April NY Tech Meetup

“ too many people, interesting pitches, good questions ”

“ Presenters demo time was kept in check and hacks practically booed offstage. Nicely done. ”

“ Great presentations, good visibility and sound quality, good networking. ”

“ great time, very well organized ”

“ Lots of fun, very pleased to have the opportunity to come and present Snooth ”

“ Great in that the horrible presenter got booed... nice to see the line clearly drawn! Other presenters were quite interesting as usual! ”

“ I'm not so excited about the future of advertising. I would have canceled out if I could have gotten a refund. ”

“ As a new web entrepreneur, this experience made me feel part of a community where I can access knowledge and advice about others' experiences. Very impressive presentations. Wish there was more Q&A time after each of them. Was surprised by how male dominated the web industry is in NYC and lack of female presenters. Found the announcements very helpful, i.e. Internet Week and Entrpreneur week. Really liked the interruption in the middle for that forced people in the audience to introduce themselves to the person sitting next to them. I made a great contact this way. ”

“ What I liked: 1) Linkups with the broader NY tech community to drive NYC as a tech leader. What I didn't like: 1) Why did Scott have to attack that guy - tacky 2) Why was Nate dressed like that - is that his flying clothes? 3) Too many "special announcements" 4) What happened to Dorothy.com - that was the primary reason I went - can there be a mechanism to send out an email when folks drop out of the line up? ”

“ Great companies Good dialog with presenters A *lot* of announcements, but at least they were quick. The one announcement with two presenters (including the lady who works for the city as a liaison to the media industry) is an example of an announcement that was **way** too long. They should have been told to hurry it up ”

“ March was better presentations. Scott brought a good bit of realistic feedback to the speakers. ”

“ very well organized. short presentation helped keep the pace ”

“ It was good. I was happy to see it wasnt a light event, and that the speakers were quickly called out on the shortcomings of the products they presented. I appreciated that. Over all - most of the people could spend more time thinking about their presentations. In the span of a 5min presentation, the audience shouldn't have to sit through someone entering their log-in information, or typing in web addresses on stage. Also, the organizers should really accompany their multiple brief announcements with slides. ”

“ It seemed too disorganized and casual, especially with both Nate and Scott running it together. I don't think the presentations were as interesting as they have been in past weeks. And I do not like the short pitches in between presentations - a newsletter would be a much better way to distribute that same information, and then people would always have the link to a website for more information. After two Meetups at the new venue I definitely prefer the space at the IAC. ”

“ Good lineup. Goodd job removing the one presenter that had nothing. ”

“ best part is networking -- let's leave plenty of time for that in future ”

“ I had to leave early again, but I really enjoyed Snooth! Great! ”

“ Good meeting... but the parade of all people doing announcements repeating their name not standing in the spot light, many umm and aahs, is a poor use of time. I suggest that any announcements worth communicating be submitted ahead of time then be put into a revolving slide show, one announcement per slide and it be shown 15 minutes before the meeting starts and 15 minutes after. The use that time for a better purpose - another startup, more questions, a guest speaker etc. ”

“ It's great that Scott injected much energy into the audience. The line-up isn't as strong as last month; rather, they could be way better presented/explained. And when Scott said get to the demo already, please get on to the demo! ”

“ My first-ever Meetup and wondered if they were all as great as this one (doubt it!). Well organized + smooth transition from presenter to presenter + interesting guest speaker = great experience. Was impressed with startups except for one, Rich Content Delivery, that didn't seem to fit the caliber of the rest of the presenters, which more than made up for his strange product. ”

“ Very interesting, very well organized, though I thought some of the technologies presented had very little interest to the people who attended (for example, the PR tool). Very little time for some of the presentations. ”

“ Good lineup of demos. Lot's of interesting stuff planned over the next few months. ”

“ This was more of a $5 meetup. Scott was dead on with his reaction to Real Time Content, but I felt it was rather rude to bash Sprout, pay attention and if you still don't understand then bash. Someone really needs to prep these presenters with how they should address the audience and whom their audience is, some are jaded, some extremely critical of cocky presenters and all looking to learn how new technology and ideas are being used. Felt like Real Time absolutely missed that point, Alitora was too much "Hi I'm IBM Jr. can we help you data mine?" MatchPoint showed good usage for it's target market but could definitely benefit from some Web 2.0 love. Paperg, Snooth and Sprout made it worth going. For post banter have "industry" tables outside the auditorium, ie: Publishing, Marketing, making it easier to focus on meeting folks. Finally, way too many announcements and www's thrown out, you should post links at http://nytm.org/ or go old school and have handouts. ”

