By Helaina Hovitz

Gary He/Insider Images for Internet Week New York

The weeklong event, headquartered at the Metropolitan Pavilion (125 West 18th Street), kicks off on May 20th. Panels, events, meetups, classes, exhibits, screenings and parties will also take place citywide, focusing on topics like beauty and fashion, sports, healthcare, food, and art.

“Tech is playing an increasingly stronger role at everyone’s job, even if you don’t work in technology. Everyone has to be comfortable with it at a baseline,” saidFestival Director Caroline Waxler, adding that it’s also a great opportunity to take a look at how tech impacts our local economy.

Eyebeam, a free gallery in West Chelsea, will be hosting an interactive art group show at IWNYC headquarters that focuses on the future of relationships in a wired world.

“We try to appeal to a broad audience by having a wide range of exhibitions that appeal to a broader audience. You don’t need to be a coder to understand what’s going on,” said Meredith Niemczyk, Eyebeam’s Communications Director. “For example, Addie Wagenknecht and Pablo Garcia went into sex chat rooms asking sexcam people to recreate classic poses from Renaissance works of art in order to question idea of what is art is, especially now in a tech age where we’re bombarded by imagery that’s sexual but also commercial.”

Eyebeam’s events will also include a workshop called “Creating your own Subnode: Networking with Raspberry Pi + Node.js” and ”Paintshop” an anonymous digital canvas that anyone can access and interact with online.

If you sign up for WalkaboutNYC, you’ll be able to tour offices of companies like Open Sky and GroupMe (May 17th 11:30 a.m. – 6 p.m., RSVP required).

According to the event’s co-founder, Danny Wen, most of the participating offices shift away from “that cubicle land where everyone kind of goes away and into their own world,” and instead sport social areas with treats and entertainment like video games and ping pong.

“Each company will have a different feel and culture. You can sense it in the first minute,” said Wen, adding that his office just got a piano.

Big name IWNYC keynote speakers will include Joan Rivers, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, Executive Vice President of NBC Universal Lauren Zalaznick, andthe designers from Proenza Schouler, among others.

IWNYC is co-presented by Made in New York and the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and Crain Communications.

Sign up for or RSVP to all available events at www.internetweekny.com.

Top Internet Week Highlights

• The Moth hosts Tech-Themed Open Mic Storytelling Competition: Stoytelling juggernaut The Moth hosts a special technology-themed edition of its famed open mic storytelling competition. Show up just to watch, or prepare a 5-minute story about the technology that drives your life from smart phones and pacemakers to Google and GPS. (May 23rd 7 p.m. – 9:45 p.m. Housing Works Bookstore and Café)
• Technology + Art Exhibit at ITP Spring Show 2013: Students at the celebrated Tisch ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program) present an exhibition of interactive media work, exploring the wonderland between technology and art. (May 20th, 5 – 9 p.m. & Tuesday, May 21st, 4 – 8 p.m., ITP at NYU)
• Eyebeam Art + Technology Center Group Show – Future of Online Relationships: An interactive art group show exploring the future of online relationships curated by New York City’s celebrated Eyebeam Art & Technology Center. (May 20-23rd, IWNY Headquarters)
• Mobile Storytelling Exhibit, Film Festival, Hack-a-Thon at Soho Gallery for Digital Art:  Soho Gallery for Digital Art hosts a weeklong series of events on Mobile Storytelling, using photos, video, and multimedia from mobile devices to tell the best New York story. Highlights include the world’s shortest film festival, a hack-a-thon, a photo walk, a juried exhibit, panels, and workshops. (May 20-27th,  Soho Gallery For Digital Art)
• Pitch Your Startup to Investors hosted by The Hatchery: Pitch your startup to entrepreneurs, investors, and the tech community at The Hatchery’s fast-paced, Shark Tank-style public pitching event. (May 22nd, 6 – 8:30 p.m. Chadbourne, RSVP required)
• Watch, Reblog, Repeat – Web Comedy Panel at Peoples Improv Theater: Producers of New York’s best online comedy content explore how to create material that people don’t just watch, but also share. Moderated by JVTM Comedy, producers of the web hit Ground Control. (May 21st  8 – 9 p.m. The Peoples Improv Theater)
• Future of Media Panel at NYU: Editors, producers, and publishers from the world’s top media outlets discuss how traditional media is being affected by the rise of digital media. (May 23rd, 1 – 2 p.m., NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute Television Studio, 7th floor)
•  NYC Chinatown Dumpling Tour: New York City tech investor and entrepreneur Mark Birch takes InternetWeek New York festival-goers to Chinatown to search for the best Chinese dumplings in New York City. (May 22nd, 6 – 8 p.m. Various locations in Chinatown, NY, RSVP required)
• NYC Tech Picnic: Enjoy the spring weather and spend time outdoors with fellow geeks and entrepreneurs. (May 19th, 2 – 6 p.m., Chelsea Piers, Pier 64)

