Social Networking, Geek 2.0 Style

If you don't "Know Your Meme," or you still live in the land of analog, you may not have been the target audience for Monday night's Ignite NYC III, a bi-annual gathering of burgeoning web 2.0 tech leaders. Not only were most in the crowd at Santos Party House in Chinatown very familiar with their memes (YouTube's David After Dentist, for one) during the game show portion of the night, they showed few signs that the recession has hampered enthusiasm for social networking, and indeed has increased the need for it.

Onstage, 5-minute talks were given on topics of tomorrow ranging from the practical (How to Ruin Your Company's Reputation Online by Jaki Levy of Arrowrootmedia.com and Unemployment 101 by unemployed design researcher Jooyoung Oh) to the more inane (The Crowley Family vs. Family Feud presented by Dennis Crowley).

Offstage, lit up by a myriad of iPhones documenting the event (after all, there's only so much social networking you can take without posting it on a social networking site), there was informal discussion about expectations of internet privacy, mainly how we prefer none, and new sites like the OMGICU, the do-it-yourself celeb stalking forum.

The result is a comfortable salon-esqe ambience (complete with bar) that's conducive to the exchange of ideas at the digital forefront. Ignite NYC and similar events have become epicenters for new companies and markets within web 2.0, and the new jobs that follow.

Tikva Morowati, Porter Novelli Social Media Specialist and the event's MC, said many attendees came looking for prospective new hires. "When people have drinks in their hands, they do act differently than they would in a more professional, button-up setting," she said. "For geeks in particular, this is an effective social tool."

At the last event in September, organizers broke the ice with a cupcake-decorating contest (many of which ended up resembling app stores). And the events are growing alongside the need for more employment and financing solutions for young webtrepreneurials; over 475 in attendance last night, up from about 350 when Ignite began in July 2008.

Attendee Suli Ali, of online game site Brooklynpacket.com, has found more than just cupcakes and alpha geek debauchery at events like Ignite. One fix to the growing scarcity of start-up capital is generating financing yourself at these events. Ali, 27, met a group of people at a similar networking party and went on to form angel financing site Connectorsny.com.

"As far as investments in startups are concerned, investors and VCs are being more rigorous evaluating the startup," says Morowati. Her PR group Porter Novelli, which works with Ignite, announced last night the launch of PN Digital Labs, a collaboration between the firm's large clients and the startups that attend the events, bringing another spring of capital into the fold. "Networking for funding was definitely happening last night."

by Julia Dennis

Photograph by Brian Van

In the photo, left to right: Nate Westhiemer, Gavin Purcell, Rex Sorgatz, Peter Rojas, Kelly Reeves, Elspeth Rountree, Kenyatta Cheese, Michelle DeForest, Tim Shey, Irene Polnyi, Bre Pettis, Caroline McCarthy, and Jamie Wilkinson.