“ When I arrived at the meetup - the attendants could not find my name on the guest list. I had registered and paid on the 10th of March and was one of the first group of people to do so. When the attendant could not find my name on the list, he referred me to his superior who said the same thing. I could not pull up my registration email on my phone since it was sent so long ago. When I went back to the attendant, his attitude was less than charming or helpful. Eventually I was let in after I missed the first three presentations. I was not the only one to experience this problem. I realize there is a lot of work that goes into these events, and it is appreciated. My suggestions to make the experience better: 1) send out a confirmation reminder email on the day of the event with pertinent information. 2) ask the attendants to be a bit more cheerful and helpful. it may be a down economy, but nobody is going to snark 10 bucks to get in! 3) have stations where people can confirm check ins ”

“ A great collection of companies - all presenting really interesting online approaches, and especially ones that are much more synched and honest about revenue plans. ”

“ loved the raw format and live feedback/q&a! ”

“ It was my first NY Tech Meet Up experience and it was certainly a pleasure to see some good demos and get the added value of Q&A - short as it may be. The vibe reminded me of a NY rock club night where a bunch of bands that don't know each other are mixed in the room together and they are all respectful of each other, but the critiques of each others art are constantly brewing in the mind. Looking forward to the social aspects at my next event (graduate classwork took me away last night). ”

“ Place Local (2 college kids) was impressive. The presentations went very, very downhill from there. Sprout looked interesting, but everything else was a waste of time. Worst MeetUp in the last 4 months. Does anyone screen these companies before letting them present? The joker who demo'd Manchester United had to be a belated April Fool's joke -- if not, you guys owe us our money back. ”

“ Well worth the time and effort to attend. Pushing the presenters to explain what is cool about their technology is good, but for the Sprouts case I think it was beyond the limits (as it was clear what was being presented). Snooth looks great (wine is not easy!), and I really liked the MatchPoint idea. ”

“ The presenting companies were pretty good. The crowd is getting a bit oversized. Nice to see some support from the city, but the Film and TV office? Too many announcements. If someone asks a question and doesn't have a microphone, the question should always be repeated by a person with a microphone. Also, the font sizes on the screen are too small for the back row. Nate needs to not yell into the microphone or hold the mike farther away from his mouth--way too loud. ”

“ Great presenters (particularly the wine guys not so much the guy that tried to sell old tech. as new) and great people. I had a good time at the meetup and a great time at the bar event (I won a prize!) will surely come again. ”

“ The Meetup itself was great, but I would suggest moving the after party to another location. While I appreciate the fact that the pounding music was absent last night, the space at Elevate leaves a few things to be desired: it is not large enough to accommodate our group and is not conducive to to having people meet and mingle. Also, I believe that people enjoy having the option of ordering food after the Meetup, as most do not have the opportunity to eat dinner before. ”

“ The MC was rude and inconsiderate. We were there to hear the pitches, good or bad. ”

“ I had a blast presenting. This is a very influential group in the New York tech community. ”

“ Nate should go back to hosting. Scott talks a leetle too much. :) ”

“ When the speaker needs to ask what the presenter spoke about thats a red flag. Essentially the past 5 minutes is a waste of everyone's time. Its a clear red flag that the no one understood what was being said except for programmers/geeks. There needs to be a better screener for speakers. Maybe you could partner with The Ladders or some site or company to prep speakers on how to speak english and get their points across clearly. Not even a learn how to pitch session, but just a prep for the speakers so my $10 is worth it and I can understand the businesses. ”

“ crappy startups. :/ ”

“ Good selection of demos ”

“ All-in-all, another good tech meetup. Scott can be hard on the presenters (sometimes too hard), but I think Nate could be a bit more strict. I could deal with fewer announcements - no more than 1 or two 30-sec announcements between presenters would be fine. I enjoyed all of the presentations except for the guy who got booed/heckled. Too bad he was so clueless. I actually found the service he was pitching interesting. ”

“ Maybe we do need more involvement from the organizers in selecting presenters. I don't want to see 2-year old companies do an advertising pitch. I want to see fresh companies doing something new. ”

“ Nate's temporary replacement was unprofessional with the presenters. I probably wouldn't have gone if I knew that ahead of time. It made the whole gathering seem childish and directionless. ”

“ Presenters should be vetted more diligently.. crappy flash video creation product was a waste of time ”