We have your busy summer schedule in mind, dear reader, and we’ve chosen this week’s top three events to ensure you’re always in the loop. Kick your week off right with a summer bash hosted by Philly Startup Leaders. Then, chat about social networking and get all your health insurance questions answered.

Wednesday, July 21: If you’re not shore-bound this week, don’t despair. There are plenty of good times to be had right here in the city at the Philly Startup Leaders BBQ Bash. This long-awaited event, formerly scheduled as the PSL Happy Hour earlier this month, features all the tech-talk you’d expect at a PSL event plus appetizers and drinks by the river. Oh, and did we mention the first round is on – ahem – First Round Capital? 6:30 p.m. Manayunk RSVP [view more events]

Thursday, July 22: The folks at Independents Hall are at it again. After last week’s town hall, members and the interested public are invited to bring all their health insurance questions down to the coworking space this Thursday. Local expert Betsy Spivak will be answering health insurance inquiries and holding open discussion all day. 9:00 a.m. Old City INFO [view more events]

Thursday, July 22: This month’s Philadelphia Graphic Designers Meetup features a web marketing presentation hosted by Nate Nichols. This chat about the social media revolution is one not to be missed by the professional or the beginner.  6:30 p.m. Center City INFO [view more events]

Which, of course, means you have no reason to not attend any events on our jam-packed calendar this week. Every day has a worthy event, though we can only pick three. So take this chance to brush up on your programming, your business savvy or at least mooch off of some air conditioning.

This week get the inside scoop behind visitphilly.com, learn how to get your startup off the ground from the experts and celebrate the return of Philly Build Guild. Though two of these events happen on the same day. Ah, choices.

Monday, June 14th – Refresh Philly get together to chat with the folks at Happy Cog East, the folks who designed the VisitPhilly website. The company will reveal the ideas behind the code as well as breakdown how made Philly look so damn awesome. RSVP is required to get past the Comcast security desk. 6:00 p.m. Center City. RSVP. [view more events]

Monday, June 14th – If Web design isn’t your thing, PSL is getting down to business. Having a techie co-founder is often essential the success of tech startups. Problem is, the people with the business idea often can’t write a line of code. PSL plans on exploring how non-techies can hook up with the right developer to create the next hot startup, or at least get your idea up and running. 6:30 p.m. University City. INFO. [view more events]

Wednesday, June 16th – It turns out that reports of tweeted:

When Technically Philly pops into his office, the normally cheery venture capitalist is busy trying to figure out why First Round Capital’s email service is down.

“They say six minutes of downtime,” he says. “but they’re way over that.”

After a brief phone conversation (he would later blog about the downtime) he immediately returns to his normal upbeat demeanor and for good reason: Kopelman is one of four founding partners of one of the most active early-stage investment companies in the country. The firm has become as much of a brand as the companies it invests in, boasting the most-visited VC site on the web.

Located in a small, nondescript office building in West Conshohocken, the firm has expanded to San Francisco and will open its New York City offices next week, giving it a headquarters in two of the largest technology communities. The firm is setting a new standard in investment by making a high number of smaller, early stage investments while nurturing companies from the ground up.

First Round, however, is just the latest chapter in the Wharton grad’s career. Kopelman, a New York native, started Internet information company Infonautics while still in college and almost didn’t stay in Philadelphia.

“Once you have 17 people in the company with mortgages and me without, that pressured me to stay,” he says, “Then I grew attached to the area, built networks and planted some roots here and started Half.com.”

Since then, Philly has treated him well: Kopelman and his partners sold Half.com to eBay for $350 million in 2000, giving Philadelphia one its biggest tech “wins” in the Web 1.0 times. After starting and selling Turntide to Symantec in less than a year, Kopelman switched from entrepreneur to investor, making Philadelphia home to one of the most influential Internet investment firms in the world.

We sat down with Kopelman to talk about his take on Philadelphia, what kinds of companies he looks for and why Philly (and every other city) has no comparison.

As always edited for length and clarity. To read the complete interview transcript which includes three times as many questions, follow this link.

What would it take to have First Round located in Philadelphia as opposed to West Conshohocken?

My sense is that I don’t think we’ve lost any deals in the city because we weren’t willing to travel there or the entrepreneur wasn’t willing to travel here. So for me its just about quality of life in terms of ability to get home for dinner, get back to the office and go back and forth. You know we work on two time zones: the east coast and the west coast. If [the office] was further away I might not be as productive.

Is that the struggle for First Round? Because now there’s a Philadelphia, San Francisco and New York office and there’s four of you?

I might actually argue that while I have a strong network in Philly, my network is Silicon Valley is just as strong if not stronger. So when I’m trying to help an entrepreneur on the West Coast I feel like I can be extremely helpful in terms of recruiting and strategy.

