He wore a hoodie. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for The Webby Awards)

Hundreds gathered for the 17th Annual Webby Awards at Cipriani Wall Street last night in a ceremony that honored excellence on the Internet--fart jokes, GIF pronunciation debates and all.

Patton Oswalt began by observing, “Look at all these people taping this. By all means, record this shaky iPhone version, because this will never be on the Internet.”

“This whole thing was Kickstarted, but we didn’t quite make our stretch goal, so instead of Louis C.K., you have me as your host," he added.

One of the most memorable acceptance speeches came from Brandon Stanton, who won the Best Blog award for Humans of New York. Hopping onstage, all backwards cap and messenger bag, he quipped, “Still can’t pay my rent.”

Hip hop artist Frank Ocean accepted the Person of the Year award via video. Commended for using social media as a “cultural tool” and attempting to bring an end to discrimination in hip hop, he promised to come out next year to see someone else “fumble through their acceptance speech.”

The ceremony continued with a sincerely moving tribute to Aaron Schwartz, the Demand Progress founder who committed suicide earlier this year. His father, Robert, said, “I wish he was here to see this response.”

Steve Wilhite, who patented the graphic .GIF, didn’t speak at all in his Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech, but pointed to the in-house screens, which read, “It’s pronounced jiff, not gif” thus ending 25 years of speculation.

“David Karp sold his company for 1.1 billion dollars yesterday," Mr. Oswalt said. "When I was 26, I sold an ounce of weed for 140 bucks. Welcome to the club." He then proceeded to try to either pants Mr. Karp or give him a wedgie, unsuccessfully.

The Tumblr CEO was wearing dark pants and his trademark grey hoodie with the Tumblr logo on the back.

Musician Grimes, Webby’s Artist of the Year, sported hexagonal shades, platform converses, a black cotton dress and punk jewelry aplenty. According to the 25-year-old, the best thing on the Internet these days is, “Political freedom, and being able to undermine government, and all that jazz. I’m hoping that remains.” Her acceptance speech? “This is more than five words.”

Ben Stiller, an actor in the web series, was introduced as, “Ladies and gentleman, Beyoncé!” He proceeded to accept the award with a one word speech, “Grathias.”

Kevin Spacey and Dana Brunetti, founders of Trigger Street Productions, picked up the Special Achievement award for their Netflix series House of Cards and their use of technology “for creative experimentation.”

Their five choice words were, “The Oscars should do this.”

“I have absolutely no idea who’s here. I know as little as possible about what’s about to happen,” Mr. Spacey said earlier. When asked what his favorite website was, he answered, “I probably shouldn’t talk about porn.”

Accepting for Tumblr was Amandalyn Ferri, Community Outreach manager who cheered, “Fuck yeah, fuck yeah….” followed by a dejected, “Fuccck.”

Comedian Colin Quinn feigned bitterness when he presented the final award of the night to Jerry Seinfeld for Outstanding Comedic Performance in the web series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.”

“Jerry doesn’t need this award. It’s an insult to him. I need it, and I’m not getting it, and that’s life,” he said gruffly.

Seinfeld’s acceptance speech wasn’t, as Quinn predicted, “I can buy this place,” but instead, “Why five words? It doesn’t…”

Someone forgot to say thank you.

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 know what's cool? A billion dollars, that's what! Huge congrats to David Karp and the folks at Tumblr. Billion-dollar exits form the cornerstone of a thriving tech ecosystem, and this is great news for New York tech.

It's finally here! Internet Week, that is. 45,000 people are expected to attend over 400 parties with keynotes by Randi Zuckerberg, Jonah Peretti (BuzzFeed), Joe Gebbia (Airbnb) and Joan Rivers!

The hottest party during Internet Week? That would, of course, be the Webutante Ball (a.k.a. the REAL #nerdprom!) And lucky for you, I have two FREE passes to give away. Interested? Of course you are! Apply here.

In non-Internet week news, tomorrow evening at the 92Y, my buddy Jeff Pulver (entrepreneur and early-stage seed investor) will be interviewing two famous brothers: Deepak Chopra (renowned spiritual guru) and Sanjiv Chopra (dean of the Harvard Medical School). Also this week is the OpenCo Innovation Festival (a cross between an artist's open studio, a tech conference and a music festival). Over a hundred startups will open their doors including Buzzfeed, Etsy, Fab, Foursquare, Kickstarter, RapGenius, Warby Parker and others.

