Tuesday night’s NY Tech Meetup took on a new spin when a special guest took the stage. Though it was interesting to spot David Tisch of TechStars in the audience, what was most notable was that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg spoke at the monthly gathering of local technology entrepreneurs and innovators for the first time ever.
Addressing a full house of some 700 attendees at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University, Bloomberg announced the formation of the Mayor’s Council on Technology and Innovation. The council, to be chaired by Deputy Mayor Robert K. Steel, is made up of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to explore ways Bloomberg’s administration can foster growth in the local technology community.
“We can’t sit here and let Silicon Valley be bigger than us in anything,” Bloomberg said. The mayor said the depth of the fashion, media, publishing, and bioscience industries concentrated in New York made the city a hub for innovation. “This is the big pond,” he said.
The new council includes David Tisch, managing director of TechStars NYC; Susan Lyne, chairman of Gilt Groupe; John Borthwick, CEO and founder of Betaworks; Mitch Jacobs, CEO and founder of On Deck Capital; Perry Chen, CEO and founder of Kickstarter; Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of SecondMarket; Jonah Goodhart, co-CEO and founder of Moat; Hilary Mason, chief scientist with bitly; Ntiedo Etuk, co-founder and CEO of DimensionU; and Susan Crawford, professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University.
Bloomberg seized the opportunity to kick off the latest NYC BigApps competition. The annual contest returns for its third run this time with $50,000 in total prize money at stake. The competition, which is hosted online by New York’s ChallengePost, calls on developers to create apps that improve life in New York as well as draw upon data that has been
