Tonight: Our Technology Professionals Happy Hour

We’re way into hanging out with the community in 2010. It’s practically our resolution. Join us and other technology professionals for a happy hour at Public House at Logan Square this evening.

We’ve partnered with event promoter Center City Philadelphia and others to setup the event, and it turned out not so shabby, we say—you get a free drink just for being there.

More important is the opportunity to network with folks who are interested in the same things as you are. No, not drinking, silly. Technology. Events. And shiny, shiny business cards. See you there!

Center City’s Final Form Games keeps it simple

A screen capture from "Jamestown" - Final Form's first title.

Edits: updated some brotherly confusion.

Mike Ambrogi along with his brother Tim and Hal Larsson don’t leave anything to chance. When all three plotted their move to Philly from the West Coast a few years back, the trio used spreadsheets to help time out the cross country operations.

“I did a look for one of ‘em recently but didn’t turn it up,” says Larsson.

The three are the founders of Final Form games, a video game studio based in what the guys like to call the “mathematical center” of Center City: 15th and Market.

Final Form Games is one of a handful of studios, along with the video game lobbying group VGI Philly, to begin building the foundations of a video game industry based in Philadelphia.

“There isn’t a huge game industry here. But we know what we are doing, and we can become a part of that and help grow what’s here,” says Tim Ambrogi. “It’s exciting being here when it just starts. ”

Currently, Final Form is working on its first title: a SNES-style top-down shooter – tentatively titled “Jamestown” – about the colonization of Mars by the 17th century British explorers. The group plans to release the game to the PC in the first half of next year and then, if all goes well, to the Xbox Live Arcade.

But the road to Philly was a bumpy one. Just a few years ago, all three were in California but it took a detailed plan to finally set up shop in the city, a plan they say was largely motivated by “ladies and the sandwiches.”

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CBS stations launch 24-hour news ticker on Center City newsstands

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter was on hand Nov. 24, 2009 to introduce a partnership between the region's seven CBS stations and the city's newsstand association to run a ticker. Photo by Amy Stoller for Technically Philly.

Newsstand Association of Philadelphia, meet the region’s seven CBS stations.

Mayor Nutter was on hand Tuesday morning to announce a partnership that will feed news, weather and sports updates from CBS-owned radio and TV outlets onto 24-hour news tickers and flat-screen, high definition televisions outside Center City newsstands, according to a press release.

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Technically Not Tech: Larger Than Life Prints, a partnership with Start SOMA and coverage by TechCrunch

Pulling a fabric graphic printed by Larger Than Life Prints from a wall is easy and clean. The graphic has been removed without a tear. The wall remains unmarred, without a mark.

It’s a landlord’s dream.

The Old City-based company, founded by Kendall Schoenrock and business partner Carsten Petzold, provides the technology that allows users to submit their own high-resolution graphics and print them on one- to seven-foot fabric sheets that can easily be placed on a wall. Artists, too, are able to cash in on the action. By partnering with the site, they are able to price their works appropriately, and keep a portion of the sales after material and labor has been deducted by LTL.

Thought it may seem little like a technology startup, LTL is funded by Ben Franklin Technology Partners and has been active in Philadelphia’s and Silicon Valley’s technology communities.

Recently, the company announced a partnership with San Francisco-based Start SOMA to feature well-known artists organized by Start on one of LTL’s partner pages. The two companies have managed to nab art by Susan Kare, the graphic designer who created the original graphics and fonts for Macintosh computers, urban artist Justin Bua, Sugarluxe and a handful of other known artists.

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Event highlights for the week of August 17 – August 23, 2009

Many of our events this week focus on the lighter side of summer. You know, that “drink beer and give blood” side. But please, not in that order.

Actually, you probably shouldn’t even think about doing those on the same day.

Medical disclaimers aside, this is your week to count all those job offers you received last week and go relax with your fellow techies. With three events to choose from, you might be motivated to speak only in alliteration.

Over at IndyHall the caring coworkers curate countless customers to contribute cruor. PhillyCHI and PANMA prepare a perfect picnic in a picturesque park. And PANMA and Center City Sips get together networking newcomers to nip nectar.

What does this all mean? Find out after the jump.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more information, or follow us past the jump.
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Event highlights for the week of August 3 – August 9, 2009

What do the Phillies’ farm system, our Brian James Kirk’s apartment and our events calendar have in common this week?

