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 follow him at @garysguide and reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.
Disrupt-ive
It’s Crunch time! Well, TechCrunch time that is. TC will soon be back in town with its annual Disrupt NY conference on May 21-23. And, as always, there’s a hackathon over the weekend preceding the conference where you’ll get to chug some RedBull, eat some pizza and crank out some cool apps with your fellow hackers. And if you needed any more incentive, remember that GroupMe, which sold to Skype last year for almost $80 million dollars, was born at the Disrupt hackathon 2 years ago. But the big question on everyone’s mind is – will TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington sneak in for a cameo? Your guess is as good as mine 😉
The NewFronts
You know that great divide that separated digital content from broadcast media? Well, it’s shrinking fast. And so taking a cue from the television industry, the folks at Google/Youtube, Microsoft, AOL, Digitas, Yahoo, Hulu, PopSugar, VEVO and others are joining forces to bring you Digital Content NewFront, a 2-week series of events where they will showcase their new programming innovations and content lineups.
30-to-Launch
The good people at Microsoft are bringing the 30-To-Launch Windows Azure Challenge to the Big Apple. So what’s this all about? Well, you learn how to build your solution on Windows Azure (and you don’t need to use any .Net if you don’t want to) with free workshops from Microsoft, coding time with your peers and a chance to win an XBOX+Kinect bundle! It’s spread across 3 sessions over 30 days.
And now, let’s check out where Alley folks will be hanging out this week…
New York Digital Analytics Symposium: Data is the New Sexy
With Debs Balme (OgilvyOne Worldwide), Blandon Casenave (NBC Universal), Shari Cleary (Viacom), David Coletti (ESPN), Stephanie Fried (VEVO), Rhoda Ingberman (The Economist Group), Geoff Judge (iNovia Capital), Eric Wheeler (33Across) and more.
Monday (Apr 23), 12:30 p.m. @ The Graduate Center CUNY, 365 Fifth Ave
Q&A with David Lee
Adam Penenberg (Professor of Journalism, NYU) interviews David Lee (Partner, SV Angel).
Monday (Apr 23), 6 p.m. @ Tisch Hall, 44 W 4th St
Tech Talks @ Audible with Andraz Tori, Co-Founder and CTO of Zemanta
Guest speaker Andraz Tori (CoFounder & CTO, Zemanta). There will be catered food, craft beer and two free audiobooks from Audible for the first 75 attendees.
Monday (Apr 23), 6:30 p.m. @ Audible HQ, 1 Washington Park, 15th Floor, Newark
Silicon Alley Battlefield (SAB) Series 15
Panelists include Brian Cohen (NY Angels), Daphne Kis (Golden Seeds), Rahul Gandhi (High Peaks Venture Partners), Vic Singh (ENIAC Ventures) and Lori Hoberman (Chadbourne & Parke). Pitches by Roman Geyzer (Offlane), Dmitri Tcherevik (MightyMeeting), Julie Lerner (EatDrinkJobs), Stefanos Missailidis (Fiestah), Yaron Vilosny (Legal Faceoff) and Alison Anthoine (Paperlex). Demos by Matt Hooper (Emotish) and Joel Schwartz (Parlor.fm).
Tuesday (Apr 24), 5:30 p.m. @ Chadbourne & Parke LLP, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 36th Floor
The Entrepreneurs Club: Branding a Startup
With Sophia Bendz (Global Director of Marketing, Spotify), Linda Björk (CEO & Partner, Amore), Linus Karlsson (Chairman & CCO, McCann Erickson) and Joakim S Leijon (CEO & Founder, Whispr Group).
Tuesday (Apr 24), 6 p.m. @ Hyper Island, 250 Hudson Street
4th Annual Ventures Capital Summit
With Dan Ciporin (Venture Partner, Canaan Partners; Former Chairman & CEO, Shopping.com), Charlie Federman (Managing Partner, Crossbar Capital), Lawrence Lenihan (Founder & Managing Director, FirstMark Capital) and Howard Morgan (Managing Partner, First Round Capital).
Tuesday (Apr 24), 6 p.m. @ Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, 488 Madison Avenue
Women in Wireless Monthly Networking Event – Designer Trunk Show
This may well be the only event this week where u get to network, drink some champagne AND try on some clothes :). Also hear fashion entrepreneur Aysha Saeed tell her story of how she got her business started.
Wednesday (Apr 25), 6 p.m. @ Aysha Collection Inc. , 109 West 38th Street , Suite #301, NYC
Box Innovation Network
Keynote address by Wired Editor-in-chief and Author of Free, Chris Anderson and after-party DJing by Elijah Wood (yes, THAT Elijah Wood).
Wednesday (Apr 25), 6 p.m.
D3 – DUMBO Demo Day Hosted by Digital DUMBO & NYU-Poly, Sponsored by Turnstone
With FocusLab.io, Gigbeat.fm, MySocialCloud, in8 Mobile and Underground Eats.
Wednesday (Apr 25), 6:30 p.m. @ NYU-Poly DUMBO Incubator, 20 Jay Street, #312, Brooklyn
DUMBO Startup Lab Open House Loft Party + Mixer Event
Guest speaker Steve Berg (VC at RTP Ventures and Angel Investor at NY Angels). Complimentary beer and wine.
Wednesday (Apr 25), 8 p.m. @ Dumbo Startup Lab, 68 Jay St, #718, Brooklyn
UNCUBED (Formerly Silicon Alley Talent Fair)
NYC’s biggest tech talent fair will feature 80 startups, music, and free drinks. Discussion panel speakers include Joel Spolsky (CoFounder, Stack Overflow), Kellan Elliott-McCrea (CTO, Etsy), and Seth Pinsky (President, NYCEDC).
Thursday (Apr 26), 1 p.m. @ The Altman Building, 135 W. 18th Street
NYC Startup Sneek Peek: StartupFix at CultureFix
5 min presentations by OneClipboard, Temboo and YouEye.
Thursday (Apr 26), 7:30 p.m. @ CultureFix, 9 Clinton St
DECA presents Take a Time-Out with Momversation
Its all about the M’s … Massages, Makeovers and Manicures 🙂 And learn about Momversation.com.
Friday (Apr 27), 11:30 a.m. @ SoHo House, 29 Ninth Avenue
HackDays: Big Data in Real-Time using Backtype Storm Presented BY Paul of Sonar.me
Backtype’s Storm is awesome. Yes really, its pretty awesome. Seriously. Awesome.
Friday (Apr 27), 5 p.m.
Mobile Dev Camp NYC
Wherein developers will compete for prizes in “Iron Chef-Style” challenges that will not be announced before the event.
Saturday (Apr 28), 9 a.m. @ Aol Ventures, 760 Broadway, 4th Floor
More on the horizon…
NY FinTech Startups Meetup feat. Betterment and Edison Ventures on May 02 @ Day Pitney
Business Insider Presents: Startup 2012 on May 03 @ New World Stages
Music & Gaming Startup Weekend NYC on May 04 @ General Assembly
Investor Feedback Forum and Pitch Showdown on May 10 @ Microsoft
Women in Design & Tech Conversation Series: Innovating Mobile Technology on May 10 @ General Assembly
Internet Week New York 2012 on May 14 @ 82 Mercer
TechCrunch Disrupt NY on May 21 @ Pier 94
Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! 😉