Event Highlights for March 15-21, 2010

The big event this week isn’t in Philly at all. But Philadelphia has quite a presence in Austin, Texas, this week for South by Southwest, for sure. Our reporter Sean Blanda is hot on the trial, chasing down Philly’s representatives. He’ll follow-up with a report later this week.

That said, there’s some great opportunities here in Philadelphia, too. Join Microsoft’s Malvern branch for its CloudCamp unconference to discuss the growing cloud computing industry and Philly Startup Leaders hosts a fishbowl of City of Philadelphia’s Digital Philadelphia vision with city officials.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more.

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Event Highlights for March 8-14, 2010

Can we all stop and agree how freakin’ nice it was this weekend?

And there’s even better news: everyday this week is slated to have a high of at least 55 degrees. So ditch your winter coat and skip the usual routine of heading home straight after work. Our event calendar is jam packed you have no excuse to miss out.

This week: the 140 conference strikes again, PSL get happy (and possibly political) and 8static throws down with a free show.

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Ignite Philly 5 marks age of social entrepreneurs, city’s Google bid

Organizer Geoff DiMasi hands a check to Girls Rock Philly for $1175

Last November, we asked if the Philadelphia technology community was ready to take the next step. Tonight, at a trimmed-down Ignite Philly, we got a glimpse of what those next steps may look like. The event, which forces speakers to cram a presentation into a fast-moving five-minute speech was better attended and was better at holding the attention of attendees than its predecessor (see our humble slideshow).

Fresh on the heels of new technology-based tax incentives, City Councilman Bill Green and Philadelphia CTO Allan Frank kicked off the event by announcing the city’s effort to lure Google’s new Fiber project to the city, an effort that began earlier this week using a #phillyfiber hashtag campaign (much more about the effort here).

Shortly after the rushed Google announcement and after Indy Hall co-founder Alex Hillman’s subtle rebuttal, the night was characterized by a string of presentations focusing on social entrepreneurship.

The event was one of over 60 Ignites taking place on six continents as part of Global Ignite Week. As part of the Philadelphia event, the organizers were able to donate the event’s 235  five dollar ticket sales to raise $1,175 for Girls Rock Philly, a summer camp that helps young girls become musicians.

After the jump we hand out some awards for the event including best quote, best presentation and the “Kids Table” award.

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Event Highlights for March 1-7, 2010

Updated 3/4, 7:32 a.m.: Fixed a misspelling.

Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but are there more birds chirping and an opportunity to wear one less layer before we head out the door? Is that Spring coming? We sure hope so.

If you make it out this week, you’ll want to stop by either Ignite Philly 5 or Net Squared Net Tuesday, on, uh, Tuesday evening. Or heck, do both. Who’s to stop you, rebel? On Thursday, hit up the PHP Area Meetup Group, where they’re gonna tell you that Notepad is just, like, sooo not cool anymore; by itself, anyway. Whatever you decide, just remember: the weeks of this cold abyss are quickly coming to an end.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more.

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MC Hammer offers thoughts on Philly entrepreneurship, delivers keynote at Wharton Technology Conference

MC Hammer addresses the Wharton Business Technology Conference

Depending on whom you ask, MC Hammer is a rapper. Or a dancer. Or a reality TV star. But today, the former diamond-certified recording artist addressed the Wharton Technology Conference as MC Hammer: entrepreneur and social media evangelist.

“I’m a super geek,” the DanceJam.com CEO said with a smile, referencing the song “Super Freak” by Rick James and the sample track behind his best known hit “Cant Touch This.”

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Black Family Technology Awareness Week luncheon at Northeast High School

A portion of the students, staff and professionals attending the 2010 Black Family Technology Week luncheon held at Northeast High School.

This story also appears on Northeast news site NEast Philly and is reprinted here with permission as part of a content partnership. See more photos here.

More than 200 students, staff, technology professionals and partners listened to the musical stylings of a high school choir last week. But everyone was there to promote technology literacy.

Held at Northeast High School, the sixth annual luncheon was again the signature event of the 11th annual Black Family Technology Awareness Week, which has some lingering events over the next few days.

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Celebrate Technically Philly’s first birthday TONIGHT

As we announced last week, we’re excited to be celebrating tonight our first year covering Philadelphia’s technology community.

We considered blowing it out with Jägerbombs, shots and perhaps a mechanical bull, but that just doesn’t feel right. We have a lot more work to do, and with that in mind we’ve partnered with Philly Startup Leaders to host a business fishbowl at the University of Arts before we kick back with a few light drinks.

We want to discuss with you how to make Technically Philly a sustainable news product at a time when sustainable news products are struggling. Let’s talk about how we can best serve you and create a stronger portal and mouthpiece for the region’s technology community. Register here for that biz fishbowl. If the business part bores you, join us at the Irish Pub at 12th and Walnut for an after-party where we’ll talk shop over $2 domestic drafts and $3 well drinks.

We’re excited to see how things turn out in our second year. We hope you’ll join us to help plan it and celebrate with us 365 days, 600 posts and 1,800 tweets of local technology coverage.

Events Highlights for Feb 22-28th, 2010

Thanks to some warm weather, our city streets are now actually, you know, walkable.

No longer do we all have to ice skate to SEPTA, and that means that heading out to the week’s tech events should be as easy as ever. Although, the weather gods seem to be brewing the next storm, so you’d best take advantage while you can.

First and foremost, Black Family Technology Awareness Week has a handful of remaining events this week, including the Changing Expectations Career Tour for anyone considering getting into tech.

On Tuesday, head on over to Liberty Plaza to learn everything you ever wanted to know about mobile programming. The next day you should come out to hear Technically Philly present its business plan to the Philly Startup Leaders and other attendees. Even if you aren’t into sustainable journalism (but, let’s be honest: everyone’s into journalism’s business models… right?), come out for $2 beers and $3 well drinks. And lastly, after work on Friday, TrendCamp will help us all discover the trends that will come to define 2010.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more.

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Technically Philly to celebrate birthday with Philly Startup Leaders Fishbowl

As you may have heard, dear reader, Technically Philly celebrated its first birthday last week on February 9.

After twelve months of covering startups, investments, city government policy and general technology news, we are still hard at work trying to make Technically Philly a sustainable source of tech news for the region.

We have our own ideas about how this will look, making efforts to build up or Jobs Board as well as offering detailed advertising packages. However, we wanted to throw open our revenue strategy to you, our readers, and the community-at-large, for criticism and advice.

That is why we are partnering with Philly Startup Leaders to be the subject of the group’s next Fishbowl at the University of Arts on Wednesday, February 24 at 7:30 p.m. REGISTER HERE.

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Updated: Event Highlights for February 15-21, 2010

The sidewalks are clear by now, so you haven’t any excuses for missing out on the technology event offerings on our weekly calendar.

There’s plenty to do, whether you’re down with coding, design, marketing or heck, just looking for an open bar and some good old-fashioned networking.

On Tuesday, the newly-formed Philadelphia Semantic Web Meetup gathers again for introductions and discussion of the group’s direction. Wednesday, Philly Startup Leaders‘ Entrepreneurs Unplugged kicks off for the first time in 2010. Thursday, the Philadelphia Interactive Marketing Association hosts a free networking event in the ‘burbs, drinks included.

Updated: We’re also knee deep in the city’s 11th annual Black Family Technology Awareness Week, as we reported. See a list of events here.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more.

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