TechDay NewYork '17: How's The Wow !

10 Year old Alex Hart drove 16 hours with his family from Racine, Wisconsin to put an exhibitor booth @ TechDay New York , showcase his venture Build a BowTie and have a trial audition with Shark Tank. Without any traces of #AI or Machine learning or Unicorns or IPO, this still was the epitome of entrepreneurship and can-do spirits that events like TechDay essentially aim to celebrate.

More on Alex Hart, and his sky high dreams in a bit. I had the chance to attend this event earlier also in 2015 and 2016. This year, with over 575 Exhibitor Booths and over 35,000 Registered attendees, the size and impact is enhanced. So what's the buzz ?

To a repeat attendee, what touches the chord - and comforting - was to see companies exhibiting again. There must have been more such, but it was nice to see TechDay 'Alum' companies like HotelsByDay , CheapOAir, MuseumHack, Bevi, WayUp vibrant and kicking !

While there were a few booths displaying products around 3D printing, the category of chat bots seemed quite in early days with RokoLabs ,Vital , Teller, Meet Sally and few more.

For sure, lots of booths representing companies/ ideas with yet another model of recruiting/ realty management/ education / legal contracts and content management.

And now, it seems the boundaries of this event are expanding far beyond traditional 'Tech'. Companies demo'ing Pet Care, home vaults, Furniture, mattresses. In fact, there were at least 5 booths selling different forms of massage related care products.

Hey, so Where's the Tech ? Well, some more innovative forms of Uber cum Airbnb cum Instagram cum Google cum......The NetJets Version for me FlyOtto , Dinner Only into day CoWorking Spaces Spacious,Mobile Nails Nomi Beauty, Mobile HopLite Power

And some of those, who had the largest booths ? Airlines, Bank, Energy Bar , all spokes of the Wheels of Economy - much beyond the usual Tech. players - associating and promoting their presence in the Technology Cycles. Having walked up and down all the aisles of the TechDay - and devouring umpteen calories in the candies and endless supplies of ball pens (this is unchanged for 20 years) - I may have glimpsed past or talked to hundreds of companies/ ideas/ ventures/ products/ services since morning, and was still yearning for Wow ! moment. When late in the afternoon, I chanced upon the very confident Alex Hart, his mother,father, kid brother and their pride of eyes venture . Along with custom made bowties (one bowtie changes colors), he also is promoting shoes - where just top facing can be changed - to enabling pairing with multiple dresses. These ideas are yet to be tested for scalability; but the big dreams and pursuits of Alex Hart - who stood in the lines from 4 am - could certainly scale the skies one day !!