food, pet adoption and pet recreation. Hosted by Mashable and Purina.
Saturday (Feb. 23), 10 a.m. @ Harbor Room at SoHo Grand, 310 West Broadway

Assembled E-Commerce
With Shauna Mei (AHAlife), Adam Schwartz (BustedTees), Alex Taub (Dwolla), Andrew Kortina (Venmo), John Rote (Bonobos), Nihal Mehta (LocalResponse), Shan-Lyn Ma (Chloe+Isabel) and others.
Saturday (Feb. 23), 12 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.

More events on the horizon...
Entrepreneurs Roundtable 55 on Feb. 25 @ NYU Stern
Analytics Roundtable on Feb. 26 @ SNR Denton
Is Ownership Obsolete? When Sharing Isnt Enough on Feb. 26 @ Studio X NYC
The Story of the Paper App on Feb. 26 @ Huge
AIPAC Technology Division: Launch Event w/ Dan Senor on Feb. 27 @ Bloomberg Tower
IA Ventures on Leveraging Big Data on Feb. 28 @ Orrick
Mobile UX Design Four-Part Series: Theory, Science, Optimization & Design on Feb. 28 @ Venue
2nd Annual NYU Entrepreneurs Festival on Mar. 1 @ Tisch Hall
NYC EDU Startup Weekend on Mar. 1 @ Alley NYC
Startup Funeral on Mar. 1 @ New Work City
BRITE 2013 Conference on Mar. 4 @ Columbia University Lerner Hall
Founders@Fail: How To Build A Community on Mar. 4 @ General Assembly East
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

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! ;)

Dean Huttenlocher. (Photo: Jukay Hsu, via Instagram)

October's Queens Tech Meetup began with a statistic. Coalition for Queens founder Jukay Hsu announced that, since the inaugural June meeting, the group has grown to more than 800 members. While it didn't look like everyone had turned out on Wednesday night, Long Island City's See Exhibition Space was packed, with the chairs almost full and a fringe of folks standing in the back.

Getting top billing were two ambassadors from CornellNYC: Dean Dan Huttenlocher and entrepreneurial officer Greg Pass, Twitter's former CTO.

IRL, the pair are kind of an odd couple. The towering Dean Huttenlocher, clad in professorial business casual (read: a roomy, tucked-in button-down) took the mic like a natural and began holding forth. Mr. Pass stood back, arms crossed in the untucked startup uniform.

"Definitely have to shorten that bio," admitted Dean Huttenlocher as he took the mic, before launching into his spiel: "The Bloomberg administration, I think set the tone here for trying to push tech forward in New York City in all kinds of ways," he said.

"With the applied sciences initiative, at Cornell we have this amazing opportunity to back up and say, 'What should a graduate education and research campus for the twenty-first century look like?'"

For one thing, R&D (in consumer tech, anyway) doesn't quite always adhere to the pipeline model any more. The timeline has shortened, and for another, development isn't necessarily sequential anymore. Often, Mr. Huttenlocher added, "the development of new products drives new research ideas."

"That means there's this huge opportunity to tie academic research and development of new companies and new products much more closely together, not just to drive economic development but also to drive the best academic research in the world," he explained.

Next up was entrepreneurial officer Mr. Pass, who elaborated a little about how the school focuses on life after graduation and the commercial realm.

The school's curriculum, he said, will look a little more like a business school, with the early part of the week taken up with classes and the latter half devoted to "an explicit focus on entrepreneurial life and learning about what it takes to achieve real-world impact." (This, one imagines, is where the mentors will come in.) In fact, as Dean Huttenlocher later added, one of the degree programs eventually offered will be "a version of the MBA," which he described as a twelve-month accelerated program with the prerequisite that one have an advanced degree in a science or technology field.

Perhaps thanks to the rather intimate setting--the See Exhibition Space doesn't hold the hundreds that the Skirball does--the questioners didn't shy away from aggressive questions.

One asked how the school planned to keep companies in the New York area (a fair question, considering the city's investment). According to Mr. Huttenlocher, it won't be anything formal but more of a community-building matter. "The main ways that we're looking at keeping graduates in New York is tying them to New York--and I don't mean physically tying them," he quickly clarified. "Great people with great expertise are going to go where they feel they can have the most impact," and by involving mentors from the local tech community, they'll weave students into that community. Then they'll stay, where their connections are.

