Philly TechWeek Observations: Light the Spark!
Love the real-time scribe capturing the closing session at #PTW25
Something felt different. Open. Optimistic. Dare I say a bit of swagger?
Philly’s ecosystem is really an ecosystem of ecosystems. If you’re a fan of Venn diagrams, there’s a beautiful one to be drawn here: Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies (PACT) and @StartupLeaders. Ben Franklin Technology Partners and Pennovation Works. Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs and the other “corporates.” Technical.ly Philly and 1Philadelphia as the ultimate “conveners.” And many (too many?) subgroups with their respective special interests.
Sessions were practical and inspiring. Not easy to achieve, which shows the talent and expertise across the communities. (I think I did about a dozen sessions and events throughout the week.)
Highlights from my POV:
The Philly Chamber of Commerce, Philly Department of Commerce, Philly Fed and Brookings leaders making the research-based business case for economic mobility - and the need to build an enterprise tech ecosystem. (Put me in, coach!)
The hands on, deep dive into AI tools and vibe coding with experts Jeremy Gatens and Jason Michael Perry. Dozens of folks were fired up and ready to go! Would love to see a follow-on workshop to spend a day building apps.
a16z Talent x Opportunity's founder session, with very early stage attendees, and their ecosystem leaders’ reception. They’d do well to farm the talent here. Curious to know their impressions.
Meeting/remeeting Ellen Weber, Gretchen Roede and Helen Horstmann-Allen, and recognizing the strong showing of women across the communities.
Seeing Meredith Tretiak's RYLA app break out at the Founders and Funders reception.
Networking and vibing in the one-on-one or one-on-three casual convos at various receptions and breaks, from a lucky lunch seated with Tempest Carter and Devon Putman talking about workforce development, to debating whether ADD was a superpower or a challenge in managing multiple clients while sharing cookies with a content freelancer. (I say it’s a superpower.)
Bringing the ‘Burbs to the City running into Mark Crouse and Stefanie Smith.
No small point was appreciating the cool spaces across the city where sessions and events took place, from the Comcast Tech Center (of course!) to the Science History Museum in Old City
Christopher Wink and the Technical.ly Philly team, and Danae Mobley of 1Philadelphia and team did a phenomenal job.
I’ve been observing and attending these things for about a year. Mostly under the radar, which is a new and newly appreciated skill for me ;).
Finding communities to be of service and to deliver value has been my goal for this “season.” Chatting with a local venture person at the a16z reception, I was able to share info on VestedIn. I connected the dots from attending VestedIn's recent Opportunities Breakfast (all about Philly 250) with Maggi Kirk of the Philadelphia Foundation a couple of weeks back, where I also ran into both Devon Horace, MBA of @MomYourBusiness and Elissa Bloom of Philly Fashion Incubator. This is why my business has always been called Full Circle!
Lots of name dropping here, all intended with heartful gratitude and inspiration.
There’s no place like home. Finally feeling a groove and seeing where to fill the gaps.
More to come with other groups and observations.
