by Brian Solis

While the state of the U.S. economy has many gripped with fear, the spirit of tech entrepreneurs appears to be alive and well, and perhaps most notably, determined to excel regardless of the hurdles that may lie ahead.

On November 11th in New York, Microsoft Startup Zone partnered with The TechSet (Stephanie Agresta and yours truly) to host Ignite New York to debut the newly launched BizSpark initiative. BizSpark is a comprehensive program that is dedicated to helping startups grow and succeed by offering to caliber services, resources, platforms and software.

The event was hosted at One Little West 12, an elegant and beautiful ultra lounge in New York’s stylish Meat Packing District – next door to the Hotel Gansevoort, made popular by the Sex and the City Franchise.

Close to 400 people celebrated the spirit of entrepreneurialism that night, which made for an evening rich with valuable and productive conversations and networking.

New York is the first in a series of events. Austin, you’re next! See you on November 20th. RSVP here.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Leora Israel

Stephanie Frasco

Aaron Brazell (technosailor)

Adam Hirsh of Mashable and David Parmet

SavvyAuntie.com

Victor Karamalis

Laura Michaels and Bryan Thatcher of Fusebox and Empressr.com

Michelle DeForest

Karin Klein and Jennifer Klein

Peter Himler, David Parmet, Joe Ciarallo

Brett Petersel of Mashable stands out from the crowd

Stephanie Agresta and Steve Rosenbaum of Magnify.net

Jacob Mullins, Santiago Iturbe, Chris Brady

Victoria Stemmer and Paul Lewis of MTV

Mark Burstiner, Meghan Asha, and

Michael Lewis

Gary Sharma

Jonathan Dingman

David Blumenstein

RockBand – Kyle Sollenberger, Paul Lewis, Whitney Hess

Winner of the Twitter XBOX 360 contest

Arthur Boie, Chris Munns of Meetup.com, Damien Basile

Ari Greenberg and Bonnie Halper

Oz Sultan and Julia Johnston

Brian Solis

Brian August and Leora Israel

The Ignite Team, shot by Aaron Brazell

Earlier in the evening, team Ignite, attended the New York Newtech Meetup. To see my pictures of the meetup, jump over to my set on Flickr.

For more pictures from Ignite New York hosted by Microsoft BizSpark and TechSet, please visit my album on Flickr.

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by Brian Solis

The spirit of entrepreneurialism is what drives all of us to innovate and excel. Economics aside, there is no better time than now to pursue that next big idea. This is your time to shine and we want to celebrate you, your vision and help you succeed.

Microsoft Startup Zone and The TechSet, present “Ignition” an event for entrepreneurs, investors and those who contribute to a dynamic ecosystem for helping startups flourish.

Join Stephanie Agresta, Brian Solis, Microsoft staff and partners at One Little West NYC from 8-10pm. Free hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and valuable networking will be served. Plus, you will have the opportunity to meet some of the most influential technologists around. All attendees can participate in a “twitter raffle” to win an XBox 360 Elite.

Microsoft Startup Zone will be making an important announcement prior to the event at the New York Tech Meetup, so for now, we need to keep things stealth while we plan and organize during private beta.

Mark your calendar and stay tuned for more news.

Event Details:

Time: 8-10pm
Location: 1 Little W. 12th St., New York, NY 10014

Please make sure to RSVP on Eventbrite.

If you don’t live in NY, hopefully we’ll see you in Austin, LA, or Silicon Valley:

November 20, 2008 – Austin

December 2, 2008 – Los Angeles

December 4, 2008 – Silicon Valley

Connect with me on:
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