6 cool Brooklynites you could have met at Alleywire’s Innovators Gala

Given time and commitment to making original content that respects its subjects, a media brand can build an audience and get heard through the noise. That was the message from Neil St. Clair, the founding correspondent and CEO at Alleywire, at its first Innovators’ Gala and preview party for the new website last week.

Alleywire, a video-production venture focused on local entrepreneurship, is about a week out from launching the new site, but attendees at the party got to see its new look.

Formerly crowdsourcing its news, Alleywire is pivoting to a stronger editorial orientation. It’s also opening more bureaus, in D.C., Boston, Philadelphia and, soon, London.

The party took place at the hotel bar Above Allen in Manhattan, but we still managed to meet Brooklynites we liked there:

Williamsburg’s Brownie Marie is a reporter covering night life for The Examiner.  She told us that she was there because she had done some pre-event coverage for the event and wanted to come and do a post on the event itself.

Bushwick’s Neil Sanjay came out to connect with the movers and shakers in the local tech scene, he told us. With reason: film school trained, Sanjay is the founder of a startup called Nukhu, enabling filmmakers to sell their videos online with flexible pricing and aid in discovery by way of genre tagging.

Bushwick’s James Protano runs Onward Design. He came out to the party to take advantage of the chance to meet interesting, innovative people. He’s designed lots of websites. Check out his work on Fashion Stylist Allison St. Germain‘s site.

Greenpoint’s Janet Alexander is a videographer and editor for Elite Traveler. She came out to the event because she’s friends with the founder of Alleywire.

Check out her video on Ferrari North America CEO Marco Mattiacci:

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1

Williamsburg’s James Bartol came to the event with his boyfriend, Alleywire‘s head of production. A production designer himself, you can check out his work on his website. We like the look of the sets he designed for Bat Mitzah Confidential.

Also escorting a significant other to the party, South Slope’s Eamon Ducey is the partner of Jamie Soltis (the reporter who put together the piece that’s coming soon on Technical.ly). Ducey is in TV as well, working as an Associate Producer on The First 48, an A&E documentary series on the real lives of homicide detectives.