New York Trek 2001 attracted 125 students to Manhattan last Friday despite an utter downpour. Students took time out to immerse themselves in the latest developments in the high tech and entertainment industries.
As opposed to some other treks where people visit multiple office locations, New York Trek centralized its daytime activities at the Sony Building on Madison Avenue.
Sony kicked off the event by having Lew Chang from their Broadband Services Company outline what Sony is trying to do with its content and electronics units in the broadband space.
Panel discussions filled the day. Topics included Venture Capital, Television, High Tech, Music, New Media, Telecom, E-Finance, and Philanthropy.
Silicon Alley Reporter compiles an annual Top 100 list of the movers and shakers on New York’s internet landscape and quite a few presented at the trek: Bill Day, President and COO, About.com (#3); Jerry Colonna, Managing Partner, Flatiron Partners (#6); Richard Forman, Chairman, President, CEO, and Founder, register.com (#13); Jason Devitt, CEO and Co-Founder, Vindigo (#14); Hussam Hamadeh, Co-Founder, Vault.com (#41); and Tim Nye, Chairman and Co-CEO, AllTrue Networks (#87).
The trek is sponsored by both the High Tech & New Media Club and the Entertainment & Media Club. Discussions centered around topics of interest to members of both clubs.
J Moses, President and CEO, UGO Networks covered themes important to both audiences in his keynote address. The Class of 1988 HBS graduate compared problems faced by today’s internet companies with some of the rough spots cable channels faced in their early stages. He entertained the crowd by reading quotes from analysts of the 1980s who stated cable ventures such as ESPN and VH1 provided little value and were assured of failing.
After a full day of panels, attendees cleared out of the Sony Building and headed south to the Harvard Club of New York for a Networking Event sponsored by Reuters. The open bar kept everyone jovial despite the fact that the number of recruiters at the event was somewhat low. Reuters had a large presence at the event and Jeremy Penn, EVP of Reuterspace, took a few minutes to address the crowd.
The event wrapped up with a post-party at Rhone in the meat-packing district. While some New York Trekkers wore their Trek Scarves during the day, most of the garments disappeared by the time everyone arrived at the chic Rhone.
The organization of New York Trek 2001 was chaired by Jason Patton and Suzanna Petren Moritz. Sameer Ahuja, Rich Appiah, Brian Delaney, Samantha Ettus, Nadim Haider, Fahad Karim, Samhita Patwardhan, Josh Rabina, and Dan Rice arranged the panels. Yohan Bibay served as Networking Director and was assisted by Felix Danziger, Tjada D’Oyen, Minnie Ingersoll, Mario Shiliashki, Ari Terry, and Debra Winkler. In addition, Andrew Eisner and Meredith Oppenheim supported the organizing effort.
