Group nyc banded together at Lucky Jack’s on Orchard and Delancey, not knowing what to expect. One of the moderators, yours truly, must be getting a bit old, since he set the start time for 17:00 (which prompted many of my interactions to start with the following: “Yo…we grad students don’t even roll into work until 11:00…”). Another co-organizer (Natalie) suggested a location which was about as far as it could be, without leaving the borough, from just about everybody we hoped to participate (almost under the Williamsburg Bridge; it took me almost 30 minutes to walk there from Canal and Varick). On top of everything else, what was this strange Nature Network thing and why should anyone be a part of it? For the free NN-branded sharpies that I was pushing? Not at all, and I think that most in attendance would be sure to agree that much more is on offer.

The event started out slow, with 4-5 people sipping beers when I showed up (late) at 17:30. For New York, I felt that being only 30 minutes late, I was actually running early. Regardless, a slow trickle of people rolled in relentlessly until about 20:00, when we most likely reached full capacity. In total, I think that more than 30 people showed up and at any given time, for a few hours, there must of been 20-25 nyc scientists drinking beer together.

Amazingly, almost 2/3 in attendance were from one Columbia campus or another, but we also counted attendees from NYU, Cornell, Princeton, Discover Magazine and NPG. The backgrounds of those toasting drinks were quite diverse, including graduate students, post-docs, post-doc office directors, science writers, editors and product managers; with such scientific fields as computational biology, computer science, neuroscience, and immunology represented. Looking around, I never saw anyone sitting alone, nor did anyone fail to find a good conversation, and quite a few drinks were consumed. In addition, the sharpies and promotional NN cards I had on display were put to good use, with several people exchanging email addresses, as one would expect from a networking forum.

I would provide explicit documentation of the night, but unfortunately, after the sun went down, Chris’ iPhone was not up to the task of capturing the antics being carried out in the dimly lit foyer of Lucky Jack’s. But there were enough witnesses to back up my stories, relegating pictures into obsolescence. In fact, for all those in attendance last night, please fill in your thoughts on the experience, or remind me of a funny story I neglected to mention.

Corie Lok, the senior Nature Network editor who issued a challenge to form a prominent nyc-based NN group during a visit to Columbia, emailed Natalie, Chris, and myself at around 18:45 asking:

How did the party go?

If you didn’t notice the past tense in that sentence, let me make sure that I bring it to your attention now. How did the nyc group respond? A lot later than 18:45, I can assure you. In fact, we only noticed the query because we were trying to take pictures with our phones.

We are still raging said Chris.

Puh-leez. We are NYC. Report pending, party in progress. added Natalie.

In fact, although I left near the end, apparently some small contingency lasted until past 22:00. Well-done my friends. Well-done.

Although we did quite well partying the night away in the LES, even the well-educated nyc scientist group on Nature Network can be taught a thing or two about serious partying. We shared the bar with another meeting of sorts, this one called the “Mommy Retreat” and was exactly that, although very few of them actually looked like mothers (well, I guess this IS Manhattan). These ladies definitely knew how to have fun after the kids were tucked into bed, and took their get-together to the next level when a delivery boy dropped off several boxes of pizza in the bar at just about the time when everyone in our group was about ready to gnosh on something (anything). Trust me, we learned our lesson from the ever-resourceful and forward-thinking mothers of New York City.

With the success of this gathering, we will definitely be having a follow-up, sometime within the first 2 weeks of May. To reward their willingness to travel, I propose that we plan the next nyc Happy Hour near Columbia, with The Heights standing out as a top choice. More to come on that…

In the meantime, those of you from Cornell and Rockefeller, start making your pitches for bars in your area, because the Upper East Side is next after Harlem. I have to warn you though, if you don’t come through with some good ideas, we’ll have to crash in TriBeCa or SoHo for June (closer to my neck of the woods…).

In parting, Corie has been trying to pit nyc and Berlin against one another in terms of who can rustle up more excitement and activity. Well, I read the write-up of their inaugural event as well as a challenge from the group administrators and I have my opinions on the current pecking order. But I’ll let you decide for yourselves.