Web 2.0 Expo New York: I heart New York

Let me start off this much delayed post by coming clean. It had been since September 1998 since I had last been in New York City. A full decade. Tragic really. And it was for Fall Internet World 1998. Back during the ramp up of the first bubble when I was still doing biz dev for TechWeb/CMPnet. Yikes.

This time, my trip was because of another trade show, Web 2.0 Expo New York last week, where I put together the booth showing off the eBay and PayPal platforms to web developers and designers. The fact that I flew in on Black Monday 2008 did not do anything to quell my fears that another web bubble might be bursting soon. Ironically, due to a number of post-bubble mergers, TechWeb is now the name of the business unit who puts on the show with O'Reilly (United Business Media bought an Events company and gave it the name of the old tech portal site I used to work for, when it was CMP Media -- separately bought out by United Business Media). Do you see all the paths converging and crashing in on each other now?

But I digress. At our booth, attendees learned and got demos about eBay Developers Program, PayPal certifications, VUVOX, eBay Desktop, Firefox Companion for eBay and more. But the best part of the week was definitely getting to know some more of the developers building applications with the eBay and PayPal API platforms, such as Glaxstar, EffectiveUI, JDT Technologies, Aduci and Payloadz, who added their perspective and testimonials about their experience with the eBay development and PayPal certification process.

Rolf Skyberg packed his session on Platform Wars: A Brief History on Wednesday, and we also got to catch up with developers like WatchCount.com (aka helios825 on the Developer Forums), WidgetBucks/Mpire and Guru of Sales, who stopped by our booth as well. You can also check out InformationWeek and VentureBeat for what our fearless leader, Max Mancini, had to say from the show floor.

Of course, since it IS New York, I had after hours fun, too, including dinner at Otto Pizzeria Enoteca (Mario Batali's restaurant), DB Moderne Bistro (Daniel Balaud's restaurant), as well as an invitation to partake in house seats for South Pacific, currently the most sought after tickets on Broadway (apparently -- I'll have to take my friend's word for it). I even enjoyed a few cocktails at trendy Manhattan clubs and bars - something I don't even get to do in San Francisco anymore.

This trip, even though it was hard to leave my 10-month old behind for the first time, made me swear not to wait another ten years before I return. I heart New York.

Photo Credits to Delyn Simons and Lanz Tsang