Another inquisitor wanted to know which of the "two different kinds of people" in the tech industry the CornellNYC campus would focus on serving. "You have the social people, and you have the tech people, and it's a rather deep dichotomy that does exist," he explained. Mr. Pass, however, disagreed with the fundamental premise of the question: "I'll agree that maybe tech people stereotypically have certain personalities that are less social, but what you're describing is a bad culture. Not all tech companies are that way." Hence, CornellNYC is going to focus on building the kind of culture where there's no such rift.

The questioner wasn't satisfied. "But is the focus of the campus going to be to bring those people [meaning the uber coders, the technically rather than socially skilled] out of their shells, or will it be to get people who are already somewhat social and give them a deeper knowledge of the tech industry?"

Mr. Pass took another pass, settling the matter by saying there's "certainly a culture fit" they're looking for--i.e., they'll select for individuals with at least a willingness to be collaborative.

Mr. Hsu, the meetup's organizer, asked about that touchiest of subjects, software patents--a timely query considering the announcement earlier this month that the Department of Commerce took the unprecedented step of placing one of its patent officers directly on the Cornell-Technion campus. "Our plan on the tech campus is not to shy away from controversy," Mr. Huttenlocher admitted with a laugh, adding "and certainly, with software patents, we've stepped right into the middle of a gigantic boxing ring." The presence of a patent officer has two roles, he explained: One is as a resource for not only the school but also the five boroughs, as well.

The second part is "really opening up a high-level dialogue between the faculty and staff and students of the tech campus, companies in New York, and the patent office, around issues of software patents and some of these controversial topics."

After the Q&A came the demos. It was an abbreviated schedule, with just three companies on the docket. First up was Paid Content founder (and Long Island City resident) Rafat Ali, introducing Skift, a content startup aimed at the travel business. Following him were Hubbl, an app for app discovery (yes, it's named after the telescope--not very startup can be Space X, okay?) and for the finale was See.Me, a creatives' platform formerly known as Artists Wanted and, incidentally, the organization behind the exhibition space where we were sitting that very minute.

Then, after just a couple more beers, everyone dispersed into the Long Island City night.

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.

Hi folks,

The Worldwide Investor Network (WIN) is organizing a first-of-its-kind two-day event on November 13 and 14, bringing together global ecosystem in which 10 top overseas accelerator graduates and exceptional startups will be engaging and pitching the New York venture community. If interested in applying, here's the link (the deadline is October 18). And for any local entrepreneurs who want to attend, use the promo code "win2012" for 30 percent off (valid until October 31).

The good folks at Taap.it are providing startup founders with free iPhone 5 cases custom engraved with their names and those of their startups. Nice! Interested? Go sign up here.

The NYC Next Idea business plan competition, now in its fourth year, is open for applications. Cash prize is $35,000, and the deadline for registration is November 9. Ideas pitched last year included smart vending machines in NYC taxis, intelligent clothes-sizing applications, and real-time marketing analytics platforms.

If you're a fan of robots, you don't wanna miss two awesome upcoming events -- The Future is Robotics + Software this Thursday (it's going to be all about robot operating systems and flying robots) and the Software Engineers Job Fair next Tuesday (which is going to have robots on patrol taking pictures!).

This Friday, October 19, is the agency edition of Walkabout NYC, where you get to go around and check out some of New York's top digital agencies such as Fueled (kickass offices!), Carrot Creative, Area 17, Campfire, Mint Digital, Attention and others. It's free, but spots are limited so make sure to RSVP soon.

It's also Social Week, and a bunch of events are part of it including PivotCon, NY Beta, BlogHer, Mobile Gaming Summit and Glimpse.

