We went to an exclusive NYC Tech Week happy hour. Here’s a peek inside the boozy rooftop event.

At 6 pm on Monday evening, the two of us joined a small mob of other Tech Week hopefuls in the lobby of IBM’s New York City headquarters, right off of Madison Square Park. We were all waiting to get into the same event: a rooftop happy hour full of Big Tech employees, founders, and free champagne.

Not everyone in the lobby made it past the snaking check-in line, though. We passed a duo in the lobby pleading with an event organizer, who was patiently repeating that their Partiful invites said “pending” instead of “accepted,” and that the happy hour was at capacity. (Sorry, Apple Invites, but it seems like most Tech Week hosts are Partiful people.)

It appears we weren’t the only ones who got an ego bump from making it onto the guest list. One attendee told us it felt like trying to get into high school parties — except this time, he actually got past the door.

Once safely on the roof, we sampled comically small hors d’oeuvres and chatted about AI, landing a tech job, dating in New York, and more AI.

Here’s an inside look at the boozy affair, complete with a photo of the cocktail list that the bartender kindly pretended wasn’t weird for us to take.

The invite said ‘this is the rooftop to be on during NYC Tech Week’ and we agreed.

The cocktail reception took place at Le Jardin, 28 floors above the city at IBM’s new headquarters in New York City. The event was co-hosted by IBM, Tech:NYC, Union Square Ventures, and HumanX.

The drinks were flowing.

Waiters were constantly walking by with trays of spicy margaritas and champagne. There were also three bar stations located on the rooftop.

Snacks included a mushroom tart and macarons.

Our first snack was salmon on pumpernickel, and we actually enjoyed the bite-size portion, since we didn’t have to pause conversations to eat. Other offerings included a mushroom tart, macaroons, and a cream puff-looking dessert.

Guests spanned sectors across the tech industry.

Many of the guests we talked to worked at AI start-ups, but some were from Big Tech companies as well.

We got a panoramic view of Manhattan

The rooftop had impressive views — we could see skyscrapers in nearly every direction.

We had our choice of wines

We were offered champagne at the door, but could also choose from a range of wine and cocktail options. Glasses disappeared from the bar throughout the night.

We met several guests from out of town

One attendee came from Boston and another was in town from Canada. Both said they come to New York City at least twice a month for work.

The sun set over Manhattan

On what felt like one of the first real summer days in New York City, we watched the sun set over Manhattan.

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