And I’m out west enough that the proximity challenge isn’t insurmountable. So we’ve had to invest to do that. We’ve had to build an office in New York, we’ve had to build an office in the valley and we’ve had to build a team in all of those areas and build a footprint. We view ourselves as four partners that just happen to be working out of whatever office they are at right now.

You are almost the ideal Wharton grad for Philadelphia. You come from out of the area, you go to Wharton, you contribute jobs to the local economy. So I wonder many Wharton grads don’t decide to stick around.

My path was more of the exception.

Why do you think that is?

Had I not started a company right out of school and not had any employees, I don’t know if I would have stayed here.

Let’s try to take a different metaphor. I’ve come to see Philadelphia as a place that has a lot great theaters. And there are 70 schools in this area one of the highest densities of schools out there. There are a lot of people at these schools that want to be actors or actresses. And what I’ve seen though is that if you are a graduating student and are an actor or actress not one of them says “I want to be king of the Forrest Theater.”

They move to Broadway. And that’s where the ecosystem that they play in is [established]. I’d say that Philadelphia, as a tech hub, there are definitely bright spots and it is getting brighter. The fact that Technically Philly exists and it didn’t 18 months ago is telling. You have Philly Startup Leaders and Indy Hall. There’s a lot of groups. I think that’s wonderful and I think that’s improving the Philadelphia start-up scene… but I think it’s still hard to compete with Hollywood.

Maybe its an uphill battle, or maybe its misguided? Or maybe we should just try and play to our strengths of pharma?

I’m a big believer in Philly. I’ve started several companies here that have been successful, I’ve invested in companies that have been successful and I’ve met lots of quality of entrepreneurs here. I would not want to discourage anyone from trying to improve on Philly’s tech scene. But I also don’t know if you even need to compare.

New York has a great Chinatown, Philly has a strong Chinatown and they’re good Chinatowns. But stop trying to compete with China.

Most of our readers have lived here since 2002, 2003, not really part of that first generation of online startups like you were. So what have you’ve seen is the biggest difference from the CDNow and Half days versus now?

We’ve invested in almost every major tech market in the country, so one of the things I’ve seen when we compare Philly is that we tend to think we have a really good start-up generation right now. But for whatever reason, the past generation isn’t as engaged.

There’s not that institutional memory from the first round?

We are seeing a lot of first-time entrepreneurs in the region, which is great. But this is the seed-planting stage. You are going to see 100 of these entrepreneurs, ten of them might have some level of success and they might have management teams of five people, so they are new entrepreneurs that will go out and plant. It’s takes some time to move.

Basically, you’re sitting here with your first generation of seed planting, whereas out west you have the redwood forest.

What are the characteristics you look for in a entrepreneur when funding them?

For a start-up, I like to fund a heat-seeking missile. It used to be that, 30 years ago you, had to aim missiles. From the moment you launched it, you press go and you have no ability to change the course of that missile one you launched it.

But the heat-seeking missiles are a modern invention that you launch and it adjusts and looks for the heat signature it looks for the target. And if the target is moving it changes. It can start off heading north and then head west or south.

What new trends and things are popping up that get you excited?

At the macro-level, I think there is a massive disruption that’s occurring.

In what way?

We are really focused on the cloud and software as a service, and we are very focused on mobile. I think geography and location-based services is [also] really important.

I think that the concept of redefining the data sets that are available online and their accessibility online is a big trend. Sort of what we have been calling the “implicit web”.

Sort of the API-azation of our lives.

Yeah. When you think about it, it used to be that all your data was offline. But as more and more started happening online you left more and more digital breadcrumbs. Like myself: you wanna know what TV shows I like? TiVo knows that. Want music i like? Apple knows that. What movies I like? Netflix knows that. Where I eat? Open Table knows that. What concerts I go to? Ticketmaster knows that.

So historically all of that data has been in silos… Now once those silos open up APIs and you connect things to them and through them, I think that is really powerful and transformative.

Every Friday, Technically Philly brings you an interview with a leader or innovator in Philadelphia s technology community. See others here.

As we announced last week, we’re excited to be celebrating tonight our first year covering Philadelphia’s technology community.

We considered blowing it out with Jägerbombs, shots and perhaps a mechanical bull, but that just doesn’t feel right. We have a lot more work to do, and with that in mind we’ve partnered with Philly Startup Leaders to host a business fishbowl at the University of Arts before we kick back with a few light drinks.

