Independents Hall co-founders Geoff DiMasi (left) and Alex Hillman speak at the coworking space's Town Hall.

Independents Hall co-founders Geoff DiMasi and Alex Hillman just came right out and said it.

“We suck at putting these things on often enough,” said Hillman to a crowd of roughly 30 members of the coworking space that were crammed into the building’s northern wing.

Hillman and DiMasi where speaking at Indy Hall’s third town hall, an informal gathering where the coworking space updates its members and interested public on news pertaining to the space while providing an update of the plans of the Indy Hall leadership.

Yesterday evening, Hillman and DiMasi shared some new policies to help Indy Hall deal with its ballooning membership, new security protocols to address recent thefts and a pledge to return Indy Hall to a hub of social and professional events.

“I feel we haven’t done a great job in returning to the cultural aspects that made Indy Hall awesome,” said Hillman.

Though Indy Hall has been hosting less events than in the past, attendees were able to rattle over nearly a dozen that have taken place in the past few months such as a blood drive and Cocoa Heads, a Mac-focused programming meetup.

Hillman and DiMasi pledged to return more events to the space and encouraged members to develop more programming.

“Our default answer will always be ‘yes’,” said Hillman.

Trouble in the Hall

DiMasi and Hillman spent nearly half of the gathering revealing that one member had been caught stealing $2,000 worth of goods from the space, including the camera used to film popular video podcast Two Guys on Beer. The guilty party has since been caught, but the scare has forced Indy Hall to re-examine who should hold a key to the space.

Instead of spending money on cameras and other security equipment Hillman and DiMasi suggested that a return to more social events as well as becoming stricter with key privileges should help keep Indy Hall safe. DiMasi went as far to say that members be as friendly and conversational as if they were living in a small town.

“It’s an excuse to pretend you are in Minnesota,” said DiMasi after his suggestion that members work hard to know their coworkers. “Everyone says Philly is cool once you get past the shell, so let’s get past it quicker.”

New events and meetups will have to be “co-hosted” by a key-holding full time member. Any new key holders will have to be “signed off” by three existing key-holding members.

“We haven’t been going to the bar for lunch, we haven’t been hanging on the weekends,” said Hillman. “It’s that trust that allowed us to get away with some of the things other places couldn’t.”

As for the stolen goods, Indy Hall plans on selling t-shirts to make up for the smaller items. A local brewery and National Mechanics are partnering to sell a special brew where all proceeds will go to helping Two Guys in Beer purchase a new rig.

Disclosure: Hillman is a sponsor of Technically Philly.

All in favor of giving the city that can claim to be the birthplace of this nation an extra day off for Independence Day say “aye.”

Great. Now that we gave ourselves an extra day for the weekend, you’ll be delighted to know that this week’s calendar features BBQs, hacking and happy hours galore.

Refresh Philly is taking a short break from trying to solve our city government’s technology problems to get together for a happy hour at Triumph. Come for the fellowship, stay to measure the huge brewing equipment to see if you can fit it in your basement.

The happy hours continue on Wednesday with Center City district‘s Sips event. PANMA and various marketing groups will be on hand to help you join the association that is right for you on what is the self-proclaimed “happiest happy hour.”

You will have to finish working on your time machine by Thursday as Philly Startup Leaders host a BBQ (previous coverage here) at the same time the Philly Cocoa Heads hold their monthly meetup.

And on Saturday, cap it all off with relaxing stroll through The Hacktory at the group’s Open Hack event.

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.

