The city of New York is about to step up its efforts to help nascent businesses and laid-off professionals, CNET News has learned.
On Wednesday, the city's Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC) plans to announce a new initiative to partner with a number of local start-up workspace companies. These office space providers rent desks, cubicles, conference rooms, and other resources to new and small businesses that aren't yet ready to take the full plunge into office space in a notoriously expensive market.
According to a source in the city's venture capital community, the agreement means that participating workspaces will provide discounted services and event space access to the city in exchange for promotion and publicity. Basically, this means that instead of actively developing rival shared work spaces--which could undercut existing private ones--NYC EDC will primarily collaborate with the ones that are already there.
A media relations representative from NYC EDC confirmed to CNET News that there would be an announcement on Wednesday but declined to provide any details.
The source said that initial partners in the agreement include Sunshine Suites, Nutopia, and New Work City, among others. But the partnership's first hub will be at 160 Varick St., in the SoHo neighborhood, which had already been selected by NYC EDC as a collaborative workspace.
It goes without saying that New York's business sector has been thoroughly shaken by the Wall Street crisis and ensuing recession.
In his State of the City address on January 15, Mayor Michael Bloomberg--himself a billionaire entrepreneur--announced that NYC EDC would work with the city's Small Businesses Services agency to help laid off workers find new employment at start-ups and entrepreneurial efforts, as well as devote more resources toward attracting new private investors.
In June, as part of the city's inaugural Internet Week New York festivities, Bloomberg announced a separate initiative called NYC Seed: a venture fund to provide up to $200,000 to local technology start-ups.
Hotties? Definitely. But I wonder what they would've said if I'd asked them if they know who Steve Ballmer is.
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)This post was updated at 4:50 AM PT on March 4 with comment from a Microsoft representative.
NEW YORK--So, on Monday night, Microsoft threw a party for its brand new Office Live Workspace, also known as Redmond's answer to Google Apps. Held at the Twelve21 nightclub in Manhattan's Flatiron District, the guests of honor at the event were Doug Ellin, creator and executive producer of the HBO series Entourage, as well as executive producer Rob Weiss and star Jeremy Piven (you know, "Ari").
I'm always down for a good time with software geeks, so I rolled in hoping to find some people willing to talk about whether Office Live Workspace really is a formidable answer to the Google Docs that I've found myself using pretty frequently. Instead, I walked in to find that the open-bar party was full of models. You know, the sort you'd see at Fashion Week, not a Microsoft party. And aside from my esteemed colleague Natali Del Conte of CNET TV, the only two people I recognized there were Pop17 video host Sarah Meyers and CrunchGear blogger (and local tech party staple) Nicholas Deleon.
Yes, there's an Office Live Workspace logo, but let's face it, everyone was interested in the free drinks instead.
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)Logos for the new Web-based software were everywhere, but the hotties in attendance didn't seem to care, making a couple of us bloggers wonder if maybe they'd been hired to show up and look good. A half dozen computers set up with demos of the Office Live Workspace beta were ignored, for the most part. Jeremy Piven, meanwhile, remained squarely in the VIP section. It was certainly a party, but it definitely wasn't much of a launch party.
A Microsoft representative provided me with an explanation via e-mail. "This was a party that included users of Office Live Workspace from the limited beta program, some press and analysts as well as guests of Jeremy, Doug and Rob," the e-mail read. "Not a typical Microsoft event, but major milestone for the product and we did want to celebrate it."
Oh, well--thanks for the invite and the free Stella Artois, Microsoft. I had a decent time, and I know you guys in Redmond like to put on a big spectacle, but seriously it's O.K. to invite nerds to parties. We're very social, honestly.
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