NYConvergence ORIGINAL

 
(DJ booth at Motorola's cocktail reception, Morimoto, Meatpacking District, New York City)

Motorola hosted a cocktail reception last night at Morimoto in Manhattan's Meatpacking District last night to unveil its latest phones to members of New York City's digital scene.  In a gadget room, right next to the entrance, representatives from the company were on hand to let attendees handle both phones, the Cliq, which had launched earlier, and the Droid, which had launched in New York City earlier that same day. 

Mashahuru Morimoto himself was on hand and attendees were able to sample sushi freshly-prepared on site while mingling and listening to music spun by the two DJs hired for the event.  Downstairs, there was a Motorola-themed photo booth where guests could get their photo taken holding Motorola-themed props, including an oversized, 1980s style cell phone.

[Editor's Note: Each attendee at the event is being provided with either a Droid or Cliq phone courtesy of Motorola.]

NYConvergence ORIGINAL

Last night at the 92YTribeca, Aaron Tveit and Louis Hobson, cast members of the Broadway musical Next to Normal, debuted Something I Can't See, a new song created via the Next to Normal Twitter page. 

The creative team behind the show had asked the musical's more than 100,000 followers on Twitter for their thoughts on a new song for the musical, asking them to provide feedback on who should sing it, where in the muical the song should be sung, and what the motivation or emotion was behind it. 

Something I Can't See was the result.  It's a song which takes place in Act 2 following lead characters Diana's and Dan's visit to her doctor where Diana's doctor talks about the memory loss she is experiencing from electro-shock therapy.

NYConvergence ORIGINAL

The network of community-specific online news and information sites plans to launch 11 new sites spanning Long Island and Westchester in the next three months for:

• the Long Island communities of Bellmore, Garden City, Merrick, and Port Washington
• the Westchester County communities of Bedford-Katonah, Chappaqua-Mount Kisco, Harrison, Larchmont-Mamaroneck, Rye, Scarsdale, and Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow

In addition, the press release received by NYConvergence adds that by the end of this week, Patch will have launched in Livingston, NJ and Ridgefield, CT.  

Many of us who have the distinct pleasure to live and work in New York’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and/or Silicon Alley have no inkling of the staggering role its local academic institutions play in the realm of innovation, licensing, and start-up formation. I can tell you that until approximately six years ago I had no idea of the sheer scale of it all.  It  is certainly true that the majority of this output is in the realm of health sciences/biotech, but much is being done to stimulate entrepreneurship from engineering, computer science departments, the undergraduate ranks and the business schools.  (More on this in subsequent posts).

Just look at these hard numbers:

Annual Research Funds:                                       $1872 million

Annual  Inventions:                                                 643

Annual New Licenses and Options:                      193

Total Active Revenue Generating Agreements: 566

Annual Gross Licensing Revenue:                       $509 million

Annual Number of Start-up Companies:             20

Number of Start-up Companies to Date:             188

NYC Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein has announced the publication of the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts: The Moving Image.  According to the press release received by NYConvergence, the Blueprint is a guide that outlines expectations for the study of film, television, and animation from early elementary school through high school graduation.  Made possible through support from Chase, it was produced through a close collaboration between public school educators and New York City’s arts and cultural community.