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No FOMO

By Gary Sharma 3/01 2:25pm

No FOMO

sponsor_garys_red_tie_at_sxsw_2013

16 MORE SXSW Parties You Really, Really Don’t Want to Miss!

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 last week I did this blog post highlighting The 16 SXSW Parties You Really, Really Don’t Want to Miss. And I got a ton of email from you guys & gals saying a) “Thank you, you’re a life saver!” and b) “We want more, more, MOARRR!”

For the hardcore partier, I’ve put together the ULTIMATE Guide to all the SXSW Parties (a whopping 300+ and counting!). Print this out before your trip and you’re golden, my friend. And as you can see, there’re a ton of events that don’t even require a SXSW badge.  Read More

By Gary Sharma 2/22 11:13am

No FOMO

sponsor_garys_red_tie_at_sxsw_2013

The 16 SXSW Parties You Really, Really Don’t Want to Miss!

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, as y’all know, SXSW (or, as I like to call it, Sundance for Geeks) is now just two weeks away. That’s right, people: Time to start planning how you gonna be partying it up and taking Austin by storm! To make your life easier (the better to gorge on all those mouth-watering Nuclear Tacos and drool-inducing Salt Lick BBQs) I’ve put together The ULTIMATE Guide to SXSW Interactive 2012 Parties (185 and counting)! And of course, it comes with my special commentary and notes to help you make sense of all the madness. You’re welcome.

Now, of course, as any SXSW veteran can attest, the seemingly endless parade of parties, panels and people can quickly become overwhelming. So to make your life even easier, I’ve compiled a list of the 16 most-awesome-must-attend-unmissable parties that are bound to give all your friends at home a giant pile of FOMO! Read More

By Gary Sharma 6/18/12 4:30pm

No FOMO

F.ounders NY 2012

Gary Sharma’s Highlights from F.ounders NY 2012, the Michael Jordan of Tech Events

Ringing the closing bell at NASDAQ at the F.ounders NY 2012

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.

“First time at F.ounders?”
“Yeah, how about you?”
“I attended the one in Dublin last year.”
“Nice! Did you guys really hang out with Bono?”
“Yeah man, it was crazy!”
“I heard Obama might show up tonight.”
“No kidding. Really?”
“That’s what I heard.”
The two young twenty-something multi-millionaire startup founders looked expectantly towards the stage, wondering when POTUS would make an appearance.

Ok, so Obama was not on the agenda. But the fact that folks believed there was even a possibility speaks volumes for the quality and reputation of the event that Paddy Cosgrave, a charming 29-year-old from Ireland, had put together. Now in its third year, F.ounders is a must-attend, invite-only, ultra-exclusive annual event bringing together 150 (yup, there’s that dunbar number again) startup founder rockstars, along with a medley of top-tier investors, journalists and executives.

Bloomberg calls it Davos for Geeks. The Next Web calls it the Rolls Royce of conferences. And Mashable calls it the best event they’ve ever been to. I love basketball so I’m-a-gonna call this the “Michael Jordan of Tech Events!” Because it simply doesn’t get any better than this.

We were informed that, “Given that the CEOs and founders of over quarter of a trillion worth of ‘start-ups’ will be in Times Square on Friday, security is going to be very tight.” A quarter of a trillion. Yup, that number has a nice ring to it. Read More

By Gary Sharma 5/22/12 1:00pm

No FOMO

The Annual Webby Awards - Inside

Gary Sharma’s 16th Annual Webby Awards Highlights (Steve Jobs Tribute, Richard Dreyfuss, Bjork, Patton Oswalt, Cat Memes and More)

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. Read More

By Gary Sharma 5/21/12 1:30pm

No FOMO

webutante_ball_iwny_2012

Gary Sharma’s Internet Week 2012 Highlights (Nerd Proms, Rooftop Parties, Will Arnett DJ’ing, Michael Stipe Sightings ‘n more!)

Aol’s Andrea Hong, GroupMe/Skype’s Steve Cheney, TechStars’ Justin Overdorff, Shelby.tv’s Chris Kurdziel and Lauren Appelwick, American Express’ Meghan Paul, Acquaintable’s Joel Rodriguez and Greycroft Partners’ Alisa Richter posing at the always epic Webutante Ball @ Internet Week 2012. (Photo: Nick McGlynn / 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.

“I think I just ran into Michael Stipe!”
“Get outta here. Srsly?”
“Well it looked like him.”
“Wait, who’s Michael Stipe?”
“The lead vocalist for R.E.M.”
“Hmmm, are you sure you saw Michael Stipe?”
“Well he was bald and looked familiar.”
“Maybe you saw Moby. You sure it wasn’t Moby?”
(We all peered into the crowd gathered at the Hard Candy Shell party scanning intently to see if we could spot a familiar, bald rockstar.)

Welcome to Internet Week 2012, y’all! Where the young & the restless mingle with the bold & the beautiful mingle with the rich & the famous all brought together by the seductive beauty and power of this thing we call the Internets!