Coming up on May 30 is Digital DUMBO's dd:IMPACT Groundswell with panelists from VICE, The Onion, Reddit, Buzzfeed, Pulse and Digg exploring the new era of campaigns, content, storytelling, media formats, and more. Also coming up are TechDrinkup on May 30 and Angelhack (the largest global hackathon competition!) on June 1.

Remember Startup Chile? Well, now I present to you Startup Brazil! Spend six months to a year down in South America and receive up to $98,971 in the form of monthly grants. Sounds like a sweet deal, eh? And with the World Cup coming up next year, Brazil is the place to be! Deadline to apply is May 31.

FYI, deadline for the summer edition of Startup Institute NY is May 26. The deadline for applying to the Code for America accelerator is May 31.

And finally, mark your calendars for May 26, people. That's when the hotly anticipated, all-new season of Arrested Developmentfinally arrives on Netflix! My buddy Jon has put together a hack to text you the minute the show hits Netflix servers. Just text ANN to 619-EGG-VEAL. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go practice my chicken dance, check on my frozen banana stand and get hopped up on a 53-episode marathon-viewing binge. You know how it is.

Let's see what's going down in the Alley this week...

Mobile Media Upfront
Monday (May 20), 8 a.m. @ New World Stages, 340 W. 50th Street

NYU ITP Spring Show
A two-day exhibition of recent interactive media projects by the graduate students of ITP.
Monday (May 20), 5 p.m. @ NYU ITP - Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway, 4th Fl.

MOUSE@15: Celebrating 15 Years of Inspiring Innovators
Honoring Bre Pettis (Cofounder and CEO, MakerBot) and Joanne Wilson (advocate, Best Buy Children's Foundation). Speaker Christine Quinn and the NYC City Council.
Monday (May 20), 6 p.m. @ The Pier 61, Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers, 23rd Street and 11th Avenue

New York Crowdfunds 2
It's Shark Tank meets American Idol! Judges include Sabeer Bhatia (founder, Hotmail) and Earl "The Pearl" Monroe (New York Knicks, NBA Hall of Fame).
Monday (May 20), 6:30 p.m. @ WeWork Lounge, 154 Grand Street

New Yorks Next Top Makers Open Studio
Come catch up with New York’s Next Top Makers as they turn their product prototypes into businesses. With Bonus Table, MYBELL, Nautilus Bowl, Slide Table, The Power Clip and Tangeez!
Monday (May 20), 6:30 p.m. @ NYDesigns, 45-50 30th Street

Conversational Marketing (CM) Summit 2013: Bridging Data & Humanity
With Ben Silbermann (founder, Pinterest), Jonah Peretti (founder, Buzzfeed), Mike Lazerow (founder, Buddy Media), Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) and others.
Tuesday (May 21), 9 a.m. @ The Altman Building, 135 W. 18th Street

[Internet Week] POSSIBLE presents Robert Scoble: The Age of Context
Robert Scoble (tech evangelist and author) will talk about the Age of Context, a future comprised of hyper-anticipatory and personalized services.
Tuesday (May 21), 12:30 p.m. @ Alley NYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

17th Annual Webby Awards
Hosted by Patton Oswalt. Hallmark five-word speeches from Jerry Seinfeld, Grimes and Ben Stiller.
Tuesday (May 21), 6:30 p.m. @ Cipriani, 55 Wall Street

Fireside Chat with Deepak Chopra
Two famous brothers Deepak Chopra (renowned spiritual guru) and Sanjiv Chopra (dean at Harvard Medical School) interviewed by entrepreneur and early-stage seed investor Jeff Pulver.
Tuesday (May 21), 8 p.m. @ 92Y Kauffman Concert Hall, Lexington Avenue and 92nd Street

OpenCo New York
A mix between a business conference and artist's open studio with the vibe of a music festival. Over a hundred innovative businesses will open their doors including Betaworks, Buzzfeed, Etsy, Fab, Foursquare, Kickstarter, Rap Genius, Warby Parker and others.
Wednesday (May 22), 4 p.m. @ The Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 W. 18th Street

The NY Times - Technology Job Fair
Come grab a beverage, hang out with some cool tech folks and talk shop.
Wednesday (May 22), 5 p.m. @ New York Times, 620 8th Avenue, 15th Fl.