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

Reinventing Engineering Education in the 21st Century
Panelists include Jason Goodman (founder and CEO, 3rd Ward Brooklyn), Debra Sterling (founder and CEO, GoldieBlox), Max Whitney (NYC Resistor) and moderated by Daniel Pianko (partner, University Ventures).
Monday (Oct. 15), 7 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway, 4th Floor

Entrepreneurs Roundtable 52
With Akihiko Okamoto (CEO of Recruit Incubation Partners)
Tuesday (Oct. 16), 6 p.m. @ NYU Stern Room 2-60, 44 West 4th Street

EdTech Titans of Industry
A discussion with Jose Ferreira (CEO, Knewton), Greg Gunn (entrepreneur in residence, City Light Capital and cofounder, Wireless Generation), Harold Levy (MD, Palm Ventures) and Laurie Racine (founder and MD, Startl).
Tuesday (Oct. 16), 6 p.m. @ Knewton, 100 5th Avenue

Future of Fashion Emerging Startup Series #3
Presenting companies include Perch, D'Marie, ClothesHorse and HandShake. Panelists include Christina Mercando (VP of product, Hunch / eBay) and Veronika Sonsev (CEO and founder, InSparq and cofounder, Women in Wireless)
Tuesday (Oct 16), 7 p.m. @ Projective Space - L.E.S. , 72 Allen Street, 3rd Floor

October Grow Hack Meetup
Detailed growth hacking case study and demo from Patrick Ambron (cofounder and CEO, Brandyourself.com).
Tuesday (Oct 16), 7 p.m. @ AlleyNYC, 500 7th Ave, 17th Floor

Google StreetView Behind the Scenes
A look at some of the challenges and a peek at the Google Street View project from behind the scenes with Luc Vincent (engineering director, Google).
Wednesday (Oct. 17), 5:30 p.m. @ Google NYC, 111 8th Avenue

October NY Enterprise Technology Meetup
Demos by SevOne, AnyPresence, EidoSearch, GoodData, and StoryDesk.
Wednesday (Oct. 17), 6:30 p.m. @ Cooley, 1114 Avenue of the Americas

Queens Tech Meetup 4
Featuring Dean Daniel Huttenlocher (founding dean, CornellNYC) and Greg Pass (founding entrepreneurial officer, CornellNYC and former CTO, Twitter). CornellNYC is a $2 billion project to build an engineering campus on Roosevelt Island and expected to create up to 120,000 tech jobs. Meet two of the guys driving the bus.
Wednesday (Oct. 17), 7 p.m. @ See Exhibition Space, 25-25 44th Drive, Long Island City

The Business of Food E-Commerce
Demos by Ordrin, Blue Apron, Chop Chop Go and Farmigo.
Wednesday (Oct. 17), 7 p.m. @ 4food, 286 Madison Avenue

TimesOpen 2012: Bigger Data and Smarter Scaling
Speakers include Andrew Montalenti (CTO, Parse.ly), James Boehmer (manager search technology, New York Times) and Allan Beaufour (CTO, Chartbeat).
Wednesday (Oct. 17), 7 p.m. @ The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, 15th Floor

Glimpse: the Social Discovery Conference
Panelists include Greg Tseng (Tagged), Brett Martin (Sonar), Jared Hecht (GroupMe), Brian Schechter (HowAboutWe), Anna Thomas (LooseCubes) and others.
Thursday (Oct. 18), 6 p.m. @ Bloomberg Headquarters, 731 Lexington Avenue

MeetMoi + Social Exposure Media Present: The Venetian Masquerade Ball
A seductive celebration of the fall, new beginnings and new people. Venetian inspired cocktails, gift bags and an alluring surprise.
Thursday (Oct. 18), 8 p.m. @ Parlor New York, 286 Spring Street

Mobile Gaming Summit 2012 NY
With Chieh Huang (Zynga), Nihal Mehta (Eniac Ventures), Adam Ludwin (RRE), Alex Betancur (JumpRamp Games) and others.
Friday (Oct. 19), 9 a.m. @ Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place

Ladies Who Code Conference
Keynotes include Molly Holzschlag (Open Web Evangelist), Vanessa Hurst (Developers for Good), Emma Persky (Google), Tracy Pesin (Bit.ly) and others.
Saturday (Oct 20), 10 a.m. @ Bloomberg, 731 Lexington Avenue

More events on the horizon...