Monday, July 6: Refresh Philly gets together for their bi-monthly happy hour giving new members a great chance to come out and get acquainted, while current members can catch up with one another. The event is being held at Triumph Brewery, which has the best burgers in Old City apart from the Snow White diner (yeah, I said it). One strange aspect of the happy hour: it’s being sponsored by a Washington DC-based Web design firm. 6 p.m. Old City. RSVP. [view more events]

Wednesday, July 8: Drink specials abound as Center City’s creative associations gather for a happy hour at Lucky Strikes. Though I personally believe bowling alleys to be the 5th circle of the underworld, the event will also feature free appetizers. Groups like PANMA, The Greater Philadelphia Film Office and various marketing and advertising associations will be in attendance waiting to accept you with open arms and $4 cocktails. 5 p.m. Center City. RSVP. [view more events]

Thursday, July 9: Philly Startup Leaders are celebrating summer in the city with a BBQ on South Street. Come for the community, and stay for the door prizes, which include an iPhone. See our complete coverage of the event from last week for more details. 5:30 p.m. South Street. RSVP. [view more events]

Thursday, July 9: If the holiday gave you enough BBQ to hold you over for a couple of weeks, head on over to the old Indy Hall for a the monthly meetup of the Cocoa Heads. The crew from TweetDeck will be on hand to talk about their trials and tribulations in porting the app onto the iPhone. The group is admittedly more suited for beginners, so come out and get a head start on developing the next iPhone app that doesn’t involve bodily functions. 7 p.m. Old City. RSVP. [view more events]

Saturday, July 11: Kicking around in my brain somewhere is a fan fiction where MacGyver discovers the Hacktory and we finally get the flying car, the cure for cancer and a way to buy Septa tokens at the Tioga El stop. The nonprofit is holding an Open Hack, which is exactly what it sounds like: a loosely structured block of time where the Hacktory opens up its space to all those interested. At the very least, go to congratulate  them for their $10,000 grant. 1 p.m. Fairmount. RSVP. [view more events]

Unfortunately, there’s only a few events scattered on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. But hey, this way, you have practically no excuse to miss any.

On Tuesday, the Philly Ruby enthusiasts of Philly.rb bring back their popular Hack Night, where you sit in comfy chairs, plop your laptop next to your latte, and get cracking on yours and others project hurdles.

SEO Grail meets Tuesday with a talk from Web development company Goldstein Media LLC’s Seth Goldstein to discuss, what else? How to massage the Google.

The following day, DreamIt Ventures will show race film “Truth in 24.” The film has all you could ask for in a race film: action, adventure, drama and not a single sign of Vin Diesel. Oh yeah, and NFL Films Director of Project Management Alan M. Brown will be there to discuss how it all went down.

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.

Tuesday, June 30: Philly.rb will meet out in the ‘burbs to help you get post those project hurdles that are holdin’ you down. Join them at a comfy new coffeeshop to get down and dirty with that project you can’t wait to get done. 6:00 p.m., Conshocken. RSVP. [view more events]

Tuesday, June 30: SEO Grail meets Tuesday as well, with local web developer Seth Goldstein on point. Goldstein founded Goldstein Media LLC to help small business owners drive traffic to their sites with Optimized Engine of Search, or whatever order those letters are supposed to appear in. 7:00 p.m., Old City. RSVP. [view more events]

Wednesday, July 1: Catch DreamIt Ventures‘s showing of the award-winning race film “Truth in 24,” along with a follow-up chat discussing the entrepreneurial spirit of the production with Jersey-based NFL Films Director of Project Management Alan M. Brown. 5:00 p.m. University City. RSVP. [view more events]

Assuming the feeling is mutual, while we’re not expecting you to spend your evenings relaxing in parks or sipping cocktails on sidewalk cafes, we are sayin’ it’s an excuse to get to some local tech events.

There’s something going on every day of this week, if you have an hour (or five) to spare.

On Monday, Refresh Philly is brainstorming up ways to improve Philly with special guests Johnny Goldstein of Envizualize and Livia Labate of IA Design Games to help smooth out the process and explain how they get their ideas out on paper.

Tuesday, talk mobile apps for social change with the Net Tuesday crew, but don’t get too hippie-dippy on us. Web Analytics Wednesday is flying in two speakers from behavioral analytics firm Quantivo to discuss the obvious.

Drexel’s 2009 Entrepreneur Conference happens Thursday, an all-day event with a great lineup of speakers there to talk all things innovation and business.

