This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.
The lights are back on in Lower Manhattan, the subways are up and running again (well, most of them) and things are slowly returning to normal in the city. But in Staten Island, the Rockaways, Red Hook, Hoboken, Breezy Point, Long Beach, Seaside Heights and other coastal areas that bore the brunt of Sandy, there's a ton of recovery work still to be done. People are cold, hungry and tired and devastated communities are gravely in need of our help. If you want to donate cash or goods or volunteer your time, go check out our updated Hurricane Sandy Relief: Volunteering and Donations Guide to see how you can help.
For those of you frustrated from not hearing back from volunteering organizations, I'd recommend just getting a van and a bunch of friends together and driving out to one of the affected areas and start helping. You can take much-needed supplies like food, blankets, flashlights, batteries, diapers, jackets, etc. Volunteers are desperately needed on the ground to distribute supplies and help clean up, and this will be even more true during the coming days, as many folks go back to work. Remember, there may be another storm coming on Wednesday, so the next couple of days are critical.
It's been really heartening to see everybody come together and pitch in and help out over the last few days, so let's keep this trend going. Makes me proud to be a New Yorker!
This Tuesday is Election Day (yes, finally). Make sure you go out and vote and make your voice heard. Not sure where to vote? Here's a poll site locator, which been updated with locations changed because of Sandy.
On November 14, my friend Shaherose Charania (founder of Women 2.0) is organizing the highly anticipated Women 2.0 Pitch conference. Keynote speakers include female founders of Match.com, Cisco, Oxygen Network, Urban Decay, and panels feature women entrepreneurs who've run super successful Kickstarter projects and grown companies from the ground up. Don't miss it.
And now let's see whats going down in the Alley this week...
Founders@Fail: Pitching Publishers
Speakers include Bryan Birsic (SimpleReach), Dennis Mortensen (Visual Revenue) and Shafqat Islam (NewsCred).
Monday (Nov. 5), 7 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway, 4th Floor
OPEN NY / SAMMA / Time Warner Leadership Series
With Ivan Menezes (COO, Diageo) and Salman Amin (global CMO, PepsiCO).
Wednesday (Nov. 7), 6 p.m. @ Time Warner Center, Columbus Circle and 59th St.
November Prince Building Tech Talks
Matt Witheile (principal, Flybridge Capital) on why a Boston-based VC moved his wife and dog to New York. And Thrillist's Ken Peltzer and Jay Chinthrajah will present on Thrillist's recently launched unified user acquisition system.
Wednesday (Nov. 7), 6:30 p.m. @ ZocDoc, 568 Broadway, 4th Fl.
Talks on International VC and US Visa Regulations for Startups
With David Teten (Partenr, ff Venture Capital) and Michael Petrucelli (founder, Clearpath).
Wednesday (Nov. 7), 7 p.m. @ ff Venture Capital, 989 Avenue of the Americas, 3rd Fl.
Ingenuity 2012
New York City's preeminent startup event, run by the New York Venture Capital Association (NYVCA). Who's coming? Tim Armstrong (CEO, AOL), Julius Genachowski (Chairman, FCC), Mike Richter (NY Rangers), Bob Pittman (Clear Channel), Michael Barrett (Chief Revenue Officer, Yahoo) and others.
Thursday (Nov. 8), 8:30 a.m. @ New World Stages, 340 W. 50th St.
Red Innova New York
An intimate event to create a better understanding of Latin American internet market opportunities and trends. Featured speakers include Martín Varsavsky (FON), Fabrice Grinda (OLX), Andrew Mclaughlin (Betaworks) and Matías Recchia (Vostu).
Thursday (Nov. 8), 9:30 a.m. @ IESE Business School, 165 West 57th St.
PandoMonthly Presents: Daniel Ek
A fireside chat with Daniel Ek (cofounder and CEO, Spotify)
Thursday (Nov. 8), 6 p.m. @ Projective L.E.S., 72 Allen St.
Women in the World of Gaming
How do we deal with the overt sexualization of women in games? Is it weird for girls to like games like Call of Duty? These questions and more will be tackled.
Thursday (Nov. 8), 6 p.m. @ Pace University, 1 Pace Plaza
Capital On Stage
An unconventional conference about funding where, in a twist, top-tier investors will present themselves to the world’s finest Internet startups. With David Aronoff (Flybridge), David Teten (ff Venture Capital), Tom Wisniewski (NY Angels), Brad Svrluga (High Peaks), Lucas Nelson (DFJ Gotham), Jahan Ali (NYC Investment Fund) and others.
Friday (Nov. 9), 9 a.m. @ Goodwin Procter at NY Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, 26th Fl
EcoHack III
Hacking on open software, open hardware, open data, and open ideas.
Friday (Nov. 9), 6:30 p.m. @ Old Pfizer Building, 630 Flushing Ave
Hack & Jill: Hacksgiving
A hackathon for social, global, and greater good. We'll address broken issues. We'll improve inefficient systems. We'll make the future better. Together.
Friday (Nov. 9), 7 p.m. @ Etsy, 55 Washington St., Brooklyn
Assembled: Fashion
With Abe Burmeister (Outlier), Amy Choyne (Kenneth Cole), Brooke Moreland (Fashism), Cindy McLaughlin (Style for Hire), Claire Mazur (Of A Kind), Dave Whittemore (Clothes Horse), Ilan Tito (Refinery29), Jenny Wu (Stylyt), Kimberly Skelton (Have to Have), Marc Schiller (CEO, Bond), Marissa Evans (Go Try It On) and others.
Saturday (Nov. 10), 9:30 a.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.
Tech@NYU November DemoDays
Students take the stage to showcase what they've been working on.
Saturday (Nov. 10), 5 p.m. @ Pivotal Labs, 841 Broadway
More events on the horizon...
Startup Lunch on Nov. 12 @ The Cupping Room Cafe
NJ Tech Meetup 30 w/ Brian Cohen NY Angels (Hoboken) on Nov. 12 @ Howe Center - Stevens Institute of Technology
New York City Pinterest Meetup #6 on Nov. 12 @ We Work Lounge
Funding The Best In Global Innovation on Nov. 13 @ SNR Denton
November NY Enterprise Technology Meetup (& Sponsored Afterparty by eZ Systems) on Nov. 13 @ Cooley
November 2012 NY Tech Meetup on Nov. 13 @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts
Women 2.0 PITCH NYC 2012 Conference & Competition on Nov. 14 @ Manhattan Center
AngelHack Fall 2012 New York City on Nov. 17 @ The AlleyNYC
Business Insider: Ignition - Future Of Digital on Nov. 27 @ Time Warner Center, 10 on the Park
Mashable Media Summit 2012 on Nov. 30 @ The TimesCenter
Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)