Future of Web Design (FOWD) NYC on Oct 22 @ New World Stages
New York Software Engineers (NYSE) Job Fair on Oct 23 @ AlleyNYC
Apple vs. Samsung: What The Case Means to Software Development and UX Design on Oct 23 @ Morgan Stanley
Legal Essentials for Startups: Organizing the Entity on Oct 25 @ Anchin
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
#Startupfix at Culturefix - Oct 30 on Oct 30 @ Culturefix
Daniweb Presents: Publishers meet Advertisers Cocktail Mixer on Nov 07 @ Highland Park
Funding The Best In Global Innovation on Nov 13 @ SNR Denton
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.

K-pop singing sensation Psy's "Gangnam Style" video (you know, the one with the horse dance) just blew past 250 million views and recently set a Guinness World Record for most-liked video on Youtube--and yet it shows no signs of slowing down. So some of my Silicon Valley friends decided to join in on the fun and create their very own "Gangnam STARTUP Style!" version :)

This West Coast reinterpretation stars Ben Parr, Dave McClure, Danielle Morrill, Seth Bannon, Kate Click, Chris Saad, Heather Meeker, Amy Higgins and a whole bunch of folks. Highlights include Dave McClure wearing a giant bowtie and a skirt (or is that a kilt?), David Hornik's cameo appearance on a bicycle and the inimitable Ben Parr channeling Psy (outside Google's Android building) so well he just might have a new career on his hands!

Missed the ERA demo day last week? No worries! Betabeat has you covered with a round-up of the latest class of startups, including Bizodo, Jetaport, Juniper & Trade, VidRocket, Houdini, CaterCow, AngelPolitics, SaleMove, Healthy Chic and mxHero.

A couple of my friends, Charlie Kemper (Revel Partners, ERA) and Shai Goldman (Silicon Valley Bank), are organizing a two-day kiteboarding event on October 6 and 7, bringing together entrepreneurs and founders for a great mix of kitesurfing and networking in the Hamptons. Interested? Go check it out!

Don't forget, next week is Advertising Week, with a ton of panels and parties happening all over town.

Peter Bell (SVP engineering, General Assembly) with my friend Kathryn Minshew (founder and CEO, The Daily Muse) will be doing a free livestream this Friday at 3:30p.m. on the topic of How To Create A Great Presentation.

Wix Lounge invites you to apply for their Design-a-Wix-athon, a contest pitting fifty designers against one another to see who can build the most face meltingly awesome website using Wix.com in just one hour. (Plus, there's a cash prize of $500.)

And in totally random (but awesome) bit of news, here's a snapshot of two Starfleet captains--Kirk and Picard, specifically--complaining about their cable service on Twitter.

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

Social Entrepreneurship Party
With Reshma Saujani (former deputy public advocate and founder, Girls Who Code), Nihal Mehta (cofounder & CEO, LocalResponse), Dave Kerpen (cofounder & CEO, Likeable Media) and Caroline Ghosn (founder & CEO, Levo League).
Monday (Sept. 24), 6 p.m. @ Likeable Media, 240 W. 37th St., 7th Floor

Muck Rack's #MuckedUp in NYC with NBC News
Muck Rack cofounder (and Shorty Awards co-creator) @Gregory Galant will lead a conversation with the amazing NBC News Social Media Team.
Monday (Sept. 24), 6 p.m. @ NBC News, 30 Rockefeller Plaza

NYC Data Business Meetup #8
With Dwight Merriman (CEO & cofounder, 10Gen), Arnab Gupta (CEO and founder, Opera Solutions) and K Young (CEO and cofounder, Mortar Data).
Monday (Sept. 24), 6 p.m. @ Bloomberg LP, 731 Lexington Ave, 7th Floor

Coming To America: Immigration Entrepreneurship & the Economy
With Congressman Michael Grimm (introduced the Startup Act into the House in May), Robert Greifeld (CEO, Nasdaq OMX), Liz Elkiss (U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service), Kate Hipwell (Regional Director of the Americas, UK Border Agency) and Dario Mutabdzija (cofounder & President, Blueseed).
Monday (Sept. 24), 6:30 p.m. @ New York Law School, 185 W. Broadway

