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.
This season of Game of Thrones may be over, but I’ve got ya covered. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Foursquare’s Game of Cones! Summer is coming and the Battle for the Iron Cone is upon us!
This Thursday is the Northside Festival NExT Conference (featuring Uber’s Travis Kalanick and Warby Parker’s Neil Blumenthal). Register here for the FREE expo and also check out the hackathon on Friday.
More events this week: Portuguese Tech Night (10 kick-ass startups!) this evening, The Truth About VC Investing (with USV’s Brad Burnham and others) tomorrow, dd:COLLECTIVE Music Ecstasy (the future of music APIs and apps) on Wednesday and PandoMonthly with Fred Wilson on Thursday.
Next Monday is the Mayoral Forum on Tech Policy organized by my friends at Coalition for Queens, Partnership for NYC and Code for America. Candidates Sal Albanese, Adolfo Carrión Jr, Bill Thompson and Anthony Weiner will be there. Register here.
Also coming up next week is the 10th Annual Games for Change Festival (I’m giving away two free passes!).
And if you like cats and memes (and really, who doesn’t?!), you’re gonna go nuts about this: #KittenCamp, next Wednesday at Arlene’s Grocery.
Love books? Like building apps? Then you, my friend, will wanna check out Harper Collins’ BookSmash Challenge! Use their OpenBook API and build apps to innovate how we read and discover books. $25,000 in prizes!
Don’t forget, deadline for the CROWDFUNDxNYC Challenge for startups is this Saturday – $25,000 at stake, yo!
My friends Tejpaul Bhatia and Regina Chien are leading Startup Leadership, a highly selective program for outstanding startup founders, CEOs and innovators. Interested? Apply here. There’s an info session next Monday.
Y’know, if someone told me there’d be a croissant + donut mashup called Cronut and people would wait in line for for two hours to get one and and they’d sell on the Craigslist blackmarket for $30 a pop, I’d have said geddouttahere! 🙂 … and go get me one asap, ‘cuz I gotta have it!
And finally, don’t forget, this Sunday is Fathers Day. Before you start panicking about what to get your dad (your first thought was golf balls, wasn’t it?), a few recommendations: Pebble, Nest, Nike+ Fuelband and Jambox are all great gadget-y choices. I have a feeling, though, that what he’ll really dig is the Chillsner!
And now let’s see what’s going down in the Alley this week…
VentureOutNYs Portuguese Tech Night
Join Brian Cohen (NY Angels), David Pakman (Venrock), Deborah Jackson (WIM) & ten kick-ass startups from Portugal for a night of food, drinks and tech awesomeness! Use code garysguide50 for 50 percent off.
Monday (June 10), 6:30 p.m. @ Greenhouse, 150 Varick Street
NYTECH Presents: The Truth About VC Investing in New York and How To Get Funded
With Brad Burnham (Union Square Ventures), Rick Heitzmann (FirstMark Captial) and Brian Hirsch (Tribeca Venture Partners).
Tuesday (June 11), 6 p.m. @ PwC, 300 Madison Avenue
June NY Tech Meetup
You know the drill. 5 minute cutting-edge tech demos. 850 fellow NY Tech startuppers. 1 amazing event!
Tuesday (June 11), 7 p.m. @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts, 566 Laguardia Place
NY Enterprise Technology Meetup
Demos by SOASTA, Typesafe and Gurobi.
Wednesday (June 12), 6:30 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 Avenue of the Americas
dd:COLLECTIVE – Music Ecstasy: The Future of Music APIs, Apps …and Drinks Presented by 7digital
Presented by 7digital. DJ, drinks, and conversation with music industry veterans and influencers from digital companies!
Wednesday (June 12), 6:30 p.m. @ Projective Space, 72 Allen Street, 3rd Fl.
Engineering @ Scale: 10gens Dwight Merriman chats with Brian OKelley
Dwight Merriman (cofounder, 10gen) in a fireside chat with Brian O’Kelley (founder, AppNexus).
Wednesday (June 12), 6:30 p.m. @ AppNexus, 28 W 23rd Street, 4th Fl.
Northside Entrepreneurship & Technology NeXT)
NExT will bring the ever-evolving relationships between media, technology, creators and consumers under one roof for a two-day showcase.
Thursday (June 13), 9 a.m. @ McCarren Park, Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn
Inbox Awesome
Innovation in email. Come hear from Peter Stern, Anil Dash, Dave Troy and brands like Microsoft, AOL & GILT.
Thursday (June 13), 9 a.m. @ The DUMBO Loft, 155
PandoMonthly Presents: Fred Wilson
A Fireside Chat with Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures).
Thursday (June 13), 6 p.m. @ Projective Space L.E.S., 72 Allen Street
Future Energy Investor Feedback Forum
Judges include Thomas Blum (NY Angels), Andrew Garman (New Venture Partners), Willem Rensink (Shell GameChanger) and Mark Wight (GE Ventures), Demos by Fulcrum Solar, Uvest Solar, Bandwagon, ElectricBio Technologies, Phosolar and others.
Thursday (June 13), 6:30 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 6th Avenue, 6th Fl.
TechAviv NY – Zell Startup Competition
Demos by Payground, Repstamp, Supplime, Fandome and Farmbow. Judges include Danny Shultz (DFJ Gotham), Tzvika Netter (founder, Innovid) and Amit Avner (founder, Taykey).
Thursday (June 13), 6:30 p.m. @ Columbia University Uris Hall, 2960 Broadway, Rm 301, Broadway
S.H.E. Summit
Friday (Jun 14), 9 a.m. @ 82 Mercer Street
Global Future 2045 Annual Congress: Towards a new strategy for human evolution
Anthropomorphic telepresence, neuroscience, mind theory, brain-computer interfaces and more! With Ray Kurzweil, Marvin Minsky, Peter Diamandis and others.
Saturday (June 15), 9 a.m. @ Lincoln Center, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza
Hack to the Future
Use data (from Bitly and Sociocast) about the past and present to predict the future!
Saturday (June 15), 9 a.m. @ Bitly HQ, 85 5th Avenue, 4th Fl.
The 4th Annual NYC Resistor Interactive Show
Annual party and fundraiser. Hackers show off cool interactive projects. Beats and beers provided. Theme is Digital Archaeology!
Saturday (June 15), 8 p.m. @ NYC Resistor, 87 Third Avenue, 4th Fl., Brooklyn
More events on the horizon…
10th Anniversary Games for Change Festival on June 17 @ New World Stages
Startup Lunch on June 17 @ Sagaponack Grill
Mayoral Candidates Tech Policy Forum on June 17 @ The Museum of the Moving Image
The Rise of the Micro-Entrepreneurs on June 18 @ Projective Space
NYTECH Presents: How to Use Game Mechanics to Crush Your Competition on June 25 @ Venue
FoodTECH: Food, Tech and Funding on June 25 @ The Wix Lounge
NYTECH Presents: The Big Data Explosion: Using Cloud Computing to Clean Up the Mess on June 26 @ 10gen
Social Retail Summit #5 on July 18 @ Dumbo Spot
Moonwalk NYC 2013 on July 20 @ Venue
Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! 😉
