New York tech startup initiatives and programs extend all the way to Queens
NEW YORK—Silicon Alley is extending all the way to Queens, as the Digital.NYC Five-Borough tour made its stop at the La Guardia Community College last March 26 at La Guardia Community College. An initiative of Mayor Bill de Blasio, digital.nyc is the city’s online hub for all things tech and startups.
The night opened with an illustrious panel of guests from the government and private sector talking about the growing tech community in New York and how it has also partnered with the City University of New York to make sure minority communities can see the many opportunities in tech. Startup presentations followed soon after.
Eric Gertler of NYCEDC (New York City Economic Development Council) said it is making sure all of its programs extend to everyone in New York as part of an initiative to reduce income inequality.
“This is of paramount importance to the mayor.”
Gertler was part of a panel that consisted of David Rose of Digital.nyc and gust.com and Bruce Weed, program director of Big Data and Watson at IBM who spoke about how traditional businesses can be infused with technology.
“There should be some way you could leverage Watson,” Weed said when he talked to a traditional business about taking his business to the next level.
The night’s presentations featured the launch of Bobbypin, an app for creating your own tours and for people to explore using it. Coming out this spring, it’s from the creators of Strayboots and similar in its function.
“We’re showing Bobbypin to you for the first time,” he said. Founder and CEO Avi Millman said. Aside from its creation tool, he said, “Now you can keep track of your favorite spots and share them with friends.” It will be on a tablet and app this spring.
Melissa Kwan from Spacio demonstrated her app and how it organizes your home search from various sites. From Vancouver, Kwan moved to New York four weeks ago, after a long career building mobile apps for real estate developments.
She moved to the real estate capital of the world to solve a fundamental problem. She said there isn’t one place online to help buyers find properties from various sites. Its app also aims to capture the offline experience in apartment or house hunting with a beacon. Spacio is looking forward to becoming the best real estate organizer.
Kristin Hodgson, communications director of meetup.com. spoke last, talking about how the growth of tech meetups in New York and worldwide has grown immensely and why tech holds many opportunities for people out there.
There are over 1,100 tech meetup groups in the city and 23,000 tech meetup groups worldwide. Also, the entire United States has 130 cities with 10 tech meetups