Personal Democracy Media Presents: An Evening with Steven Johnson
Author Steven Johnson discusses his new book, Future, Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age. Other speakers include Beth Noveck (first US Deputy CTO and founder, White House Open Gov Initiative), Tina Rosenberg (New York Times) and Clay Shirky (bestselling author and NYU Professor of Interactive Telecommunications).
Monday (Sept. 24), 7:30 p.m. @ New York Law School, 185 W. Broadway

Enterprise Insights: Go Big (Data) Or Go Home
Panelists include Edouard Servan-Schreiber (director for solution architecture, 10gen), Richard Daley (founder & chief strategy officer, Pentaho), Patrick Angeles (solutions architect, Cloudera) and Kathleen Rohrecker (director of marketing, Revolution Analytics). Moderated by Andrew Brust (big data blogger for ZDNet and CEO, Blue Badge Insights).
Tuesday (Sept. 25), 6 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, 6th Floor

Open Hardware Summit 2012
The world’s first comprehensive conference on open hardware, a venue to discuss and draw attention to the rapidly growing open-source hardware movement.
Thursday (Sept. 27), 8:30 a.m. @ Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st St.

Entrepreneurs Roundtable 51
With guest speaker Raju Rishi (Sigma Partners).
Thursday (Sept. 27), 6 p.m. @ NYU Stern, 44 West 4th St., Rm 2-60

Fast Company Event at Aloft Harlem // Destination Design
With Geoff Cook (Base Design New York), Kelsey Falter (PopTip) and Chris Paik (Thrive Capital).
Thursday (Sept. 27), 6 p.m. @ Aloft Harlem, 2296 Frederick Douglass Blvd

Queens Tech Meetup 3
Presenters include Amol Sarva (Founder of Virgin Mobile USA, Angel Investor and Founder, Cfund), Sonar (a mobile social discovery app), Storybox (a social collaging tool) and Rukkus (an event ticketing platform).
Thursday (Sept. 27), 7 p.m. @ Hunter's Point Plaza Rooftop, 47-40 21st St., 10th Floor, Long Island City

Startup Grind NYC
With Scott Kurnit (founder of About.com and Keep.com). Scott led About.com as CEO through IPO and its growth to a public market value of $1.5 billion.
Thursday (Sept. 27), 7:30 p.m. @ The Alley, 500 7th Ave

NYC Startup Job Fair
Connecting qualified students and recent graduates with exciting and innovative New York-based startups.
Friday (Sep 28), 1 p.m. @ World Trade Center 7, 250 Greenwich St

Cleanweb Hackathon NYC
The opportunity to apply web, mobile and social media technologies to resource constraint issues, such as energy, waste, transporation, and water efficiency.
Friday (Sept. 28), 7 p.m. @ AlleyNYC, 500 7th Ave, 17th Floor

2012 World Maker Faire New York
MAKE magazine's 3rd Annual Maker Faire in New York, showcasing creative and resourceful people in the areas of science and technology, engineering, food, and arts and crafts.
Saturday (Sept. 29), 10 a.m. @ New York Hall of Science, 47-01 111th Street, Queens

More events on the horizon...
NYTECH Presents: Content Marketing: Beyond Liking and Tweeting on Oct 02 @ Anchin
Daniweb Presents: Advertising, Marketing and Media Mayhem! on Oct 02 @ Slate Lounge
Feast Conference Hackathon on Oct 04 @ Eyebeam
Growth Hacking with Noah Kagan on Oct 04 @ AlleyNYC
FOCUS100 Symposium and Pitch Bootcamp on Oct 05 @ Ogilvy & Mather
Investor Feedback Forum on Oct 11 @ Microsoft
Talk NYC Presents: 2nd Annual Tech Madison Avenue Conference on Oct 17 @ Crosby Street Hotel
Ignite NYC 15 - Truth is a Moving Target: Oddities Anomalies and Wonders with Data on Oct 22 @ Sheraton New York Hotel
All Things D: Dive Into Mobile on Oct 29 @ The Ritz-Carlton Battery Park
Ad:Tech New York on Nov 07 @ Javits Convention Center

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. and Godspeed, Neil Armstrong--a pioneering astronaut, American icon and international hero, who on July 20, 1969, became the first man to set foot on the moon, making history and instilling a deep sense of pride in every man, woman and child on earth. As Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted: "Neil Armstrong was the spiritual repository of spacefaring dreams & ambitions. In death, a little bit of us all dies with him."