With over 500 companies and 40,000 attendees, Internet Week (now in its 5th year) is billed as a celebration of the city’s thriving Internet industry and community. As festival co-chair David-Michel Davies (a.k.a. dmd) pointed out, it’s the web, not TV, that is driving the conversation today and is the hub of all things pop culture. And New York is very much a big part of where innovation on the web is happening. “New York is an exceptionally entrepreneurial city,” Mr Davies pointed out. “People come here for opportunity, and it’s been like that since the city was founded.”

Well, you know what they say. Mo’ innovation = Mo’ Companies = Mo’ Money = Mo’ Jobs! Yes, I can get behind that. (Also it’s been two months since all the partying + boozing + schmoozing + debauchery of SXSW and things have been a tad slow lately. Internet Week, you’ve arrived just in time!) Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 4/12/12 12:45pm

No FOMO

never miss out

Real People No Longer Missing Out

Here’s an app made for Manhattan. The mobile app TimeRAZOR has brought its real-time event information and fun capitalization conventions to the city, where it hopes to play on New Yorkers’ innate fear of missing out. The smartEVENT feature shows you what’s happening around you anytime from right now to two weeks out. “There are plenty of scenarios in which New Yorkers need reliable (and fun!) options to pull out of their back pocket when they want to extend their ‘play’ time a little longer,” says a press release which goes on to cite 1) a dinner date that’s going better than expected and 2) wanting to impress “clients or out-of-town friends and family with their knowledge of the local New York scene.” TimeRAZOR’s travelTIME feature will monitor traffic conditions so you won’t be late as you volley from party to party. This app bills itself as a FOMO fighter, but we’re unconvinced that it’s a FOMO allayer. Look at that icon. This is a FOMO abetter. Be warned!

By Gary Sharma 3/27/12 7:13pm

No FOMO

3 lovely ladies – my friend Victoria Song (Flybridge Capital) with Miss USA 2011 Alyssa Campanella and reigning Miss Teen USA Danielle Doty at the 2012 Shorty Awards. Raawwr!

Gary Sharma’s Shorty Awards 2012 Highlights (Mayor Bloomberg, Tiffany Thiessen, Miss USA, The Daily Show Gang and More)

3 lovely ladies – my friend Victoria Song (Flybridge Capital) with Miss USA 2011 Alyssa Campanella and reigning Miss Teen USA Danielle Doty at the 2012 Shorty Awards. Raawwr!

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 follow him at @garysguide and reach him at gary@garysguide.com.

“Once a year I put on a tie. Tomorrow is that day!”

Ok, yeah, so obviously thats not me! (I put on a red tie 365 days a year, people! Thats my friend SawHorse Media & Shorty Awards CoFounder Greg Galant tweeting as he geared up in preparation to organize the fourth edition of the popular Shorty Awards (or as they’re also known as “Oscars for Social Media Peeps!”).

The event, which took place at the Times Center, was, as expected, packed with celebrities. I ran into Aasif Mandavi from the Daily Show who was one of the presenters along with fellow Daily Show correspondents the always funny Samantha Bee and Jason Jones who have co-hosting duties this year. (Did ya know Sam and Jason are a couple? I had no idea. How funny must their kids be!) Read More

By Gary Sharma 3/15/12 4:27pm

No FOMO

Storyful at SXSW. (Photo: Gary Sharma)

Gary Sharma’s SXSW 2012 Highlights: Jay-Z, Leo DiCaprio, Pool Parties, Grilled Cheese Eating Contests & More

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 follow him at @garysguide and reach him at gary@garysguide.com.

“So, how do I score tix to the Jay-Z/Amex concert?!”

Yeah, that may well have been the single most-heard phrase at SXSW this year. In addition, of course, to “What’s a great badgeless party to go to tonite?”, “Can I borrow your Mophie?”, “Whats up with all this rain?”, “Just go with the flow, dude!”, “So, who’s hangin’ at the Driskill later?”, “I lost my _____!” and the ever popular “Wanna check out my new iPhone app?”

SXSW 2012 opened with crazy expectations, crazy amount of people (rumored to be over 30k for the interactive portion) and even crazier weather (srsly, Austin, rainy and cold?) But the weather soon changed to warm and sunny and everything mashed together to become one giant rollercoaster of parties, people, apps, marketing stunts, long lines, free food, fire dancers, business cards, party buses, taco trucks, drunken tweets, celebrity sightings, old friends, new friends, bbq, deals, hookups, checkins, random conversations, acquisition rumors and much, much more.

Thats right. Spring Break for Geeks was underway! Hop on or get outta the way!

First off, thanks to everyone who reached out to me regarding sponsoring my Red Tie @ SXSW. I’m flattered & humbled by the overwhelming response! A big thank you to the social-polling-viral-voting mobile app BuzzVote for becoming my exclusive SXSW Red Tie sponsor and to InkBa (Airbnb for Ad Spaces) and ShoutEm (Mobile App Maker) for sponsoring the overflow spaces on my black suit. You guys all rock!

This was my first time at SXSW (and Texas in general!) I reached there a day early and arrived at the convention center to pick up my badge. There was already a small line forming. At 11 a.m. they opened up the ticketing counters and the first guy in line picked up his badge. The crowd hollered & cheered. Almost felt like an iPhone launch event. Welcome to SXSW! Read More