At the intersection of art and business, it’s no surprise that you would find some very influential local technology efforts.

At the end of the month, the Art and Business Council of Greater Philadelphia will hold its 27th Annual Award Celebration, honoring coworking haunt Indy Hall, fabrication studio NextFab Studio and digital arts gallery Breadboard with awards for their work in the space.

Henry Guckes, a consultant for Allied InfoSecurity and Princeton Information, will also be honored for his volunteer consulting work with the Darlington Arts Center as part of the Arts and Business Council’s Technology Connectors initiative. Guckes will be honored with the Technology Connectors Volunteer of Year award.

Indy Hall, the coworking space in Old City which recently signed a lease to expand into storefront space next door, will receive the Creative Economy Award for Distinction in a For-Profit Creative Field.

3D prototyping studio NextFab and the University City Science Center’s arts initiative Breadboard will receive the Business & Arts Partnership Award: Small Business with an Arts and Cultural Organization for their work promoting STEM education through art programming, according to a press release.

“I often refer to Breadboard as the R&D Department of the Science Center. Not only do the innovative programs they have developed in partnership with NextFab introduce the community to cutting edge tools and technologies, but by using art to introduce students to STEM subjects, they are also helping to spark interests that we hope will continue into careers,” said Science Center President & CEO Stephen S. Tang in the release.

The award ceremony will take place on May 30, 2012. To register for the event click here.

The the National Business Incubation Association awarded its Soft Landings international incubator designation to the University City Science Center‘s new bullpen incubation program  last week for successful acceleration of life sciences and technology businesses in Philadelphia, as Technically Philly partner Philadelphia Neighborhoods reported.

The Science Center shares the NBIA designation with only 22 other incubators across the globe.

The Science Center set itself apart with a variety of services and facilities that are practically useful to foreign startups, including “translation services, technological resources and market capital research to many non-domestic firms. The Science Center also offers wet labs, state of the art conference rooms and access to business support programs,” said Christopher Laing, the University City Science Center’s vice president of science and technology.

Video from Philadelphia Neighborhoods.

Although it’s an attractive place for international startups to get off the ground, the Science Center’s primary incubation goals are especially and overtly local. From the Philadelphia Neighborhoods report:

The basis for the incubation program’s efforts lie in the hope that once its participating companies get a foothold on the local markets, they will want to stay in the Philadelphia region long term. The incubation program’s ultimate goal is to help the local economy. “The big thing that we’re interested in is job creation. We measure a lot of our activities ultimately on the basis of ‘are we sustaining and creating jobs in the region,’” Laing explained. …[T]he program claims to have created more than 15,000 jobs and contributed more than $9 billion to Philadelphia’s regional economy. The program has assisted more than 20 companies from 10 different countries, and all have stayed in the region to develop and grow their operations.

To read the full article from Philadelphia Neighborhood click here.

The entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, who made his name on the back of the $355 million sale of his creation Half.com to eBay in 2000, has been a bit of a big fish in an underdeveloped Philadelphia pond for some time now. But he doesn’t always take adulation so warmly.

Kopelman was reportedly put off by the label of the wealthiest self-made person in Philadelphia, author W. Randall Jones told the Inquirer. For his new book, the Richest Man in Town, Jones traveled to 100 U.S. cities to collect business wisdom from those atop the income brackets in their towns and found Kopelman to be our pick of the litter.

“He was very upset with me,” Jones told the Inqy.

While Kopelman may have disliked the thought of being placed above a host of the city’s billionaire’s boys club, it’s not the only big call he’s gotten this week.

As tweeted:

Here’s the science behind the rankings from TC:

Vijay Dondeti, a graduate student in bioinformatics, applied the analysis in the Hochberg paper to about 2,700 investors in CrunchBase who participated in over 3,300 startup funding rounds between 2006 and 2008. He scored each investor based on how well connected they are to other investors as well as how well-connected their co-investors are to other investors. �In summary,� says Dondeti, �to get a high score, you need to co-invest often with others that also co-invest often.� [Source]

It’s hard to overstate what that means for the region. With news that Ben Franklin Technology Partners is on the state budget chopping block, early stage funding becomes vital. FirstRound certainly invests heavily outside our region, but it’s still a serious international VC firm just a regional rail ride from Center City.

And that’s some attention that Kopelman will have to tolerate.