In more earthly concerns, it looks like a ton of Silicon Alley folks have submitted panels for consideration for SXSW 2013 this year. Here's the comprehensive list we've compiled, based on your emails and feedback. Go show some love for these panels with your valuable votes. Remember, the deadline for voting is August 31.

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

What are Funders Looking For in Strong Startups
With Brian Cohen (chairman, New York Angels), Ben Lin (managing partner & COO, Greak Oaks Venture Capital) and Steve Brotman (managing partner & founder, Silicon Alley Venture Partners)
Monday (Aug. 27), 6:30 p.m. @ Foley & Lardner LLP, 90 Park Avenue, 39th Floor

Reddit Entrepreneur/Startup Meetup
With presentations like, "How I quit my job to start my startup," "Things I wished I knew before I quit my day job," "How I used kickstarter to finance my startup"... You get the idea.
Monday (Aug. 27), 7 p.m. @ WeWork Labs, 175 Varick St., 4th Floor

Beer and Social Media! Joios and Digital MBA Talk and Taste.
Eight interesting beers will be featured, plus remarks from Chris Gallant, founder of the Bronx Brewery.
Tuesday (Aug. 28), 6:30 p.m. @ City Tavern, 22 E 13th St.

Second Hardware Startup Meetup!
Speakers include Jeff Glasse (CEO, Kogeto), Charley Hendee (CTO, Tactonic Technologies) and Diego Vargas (CTO, Wattvision)
Tuesday (Aug. 28), 7 p.m. @ Collab, 304 Hudson St.

North Brooklyn Breakfast Club
With Shelley Bernstein (Brooklyn Museum), Seth Porges (Cloth) and Jose Serrano-McClain (Trust Art).
Wednesday (Aug. 29), 9:30 a.m. @ Enid's, 560 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn

GreenspaceNYC Hackathon
With focus on several sustainability use-case scenarios, such as mapping green building resources in New York City.
Wednesday (Aug 29), 3 p.m. @ Wix Lounge, 10 West 18th St., 2nd Floor

State of the Startup Industry: Design
Featuring Dan Maccarone (cofounder of Charming Robot and Hard Candy Shell) and Matias Corea (cofounder & chief designer of Behance).
Wednesday (Aug. 29), 7 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway, 4th Floor

Queens Tech End of Summer Drinks
Have drinks, meet interesting techies, learn about tech projects in Queens, and collaborate on exciting ideas.
Wednesday (Aug. 29), 7 p.m. @ Alewife, 5-14 51st Avenue, Long Island City

Websdays Rooftop Pool Party w/ Sailthru
A rooftop pool party at Thompson LES, featuring an open Wodka Vodka bar. Yes, that does sound awesome.
Wednesday (Aug. 29), 7:30 p.m. @ Thompson LES, 190 Allen St.

New York Mobile App Developer (MAD) Meetup
(Reverse) pitches by PaperTrail, Postable, Tappible, OneTok and TapFame.
Thursday (Aug. 30), 7 p.m. @ Magnani Caruso Dutton, 138 West 25th Street, 4th Floor

More events on the horizon...
NY Games Conference on Sep 05 @ Museum of Jewish Heritage
September NY FinTech After-party and Networking on Sep 05 @ Butterfield 8 Restaurant & Lounge
2012 Tech Does Fashion Week (#TDFW): A Kickoff Party on Sep 07 @ AlleyNYC
Comedy Hack Day on Sep 08 @ Pivotal Labs NYC
Digital Money Unconference-- From NYPAY and Consult Hyperion on Sep 11 @ Google
FinovateFall 2012 on Sep 12 @ Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
Investor Feedback Forum (New York) on Sep 13 @ Columbia University - Schapiro Center
Design for Manufacturing Summit on Sep 20 @ Dumbo Spot

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

Represent. (Photo: flickr.com/edogisgod)

Hot on the heels of launching the borough's own tech meetup and the announcement of new tech classes launching in the fall, the Daily News reports that the Coalition for Queens is partnering with a Long Island City packaging company in an attempt to create a new tech incubator.

