mbooth:

In honor of Social Media Week, February’s NY Tech Meetup was extra special…and extra long. It was $20 this time and all the proceeds ($14,000) went to Partners in Health for Haiti relief, which was nice. Although most of the presentations focused on the somewhat vague theme the “future of tech” rather than app demos, I thought it was a nice change of pace. Some of my favorite presentations included:

• SeeClickFix, a site that allows people to report local issues in their communities — basically, like 311, but online (and better)
• Our old friend Tony Bacigalupo (remember our interview with him?), who talked about the future of coworking
• Clay Shirky, who looked exactly like Tom Hanks with a shaved head and a Three Wolf Moon shirt, and talked about the power of social networks
• Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of the Acumen Fund, who briefly discussed entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty
• Dr. Jay Parkinson, who wants to change the health care industry through his organization The Future Well (you may have previously heard about his very intriguing work with Hello Health)

Oh, and then Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping showed up to do a gospel performance and confuse the heck out of everyone (see photo above). True story.

—Alyssa