Update from the Hive

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of parties, celebrity sightings, student promotions and good old-fashioned collaboration.

On May 12^th, Mayor Mike Bloomberg visited the Hive to witness part of his “Media2020” campaign in action. The Mayor spent over an hour here, meeting with member companies, taking a tour of the facility and speaking with reporters about the success of the Hive and the technology industry in New York. It was a very exciting day, to say the least.

From my perspective—in the back of the room behind all the cameras and flashes—I gained a great appreciation for this man’s job. Throngs of reporters follow him around, and while talking about the NYC tech industry, he had to answer questions about oil spills, politics and the economy. I was exhausted just watching.

Speaking of big names coming to the Hive: Just last week we celebrated the launch of ShopKeep.com, and amid all the music, food, and drinks, John Legend paraded in to say hello to a friend! He was with his girlfriend, Chrissy Teigen, and the two of them mingled for 10 minutes before heading out to their next party. No, his appearance didn’t make it onto Page Six, but it was nice to meet them both!

Later this week, after the submissions are reviewed by the judges, the Hive will announce the winner of the Tech in Residence Student Competition. We are happy to engage and support the student community and be a part of the next generation of startups and entrepreneurs. The submissions were all excellent and it was really cool to see how many students have started their own companies. The winning team will get free space to work on its company here at the Hive for the summer. For all other students, we have some exciting discounts on our website.

Last, I wanted to update you about collaboration among our members. The Hive makes an effort to ask its members: “What do you need?” and “What can you offer?” Through this approach, we’ve set up members with new jobs and had other members collaborate with each other. For example, a friend of the Hive asked if we had any web designers. Two days later, this person was sitting here working with one of our members on her website. Meanwhile, a marketing company in our building asked if we had any app developers. Just a short time later, a member told us that he signed a contract with that company. Along with these two big examples there have been a number of other instances, and there will be many more to come.

Collaboration, exciting visitors and outreach to the technology and media communities in NYC are what make life at the Hive so much fun. If you haven’t been here yet, come on by and check it out!

More photos of the Mayor’s visit can be seen on our Flickr page