[Internet Week] A Discussion Around Content, Commerce & Curation
With Pete Cashmore (founder, Mashable), Paul Berry (founder, RebelMouse), Scott Kurnit (CEO, Keep Holdings), Christene Barberich (editor, Refinery29) and others.
Wednesday (May 22), 6:30 p.m. @ Paley Center for Media, 25 W. 52nd Street, 10th Fl.

Bitcoin and the Future of Money
With Felix Salmon (Reuters), Jaron Lukasiewicz (Coinsetter), Charlie Shrem (BitInstant) and Zach Seward (Quartz).
Wednesday (May 22), 7 p.m. @ General Assembly East, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.

The Future Of Tech Startups
Dave Morgan (founder, Simulmedia) hosts John Battelle (cofounder, Open Co) and Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures). Drinks and food will follow the conversation.
Thursday (May 23), 4:30 p.m. @ Simulmedia, 670 Broadway

The 2013 Webutante Ball
The Internet's famous party of the year is back for its fifth year of revelry! Come hang with New York's hottest startup stars, media elite, venture capitalists, and agency spies. You can't miss this!
Thursday (May 23), 8 p.m. @ Marquee, 289 10th Avenue

The Phat Startup: How To Build A Million Dollar Site
With Chris "Broadway" Romero (Cofounder of Thisis50.com)
Friday (May 24), 6 p.m. @ WeWork Labs, 175 Varick Street

More events on the horizon...
Here a MOOC There a MOOC Everywhere a MOOC MOOC! on May 28 @ Knewton
Startup Grind NYC hosts Jon Steinberg (President, BuzzFeed) on May 29 @ ThoughtWorks
Peter Shankman Speaks Live On His Newest Book - Nice Companies Finish First on May 29 @ Affect Offices
dd:IMPACT Conference Groundswell: The Next Wave of Content (presented by Digital DUMBO) on May 30 @ Galapagos Art Space
#techdrinkup - Open Bar Summer Kickoff Rooftop Party on May 30 @ XVI Lounge
AngelHack NYC - Spring 2013 on June 1 @ Huge Inc
NYC BigApps CityCamp on June 1 @ New York Law School
Bizza90s: Tweet Me Baby One More Time on June 7 @ WeWork
F.A.T. Session 2: Sales/Use Taxation for 21st Century Commerce on June 11 @ Marks Paneth & Shron
NYTECH Presents: The Truth About VC Investing in New York and How To Get Funded on June 11 @ PwC
Inbox Awesome on June 13 @ The DUMBO Loft
Future Energy Investor Feedback Forum on June 13 @ Microsoft
NYTECH Presents: The Big Data Explosion: Using Cloud Computing to Clean Up the Mess on June 26 @ 10gen
Moonwalk NYC 2013 on July 20 @ Venue

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

Photo: Cornell University

Cornell's NYC Tech Campus Scores Big Along with his wife, Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs, founding chairman and CEO emeritus of Qualcomm, announced a $133-million gift to Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Monday to build and establish the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute (JTCII). The JTCII will be a part of Cornell Tech, the new technology campus of the Ivy League school located on Roosevelt Island that was heavily supported by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City of New York. The funds will go primarily to two-year graduate programs. Now if only they can find a more efficient way to get to the island that doesn’t involve a 40-year-old gondola.

Women's Lifestyle Site Earns Funding Women's lifestyle and finance website DailyWorth announced Tuesday that it added $1 million in additional Series A financing on top of the previous $2 million earned last year. DJF Gotham led the funding, which the company will use mainly to hire bring in new key new hires. Additional investors included Gabriel Investments, 500 Startups, Robinhood Ventures, Investors' Circle, Bullet Time Ventures, Patient Capital Collaborative, Joanne Wilson, Rebecca Saeger, Carol Chow, Diego Canoso, and Mark Censits.

