NY Tech Alliance Announces Andy Saldaña as new Executive Director
November 1, 2018
By Marcos Dinnerstein
The New York Tech Alliance announced today the appointment of Andy Saldaña as Executive Director. His prior role in the organization was Director of Operations. Andy has been with the New York Tech Alliance for nearly six years, leading and organizing the monthly New York Tech Meetup events.
The New York Tech Meetup has over 60,000 members, making it the largest tech meetup in the world.
In this new position Andy Saldaña will responsible for formulating and leading the policies and strategy for the organization.
In a recent conversation, Andy reflected on his new role and where he plans to lead the organization.
Greater member engagement.
What new initiatives can we expect to see?
What we’re looking to do is to create a more engaged community. We have a beautiful community of over 60,000 members. But how do we engage them on a more regular basis? We’re at the center of their thoughts when they’re looking to launch or find connections in the ecosystem and we want to cultivate that in a more meaningful way.
We’ll be creating more touch points and creating more content and resources for them to access as a community.
Time Line
When will we see these changes?
In the next couple of months we’ll be launching our digital community powered by a local startup in NYC. We’re hoping this will power the many conversations that are now happening in disparate channels. It will consolidate conversations in one location, on a digital platform, allow us to engage with our members and allow them to engage with each other in a more meaningful way. What sets this platform apart is that the more you interact with somebody the closer they become in your network. If someone has helped you in any way and you have given them thanks, you now will receive their updates on a more regular basis, versus just seeing things that are not really relevant to you.
It will have all the makings of a traditional community: event postings, job listings and places for announcements. I think it will allow a more streamlined way for the community to target what their ‘asks and offers’ are for the community at large.
I’m looking to see how we can replicate what’s happening at the meetup every month in a more digital way. That’s been what has been more powerful over the last year — is seeing the community re-engage in that very community focused feel. People are coming to events to ask a lot of questions, to find out more and to offer up the services they are providing. At the end of every meetup we allow anybody in the audience to do an ‘ask and offer’ and I’m hoping this new platform can help expand that feeling overall. The platform will allow more people to ask more of what they need and offer up the services they can provide, all while supporting the organization that we’re building.
We’re a non-profit so what’s included in this community will be membership options. These paid memberships will offer discounted tickets to the monthly meetup or, at the highest level, free tickets to the monthly meetup. In addition, in the next year we’ll be launching a number of new events, including an entrepreneurial series. This series focuses on different aspects of building a business: HR and culture, legal issues one might encounter, and how to go to market and build your customer base. Tickets to those events would also be part of the member benefits.
Talk a little more about the digital platform.
The platform will help community organizers figure out the direction of their community and provide value to their members in a more direct way. It comes with a weekly email digest. One of the features is the top post is always in your email. A top post is one that receives the most engagement, e.g. most likes and shares. It also allows us, as admins, to focus the conversation we’re looking to have with the community and to get feedback from the community quickly. When you’re a small team that can be difficult and I’m hoping this tool will help solve some of those things. This will let us spend more time providing greater value to our community — to continue to promote the demo-ers who come across our stage, support them in their life cycle as entrepreneurs, to re-engage them so when they are ready, they come back to sponsor us. All of those things we’re looking to close the circle on and make sure that circle of engagement continues throughout the community.
About the Author
Marcos Dinnerstein is the founding editor of A Better Mousetrap, a weekly newsletter and blog that focuses on the tech and startup community in New York City. Previously he was the editor of Digital.NYC. Marcos freelances in content creation, content marketing, copy editing and consults with startups on navigating the complex New York City tech scene.
Contact: marcos@bettermousetrap.nyc
