NYXSW Demo Bake Off Recap

Tonight I attended the NYXSW Demo Bake Off event hosted by Hashable and TechStars and a slew of other companies. I haven't been to an event in the NY tech scene in a really long time, and I'm glad I came tonight. The energy is here/back. Not that it went away, but as in every industry, there are definitely peaks when the bigger companies take off and grow ridiculously (hello foursquare) and then a new group of eager entrepreneurs get the time to work on their big idea hoping for the same.

The demos were good tonight. 2 minute rapid fire (strictly monitored by Miss Emily Hickey of Hashable) and a huge space to grab some beers and continue meeting the many people we'll be sharing ribs and beers and tacos with next week down in Austin.

I'm guessing the full list of demos is somewhere, but here are some of my favorites:

• imup4 - announce your intentions of interests to a feed of friends. as the site says, "you're up for something, your friends are too. now you know." So, say you post "I'm up for seeing The Kings Speech today" and then your friends who want to do the same could jump in. Great way for making plans and doing what you want to do. It's still in private beta, but you can request for an invite.
• GTrot - Social travel made easy. This is great. Share past trips and upcoming plans in seconds. See where your friends are going, what they recommend doing, who will be nearby. Facebook and foursquare integrated.
• Shelby.tv - recommended curated viewing of online videos from your Twitter stream. Keep an eye on this. It's still in early alpha, but trust me - once it goes live, you'll understand how cool it is, and how useful. Follow CEO Reece Pacheco @reecepacheco for more on it.
• CityPockets - FINALLY. Manage and keep track of all your daily deal vouchers from Groupon, Living Social, etc... I think Ive had a conversation with at least 20 people about how many deals have expired on them. Plus, an easier way to keep track of them besides GMail labels is needed. Curious as to how they get access to all of your deals (scrape emails?) but it's promising and useful.

The last wasn't a presenter, but someone I met there. Francisco Hui has launched a company called Interactess. If you're someone who wears t-shirt 5/7 days a week like SOME people I know, you'll love it. Check it out. Only one shirt now, but you'll see his creativity and the possibility of what the site could do.

Open Table

Do you use Open Table? Do you REALLY use Open Table?

Many here in NY use it. It's the easiest way to grab a table and ensure that you have one at 8pm on a Saturday night. But the extra bonus is the points you get. For those that like gathering their AMEX points (I do!) OpenTable offers the same type of reward program. Book a table, and you'll usually get 100 points should you dine and redeem. Eat at a spot with a special going on that week or an odd time (think later or earlier) and you'll easily grab 1,000 points just for sitting down.

I just sent in my request for my dining cheque for $50 thanks to the 5,000 points I earned. Totally underused in my opinion. I've only seen one friend ever talk about it/redeem a check.

Time Capsules

Ever dig a time capsule when you were little? Gather photos and memories and bury them in the ground? I think I did in 3rd grade. I wasn't there for the unearthing although I'm not sure how exciting it would be to see Lisa Frank stickers and other 3rd grade memorabilia. Or maybe it would be...

Anyway, the notion of time capsules is actually one that is quite fun and two projects allow for "digital" time capsules is really awesome.

PhotoJojo - twice a month email with photos from your Flickr account from the year prior and a new one created at the recent foursquare hackathon, 4squareand7yearsago.com. This one sends you an email letting you know where you were on that date one year ago. It also nudges you to make this year better and not so lame.

Check them out.

My First Birchbox

I received my first Birchbox on Friday.

I used to get really excited when my parents would send me care packages at college. Full of college needs (soap! toothbrush!) magazines, and of course cash because I needed to have cash to buy stupid things that college girls buy. (read: Bud Light)

Birchbox brings that feeling back of receiving a present and package in the mail but this time it's full of adorably amazing beauty products that I want to try.

Now to be clear - I'm not the die hard beauty girl. I have friends who are amazing at products and know everything about it and I totally rely on them. Katie makes sure I moisturize every night, Felicia always writes about amazing new items on her blog. Same with Dina. So how can I discover products that work for me without having to spend an hour in Sephora trying on every cream under the sun?

This answer is Birchbox. Once a month. A sample of products in a box delivered by the middle of the month every month until I cancel, which I have no intention of doing.

This month I received:

NARS Orgasm Illuminator
Oscar Blandi Olio di Jasmine Hair Serum
Befine Exfoliating Cleanser
bareMinerals Flawless Definition Volumizing Mascara
sweetriot Dark Chocolate Covered Cacao Nibs

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

The Befine was definitely my favorite and I'm probably going to buy the full bottle. (There it is!)

If you're a girl like me who needs a little help in trying beauty products, or if you're a gal who just love products anyway---sign up here. $10 per month. Trust me, you'll love it.