We want to discuss with you how to make Technically Philly a sustainable news product at a time when sustainable news products are struggling. Let’s talk about how we can best serve you and create a stronger portal and mouthpiece for the region’s technology community. Register here for that biz fishbowl. If the business part bores you, join us at the Irish Pub at 12th and Walnut for an after-party where we’ll talk shop over $2 domestic drafts and $3 well drinks.

We’re excited to see how things turn out in our second year. We hope you’ll join us to help plan it and celebrate with us 365 days, 600 posts and 1,800 tweets of local technology coverage.

No longer do we all have to ice skate to SEPTA, and that means that heading out to the week’s tech events should be as easy as ever. Although, the weather gods seem to be brewing the next storm, so you’d best take advantage while you can.

First and foremost, Black Family Technology Awareness Week has a handful of remaining events this week, including the Changing Expectations Career Tour for anyone considering getting into tech.

On Tuesday, head on over to Liberty Plaza to learn everything you ever wanted to know about mobile programming. The next day you should come out to hear Technically Philly present its business plan to the Philly Startup Leaders and other attendees. Even if you aren’t into sustainable journalism (but, let’s be honest: everyone’s into journalism’s business models… right?), come out for $2 beers and $3 well drinks. And lastly, after work on Friday, TrendCamp will help us all discover the trends that will come to define 2010.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more.

Tuesday, February 23rd: PANMA kicks off its extensive 2010 event calendar with a discussion about mobile programming. Chris Morrell of the wonderful Philly New Media Hub will be the featured speaker, ready to teach you about new mobile technologies as well as how to optimize your existing sites. 5:30 p.m. University City. DETAILS. [view more events]

Wednesday, February 24rd: Join us in celebrating our first birthday by dissect our business plan with Philly Startup Leaders at the University of the Arts. We’ll chat about our plans for making Technically Philly a sustainable source of news, and we hope you are there to offer your feedback as our readers and as entrepreneurs. Afterwards, stick around for discounted drinks at the Irish Pub at 12th and Walnut. 7:30 p.m. Center City. REGISTER. [view more events]

Friday, February 26th: *Camp season is well under way. First up: TrendCamp, a barcamp that focuses on “what’s next” for everything from our city to business. We can only hope that attendees universally conclude that Technically Philly is the next big thing. 6:00 p.m. Center City. REGISTER. [view more events]

If you have an event that you think we should be listing, email us or fill out our submission form for best results. We promise that no submission falls in to the contact form netherworld.

Introducing Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup. Here, we’ll parse out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

DEFINITE READS

Philly Startup Leader Founder Blake Jennelle writes long-form about Washington D.C.’s “startup soul,” after taking in the scene there earlier this month. There’s a lot for Philly to learn from it’s neighbor to the south, Jennelle says, and we’ve got much in common. Like Philly, growth comes from the grassroots, but D.C. lacks a central community of entrepreneurs. And our brethren know Philadelphia. “The reputation of [Philly's] creative communities is strong,” he writes.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

Mobile payment platform XIPWIRE is helping support the open source community by seeking donations for several nonprofit organizations, according to a blog post. Users can donate to the Apache Software Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Software Foundation, GNOME foundation and others. The company is also working with Cupcakes4Haiti, a charitable bake drive led by Temple University student Seth Heirzenrater.

Pittsburgh entrepreneur and self-described city cheerleader Michael Langley writes about his business reasons for wanting to stay in the Iron City. “Out next renaissance is rooted in research and development in advanced materials, life sciences, information technologies and energy … and business-services sector.”

GIVE A GLANCE

DreamIt-backed location-based mobile game platform SCVNGR, which graduated the incubator in 2008, has grown to over 350 corporate customers and $1 million in revenues in 2009. We wanna know why this group moved to Boston (aside from that Harvard partnership).

TicketLeap has redesigned its Web site, implementing a cleaner interface, multiple event categories, and advanced search functionality.

ProtoSphere is showing off features in its upcoming 1.4 release, which will allow live presentations for 250 virtual attendees, and which will bring Windows 7, IE8 and Firefox 3 support.

Startup Roundup will post weekly on Wednesdays until there’s not a Philly startup story left to link to on the Internet. See others here.

As tweeted:

After twelve months of covering startups, investments, city government policy and general technology news, we are still hard at work trying to make Technically Philly a sustainable source of tech news for the region.

We have our own ideas about how this will look, making efforts to build up or Jobs Board as well as offering detailed advertising packages. However, we wanted to throw open our revenue strategy to you, our readers, and the community-at-large, for criticism and advice.

That is why we are partnering with Philly Startup Leaders to be the subject of the group’s next Fishbowl at the University of Arts on Wednesday, February 24 at 7:30 p.m. REGISTER HERE.

If you’ve never been, Fishbowls are events where a small business presents a problem or challenge it is facing.

