HackNY Week 9

This was a very short, but very very fun week. I was lucky enough to go AWS Chicago Summit with DataDog and demo our product. Over the span of 2 days I talked with around 1000 people. It was quite an experience, and I'm very glad I got to have it. My boss told me that DataDog is very unique right now because it's small enough where an intern can go to this event, but it's big enough where everyone at the conference has heard of us.

Tech Talk 15: Julie Samuels

Julie Samuels, head of TechNYC and previous lawyer for EFF, talked to us about the importance of building communities around ethical technology and fighting for the rights of citizens in government. TechNYC is an organization based in, you guessed it, NYC, that is composed of companies who have established headquarters in NYC. Their organization lobbies in congress for things like net neutrality, among other important issues.

AWS Chicago

Day one

Today, we had to get up at 6:00AM. We got to the conference space at around 6:30, and from that point on we we're on our feet for the rest of the day. At first, I was very nervous about giving demoes, I really only knew the part of DataDog that I dealt with and not much else. We didn't have too much training, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. It was funny how much of a script I developed on my own. After thirteen hours of demoing, with a one hour break towards the beggining of the day, I had my pitch down. The best part of the day was the little breaks I got when i got to bond with the sales/ marketing people around me. Most of DataDog's sales team is based in Boston, so i was able to connect with them very quickly.

Day two

Day two was far more relaxed than the previous day. Rather than 13 hours straight it was only 5 hours, giving me a lot of free time in the afternoon to explore chicago with another intern. After exploring around we met up with the rest of the group for a great 5 course dinner, and then drinks later in the evening. While at dinner, the trip's leader passed out prizes to the best demoers and grabbers. I was lucky enough to win a pair of our limited edition socks!!! (which i had been lusting over since I first saw them :P)

Corey's performance

Corey came in this weekend and we had one of the best weekends I've ever had in NYC. We had some of the best meals in my life, saw some amazing sights, and had some amazing coffee as well (which I've been more and more addicted to). On sunday night, he performed at Harlem Nights, a really cool live music bar that I highly recommend!!! It was great seeing him in his element and really connecting with the audience and his fellow performers.

Soundtrack for the Week

Flower Boy - Tyler, the Creator

Sleeping Beauty - Sun Ra