By Helaina Hovitz

Photo by Stephanie Mei-Ling

Last Thursday, April 4, an Internet Week New York preview party was held at Design Within Reach’s newly renovated Soho Studio at 110 Greene Street.

Eventually, 400 guests mingled easily as they sipped on ginger-flavored cocktails and Saporo beer, but those who arrived painfully on time at 7 p.m. were faced with an awkward, half hour free-for-all in the enormous space, not sure where to go or what to do, likely appearing, to those looking in, to be shopping for furniture.

“I didn’t know what to expect or what to do when I got here. It feels really insider-y,” said Lisa Niedermeyer, whose nonprofit, Fractured Atlas, hopes to host a panel called Revenge of the Art Geek. “I think they kind of assume you were here last year.”

Though it was never explained to the crowd trickling in, the main aim of the party was to get people to vote for the festival’s panel entrants, 228 in all (voting will remain open through April 10th at InternetWeekNY.com). Promising contenders include “Will The Internet Save the Publishing Industry?” “I’m Tired of Being So White” and “Combating Device Schizophrenia: Get Your Message Heard Across Screens.”

Photo by Stephanie Mei-Ling

A DJ spinning trippy futuristic songs eventually abandoned his post and joined the crowd shortly before 8:30 p.m., when a preview panel called Sex, Drugs, Drones, and Codes was set to begin. The panel was kicked off by Daniel Pinchback, editorial director of website Reality Sandwich and author of Breaking Open the Head. Pinchback briefly talked about the resurgence of the Internet in psychedelics, highlighting the ways in which the Internet is “fostering a psychedelic renaissance.”

Next up was Matt Stinchcomb, former employee of Soho’s Rockstar Games and currently Etsy’s VP of Brand & Social Responsibility, who preferred to keep his Internet Week panel a secret but did his best to garner interest, saying, “I’m not gonna tell you what it’s about, but you guys are really gonna like it.”

Brian Anderson, an editor for Motherboard, proceeded to give a speech on drones that honed in on the lack of attention given to the topic. “More people are losing sleep and commenting on articles about chocolate milk than non-consensual surveillance,” he said.

“It’s compelling to see him so passionate about it, but at the end you’re like, what exactly is a drone?” said one baffled audience member to her date.

A drone is, by simplest definition, an unmanned aircraft or other floating device used for surveillance and bomb/missile launching, but can also be something like “that stupid little vacuum robot,” Anderson explained.

Ears perked up during columnist Kelly Bourdet’s panel run-down, which will be, essentially, on pornography. “Everyone — well, many people –  watch porn, and yet it’s not part of our every day conversation. The panel will discuss how the Internet proliferates porn and how it affects us,” she said, adding that the first picture to ever be uploaded to the Internet was a Playboy centerfold. “Iceland wants to make porn illegal. What do we want to do about this medium, as children, teens, and adults?” she posed rhetorically to the audience.

Her panel will also discuss how technology affects our modern day relationships.

Co-presented by Made in New York, the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and Crain Communications, Internet Week is a weeklong event headquartered at the Metropolitan Pavilion (125 West 18th Street). There will also be Meetups, exhibits, screenings, parties, and more taking place at venues across the city. Vice Media will curate an expanded panel and classroom series exploring hot-button topics like sex, drugs, drones, pirating, and social media reporting from conflict zones. Flagship events like the 17th Annual Webby Awards, The Webutante Ball, and Time Inc.’s 10 NYC Startups to Watch will be joined by a roster of new partners participating in the festival for the first time.

Big name speakers will include WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, Executive Vice President of NBC Universal Lauren Zalaznick, and, for some reason, Joan Rivers.

The event is expected to draw 45,000 people to 400 panels and will, hopefully, impress one of the panelists’ more critical members.