We’ll present to you our troubles during the last year, our current state of business and our plans to come. We’d also like to know what Technically Philly should do to make your life easier. Would you like more in-depth reporting? Services to help out entrepreneurs? Research? More services like our Jobs Board?

After the Fishbowl, we’ll head over to the Irish Pub at 12th and Walnut for celebratory drinks and conversation. We’ve hooked up with the Pub to nail down $2 domestic drafts and $3 well drinks. Come say hi, talk media business models and grab a brew with us and hopefully we’ll do it again next year.

There’s plenty to do, whether you’re down with coding, design, marketing or heck, just looking for an open bar and some good old-fashioned networking.

On Tuesday, the newly-formed Philadelphia Semantic Web Meetup gathers again for introductions and discussion of the group’s direction. Wednesday, Philly Startup Leaders‘ Entrepreneurs Unplugged kicks off for the first time in 2010. Thursday, the Philadelphia Interactive Marketing Association hosts a free networking event in the ‘burbs, drinks included.

Updated: We’re also knee deep in the city’s 11th annual Black Family Technology Awareness Week, as we reported. See a list of events here.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more.

Tuesday, February 16: Semantic Web has always kind of scared us—it’s practically the next step to machines becoming too smart for their own good. But we’d be lying if we didn’t think there was a bright and important future in building those foundations. The Philadelphia Semantic Web Meetup is asking new members to prepare something about semantics that they’re interested in or working on at this new meetup. We’re sending a computer to sit in for us. 7:00 p.m., Center City. RSVP. [view more events]

Wednesday, February 17: This, the sixth Entrepreneurs Unplugged, hosted by Philly Startup Leaders, brings Ed Sullivan of Aria Systems. Sullivan has what PSL is calling a “somewhat top-secret” strategy for success, so how can you even kind-of consider missing that? Jokes aside, Sullivan has raised $15 million for Aria, a SaaS customized billing platform, so he’s got some advice to share, for sure. 7:00 p.m., Center City. RSVP. [view more events]

Thursday, February 18: The Philadelphia Interactive Marketing Association kicks off 2010 with its first networking event, with an open bar to boot. Leading with that, though, is a disservice to the organization’s strengths. One look at its board of directors will tell you how great an opportunity PhIMA events could be—leaders from WeatherBug, NBCPhiladelphia, Razorfish, Digitas Health, Comcast Interactive Media and others help organize this professional group. But the free food don’t hurt, either. 7:00 p.m., Conshohocken. RSVP. [view more events]

If you have an event that you think we should be listing, email us or fill out our submission form for best results. We promise that no submission falls in to the contact form netherworld.

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

The blog from incubator DreamIt Ventures features some knowledge spilled at a lecture on search engine optimization by Gabriel Weinberg, the CEO of Duck Duck Go, the Valley Forge search engine we’ve covered.

After the jump, business leaders playing squash, video from the Philly Startup Leaders barbecue and six other tech stories, including our best read story of the week.

Ordered by an incredibly complex algorithm rendering importance:

• Jeff Blumenthal from the Philadelphia Business Journal reports that three families connected to the Philadelphia business community are off to Israel to compete in the squash competition of the 18th Maccabiah Games, “an international Jewish athletic event similar to the Olympics.”
• Geekadelphia reports that the Black Cherry Bombshells online comic team, whom we have covered, is video podcasting its trip across the country to the San Diego Comic book conference.
• Keystone Edge has an interview with Don Miller, who is a part of the 8-bit music scene in Philadelphia. Geekadelphia loves these guys.
• Yup, we’re still on Microsoft’s rumored sale of online marketing agency Razorfish, which has Center City offices. PaidContent is covering it, even though AdWeek reports that it is unlikely the move will be made. Media Post News uses Razorfish chops. H/T Philly Tech News
• Innovation Philadelphia posts that members from their regional nonprofit economic development organization attended the barbecue held by the Philly Startup Leaders, an event we told you about. Below see their video interview with Aaron McLean and Tracey Welson-Rossman, members of the event committee.

• Our Most Trafficked Story of the Week: Friday Q&A: Gwen Shaffer, One Web Day organizer

Every Friday morning we make sure you didn’t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.

In its short existence, Philly Startup Leaders has blossomed into one of the city’s best startup resources. Partly because Philadelphia’s startup scene is gaining traction, and partly because PSL is run by some really smart people.

TP covered the organization before the group’s BBQ last week.

To act as a guide, the group’s Board of Directors put their heads together and came up with a two page manifesto that has broader applications to many businesses. The document has never been seen outside of the PSL Board of Directors.

After the jump, read the philosophy that makes PSL tick.The document is embedded below, though we recomend viewing it over at Scribd.com.
PSL Manifesto v1.0