TECHNOLOGY Queens Tech Meetup Bringing people and dollars to Queens (left to right) Wiley Cerilli, Frank Denbow, Peter Pelberg, Adrian Sanders, Jukay Hsu, Stefanos Missailidis, David Yang, Ben Wei BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO Members of the tech community gathered Thursday, February 21 on the rooftop of Hunter’s Point Plaza for February’s Queens Tech Meetup, hosted by the Coalition for Queens. Attendees got the chance to interact with one another and learn from rising stars in the tech world. Wiley Cerilli, CEO and founder of SinglePlatform, was the night’s featured speaker, who described how he made his way to selling his company last June for over $100 million. Cerilli was named in 2012 as one of Business Insider’s Top 25 Tech CEOS and “Top 100 Most Influential People in New York” by Business Insider. Along with amusing his listeners with jokes, Cerilli described the reasoning behind why his company has become successful. “It’s about doing one thing very well, instead of trying to do many things,” said Cerilli. Other presenters included members of the up-andcoming companies Backspaces, Yog and Fiestah. Backspaces was introduced as a new app bringing you “the best way to create and share stories with friends.” Sharing stories through words, pictures and places, users can introduce others to their lives or explore new worlds. For those who don’t like jogging alone, Yog “connects runners from around the world to run together in real-time” said presenter Peter Pelberg. The event planning site, Fiestah, promises to save the event planner time by helping to remove the time consuming and stressful act of finding, contacting and managing various vendors. The vendors Peter Pelberg of Yog are brought to the planner and the best offer wins. “I’m trying to save the planner time,” said founder Stefanos Missailidis. Eric Abrams of the Queens Chamber of Commerce then invited the gathered tech enthusiasts to participate in helping develop a Queens mobile app as big events like the MLB All-Star Game and Super Bowl XLVIII bring tourists into the borough in 2013 and 2014. Photos Courtesy of David Yang of Coalition for Queens “We want you to help bring people and their dollars into Queens. Help us to build our borough as a tourism destination,” said Abrams. “We want something sexy, something beautiful that people want to use.” The night ended with members gathered in special “topic” sections on the rooftop, such as gaming and mobile apps, and sharing stories and ideas. The technology community will get together for the next Queens Tech Meetup on March 27. www.queenscourier.com • march 2013 • lic courier 41
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