All that talk of Brooklyn must've lit a fire under someone.

The coalition and the company Plaxall (which sounds like the corporate villain in a Ridley Scott flick) have submitted a project proposal to the local Regional Economic Development Council for an Anable Basin Tech Incubator. But before anyone packs up to move, we should note that the plan will have to compete with many, many other proposals for state funding.

The likely home would be one of Plaxall's warehouses, near the riverfront and right off Vernon Boulevard--and right across the water from CornellNYC:

“Our goal is to turn western Queens into a tech hub for New York City,” said Plaxall President Andrew Kirby. “It could help to attract the best and brightest of young innovators to the city to live and work and create exciting new businesses.”

But, of course, this wouldn't be a New York tech story without some element of whimsy:

Plaxall and the Coalition are also exploring turning an old ferry boat into a floating beer garden, Kirby said. They are also look to host weekend markets on a parking lot nearby.

Anything to keep people from noticing that sketchy strip under Queensboro Plaza, a mere 15-minute walk away. We can't see startup folk frequenting the gentlemen's club Scandals (please note that proper pronunciation requires a husky whisper).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Queens Tech Meetup Rooftop Reception

Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian stood at the front of a large room at the Hunters Point Plaza Penthouse in Long Island City, and looked out over the rows of tables set up for various startups based in the borough that, let’s be honest, doesn’t always have the best rep in the city.

“The New York tech community is just starting. There’s so much awesome stuff happening in all of New York City,” he said. “The only issue I’ve got is there’s a lot of it going on right around here.” He pointed to a map of Manhattan.

Speakers and guests alike welcomed the idea of Queens becoming a new hub for digital startup companies at last night’s inaugural Queens Tech Meetup. The crowded venue, which featured a rooftop deck looking out over an impressive view of the Manhattan skyline, attracted young professionals in the tech field who exchanged business cards constantly throughout the night.

Elias Roman, co-founder of Songza, a streaming music play list service, was equally enthused about the budding tech community in Queens. “After we got our first company funded, we moved the whole team to Long Island City and we could not be happier,” he said.

The Queens Tech Meetup is hosted by Coalition for Queens, a nonprofit focused on developing the local tech community. New York’s tech startups are concentrated heavily in Union Square and Flatiron, with Facebook and Twitter on the Upper West Side and a few hip hubs in Soho (Thrillist, Kickstarter), the West Village (Betaworks) and even Chinatown, where a few companies are clustered in a ratty building they call the “Silicon Sweatshop.” Brooklyn has got the startup bug, with hubs popping up in Dumbo and Williamsburg. Even Hoboken is making a name for itself with the New Jersey Tech Meetup, which now has almost 2,000 members.

Long Island City, primarily known for the Citi tower and, according to Wikipedia, it’s “rapid and ongoing gentrification,” is not generally thought of as a tech startup scene.

“This is a great location, I don’t know why this hasn’t become a more popular area,” said Michael Hillmeyer, an Ozone Park, Queens native and technology software developer. He came to the event because it seemed interesting and he has faith in the potential for Queens, and especially Long Island City, to build up in the next few years.

Marleen Vogelaar, COO of Shapeways, a 3-D printing company that is in the process of moving its production site to Long Island City, also presented, bringing along some 3D-printed jewelry pieces, a tiny espresso cup and an iPhone case.“When I came off the subway here from Manhattan for the first time, I just gravitated to Long Island City,” she said. “It’s a good fit for our company; it’s both an industrial and artistic community, it suits us.”

Brief Q&A sessions with each of the presenters followed the presentations. The remainder of the night consisted of demos by each of the companies that attended the meetup.

Jukay Hsu, founder of Coalition for Queens and the QTM event planner said he was happy with the event’s first turnout; he said he had to change the original venue of the event in order to fit more people. But he still hopes to see a bigger presence in the future.

“This is our first event and we had to expand our guest list multiple times,” he said. “That’s a really great indication of how big this can get and I hope this meetup continues to grow as we host more of them.”