They’re all nearly empty.

Cliff Lee and new apartments aside, techies apparently are enjoying this little thing we call “summer” as the TP event calendar is as sparse as ever.

But fear not, as Refresh Philly should have enough action to keep you occupied all week when the group meets at the Comcast Center on Monday. Three speakers are scheduled, including former Q&A club member Gwen Shaffer.

The next day, you can kick it with NetSquared at NetTuesday and chat about when to use social media.  The group’s new Web site will be used as an example.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more information, or follow us past the jump.

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Event highlights for the week of July 27 – August 2, 2009

It’s true, folks. Media is no longer the empire it once was.

That’s why we’re psyched to see Saturday’s all-day DIY Days, featuring an impressive list of innovative speakers ranging from writers to filmmakers to musicians to game developers, all there to try to figure out the future. Represented organizations include Wired, Weathervane Music, P’unk Ave, Philly.com’s Phrequency and more. Hell, even the Blair Witch Project made it on the list.

Our guess, which is hardly a guess? All are secret techheads. Gadget geeks. Media monsters. Which is why you should be there. You’re thinking: this must cost like a million bucks, right? Two Grants? A Benji?

What’s that? It’s free? Gosh it’s good to do it yourself.

Another hot development? Looks like a group of gamers is getting together to explore the possibility of bringing a LAN Party biz to the city. The complaint is that there’s plenty of LAN locales in the ‘burbs, but nothing that you can bike or walk to (unless you’ve got Schwarzenegger legs). As always, we’re psyched to see some more developments in Philadelphia’s gaming community, including this one from Philadelphia LAN Party.

For the Web developers, Philadelphia Drupal Camp is sold out, but waiting for last minute cancellations. And maybe you know somebody, wink wink. If you can’t make it in, you can always sharpen up on the basics with HTML for Beginners.

A few other events and plenty of links to our comprehensive events calendar, after the jump.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more information, or follow us past the jump.

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Event highlights for the week of July 20 – July 26, 2009

Philadelphia, you’re a city of routine, and we like that about you.

Even when the sun is shining and thoughts are drifting toward lounging at the Jersey shore, you aren’t afraid to grab a few drinks and stick to your meetup schedule.

Every event on our calendar this week is part of a monthly series, and most involve beer.

On Tuesday, grab a brew with Philly.rb at their pub night. We hear that they specifically hit on people using Ruby puns. And by “hear” we mean “hope.” The next day, IdeaBlob hosts BlobLive, its monthly open mic for entrepreneurs. Step on up and give an elevator pitch to complete strangers.

To close out the week, Philly Mapping and GIS host “Mappy Hour.” Talk cartography and get in on the group’s open source map project at a local watering hole.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more information, or follow us past the jump.
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New features for industry social network i-Meet and PhindMe Mobile

Two high-profile, Web-based Philadelphia startups each announced more services to their products recently.

Center City-based, event-planning social network i-Meet.com announced today its partnership with PlannerNet, a service aimed at helping its nearly 10,000 member organizations to find, rate and contract for project-based labor.

That move follows a host of new add-ons to PhindMe Mobile, a mobile Web direct-to-consumer advertising company based at Drexel University’s Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship, which came earlier this month, according to a company press release.

The new service offered by i-Meet, the brainchild of 17th and Oregon’s own John Pino, is said to identify professional meeting and event skills that are available worldwide, helping to match planner experience and projects for event organizers. It’s a move Pino hinted at during an interview with Technically Philly in May.

“In this challenging, economic environment, companies are becoming more inclined to staff their events on a project by project basis,” Pino says in a company press release. “By connecting our worldwide social network to PlannerNet, we’re… delivering qualified talent”

PhindMe’s new features are more varied, ranging from native smartphone applications to Twitter functionality.

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If you call now, Microsoft will also throw in an ad agency

As we told you many a Friday Tech Link ago, Microsoft is looking to unload the Internet ad agency Razorfish.

The software giant is said to be courting five major ad firms with the help of banker Morgan Stanley.

To refresh your memory, Microsoft acquired the agency, which has offices in Center City, in 2007 when it purchased Razorfish’s then-parent company, aQuantive. Since, many suspected that Microsoft would eventually sell the Razorfish brand.

But, according to the Wall Street Journal and other sources, the lack of credit in the market and a potential conflict of interest for buyers are putting the prospects of a sale in serious doubt.
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