Storms, Robots, and Rooftops: A New York Story
The trip started like most bad trips do: with weather, delays, and the slow grind of airport bureaucracy. Tucson to Denver was supposed to be a short hop. Instead, we tangoed with a storm that dropped us in Wichita for refueling, then limped back to Denver hours too late. By then, my connection to New York had already gone without me.
The airline gave me a hotel voucher, a meal voucher, the usual sympathy packet of corporate apology. Four hours in a bed that still smelled faintly of the last guy’s deodorant, then back on a plane at dawn. By the time I finally hit New York, I was running on bad sleep and caffeine.
The hotel near Chelsea had a view worth a moment’s pause: the Empire State building looming like a weary old heavyweight, streets pulsing below with the kind of energy only New York manages at 8 a.m. I dropped my bag, inhaled the city grit, and walked to the office.
Inside, chaos and creativity. Max—my colleague—was hunched over a robot that would later be kicked around for a shoot. Cookies materialized from somewhere (New York has a way of producing perfect little indulgences out of thin air), and the fridge was stocked like we were actually going to need hydration for whatever came next.
By late afternoon, we were on a rooftop in the East Village with the CEO. One of those rare, candid moments where leadership pulls back the curtain. A circle of us, tossing questions like darts, him answering with surprising directness.
Then came the party. My colleague Liam and I presented the new features of n8n to a room of creators, engineers, and flowgrammers. Afterward, the real show began: conversations, questions, the cocktail party current of New York’s tech underground. By the time I made it to the bar, it was already shut down. Maybe that was for the best!
The next morning, breakfast with Lucas, another colleague, before heading into a recording studio. We interviewed a customer about how they used the platform. No marketing fluff, just real talk about work, automation, and how people bend tools to their will.
Then came the main event: The Agentic Arena. Esports meets reality show, but instead of fragging each other in Halo, contestants built workflows in real time for a shot at ten grand. It went on for a while, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.,but watching the tension build, the crowd lean in, it was its own kind of spectacle. Afterward: pizza, networking, more conversations. The New York way.
Dinner that night was with creators, the kind of dinner where you leave with more questions than answers, but also a strange sense of community. I met Nate Herk, the king of n8n on YouTube by views. I ended the night with cheesecake from a bakery (souvenir sugar) and a tres leches cake that I probably didn’t need but couldn’t resist.
The flight home was mercifully uneventful. No storms, no diversions, no deodorant-scented hotel layovers.
New York is never easy. It’s a fight every step of the way, against weather, crowds, your own exhaustion. But it’s worth it. Every time.
