NY Tech Meetup 2011 Kick-Off

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the first NY Tech Meetup of 2011. The meeting lacked the energy and consistency of some past meetups, probably because everyone and their mom is sick, but there were a few standouts. Munchly brought excitement into the room with their demo, an iPhone app that allows sport goers to order food from concession stands straight from their phone so you can have the best of both worlds - your Shake Shack fix without missing half the game. The app looked well designed and their presentation style rocked. When in doubt, offer audience members a free beer. Naturally these guys are smart because they went to my high school. Shout out to Jersey!Firefly is an app that finds your Twitter friends in the real world, making face-to-face contact more feasible. Personally, I think there should be a monthly - meet a Twitter follower in person - day. While having a digital life is enriching, nothing beats human contact. So now there's an app to aggregate check-ins from location based services and yet, last summer, I still ended up explaining foursquare to people on a regular basis - even those under 40! Hmmm. Technology is like our economy - the early adapters are getting more adapty while the main stream consumers have so many choices that they're just getting confused or rejecting various technologies all together. I digress.

AdStruc Marketplace topped the list as one of the most practical services demoed. Although as I walked to the after party with a fellow advertising "executive" we debated whether or not out of home ad space was one of the few industries that was still strongly based on relationships between media buyers and sales agents. Regardless, I still think AdStruc will solve a current need in the media business. And I have to give a special shout out to the presenter's ping pong skills. I played him in ping pong two years ago at an industry party. Ah ping pong. The great connector. Wait.. It was a party where the sales guys were treating their customers. Hmm - ad exec guy does have a point.

Finally, the guys from VYou may have gotten their idea for VYou from the Old Spice YouTube campaign. I can see this being used by celebrities talking to their fans, companies explaining their products, and individuals showcasing their skills and personality. You can embed the service onto a site, generating interesting content. And if you don't have anything good to say, everyone likes a good nose picking video right? Thanks Kevin Smith.

Finally, Scott Heiferman came on to talk about why the tech world in New York is so exciting. To paraphrase in my own words, it's not about making money for money's sake a la the financial industry, it's about adding value to people's lives. Move over finance. The New York tech world is here to stay and I'm not going to lie, it's pretty damn sexy.