NY Tech Day: An Adventure in Innovative Culture

NY Tech Day, on April 25^th was an exciting experience for a Marketing Tech Agent, like myself, representing WebServes (WS), my organization, and wholly myself as a burgeoning marketer in the tech industry of New York. Sensory overload was the first reaction that I had after registration and being handed a bag of promotional materials, along with a guide to the companies and organizations that were exhibiting.A first look into the bag revealed a new blueberry flavored Red Bull (one of the sponsors)and my first reaction was, “maybe I need that to handle the amount of information, people, exhibits, and tech that I will see. Then, I realized that I had already drank two cups of coffee and Red Bull was definitely not going to make me sharper of intellect. Once I took a few pictures to share on WebServes’ Twitter and Facebook pages, I ventured into a daunting room that was brimming with anticipation and innovation. From the list in the NY Tech Day Brochure and from my research beforehand on the NYTechDay.com website, I saw some big names that stuck out to me like: Mediabistro, Zipcar, Seamless, TheLadders, Learnvest, ZocDoc, Vimeo, and OkCupid to name a few. Each one of these large names had a booth that was the same size as every other company, which made it much more approachable, and also decidedly made me gravitate toward smaller companies and names that I had never seen.

 Startup and Company Spotlight

Kaltura Kaltura was another exhibitor that I was excited to talk to, even though they are not as small as some other startups that exhibited, because I enjoy their technology. Kaltura is an open source video platform that “enables any site to seamlessly and cost-effectively integrate advanced interactive rich-media functionalities.” Some of the best examples are learning and training videos that allow everyone in a company or classroom to get the same information on procedures, systems, etc. and the best part is that it allows them to interact and comment with questions and suggestions. Everyone working for a better internal culture, is the best way to run a business. Fitmapped Fitmapped caught my eye because I have been looking for a way for my wife and I to find activities and fitness classes to do together and to make our workouts more fun. The women at this exhibit booth were great and informed me that they will be “Gamefying” their app and website soon; Nothing like a little competition to make a workout more fun.       Digital Ocean Another exhibitioner that I would like to highlight is Digital Ocean. Their bio for NY Tech Day said, “DigitalOcean is the simplest cloud hosting provider on the market.” This, of course, peaked my interest since WebServes does a lot of web hosting for our clients, and cheaper, and faster is always an appealing idea to both WS and our nonprofit clients especially. With a $5 per month option, which includes 512MB RAM, 20GB SSD Disk, and 1TB Transfer and other options all the way up to an $80 per month which includes 8GB Memory, 4 Cores, 80GB SSD Disk, and 5TB Transfer, Digital Ocean has a price point for everyone. As I commented on Twitter that day, “The vibe in the room is about creation and bettering ourselves and our world.” This was absolutely true. NY Tech Day succeeded in bringing the excitement of innovation and the wonderment of new technology to a setting that included, marketers (like me), web developers, and techies alike. WebServes is an organization that is committed to empowering nonprofits, small businesses and start-ups, and NY Tech Day is a platform that embodies the same promotion and nurturing of tech that WS strives for. This journey through NY Tech Day is in no way complete. There are other organizations that will be covered in future blog posts. Stay tuned… ~Josef