Amazon Originals Actually Being Watched As we covered last Friday, Amazon is entering the original television business with the company's production arm Amazon Studios releasing 14 original TV pilots. AAnd it appears the shows are doing pretty well, even if some of them weren’t particularly entertaining:  8 out of 10 of the most streamed episodes across the Amazon Instant Video platform were original Amazon programs. The new TV shows are also averaging a 4 out of 5 rating on Amazon--though if life has taught us anything, it's that Amazon reviews aren’t always the most trustworthy.

Quantifying The Best Of The Web The Webby Awards announced a partnership today with Quantcast to bring Quantcast's web tracking technologies to the Webby award process. Quantcast will also specifically help the Mobile & Apps categories with deeper insights into mobile app usage by employing Quantcast’s new Measure for Apps program. Some of this year’s Webby Award nominees for Mobile & Apps are HBO Go, Google Maps, Mailbox, Netflix App, Waze, Lady Gaga’s Workshop and NIKEiD Mobile. If only Betabeat had a mobile app, we'd be in there for sure.

Investors Earn DoD Award Three New York employers, including investment firms Drexel Hamilton and Goldman Sachs, along with the New York City Fire Department, are semifinalists for the 2013 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award, given to companies that provide extraordinary support to their Guard and Reserve employees. Benefits that these companies have excelled at include setting veteran hiring goals, establishing military employee liaisons, providing childcare for deployed employees, arranging care package drives, and granting additional leave for military employees and family members before and after deployments. Now let's see if the tech startups start opening their doors like their investors are doing.

(Photo: wikipedia.org)

Game Over? There seems to be a mass exodus at Zynga. It was reported yesterday that Wilson Kriegel, the former chief revenue officer of Omgpop, has now left the company. In the last 30 days, the company has lost its COO, CCO, and two vice presidents. Maybe it's time for them to "draw something" different, like a new management plan.

A New Hope? In much better Zynga news, the company has partnered with Food Network's Robert Irvine to help beef up its Chefville game. Mr. Irvine has introduced a series of challenges to help improve the game where you run your own restaurant. "I couldn't be more honored to have an avatar of myself and Restaurant: Impossible be a part of ChefVille," Robert Irvine said in a press release. "As we lend insight to players on what it takes to create their dream restaurant while earning my approval."

Do It Live Livestream, the live video streaming service, announced full access to its suite of live video and live blogging tools. The suite includes encoding software for Mac and PC, ad-free event pages and mobile broadcasting to the web from their Livestream for Producers iPhone app. No ads during a broadcast? Perhaps they've been inspired by Occupy Wall Street's Ustream'er Tim Pool.

Oh You Fancy Huh? Just in time for Christmas shoppers who like to get stuff done early, Fancy has just launched a group gifting platform that allows users to create a gift, invite others to contribute to it, then sends the gift to the recipient. They've also announced a partnership with American Express to help designers like Prabal Gurung sell their goods on Fancy, while giving buyers rewards like cash back for big purchases.

Droid BFF's Sonar, the friend-finding app with the cute submarine mascot, just launched a version for Android. Along with the Android release, Sonar is adding six more language options to the app. The startup also slipped in a version of the android mascot (Andy Roid) into their app to chat with new users.

Tha Envelope Plz The Webby Awards have announced some new judges for this year's ceremony including Rachel Sterne and David Karp. Other new influencers on the panel include OK Go's lead singer Damien Kulash and Laughing Squid founder Scott Beale. Sounds viral enough to us.

Not Soup In case you weren't subscribed to enough luxury-lifestyle magazines, now there's DuJour. They already have three million subscribers through a glitzy partnership with Gilt Groupe. Their site is pretty glamorous and should trigger a consumerist impulse or two.

Get The Artists Rich Louis C.K.'s novel idea of independently selling tickets to his comedy shows has sparked a new venture called Artful.ly Open Source. It allows creators to sell tickets or accept donations without going through the big ticket companies or any expensive vendors. Quick, test it out before Dane Cook makes it uncool.

Ride or Die The team from Dwolla, the app that lets you send and receive money to other users, captured their ride in a special 1920's vehicle that was part of a promotion for HBO's Boardwalk Empire. The group told a passerby to download Uber in order to book his own ride in the car. We hope there was some sort of commission?

