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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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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Nutter to Chamber: experiment with city biz taxes, retain tech firms

Comcast Exec. VP David Cohen, after introducing Mayor Michael Nutter. Photo by Rikard Larma for Metro

Life sciences, engineering, computer system design firms and the video game industry were among the members of the region’s creative economies whose fates were addressed during Mayor Michael Nutter’s address to the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce this week.

Those mentions, in addition to the rest of his speech, focused on the economy, noting that job creation is a top priority of the coming year and outlining an experimentation with the city’s tax structure. He also warned of another tight budget and tough economic year.

“When I took office one of my top priorities was to transform the way that city government interacts with business, to encourage investment and development, rather than chase it away,” Nutter said. “Now, with many Philadelphians out of work and small businesses struggling to survive, creating jobs and encouraging investment is no longer one of my top priorities, it is my top priority.”

Below, listen to Nutter’s speech.

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Photos from our January Technology Networking Happy Hour

Our second monthly meetup was a success, and now photos of the event have surfaced. Event Organizer Brett Silver of Center City Philadelphia was on-hand to shoot photos of the evening, and we can’t say they could have turned out any better. Look at all the pretty people!

More of the shots are available at the Center City Philadelphia event page.

Spot any buddies? Let ‘em know, or drop their names in the comments. And stay tuned for more information about our February meetup.

Economy League of Greater Philadelphia Turns 100

Click to enlarge.

In 1939, the City of Philadelphia was in a financial pinch. Some were clamoring for the city to privatize its gas works, because natural gas as an energy was in decline and the capital could finally right City Hall’s ship. Of course, there’s a good chance natural gas heats your home today, the city is once again in financial straits and people still talk about privatizing utilities.

That reality is something the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, the nonpartisan policy nonprofit, seemed to know even then, as it offered a report calling ideas to sell the utility “unwarranted.”

It was one in a century-long history of involvement in public affairs by offering analysis of the region’s issues of the day.

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Thanks to all who came to our second monthly meetup

From the bottom of our techie hearts, thanks to all who came out to Public House in Logan Square for our joint Happy Hour with Center City Philadelphia. By our count, more than 45 people braved the cold for a free drink and a chance to mingle with fellow tech heads.

The TP staff saw many new faces and we welcome all the new readers we were able to speak with.

Much like our last meetup, we heard valuable praise, criticism and advice from you, our readers. We will be sure to tweet when the hundreds of photos snapped by fellow organizer Brett Silver are posted online.

We’re liking this whole face-to-face thing, so keep an ear out for our next meetup as we hope to continue the good times in February. Be sure to bring a notepad full of your thoughts on TP, some business cards and – most importantly – a thirst for some brews.

Join us for a Happy Hour networking event next week

We had a ton of fun at our first meetup last month, and we’re ready to get out there again in 2010.

This time, the first drink is on the house.

Next Wednesday, Jan. 6, we’re partnering with event promoter Center City Philadelphia and others to host a free-to-attend technology professionals happy hour at Logan Square’s Public House. It’ll be a chance to mingle with other techies, talk shop and grab and give a few business cards. And yes, there’s one free drink and happy hour specials that should help keep you warm after traveling through that cold January air.

With a new year on the way—and your plans for world domination ever closer—it’s a great time to connect with folks in the industry. And yes, the Technically Philly crew will be in full force, to hear about what you’ve been up to and what your plans are for 2010. We hope you’ll join us!

Thanks for those who came to the first Technically Philly meetup

Thanks to the more than 30 friends of Technically Philly who ambled into the Nodding Head Brewery and Restaurant on Sansom Street in Center City for our first meetup.

We’ve cohosted events with Geekadelphia, but this was our first excuse to speak directly to some of you readers and hear about what worked and didn’t.

We shared $1-off pints of Nodding Head’s finely crafted micobrews, and mingled in the cozy, eclectically decorated, second floor bar area. We heard lots of kind words — about our events calendar and startup coverage — and plenty of genuine criticism — about our plans for monetization and ideas for future events.

We want to do more. So please see this as another reason to tell us what you like, don’t like and want to see us do. We’ll be announcing future events and more talk about interaction, editorial innovation and plans to make TP sustainable and profitable in 2010.

Thanks again and be sure to make it out to our next event. At the very least, we’ll get you some cheap, high-quality beer.

Event Highlights for December 14 – December 20, 2009

Wednesday’s the one.

There’s four events happening Wednesday evening, and we’ll hope you’ll at least drop by Nodding Head Brewery to say hello to the Technically Philly crew at our first monthly meetup. We won’t hold you up too long, we promise.

Then it’s off to philly.NET, Web Analytics Wednesday or Entrepreneurs Unplugged to cap the evening off with Philly tech events.

Tuesday, don’t miss Ben Franklin Technology Partners’ Capital Briefing and on Thursday, Agile Philly returns the party to Nodding Head for its own holiday meetup.

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Announcing the Technically Philly Monthly Meetup

UPDATE: Nodding Head has hooked us up with $1-off pints from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Awesome!

We wanna hang out.

Starting Wednesday, December 16, the Technically Philly staff will begin hosting a monthly meetup.

Our first, to be held at Nodding Head Brewery in Center City, will be a chance for all of us to drink some beers and talk shop about Philadelphia’s ever-growing technology community. We want to meet our audience of 13,000 tech-interested individuals. Most of all, we want to give you a chance to sound off about what we (and you) been up to.

Consider it a low-key evening. There’s no planned speakers and no pressure to tell us if you’re the one that’s been leaving nasty anonymous comments. And while there’s no intended agenda, 2010 is heavy on our minds. What do you want to see in the new year? Did we do fine in 2009? What’s been good? What needs changed?

If you’re down, we ask that you RSVP for the event so that we can keep you updated on any future meetups and events that we host. We hope to see you there!

Anyone interested in sponsoring the meetup, or future events, do let us know.