Last week in New York wasn’t all BlogWorld (now known as New Media Expo) for me. I wound up spending time wandering what I’d like to have thought was the better part of Manhattan (turns out it was only a very small, better part of Manhattan) and meeting up with folks I hadn’t seen in a while.
Or ever before.
But before I get into the meeting of people, let’s get into the meeting of places. Starting with my Airbnb experience…
An Airbnb First Timer
I hadn’t used Airbnb before this trip, and I admittedly had my reservations about taking the plunge when heading to New York. But the cost of hotels close the Javits Center was just too much for me to swallow, so I decided to give Airbnb a go. And I’m glad I did.
Here’s my review of the place I stayed at during my stay, as well as my thoughts on the host, Rudy:
“Rudy was an excellent host. This was my first Airbnb experience and the way Rudy conducted himself throughout my stay is the reason I’ll be using the service again. He helped me navigate my way through my first trip to NYC, was always available and easy to connect with. The space is central to all the things I needed to go to, and the sleep was incredibly comfortable and even though it was a 2 bedroom, each room is at opposite ends of the apartment (meaning disturbing the other guest isn’t likely). He had umbrellas for me to use, laundry facilities in-house and also has a TV should you want to use it (I didn’t). I’ll definitely stay when I come back to New York…and if you’re there to spend time in the city and want a ‘home base’ to return to and get a good night’s sleep — and have some down time without having to go too far afield, then I can’t recommend Rudy and his place highly enough.”
The bottom line: I’ll use Airbnb again. Which “leads” me to Dave Ursilllo…
A World Domination Summit Reunion
I met Dave last year at the World Domination Summit after following his work online for some time. We got along great – even catching a Bruins-Canucks game along with Steve Kamb and Jenna (aka BiteSize) during our stay in Portland — so when I knew he was living in New York City, I dropped him a line to let him know I was coming into town.
He suggested we grab dinner before heading to a party we’d both been invited to (Derek Halpern and Pat Flynn’s party at Local West), and we did just that.
It is always great to reconnect with someone who has similar interests and travels in the same circles, and Dave certainly fits the bill. We’re going to see each other again in just three weeks for a return trip to WDS, but I’m incredibly glad we got together during my brief stay in New York. I had a really great time hanging out with him. He’s one of the good guys.
The Meeting of The Mikes
This was a big one.
On my last night in New York City I finally got to meet my co-host over at Mikes on Mics, the one and only Michael Schechter. While we had spoken for over 30 hours since meeting each other and starting up the podcast, we’d never actually met in person before.
We met out front of the venue where the BlogWorld closing party was taking place, but I never bothered to go to the party. It’s not that I didn’t think it’d be a great time (quite the contrary), but this meeting of “The Mikes” was another big part of why I made the trek.
And boy, was it worth it.
We had a great meal, had a few drinks, talked shop, talked tech, and talked about a lot of other stuff. We discussed future episode ideas. We hung out with a listener of the podcast (who I’d met at BlogWorld) in R-Michael, who offered us both praise and constructive criticism. It was an awesome night.
And we’ll get to do it all over again in three weeks in Portland, when we both attend WDS.1
Final Thoughts on NYC
I’ll be back. I won’t ever stay for a long time (same goes for Vegas), but I’ll be back. There are plenty of reasons to love New York City – and the events I attended, the sights I saw and the people I met definitely rank highest among them. Photo credit: Vox FX (CC BY 2.0) 1 And yes, we’ll be recording an episode while we’re there. We didn’t this time, but we will then. Perhaps with a surprise guest or two…