“I think it’s silly to have a week where we talk about the Internet,” said Anderson after closing out the panel preview. “It’s what we do every day.”

By Caroline Lewis

Last Saturday, five technology start-ups won grants from the New York City Economic Development Corporation to move to Lower Manhattan or expand an existing location there. The winners, Booker, STELLAService, Grapeshot, Paperless Post and The Flatiron School, were selected from a group of over 300 applicants. The competition is part of a push by the mayor’s office to revive commercial real estate and creative industries in Lower Manhattan in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Lively technology meet-ups and new funding opportunities are accelerating the growth of New York City’s ‘Silicon

Alley’ – a technology start-up scene that is enticing more and more innovators and investors away from ‘Silicon Valley’ in California. The “Made in NY” event at last week’s South By Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, TX, showcased the diversity of web-based companies now representing New York City, many of which are based in downtown Manhattan.

“It’s just such an awesome community. Downtown Alliance gives you an opportunity to shape downtown Manhattan,” said Dan Chiu of HD Made, a digital strategy agency that started in Soho three years ago and has since moved to the Financial District.

At a table stacked with New York’s classic black-and-white cookies, representatives of the Downtown Alliance offered information on the resources they provide for new businesses below Chambers Street. The organization is attempting to brand and promote the technology industry in Lower Manhattan, even polling people on which new acronym the neighborhood should adopt.

“Unlike other neighborhoods – their vacancy rate is quite low – we have great space and great amenities that are available and our prices are right,” said Daria Siegel of the Downtown Alliance.

In addition to connecting entrepreneurs with real estate brokers, the Downtown Alliance runs The Hive a

t 55, a co-working space on Broad Street. Co-working spaces allow freelancers and small companies with just a few employees to reap the benefits of an office while sharing the cost of rent and amenities with like-minded people.

Shutterstock, a stock photo site that has been working out of its Broad Street office since 2004, may have outgrown the ‘start-up’ label, but made the trip to South By Southwest in the hopes of competing with other technology companies to attract new talent.

“Nobody thinks of Shutterstock as a tech company,” said Software Engineer Travis Beck, who is trying to change the company’s image. “We do a lot of really cool stuff. We have these hackathons every quarter. We have a lot of autonomy to build whatever we want and a lot of it is open source.”

Beyond just housing company headquarters below 14th street, New York tech start-ups like Shapeways are creating

other kinds of business opportunities in the area. MixeeLabs, based in the East Village, uses Shapeways, a 3-D printing company in Long Island City, to produce and sell quirky miniature dolls that look like real people.

3-D printing, or the creation of tangible objects from digital models, was the most talked-about innovation at SXSW this year and has been referred to by some as the second Industrial Revolution. Instead of selling 3-D printers like fellow NYC start-up MakerBot, Shapeways offers an online marketplace and community where anyone can upload 3-D files and get the company to print and sell their designs.

Shapeways is backed by the downtown venture capital fund Union Square Ventures. Large companies

and venture capital firms alike are increasingly using New York City as a point of entry to invest in American start-ups, Forbes reports.

Motivated by access to the American marketplace, Shapeways established a headquarters in New York in 2010, after initially launching in the Netherlands. “New York is the creative epicenter of the world,” said spokesperson Elisa Richardson. “Everyone in New York is so into design and tech and innovation and really pushing the boundaries. So New York, I think, for our CEO, was just a really natural fit.”

Downtown residents are also working to make New York City home to the next generation of technology innovators and entrepreneurs. Maurya Couvares lives and works in the Financial District and won a South By Southwest

Interactive award for ScriptEd, the non-profit she co-founded with her partner Elizabeth Davidson.

“We recruit tech professionals to teach students the basics of Java Script, HTML and CSS,” said Couvares.

The two young women intend to partner with New York based companies to teach the city’s underprivileged youth how to code and have already launched their first classes at high schools in Harlem.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is pushing for high-tech investment in New York, has touted the University of Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. (Photos from College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering)

New York City isn’t the only part of the state that has been attracting a growing number of high-tech companies.

In upstate areas struggling to rebound from the recession and recover from the longer-term decline in manufacturing, the state has been recruiting companies like Yahoo! and IBM to add or expand operations, create new jobs and assist in rebuilding the economy.

To read the full article, please visit cityandstateny.com.