Bach To Relevance 92nd Street Y is attempting to rebrand Johann Sebastian Bach through an interactive keyboard website. Each key has a different video that shows you something about Bach you've never thought of before, like Lady Gaga's connection to the classical man, and cats enjoying Bach.

Our Two Favorite Adjectives Quirky and Fab have teamed up to sell a slew of custom designed iPhone 5 accessories. They have some shiny colorful cases, as well as this wallet/phone case that we're really digging.

Justin Long, Richard Dreyfuss and John Hodgman at the 16th Annual Webby Awards.

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), Founder & 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@garysguide.com.

It was Monday afternoon and after spending the morning hanging out with startup peeps at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, it was time to head on over to the Hammerstein Ballroom for the 16th Annual Webby Awards (a.k.a. Oscars for the Internets!).

Thankfully the rain had stopped (it had been pouring cats and dogs and rabbits all day making everyone miserable). I groaned as I saw a long line leading up to the venue. But I wondered why everyone was wearing jeans and sneakers and carrying backpacks? Well thats cuz this was the line to catch the next bus to Jersey! I continued walking a few more steps and finally arrived at my real destination.

The lovely Shira Lazar (host of What's Trending) was on the red carpet doing what she does best - interviewing celebrities. I flashed her a smile and made my way in.

Shira Lazar with restauranteur Marc Forgione at the 16th Annual Webby Awards

Comedian Jim Gaffigan at the 16th Annual Webby Awards

I ran into my tech-scene-hopping-comrades-in-arms Scott Beale and Rusty Blazenhoff of LaughingSquid. Rusty alas is only in town for a bit and going back to San Fran tomorrow. At the bar, I bumped into Thrillist managing editor (and Webutante Ball impressario) Richard Blakeley and girlfriend Lindsay Kaplan of Chloe+Isabel. "Loved your Internet Week writeup!" said Mr. Blakeley. Ms Kaplan and I attempted to take a few photos together but the crowded bar made it awkward. My vodka tonic came in a jumbo keepsake Webby branded glass. Nice touch!

I met The Next Web's Anna Heim. Ms Heim I learnt is a polyglot French news junkie! There were quite a few familiar faces including NY Tech Meetup Chairman Andrew Rasiej, RTP Ventures Director Jalak Jobanputra, Barbarian Group Co-Founder and Angel Investor Rick Webb, 92Y Director of Digital Initiatives Leigh Ferreira, Mashable COO Sharon Hirsch, Google's Caroline McCarthy, Shorty Awards' Lee Semel, Zoe Media Group CEO Rodger Berman and of course Webby cofounders Neil Vogel and David-Michel Davies. Alongwith of course all the Webby winners (and their +1s).

Comedian Patton Oswalt hosting the 16th Annual Webby Awards (Photo: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)

And now onto my highlights of the show...

New York City's CEO / Mayor Michael Bloomberg was honored with a Webby Award for Lifetime Achievement for his work with the Bloomberg corporation. He was presented the award by Tumblr Founder and CEO David Karp. As Mr. Karp noted in his tribute speech, if it weren't for Mr Bloomberg we wouldn't have found the cost of Facebook shares until Monday. Real-time FTW, baby! Mr. Bloomberg's five word acceptance speech? "Make it here, then everywhere!" Though it would have been more amusing if he'd gone with "I Can Haz Fourth Term?" ;)

It was pretty awesome to see die-hard Knicks fan Spike Lee on stage with Knicks wunderboy sensation Jeremy Lin. To say Mr. Lee was giddy like a schoolgirl would be an understatement. "Now this my man, right here. I wore his high school jersey. Wore his Harvard jersey." said Mr. Lee. Mr Lin's five-word speech: "Internet Fans I Love You".

Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Tumblr Founder and CEO David Karp at the 16th Annual Webby Awards (Photo: Shira Lazar)

Filmmaker Spike Lee and Knicks' Jeremy Lin at the 16th Annual Webby Awards

One of my favorite highlights from the ceremony was a minute-long video montage tribute to the late legendary Apple cofounder and CEO, Steve Jobs where a bunch of famous, influential folks thanked Jobs for his contributions to technology with five-word thank you speeches including President Barack Obama ("Thank you for thinking different"), President Bill Clinton ("For Spreading American Ingenuity Worldwide"), Vice President Al Gore ("Steve Jobs was insanely great"), U2's Bono ("For Saving Lives With Red"), Jimmy Fallon ("He Made Turtlenecks Sexy Again"), Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Sarah Silverman, Arianna Huffington and a bunch of other folks. "I only need one word" said President Obama. "Amazing." Amen to that. You can watch the video here.