Finally, on Saturday don’t miss HigherEdCamp, which we covered late last month. After hosting our own BarCamp unconference, we have high expectations for this meetup about all things post-secondary education.

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.

Monday, June 1: Brainstorm ways to Refresh Philly with help from Johnny Goldstein of Envizualize and Livia Labate of IA Games who have some tips on getting those thoughts to paper in creative ways. 6 p.m., Center City. RSVP. [view more events]

Tuesday, June 2: Members of the Net Tuesday crew return from the 4th annual NetSquared to report on interesting mobile apps for social change they saw at the conference. And no, that doesn’t mean the iPhone breathalyzer app. 6 p.m., Old City. RSVP. [view more events]

Wednesday, June 3: You wanna talk about clout? Let’s do that. Web Analytics Wednesday has two peeps from Quantivo flying in from California to discuss behavioral analytics for the Philly scene. Oh yeah, the first round of drinks is on them. You can bet your metrics there’s gonna be a second round. 6:30 p.m., Old City. RSVP. [view more events]

Thursday, June 4: Desperate times call for desperate measures, and entrepreneurship is often better for it. Reps from Elizabethtown College, Morgan Lewis, Drexel, Disc Makers and Wawa will help prove the point at Drexel’s 2009 Entrepreneur Conference. 8:00 a.m., University City. RSVP. [view more events]

Friday, June 5: Springboard Media will host a free session for learning how to backup your most important files. Whether it’s your Stoya video collection or your work files, don’t miss it. 5:00 p.m., Center City West. RSVP. [view more events]

Saturday, June 6: Philly’s latest BarCamp-style unconference, HigherEdCamp, will be held this weekend to discuss higher education among local university innovators and techies. Be sure to check our coverage of organizer Dave Konopka for more. 9:00 a.m., University City. RSVP. [view more events]

Every Monday morning, Technically Philly will preview the best free tech events in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. See others here. Check our comprehensive events calendar here.

Why? Because we love you. Not to mention we’re hoping to check out of here by noon, planning to feed off of leftovers in days to come, and reveling in the relaxation that comes with a four-day work week.

That said, we can’t stress enough that you drop in on one of Philadelphia’s many tech events this week. Not next week when you will be backbreakingly re-entrenched at work. No siree. We’re talking about this week, when you are truly appreciating the humidity and the slowed pace of life for the very first and last time this summer and will end up feeling guilty for not getting out there while you can.

We’re anxious to see how the The New Voice of Business kick-off party will go, what, with Mayor Nutter dropping in for the festivities. We’re as skeptical as the next guy about Philadelphia actually becoming the greenest city in America, but hell, let’s let loose Tuesday.

Speaking of letting loose, let’s drop your WordPress into fourth gear and truly get it pumping on the search engine internerds. SEO Grail has blog and new media consultant Michael Klusek to talk about how to mod the heck out of that out-of-box blogging experience. 409, baby.

And last, to echo our love of all things grilled, Philly Startup Leaders is organizing a committee to help plan its first-ever BBQ. Pass the Heinz and a sesame-seed level fund. Holy, we did not just say that. Technically Philly out. Hit the jump for more details.

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.

Tuesday, May 26: The New Voice of Business champions economic, social and environmental sustainability in business and says that the “old voice” ain’t talkin’ loud enough. Join New Voice founder Eliot Hoffman Tuesday evening for a free kick-off event featuring Mayor Michael Nutter at the Academy of Natural Sciences. 6 p.m. Center City. RSVP. [view more events]

Tuesday, May 26: SEO Grail is back Tuesday to help the bloggers amongst us get with that Google. Blog and new media consultant Michael Klusek will super-charge SEO-ready blogs with some search turbo. 6 p.m. Old City. RSVP. [view more events]

Wednesday, May 27: Philadelpia Linux May Meetup gathers together the city’s Linux users Wednesday night to ask a vital question: “What are we gonna do about all those damn Apple kids?” We kid, we kid. But seriously, we like what we’ve seen lately. Now, to convince the rest of the world that there’s just something sexy about the command line—one meetup at a time. 7:00 p.m. Fairmount. RSVP. [view more events]

