January 2009 NY Tech Meetup - "Built on Twitter"

“ need to ask " how will this product make money" , shorten to under an hour ”

“ Have confirmed that Twitter is hype and do not see business value. Great Venue ”

“ I'm wondering why at the last two meetups there haven't been that many questions. No one is shouting "what's your business model" which actually would have been very appropriate in these cases. At last night's the first presenters talked about the difficulty of transforming the twitter data but the presenters doing advanced things with it didn't address that. Are we less engaged or is something else going on? I liked the introduction of a theme, the swearing-in. Also very excited to see the new structure come to life on such solid foundations. ”

“ I think the quality of the meetings are going down. To me it seems it is becoming too professional and less quirky, less cool/innovative, loosing its startup feel. I liked the direct questions from the past: how do you expect to make money? where do you see this 5 years from now? what's so special/cool about the way you use technology? I also liked that in the past people could do shout-outs for help/open positions, etc. There was much less Q&A after the presentations than there used to be, and it was not that the audience did not have more questions, it seems... Granted it takes a while to get into the MC role, I hope it will get better down the road. I loved the twittering plant presentation... ”

“ Good presentations, and pretty quick flow which was good. The less this group changes, the better. ”

“ I like the grouping of presentations very much, and hope that we continue to do that. I'm also somewhat optimistic as to the new direct the group is going. ”

“ Great job on the first meetup Nate! Could have done without the @shakeshack bot and TwiTerra presentations, but I feel like I get why they were included. ”

“ It was interesting. Out of all the presenters, only the Co Tweet guys seem to have a real business. I would like to see people explain their business a little bit, i.e., why are they doing this; that is just as valuable as cool technology demos, if not more. We all have good ideas, making money from them is a little harder. Even if the goal is not to make money, its nice to know why people build things, contrast the re-tweet tracker (PH.D candidate doing research), with Botanicall which seems to have no real purpose at all, other than teaching people how to solder. My other comment is that I don’t see why this cool group has such a burning desire to try to become something greater—it’s great already. The group seems to me to have a terrific purpose in its current incarnation and is serving its members well. Just focus on great programs. ”

“ Just loved the enthusiasm of the organizers and the warmth and good humor of the crowd. Presenters were very good too. ”

“ I enjoyed the other presentations a lot! I'm very excited to see the different ways people are using Twitter as a platform to creatively solve existing problems. ”

“ A theme-based session is a good idea, but we risk squeezing out people with niche or revolutionary concepts and products. I suggest that we alternate every other month. ”

“ the pacing was good, but the idea of a pure Twitter presentation was difficult to understand. It was hard to figure out what each of these new apps was trying to accomplish and why they decided to create the platforms that they did. I neede a more comprehensive explanation of how brands could make use of them. Fortunately, there was a variety of companies to hear from, and some were quite clever. They all needed about five more minutes of demo time to truly sell me. ”

“ nice meetup - nice after party ”

“ Overall the presenters were good but some of the applications fell short on having a viable business model. ”

“ A stellar first meetup with Nate at the helm. I really like the themed events -- I actually got much more out of seeing "competitors" or similar companies using the same platform. Helps to synthesize what's going on in the space. Thanks, Nate! ”

“ Good. I def like that we have a topic each month; helps keep a focus on the presentations and audience. It was a little too long last night but that was because of the transition and speeches, etc. I did like the 5 min break to talk to people around you. ”

“ A great start to the new year for NYTM. Nate was an inspiring, enthusiastic and dynamic leader and I'm very much looking forward to NYTM's reinvigoration of NYC on behalf of the tech industry. ”

“ congrats nate!!! you did a great job on your first nytm! ”

“ Awesome, well organized & to the point. ”

“ Theme nights are a good idea ”

“ Excellent first meetup for 2009 and Nate W. Best wishes, too, to Scott for getting the group to this point. Overall, great content and a great chance to meet members of the NYC tech community. ”

“ Like that all the presenters were from one segment of the industry. Nice critical mass for networking related to theme. ”

“ Good job by Nate taking the reins... ”

“ Overall pretty good - the sound was spotty at times, but I was sitting in the back. ”

“ informative, some interesting ideas ”

“ couple presentations weren't as interesting ”

“ The new energy around this group is fantastic. A packed house to kick off 2009 is just what this group needs. Here's to 2009. ”

“ Congrats on taking over. This one was okay. The second speaker was a total dud (but that happens). I had no idea what his invention is about. I know this is a forum for the geeks to show off their stuff but it would be great to understand just a bit more what the presenters plan to do with the their tech and to provide a little more background on what they're odng (beyond the tech functionality). I'm glad you're getting people together after Can you set up a forum for people to post positions? You may have thins but I don't see it. ”

“ I think the meetup was very well organized. Presentations were done in a timely manner showcasing some awesome projects happening in or around New York. I think it would be nice to have general technologists panels so that the audience can inquire more questions about trends within a specific tech industry (playing on the themes concept, it would've been really interesting to hear what the twitter guys had to say about the trends they are seeing within their niche industry) ”