Actress Juliette Lewis and actor Graydon Sheppard won the Best Actresses award for their viral video "Sh*t Girls Say." Five-word speech: "We just want to thank..."

Bjork accepted the award for "Artist of the Year." What, no crazy swan dresses? Color me disappointed! Five-word speech: "A-E-I-O-U!"

Instagram (fresh off its $1 billion purchase by Facebook) won the award for Webby Breakout of the Year. Founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger were at hand to accept the award. Five-word speech: "This Here Requires No Filter".

Bjork at the 16th Annual Webby Awards

Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger at the 16th Annual Webby Awards

The Meme of the Year award went to Nyan Cat, edging out the popular "Texts from Hillary" tumblr.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who plays Jamie Lannister in the HBO series Game of Thrones) accepted an award on behalf of Greenland.com. "I think winter just came!" quipped Mr. Oswalt.

And finally, Louis C.K. won the Webby Person of the Year award. Five-word speech: "When I Die, Bye Bye". Yikes! Morbid much?

Jim Gaffigan and Louis C.K. at the 16th Annual Webby Awards

John Hodgman, Mike O'Brien, Justin Long and Jason Sudeikis loling at Webby Winners Lounge

Mayor Bloomberg and Spike Lee sharing a private moment at the 16th Annual Webby Awards

After the ceremony, as I got up, I bumped into Mr. Dreyfuss. I asked him to elaborate on some of his remarks from earlier that night regarding Facebook and Google. Ten minutes later Mr. Dreyfuss was still going strong. The guy can talk! (and enough material for another blog post or two! ;) He expounded on what he felt was the dumbing down of America and the upcoming generations and how Facebook and Google were prime suspects in making that happen. We exchanged contact info and he invited me to California to learn more about some of the initiatives he's involved in.

I said hello to Jim Gaffigan and fist-bumped Jason Sudekis. I ran into Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore and his lovely girlfriend Lisa Bettany from Camera+. "Still with the red tie!" smiled Mr Cashmore. "Always!" I smiled back. We chatted about Mashable's new tech events section and the potential for collaborating and working together there.

Fab.com founders Bradford Shellhammer and Jason Goldberg at the 16th Annual Webby Awards (Photo: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)

I chatted with an exec from Twitter. Twitter's New York office has now almost 40 people, I learned, and the vibe there is very Mad Men! "How's the monetization coming along?" I asked in my best oh-yes-I-went-there tone. I wasn't able to get any hard numbers out of him but targeting is getting much better with the more data they're collecting. "So, better than Facebook, eh?" I asked. That elicited a smile. And that lead to the discussion of how intense the tech rivalries are getting. Apparently mentioning Twitter inside Facebook offices is a big no-no. As apparently is mentioning Facebook inside Google and mentioning Google inside Microsoft. Why can't we all just get along?

As I made my way outside I caught up with the lovely Jocelyn Johnson (who I hadn't seen since SXSW!). Miss Johnson was accompanied by Sonia Gil Montero who picked up the People’s Voice Webby Award for Best Web Personality/Host for her online travel show Sonia Travels. And Miss Montero's five-word speech was in five different languages. Killer! I mentioned how I'd been trying to pick up Mandarin and it was hard. We got in a discussion about different language learning techniques. Interestingly Miss Monteros has a startup Fluenz which aims to help users with exactly that. "Better than Rosetta Stone?" I asked "Yes!" she replied without hesitation. Gotta love the confidence! :) I promised to check it out.

After Party at Edison Ballroom at the 16th Annual Webby Awards (Photo: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

Later we all headed to the after-party at the Edison Ballroom where I ran into Rachel Sklar, easily one of my favorite people in the New York tech scene (super connected, super helpful and super nice). "I waved at you earlier to try get your attention!" she exclaimed. "So did I!" I replied. Ahhh, missed connections. Miss Sklar was excited about a new project she's launching called TheLi.st.