Thursday, May 28: You’ll be kicking yourself when you turn down seconds on a juicy, grilled burger today and someone else swipes the last one. Have a second lease on Memorial Day by helping plan Philly Startup Leaders‘ BBQ Thursday evening. They wanna throw a serious BBQ bash this summer and want your input. Leave the grill at home, but our guess is no one’s going to turn down leftover deviled eggs. Mmm-Mmmm.6:00 p.m. Center City West. RSVP. [view more events]

Every Monday morning, Technically Philly will preview the best free tech events in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. See others here. Check our comprehensive events calendar here.

Let’s keep that weekend energy going with our region’s active tech community. Half of our highlights are straight outta West Philly. It’s not bias, we swear! But if you just refuse to do anything West of the Schuylkill, our events calendar would be happy to schedule an appointment for you.

On Saturday and Sunday, help University City with some GPS mapping. The folks at Philly OpenStreetMap realized long ago that Google might one day threaten our existence so they’re mapping the world until it happens. How else are you gonna find the way to good Chinese restaurant when the Goog steals your identity and shuts down Maps?

Wednesday, academia will sign-up for Second Life, get harassed by creepy dudes and annoying tweens, and beg for a way to get the heck out of there while still applying some of those virtual concepts to higher education. With Wharton hosting, it might be a little smarter than our summary.

Monday, IndyHall will host a PHP Meetup featuring Sigurd Magnusson of Silverstripe, an open source CMS for the WordPress haters out there. Magnusson will even be taking feature requests, so give him some advice or he’ll ignore your feedback when the next version hits.

Philly Office Geeks are trying to spread the word about social media in the business community on Tuesday. It might be a clever attempt at getting network privileges for Facebook in the office, but we’d bet there’s a little more too it than that.

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.

Monday, May 11: Philadelphia Area PHP Meetup Group has Sigurd Magnusson of SilverStripe, an open source CMS built on Sapphire, speaking at IndyHall. We’re hoping it won’t be too sales pitchey, but given the venue, we imagine it will lean toward philosophical. Learn the story behind the software and leave a couple pointers of your own. 6:00 p.m. Old City. RSVP. [view more events]

Tuesday, May 12: As social media has injected itself in nearly every facet of the online world, so to has it grown as a valuable resource to the business community. That, or your cubical mate has been tweeting and passing his work on to you. Figure out how to address it all Tuesday evening. Philly Office Geeks will also have Ashley Roach of NewsGator, makers of those nifty RSS services. 5:00 p.m. Malvern. RSVP. [view more events]

Wednesday, May 13: Sure, it may be our background, but Technically Philly has love for the academic world. On Wednesday, Wharton and the Philadelphia Future Salon will host a discussion of virtual worlds and their place in higher education. Turns out Second Life isn’t just for sex addicts. Educators love it, too. Get yourself some three-dimensional ed with guests Don Bain, formally of The Electric Sheep Company, Fred Fuchs of FireSabre, Ana Reyes who teaches a virtual work class at Penn and more. 2:00 p.m. University City. Details. [view more events]

Thursday, May 14: There’s been much talk about electronic medical records lately, due in part to the economic stimulus. Who ain’t trying to get a piece of that? In light of tech prospects in the health industry, University of Sciences is hosting a panel on the Future of Health Information Technology. It’s a killer list of top digital health officials from the U.S. Department of Health, MIT and more. Plus, who knows, maybe you feel more comfortable having a doctor use an iPhone on you over a stethoscope. 5:00 p.m. University City. RSVP. [view more events]

Saturday May 16, Sunday May 17: The folks at Philly OpenStreetMap are trying to replace Google Maps with an open source mapping solution, one GIS location at a time. Regular day Magellan’s they is. Join them Saturday and Sunday, grab a GPS, and set to tacklin’ University City. Bring your own GPS if you can. All day. University City. Details. [view more events]

Every Monday morning, Technically Philly will preview the best free tech events in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. See others here. Check our comprehensive events calendar here.