this last week the blupint squad traveled to NYC for a week of networking, events and meetings with others in the industry. it was the perfect trip – we met great peeps, learned lessons, made contacts, had fun… and for me personally, i finally made the trip out of manhattan…where you might ask?? Well, we boarded the 1 at 89th, transfered to the a-train, dealt with a brief ripe stench (that actually lingered each day we made the trip..??..) and emerged a few minutes later in the bk!! (cue, jay-z’s “brooklyn we go hard” and “empire state of mind” on the itunes list for remainder of post.)

unlike my counterpart in the blupint venture, my experience and time in nyc is limited. i’ve seen manhattan and all it has to offer but never ventured far outside. so, as one would imagine, when we scheduled much of our time in the dumbo area across the bridge, i was riffled with anticipation. looking back, i don’t know exactly what I expected…. other than the frequent hip-hop and urban references made in much of my music, i had no idea what actually existed over there. ignorant, i know… but sadly true. so, as i emerged from the subway on our first day it’s easy to say that i was completely blown away. standing at the top of the subway stairs it was like i could breathe – sounds silly, but that’s something you don’t always feel standing in parts of manhattan. i mean, when you look up from brooklyn you see actual blue sky.. not just a never-ending vertical run of glass, steal and concrete. i saw parks and dog runs. renovated industrial buildings that were edgy yet sophisticated, and housed creative businesses and residencies. we grubbed at boutique restaurants, bars and stores. not to mention i saw one of the best evening views of the river, bridges and the nyc skyline that I’ve ever seen…. i was truly impressed… and at this point we hadn’t even met our people yet…..

from that point on we were in meetings with carrot creative, mammoth nyc, brooklyn digital foundry, invoke media, and domani studios. we attended the monthly digital dumbo event and had the opportunity to hear about others in the industry and introduce blupint. everyone was supportive, helpful, interested and open. they shared experiences, struggles, and successes; and were very honest about being the new group in the space…. thinking about all that was seen and experienced in brooklyn, including the incredible people we met, it’s difficult to wrap up the experience in just a few words. and the more I think about the week, the more I could go on and on about it…. so to completely rob someone of their lyrical abilities (and then alter in the smallest way), and to properly give bk the credit it deserves, there’s only one thing i can say…

brooklyn… you go hard.

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