Soon more people began arriving, the crowd became more energized and the music picked up. Time to put the networking on hold and hit the dance floor.

So there you have it, folks. A wonderful star-studded-booze-fueled evening celebrating the wonder that is the Interwebs 'n the Internets. Until next time. Bye-bye!

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

Hope everyone had an amazing Internet Week! With over 500 companies and 40,000 attendees, it was truly a celebration of New York's thriving Internet industry and community. And it was awesome to see all the innovation that's happening around town.

This week is equally crazy with the Webby Awards tonight and then the TechCrunch Disrupt conference over the next 3 days. Hope to see everyone there! (and if you can't make it to Disrupt, remember, there's always the option of watching the live stream online!).

And coming up next week is the World Science Festival, which is an annual celebration and exploration of science running from May 30 to June 3. So go check it out!

And now let's see what cool stuff be crunching up in the Alley this week...

TechCrunch Disrupt NY
Rockstar line up of speakers and panelists including Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures), Jason Goldberg (Fab), David Karp (Tumblr), Neil Blumenthal (Warby Parker), Alexis Maybank (Gilt Groupe), Alexis Ohanian (Y Combinator), David Tisch (Tech Stars), Jake Schwartz (General Assembly), Roelof Botha (Sequoia Capital), Ron Conway (SV Angel), Tim Armstrong (AOL), Adrian Grenier (Churchkey) and more.
Monday (May 21), 9 a.m. @ Pier 94, 755 12th Avenue

The 16th Annual Webby Awards
Hosted by Patton Oswalt. Appearances from this year's Special Achievement Honorees including Louis C.K., Björk, Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and Juliette Lewis.
Monday (May 21), 4:30 p.m. @ Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 W 34th St

Hacks & Hackers: Tech Talk: Designing, Building and Maintaining APIs
Speakers include Matt Lemay (platform manager, Bitly), Robbie Clutton (software engineer, Pivotal Labs), Eric Mill (developer, Sunlight Labs), Derek Gottfrid (CTO, Tumblr). and John Bunting (API lead, Tumblr).
Monday (May 21), 6:30 p.m. @ The Hatchery, 500 Seventh Avenue

Inside the Lean Founders Studio
With Brett Martin (founder/CEO of Sonar) and Daniel Klaus (founder/CEO of K2 Labs).
Monday (May 21), 7 p.m. @ Meetup HQ, 632 Broadway, 9th Floor

NJ Tech Meetup 24
Featured speaker: Guy Story (CTO, Audible.com). Startups pitching include EnHatch, Vidoovy and Devi's Closet.
Monday (May 21), 7 p.m. @ Babbio Center at Stevens Institute Of Technology, 513 River St, Hoboken

Founders@Fail NYC Legends
With trailblazers who have defined NY startups for the past decade including Esther Dyson (investor, Meetup, Flickr), Heidi Messer (cofounder, LinkShare), Laurel Touby (founder, Mediabistro) and Dawn Barber (cofounder, NY Tech Meetup).
Monday (May 21), 6:30 p.m. @ Dogpatch Labs, 36 E. 12th Street, 2nd Floor

MIT Enterprise Forum of NYC Presents: Driving Consumer Adoption of Mobile Content
Panel Speakers include Rahul Bafna (Flurry), Soraya Darabi (Foodspotting), Nihal Mehta (LocalResponse), Julia Schulhof (App Lab at Hearst Magazines) and Benjamin Stein (Mobile Commons). Moderated by Somak Chattopadhyay (Tribeca Venture Partners).
Tuesday (May 22), 5:30 p.m. @ Citigroup Center, 601 Lexington Ave., 14 Floor

Let's Get Digital: New Models for Making
With Adafruit Industries, Quirky, Ground Lab, Dustyn Robots and Shapeways to discuss how new technologies (personal 3D printers) and ways of doing business (Kickstarter launches) are changing the relationship between consumers, designers and producers.
Wednesday (May 23), 6 p.m. @ BMW i Ventures, 95 Morton, 7th Floor

Geeks on a Train
East Coast investors, community organizers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, developers, designers, and others from tech communities will join a rolling tweetup (#geektrain) on Amtrak headed north from DC to Boston. Join us for hacking along the way.
Thursday (May 24), 11 a.m. @ The Hatchery, 500 Seventh Avenue

