A Glimpse Into the Tech of the Big Apple

What a small world the tech communities bring to those involved with them. Recently — August 2 — I attended the New York Tech Meetup to schmooze and shake hands with the innovators of the Big Apple and their trusty investors. Much to my surprise the event was welcoming, inviting and felt like a small local community despite the 18.9 million people swarming the island of Manhattan.

The meetup ran from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m, with roughly 800 tech or tech-related professionals in attendance. Not unlike the Boulder/Denver New Tech Meetup that I am familiar with, the #NYTM was cordial. Folks sipped (over-priced) beer and wine, smiled and shook hands all around.

Also similar to #BDNT, New York encouraged 5-minute presentations by founders of new technology companies. A list a presenters can be found at the end of this post, and included: Dibsie, Zaarly and others, as well as data analyst sites, geo-event sites, etc. There was even a guy who was developing a community art app called 110Stories which focused on rebuilding the New York landscape with the World Trade Center towers in the picture. Cool stuff, indeed.

After presenting, the audience could ask any question but — interestingly — you were NOT allowed to ask what the developing idea’s business model was. That was taboo. Which gave the innovators and thinkers a seemingly unfettered canvas to develop ideas.

I found the “no business model” model to be an elastic, supportive and growth bolstering model for new ideas and technologies. Anyway, the big hitters: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, CraigsList and now Google+ didn’t initially (or still don’t) have a revenue-based model. They survive because people need them to survive, and network effects — or the idea that the more people involved in a thing make that thing stronger by virtue or size.

Building Community

Certainly the cherry atop the already sweet-filled night, was the proximity of friends. Sitting just in front of me was a married couple who — when I gave them a pair of Agloves and crowed about our story said, “Hey, I’ve already seen you. I already know about Agloves!”

The couple used to live in Boulder. They’ve now moved to the center of the universe –coughNYCcough — to develope a real-life-esque video game, similar to Zenga’s work. They remember seeing Jennifer and myself at Boulder Open Coffee Club (#bocc) the day we first announced touchscreen-ready Agloves to the tech community. Just some more cool stuff.

Here was the lineup of events and presenters:

Brom.ly – @Bromly – Helps you decide what to do tonight by providing personalized event recommendations based on your interests and social profiles. Presenter: Chad Gallagher.

Voyurl – @voyurl – The first truly ‘feedback-free’ discovery engine that recycles your data exhaust to make it powerful–via personalized content recommendation–and insightful–via vibrant personal analytics. Presenter: Adam Leibsohn

StockTouch – @stocktouch – A visual high performance iPad app for looking at stocks and companies combining a game engine platform, multi-touch interface, and custom high-speed data protocol to let users easily spot trends, relationships, movement, and outliers in the markets. Presenters: Jennifer Johnson, Steve de Brun.

Dibsie – @dibsie – an interactive shopping site designed to help you find amazing deals that appeal to your interests and budget with self-serve deal uploading for businesses. Presenters: Garren Givens, Dylan Fareed and Scott Poniewaz

want! – @WANTapp – A new mobile app that allows you to playfully express yourself by capturing, sharing and remembering things that you want. Presenter: Gene DeRose

KnowAboutIt – @knwbt – The best way to find relevant and engaging content lost in your social streams. Presenters: Kevin Marshall and Will Cole

Zaarly – @zaarly @ZaarlyNYC-Buy and sell anything with people nearby. Presenter: Bo Fishback.

Idea Flight – @ideaflight – A productivity app that allows a user to share presentations across a room of other devices, and control the experience easily from their iPad. Presenters: Juliana Stock, Melanie Rivera, Dan Wells

110 Stories – @brianaugust @110stories – An augmented reality Twin Towers iphone app that enables you to orient your phone towards the former location of the towers, augment in the image of the towers, comment and share your story with the world. Presenter: Brian August.