New York Tech Meetup

TL;DR: We took a trip to NYC to participate in the NYTM audience and see
how things work. We want to bring something similar to Cincinnati, so
checking out the original group was a great introduction. If it’s the
first time you’ve heard of it, go check out some old meetups.

We help organize QCMerge here in Cincinnati. If you haven’t
seen it, go check it out. We want to encourage more interaction between
smaller groups, like designers and developers. This year, Erin
Kidwell helped organize the event. She’s been involved in Girl
Develop It here in Cincinnati, which frequently took her to NYC.
She’s also the reason we were able to get tickets – thanks for that,
Erin!

Erin also helped with speaker selection. One of the speakers she
suggested was Nate Westheimer, who’s currently the Executive
Director of NYTM and a Cincinnati native. You can check out his entire
talk right here:

Basically, Nate gave his take on how to cultivate a vibrant tech
community in our city. It’s something I’m also passionate about, so
hearing the talk motivated me to continue working here in Cincinnati. I
want to grow our entire tech community – not just the startup
community, so it’s important to note the difference.

Last week, Mitch and I took a quick trip to NYC to check out
the New York Tech Meetup (NYTM). NYTM was started in 2004 by one
of the founders of Meetup.com for the purpose of letting
budding companies, entrepreneurs and hackers demo new projects, sites,
apps and other things.

The format is pretty simple: three five minute demos by three different
individuals or organizations followed by five minutes of question and
answers for the whole group. It gets repeated a few times (I think we
saw three sets of demos) during the event. There’s also a “Hack of the
Month”, where someone demos something interesting they’ve been working
on, too.

There are a couple of rules, though. First, no pitches or slides. Only
working projects. Second, you’re not allowed to ask: “What’s your
business model?”

I like these rules. They encourage tinkering and discovery. It’s
important for technologists and artists to play with an idea that might
not necessarily have a “business purpose”. It’s more about learning and
less about revenue.

What’s different about NYTM is that there is a working demo. The
presenters have figured out a way to get beyond the asking stage and are
well in to the building stage. As a developer, this is exciting to me. I
learned to code on my own, so I’m excited about getting others interested.

I believe that startups are a part of a larger community. They’re
fledgling businesses. Usually, we’re referring to the tech sector.
There’s a lot of emphasis and excitement on them right now, which is
good. It’s also important to note that they’re normally still in the
idea phase, though.

A plant needs soil, water and sunlight to grow. Startups do too.
Startups benefit from a diverse and available technology ecosystem. The
more developers, designers, user experience experts and chief technology
officers available, the better the whole ecosystem is for everyone.

We’ve done a poor job positioning Gaslight in the local startup
community. For a while, we thought we could do billable work with local
startups. I’ve since left that idea behind. We’ve found great clients
who understand the ups and downs of software development, which is
exciting. We’ve also learned more about our role in this local
community. We’re not here to do billable work. We’re here to teach and
train. We’re here to offer our space, our knowledge and expertise. We’re
here to guide and counsel. We’re in it for the long haul, not short term
gains.

Now that we realize that, we’re in a great place to mentor and guide
startups to a sustainable existence.

In summary, we want to help grow this movement here in Cincinnati. If
you’re interested, you can join the Google+ Group, send us an
email or comment here.