Successful Startups: How They Did It
Featuring Mona Bijoor (founder/CEO, Joor), Kellee Khalil (founder/CEO, Lover.ly) and Lily Liu (founder/CEO, PublicStuff), the three female CEOs whose startups made Business Insider's list of "The 25 Hot NYC Startups You Need to Watch."
Thursday (May 24), 6 p.m. @ 500 W 37th St

More on the horizon...
Startup Roundtable 13 with David Rose on May 29 @ NYU Stern Kaufman Management Center
Meet Microsoft - Women and Power - New York on May 30 @ Microsoft Offices
NY Location-Based Apps Meetup: Demo Day III on May 30 @ Meetup HQ
Social Innovation Demo Night on May 30 @ General Assembly
Digital DUMBO - dd:IMPACT Conference on May 31 @ The Dumbo Loft
June NY FinTech Startups feat. Pay Perks and Bloomberg Ventures on Jun 06 @ Day Pitney
Personal Democracy Forum 2012 on Jun 11 @ NYU Skirball Center
Games for Change Festival on Jun 18 @ NYU Skirball Center

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

We spotted Jetsetter founder Drew Patterson right away and demanded to know what happened to the killer acceptance speech he promised us on the red carpet. Mr. Patterson said the preponderance of Anthony Weiner riffs made him decide last minute to swap out "A picture tells a story . . . Ask Weiner" for the more chaste, "Kids, we're going to Disneyland."

Mr. Patterson was standing next to GroupMe's Steve "Bosu ball" Martocci, a fellow Gilt Groupe alum, who hadn't made it to actual ceremony. The two reminisced about the old days. "About this time last year I had this little product," said Mr. Martocci, making his hands into box-shape. "I asked Drew what I should do . . ."

"What did I tell you?" Mr. Patterson asked.

"Don't take money from Gilt," Mr. Martocci shot back. They laughed. It was hard to tell if it was a joke.

***

Betabeat walked past the cordoned-off VIP section, but didn't recognize any VIPs and headed upstairs where we ran into the affable Evan Gregory, one of the co-founders of Auto-Tune the News, who performed earlier that night with inadvertent Bed Intruder Antoine Dodson and a full band. "In some ways, we look at ourselves as odd talent scouts for unintentional singers. Having applied our craft over months and years to Congress and newscasters--we look for people that have many of those same qualities that a conventional, intentional singer might have, meaning like sonically  . . ."

" . . . Like cadence?" Betabeat interrupted?

"Exactly. Antoine is at the top of the hall of fame of unintentional singers."

Mr. Gregory, who grew up in Virginia--along with the rest of the Gregory brothers--said he had been living in Williamsburg, close to the bridge for the past eight and a half years. Betabeat gave his boyish face the once-over. Wait, how old are you?

“Exceedingly old, just very very old.”

"What are you 24?"

"Yeah I’ll be 21 next week and I’ve been in Brooklyn for 8 years," he laughed. “I’m 32.”

Mr. Gregory then helped Betabeat parse how exactly Auto-the-News was connected to tech-scene veteran Fred Seibert. "Our relationship with [Seibert's] Next New Network doesn’t exist anymore because they were bought by Google. I’m looking at like six of their employees now," he said gesturing at a  of people walking past the booth. "Everyone there is now a Google employee. But our deal with them was basically: they manage our partnership with YouTube while we create all of our content independently. They simply operated the relationship between us and YouTube and were allowed to sell ads against us. Now that deal is dissolved so we're even more independent."

So, we had to know. How do the Williamsburg hipsters react when they find out what Mr. Gregory does? "It varies between (a) What is that? (b) I’ve never heard of that, or occasionally (c) I think my mom showed me that!”

This year's nominees include Next New Networks' Bed Intruder (Best Viral Video), CNN's Walk Around the World (Best Video Remix), the New York Times website, nytimes.com (Best Practices); Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, ComedyCentral.com and CollegeHumor.com (Best Humor), Tumblr (Best Community), Vimeo (Best Social Network), Foursquare (Best Mobile Social Network) and Laughing Squid (Best Cultural Blog). See the full list of nominees and vote here.