Just got back from this month’s NY Tech Meetup. Tech Meetup has been going on for a while, but this is the first time I got around to going. The event is hosted by Scott Heiferman, who is also the founder and CEO of Meetup.com. NY Tech Meetup also happens to be the “original” Meetup.com event.

A number of companies/groups demoed, but the ones that stood out were Hitchsters and HouseParty. Hitchsters had the balls to do a live demo with text messaging in a basement auditorium. And it worked. They seem pretty focused on a very niche idea right now, but still a very cool idea.

HouseParty was presented by Gene DeRose, who had previously founded Jupiter. HouseParty stood out because: a) the other presenters weren’t millionaires, and b) they’re pretty far along. Given the recent high-profile aquisitions in the advertising field, I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear more about HouseParty in the next year.