MONDAY
While athletics were competing at the Olympics in Sydney for the Gold, Silicon Alley professionals were in their own Olympic week of events. The week started off in Brooklyn at the New York Industry Software Association (NYSIA) Summit 2000 at the Brooklyn Marriott. Bruce Bernstein and all his staff deserve to be congratulated for a well-run event. Panels were dynamic with Silicon Alley's best and brightest and as plenary panels to boot that foretold of things to come in a wildly visionary way. There were tracks on technology, marketing, Silicon Alley, broadband and were chaired by familiar faces like Agency.com's Kyle Shannon, Digital Club Network's Andrew Raisej, NYNMA's Alice O'Rourke and Zagat.com's Steve Forte. The popular Venture and Seek Financing track was chaired by NYC Investment Fund CEO Kathy Wylde, iHatch partner Chip Austin and Time Warner Digital Media's CEO Ariane DeBonVoisin. I co-chaired the "Digital Dividend: New Opportuniites for Women & Minorities" track with Blackplanet.com CEO Omar Wasow and the women on my panel delivered a compelling discussion for the audience. We had contributions from Hudson Williams CEO Nell Cote, Count-Me-In co-founder Nell Merlino, Merrill Lynch senior financial consultant Jennifer Madrid and New York Community Investment Company vice president Nina Orville. Before the last panel I spoke with The Accelerator Group Clay Shirky and the Alliance for Downtown New York's Sharon Greenberger was spotted taking in the panels. Our Interactive Fashion Show involved some willing contestants included some dashing chaps from MI8, Rollings and Akamai. The panels were rich in content, the attendees were rich in experience and the day was, by any measure of success--richly rewarding.
