Last night mingled with some interesting people, checked out a cool new space, listened to pretty decent music, saw some interesting artwork and drank a bit too much Bear Flag Wine all for free.

A few months ago I was able to meet lots of interesting people, sample some of New York’s best street food washed down with Grown-Up Soda and Brooklyn Brewery Beer, and check out the artwork of the Queens Museum of Art (including the panorama) also all for free. I even walked away with an apron and a container of Grey Poupon mustard.

How?

I volunteered.

New York has a ton of organizations trying to accomplish a lot but who lack the ability to pay for event help. Enter the event volunteer. Unpaid, yes, but volunteering offers entree into an event you either wouldn’t otherwise know existed (as was the case with the event I volunteered with last night) or, which would ordinarily be extremely pricey (as in the case with the Vendy Awards).

In general, because the organizations know that you’re volunteering your time you still get to experience the event. At the Vendy Awards we worked in shifts to make sure everyone was given time to eat and mingle (and with free aprons to boot!), as was true of the event I worked last night.

It’s a great way to get an insiders view of New York, meet some locals (or recent transplants), all for free. And if you’re thinking about moving to New York for long term work, it’s a great way to network and check out your potential career scene. Great websites to learn about opportunities include Treehugger and Idealist.org, as well of course, as the eve ubiquotous Craigslist. Another avenue is you already know about the event but you can afford to attend, look up a point of contact on the website and simply ask if you can volunteer. If you’re hard working, and honest (it’s rude to skip out on your duties) they’re usually happy to have you. And if they say no, well, you haven’t lost anything.