Jul 22 · 6–9pm
After Tokenmaxxing dinner
Private table (≈20) on AI cost at scale with OpenRouter. Routing, agent spend, budgets without killing adoption. Manhattan venue on approval.
What each room is good for
Builders
AI Tinkerers · LLM meetups · hackathons
Talent
Same rooms + YC hiring + gm nyc
Buyers
AWS Summit · industry summits
Brand
Named conferences · speaking
Near-term calendar · act now
Confirmed or strongly signaled dates. Always re-check RSVP pages — capacity is curated.
Jul 29 · 6–9pm
NYC Summer Social
Two years of Tinkerers NYC — rooftop oysters, seed/Series A founders and founding eng. Sponsored energy from MongoDB.
Jul 30 · 8–11am
Run & Hack 5K
Simultaneous 5K + build. Led by Matthew Mirman (chat.dev, Brooklyn). Meet at 91 1st Ave; headphones required. Prize: custom Adizero shoes.
Sep 28 – Oct 2
MLcon New York
GenAI & ML engineering at Marriott Brooklyn Bridge. 2026 program still filling — good for technical brand + senior eng presence. Pair with API Conference same week if APIs are your wedge.
Oct 25–27
Quantum + AI (IQT)
Enterprise quantum×AI density. Program coords: Bob Sutor, Brian Siegelwax. Speakers include Jack Hidary (SandboxAQ), Rigetti, IBM Quantum, IonQ, Cisco, KPMG, State Street. Only if quantum/PQC is real GTM.
People worth knowing
Operators first, then local CEOs already in the rooms, then stage names. Use for intros — not cold spam.
Operators · rooms
Joe Heitzeberg
Founder of AI Tinkerers (global, 60+ cities). Also runs AITFund for builders from the network. Selective: active builders only. Best path is demo at a chapter, not a cold pitch.
Operators · sponsors
Uli & Atai Barkai · CopilotKit
Uli — Co-Founder, Head of Growth; co-organizes Tinkerers SF and shows up NYC (Betaworks demo days). Atai — CEO. AG-UI / agent frontend stack; frequent Tinkerers sponsors with Google Cloud.
Operators · talent
Fonzi · New York AI Engineers
~9.5k-member Meetup for AI eng. Match Day hiring marketplace. Events at 25 Kent Ave. Want a tech talk slot? Email speaking abstracts to lauren@fonzi.ai.
Operators · venue / capital
John Borthwick · betaworks
CEO of betaworks (NYC studio since 2008). Recurring host venue for Tinkerers demos. Studio history includes Giphy, bitly, Chartbeat; AI Camp programs. Highest-status NYC builder room + capital node.
Local CEOs · already in-room
Matthew Mirman · chat.dev
Brooklyn founder. ETH Zurich PhD; prior Extensional (YC W23). Leads Tinkerers Run & Hack formats. Local builder-CEO you can meet without a conference badge.
Local CEOs · already in-room
Guy Eisenkot · Baz
NYC-based. Co-Founder & CEO of Baz (AI coding agents; Bridgecrew background; ~$17M raised). Demoed at Tinkerers NYC @ Betaworks. Partner / hire adjacency in eng-tooling.
Local · builders
Dele Atanda
NYC founder (metaProof). Won AI Tinkerers Agent + Money hackathon. Strong if you play agents + payments / “agentic money.”
Stage · only if GTM fits
Quantum / ML stage names
Bob Sutor & Brian Siegelwax — Q+AI program. Jack Hidary (SandboxAQ). MLcon NY speakers still rolling out. Charles Frye (Modal) has demoed in NYC Tinkerers — infra path.
Tier 1 — go weekly
Highest ROI. Consistency beats conference tourism.
Default home base
AI Tinkerers — New York City
Live demos, technical Q&A, no-pitch networking. Founded by Joe Heitzeberg; NYC demos often at Betaworks with sponsors like CopilotKit / Google Cloud / Anthropic stacks. Best place to meet people who ship.
Recurring
NYC AI/LLM/ML Developers
Recurring developer community. Eng hires, co-founders, “who’s building what” without conference logistics.
Hiring density
New York AI Engineers
Engineer-heavy community (Fonzi / Match Day orbit). Use when hiring is the goal.
Radar
TechMeetups.io · New York
Directory of NYC tech/AI meetups. Pick 1–2 events/week — don’t try to attend everything.
Tier 2 — stage events
Only with a written goal: 10 intros, 3 candidates, or 1 speaking asset.
ML / eng stage
MLcon New York
Generative AI & ML engineering. Technical brand + senior eng presence.
Enterprise / cloud
AWS Summit New York City
Platform and enterprise buyers. Strong if you sell into cloud stacks — weak for early product discovery.
Deep tech narrative
Quantum + AI · Oct 25–27, 2026
Dated NYC conference. Relevant if quantum-adjacent AI is your wedge or you want a long-horizon stage.
Industry exec
Agentic AI Summit · Generative AI Summit
Exec density for teams deploying agents at scale. Skip if you still need product truth from builders.
Tier 3 — radar & adjacent
Aggregator
All Conference Alert · AI NY
Scan for date collisions. Always verify on the organizer site before buying.
Map
Galviq · B2B AI events NY
Larger anchors (AI Engineer Summit, Javits, Forbes/Bloomberg-style, Cornell/NYU/Betaworks layer).
Civic
BetaNYC · AI 101
Public literacy / civic tech. Useful if you touch city services or open data — not a fundraising room.
Ecosystem
AI Community Conference NY
Microsoft / Copilot / Azure community flavor. Attend only if that stack is your distribution path.
Talent & market signal
Weekly founder ops — not conference tourism.
YC AI startups in NY hiring
Who is scaling eng. Competitor velocity, candidate awareness, “who just grew.”
gm nyc — jobs + events
~12k weekly readers. Monday parties/events, Thursday roles. Recent heat: OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, Harvey, Norm AI, Cognition listings.
Structured hiring for elite AI eng ↔ startups. Same org runs NY AI Engineers socials — dual path for hiring brand + network.
How to show up
Pick a home room
AI Tinkerers + one Meetup. People remember who shows up twice.
Bring a demo, not a deck
Two to three minutes live. Offer to go last so you can riff on earlier talks.
Target intros by role
- Customers: industry summits + OpenRouter-style ops dinners — “who owns spend / workflow?”
- Engineers: Tinkerers demos + Fonzi AI Engineers — hire from people who ship live
- Local CEOs: Mirman, Eisenkot already demo in the same rooms — peer intros beat cold email
- Investors / venue: Betaworks orbit after you’ve been seen shipping, not first visit
Close the loop in 24 hours
Same-day note: one sentence on what you built + one ask (feedback, intro, hire).
Social is radar, not truth
Online chatter and short-form buzz rarely map cleanly to real RSVPs. Don’t plan your week off a viral post alone.
One-page checklist
- Apply to AI Tinkerers NYC + RSVP one of Jul 22 / 29 / 30
- Prep a 3-minute offline-capable demo (no deck)
- Join New York AI Engineers (Fonzi) — optional talk abstract to lauren@fonzi.ai
- Note warm targets: Mirman (chat.dev), Eisenkot (Baz), Betaworks / Borthwick orbit
- Bookmark TechMeetups.io NY + Galviq AI NY as weekly scanners
- Stage list with written goals: MLcon NY and/or Q+AI only if GTM fits
- Skim YC NY AI hiring + gm nyc once a week
- Same-day follow-up notes after every room