Agreed/is there a way for alumni/others to get involved? SAS '09 up in NYC and would love to be notified when these are happening if to just come down and see them in person (would also be glad to help out).
In NYC, I just learned about the Penn NY Tech meetup (http://www.meetup.com/Penn-NY-Tech) which maybe worth checking out. (note: I'm not an organizer/affiliated)