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 January 18-24, 2010

You’ve spent the last two weeks getting back in the swing of things, and you’re hoping to close out January as a strong first month. Jump on a couple events this week as the year continues to open up.

On Monday, stretch those learning muscles at Life Sciences 2010, a mid-day event focused on taking a look at how global collaboration is good for the quickly-changing field. It’s something different, but we know there are a lot of smart noggins in this community that can do some great innovation in that sector.

Wednesday, TVBGone creator Mitch Altman heads to Hive76 to help folks build the infomercially-sold TV-ridding kit. We were way into keeping our sets off with a product like this… until HD got cheap. D’oh!

Finally on Friday, join the University City Science Center as it unveils Next Fab Studio, its high-tech, membership-based prototyping lab. We talked to Next Fab founder Evan Malone last week, and the assortment of equipment at the shop seems drool-worthy. UCSC President Steve Tang let us know about his excitement for the lab, too. We’ll be stopping by the new shop later this afternoon, so stay tuned for our preview. If it’s not posted by 6:00 p.m., your dinner is on us!

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Old City VoIP provider Alteva scores Microsoft deal

Redmond needs a little help from Philly in its battle with Mountain View.

Microsoft has enlisted Old City-based VoIP provider Alteva to help integrate its popular Office suite with phone and communications systems in businesses. We spoke to Alteva CEO Will Bumbernick earlier this month. The companies hope that the partnership helps businesses become further entrenched in the Microsoft brand of business products while simultaneously preempting the inevitable Google Voice/Google Docs juggernaut.

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Microsoft finally sells Razorfish for $530 million

Publicis, a French advertising firm with clients as large as Coca-Cola, is the proud new owner of Razorfish.

We’ve been chronicling the plight of Razorfish for a few months now. To recap: Microsoft acquired Razorfish’s parent company in 2007 and has been looking to unload the interactive agency ever since. Razorfish, formally known as Avenue A, has offices all over the world including Center City Philadelphia.

According to the Times of London, Microsoft was in “an unholy rush” to get the deal done so it wouldn’t have to pay scheduled bonuses to Razorfish’s employees.

Details of the deal after the jump.
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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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Technically Not Tech: NPower PA gives IT support to nonprofits in need

Updated: added grant details @ 4:35 p.m.6/16/09

It just might take a miracle to help lead at-risk Philadelphia teens away from the obstacles that have become something of a cliche in the urban education saga.

It will take a miracle or, perhaps, youth organizations that share information with each other through a sophisticated network of information sharing technologies.

That’s what NPower PA does.

The Center City organization fundraises for, organizes, implements and maintains IT for nonprofits that can benefit but don’t have the capital to do so on their own.

In January, this six-year-old group, one of 11 in the national NPower Network, completed perhaps its most ambitious project. After winning the grant in July 2007, NPower PA began integrating a collaborative data collection system in four communities — three in Philly and one in Chester — in the hopes of helping those young people better navigate the pitfalls they face.

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Emerging Technology for the Enterprise conference rolls into Philadelphia

Unlike the last major expo to roll through the city, the Emerging Technology for the Enterprise conference was all business. The event, presented by Chariot Solutions, had a target audience of developers and IT managers, so serious businessman were rubbing elbows in the lunch line with young 20-something programmers in XKCD t-shirts. If you listened, you heard the names of management philosophies mentioned in the same breath as up and coming programming language, and yet, everybody was on the same page.

The day’s sessions were organized in “tracks.” Two of the five rooms  focused on development and programming. Another room was devoted strictly to topics pertaining to the AGILE development model. Cloud computing and management rounded out the other rooms. Until Technically Philly masters the art of omnipresence, we could only attend a few of the first day panels including the keynote by RedHat’s open source evangelist Michael Tiemann. We were also unable to swing by today for an anticipated keynote by Jascha Franklin-Hodge, CTO of Blue State Digital, which spearheaded Obama for America’s online initiatives. If you were able to attend, be sure to let us know your thoughts in our comments.

Our take on yesterday’s keynote and sessions after the jump.
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Recap: 2009 Wharton Business Technology Conference

On Friday, Technically Philly was invited to attend the 2009 Wharton Business Technology Conference, held at the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue. The event included 50 speakers, panelists, and moderators from the technology industry and boasts that it is Philadelphia’s largest technology event. That may be true, but we’re still paralyzed by the conference’s creepy marketing photograph, pictured above.

Keynotes were presented by Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft’s Business Division, Ahmed Mahmoud, CIO of AMD, and Clay Van Doren, Managing Director Service Design and VoIP at BT. And panels covered topics ranging from tech entrepreneurship and venture capital to cloud computing and going mobile. We showed up wearing jeans, in a sea of suits, wondering what all the fuss was about.

Our thoughts on the panels we were able to attend, details on how Philly got snubbed, and ruminations on Microsoft’s future (it involves Minority Report), after the jump.

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