DreamIt Ventures company and TEDxPhilly speaker Elect Next launches on Election Day, partners with the National Constitution Center

On Election Day, Elect Next has decided it was time for its coming out party.

You’ll be hearing a lot from the DreamIt Ventures company over the next few days, founder Keya Dannenbaum is scheduled to speak at TEDxPhilly today, the company is throwing a launch party tonight at National Mechanics and Elect Next has partnered with the National Constitution Center for a display inside the museum’s exhibit. The company also made headlines last month when it won the Judges’ Choice Award at the 2011 Web 2.0 Expo/NY Startup Showcase.

Disclosure: The National Constitution Center is one of our clients at Technically Media. Technically Philly had no role in the Elect Next/NCC partnership. 

Elect Next has most often been compared to a dating site, and its interface will look very familiar to anyone who has ever used a site like OKCupid. First, to best match the user to the candidate, Elect Next asks users to answer a series of questions from topics ranging from Abortion to Taxes.

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This week: TEDxPhilly, TP Groups and HigherEd Camp [Event Highlights]

Have you seen those leaves, Philadelphia? The trees were beautiful this weekend, as was the weather. We hope you were able to take an Autumn stroll.

If you didn’t, we have a handful of technology events this week, and we encourage you to take the scenic route before you arrive. This week: the return of TEDxPhilly, a user group of user groups and higher education goes to the bar.

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TEDxPhilly is back

With announcements on Facebook and Twitter, TEDxPhilly has declared that it will hold its latest iteration at the Temple University Performing Arts Center (formerly the Baptist Temple) on Tuesday, November 8th. Tickets are not yet available, however you can sign up for TEDxPhilly’s mailing list to be notified when they do.

TEDx is the independent version of the annual exclusive TED conference often held in California where dozens of notable speakers are given an 18-minute speaking slot.

TED – short for Technology, Entertainment, Design – licenses TEDx brands for communities to independently organize their own TED events. Last year, the first TEDxPhilly was held at the Kimmel Center, see our coverage here. Videos from last year’s event are available on YouTube.

In another tweet, TEDxPhilly announced that the theme of the event would be “The City”

November 8th is also election day in Philadelphia, with mayor Michael Nutter among those seeking office.

Links: $45 million for new Drexel business school, NewsWorks launches and More

• TEDx at the Kimmel: Where ideas go to mix [Inquirer] — The TED preview, now read our TEDxPhilly review here.
• Drexel U. gets $45 million for new business school [BusinessWeek] — It’ll be a high-profile beauty on Market Street in University City.
• Gallup/Knight study: Love for a city tied to economic growth [Philadelphia Business Journal] — “In other words, it’s love and passion for the city that gets the economic engine going.”
• After an Adventure in Newspapers, a Publisher Returns to P.R. [New York Times] — Former Inquirer Publisher Brian Tierney is returning to his marketing roots by launching a new communications group with an online footprint and Ryan Davis, the former Philly.com president who we interviewed. H/T Philly Tech News
• Newsworks opens up shop; we wish it well (and have a few questions) [Clog: Citypaper] — Long awaited and much trumpeted online news venture from WHYY launches, with plenty of back story.
• PolicyMap Introduces Four New Decision-Making Tools [PR Newswire] — Updates from the Reinvestment Fund, which we’ve covered before.
• Lincoln Financial Field gets even greener [6ABC] — Wind turbines, solar panels and other sustainable measures being added to the LINC H/T the 700 Level
• Art of the American Soldier: National Constitution Center Uses iPads in Awesome Exhibit [Geekadelphia] — [Full Disclosure: Technically Media, the parent company of Technically Philly, is working with the NCC on various projects]
• Dept. Of Evil Geniuses: The Philly Church Parking For Atheists Website [Philebrity]

Every Friday morning, we make sure you didn t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.

Event Highlights November 15th – 21st, 2010

We hope you’ve recovered from BarCamp, Philadelphia (post coming today) because there are two more all day events slated for this week. And, honestly, we’d take the day off for both if we were you.

This week: Philly Startup Leaders talk shop, TEDxPhilly is finally here and the Wordcamp crew is ready to keep it going.

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