Our Social Impact Guide to Philly Tech Week 2014

Philly Tech Week — Technical.ly Philly’s annual week long celebration of tech and innovation — is back for its fourth year. Last year, 20,000 people attended 110 events organized by 200 partners. This year it will run from April 4-12 and feature 134 events in the following tracks:

• Development
• Civic
• Media
• Business
• Access
• Creative

This year’s tech week will have track-specific days, including days dedicated to civic and access events, according to Technical.ly’s Events Coordinator Corinne Warnshuis. The track days are new to this year’s Philly Tech Week and were created so that people can attend more events that are close in location and focused on similar topics.

“Definitely check out a new initiative we’re launching during Tech Week called Commit Pledge and its kickoff,” Warnshius said in an email.

Philly Tech Week awarded micro-grants for those looking to create meaningful events for the second year in a row. This year’s winners are:

• ArtsTechPhilly: The State of Art & Tech in Philadelphia
• Performance Hypothesis and Attic Youth Center: GPS Bodies
• PHL Collective: Lunch Time Game Demo
• nvigor: Philly Student Startup Summit 2.0
• William Way Community Center, Message Agency, Yikes Inc and others: Tech Mix It Up: A Diversity Networking Affair
• Hive 76: Wrap Up Jam

You can register for individual events and create your own schedule at phillytechweek.com. Below is a list of select events that are of interest to the social impact and nonprofit community arranged by date:

City Council Hearing on the Creative Class

April 3, 3:00PM — 4:30PM | City Hall, Broad St & Penn Square

A discussion at City Hall to discuss growing Philly’s entrepreneurial efforts and creative class.

Philadelphia: A Civic Fusion Reactor, presented by OpenAccessPHL
April 7, 3:00pm–5:00pm | CityCoHo, 2401 Walnut St.

OpenAccessPHL is a network of civic-minded, passionate, engaged and active Philadelphians working at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation.

Tech Mix It Up: A Diversity Networking Affair
April 7, 5:00pm–8:00pm | William Way Community Center, 1315 Spruce St

This event brings together tech people from diverse backgrounds including gender, race, ethnicity, members of the LGBT communities and people with disabilities.

Inside Social Entrepreneurship: Innovation, Capital and Impact
April 9, 5:00pm-9:00pm | Impact Hub, 1227 N. 4th Street

Hear directly from two panels of entrepreneurs across industries, how they developed their business idea, built a customer base and found the capital to grow. This session will walk participants through the step-by-step of raising money and developing an innovative social enterprise.

Exploring Civic Volunteering with Technology: Kickoff for Commit Service Pledge
April 10, 8:00am–10:00am | 1810 Conference Suite, 1810 Liacouras Walk

A kick-off  for Commit, Technical.ly’s year-long technology service pledge. You’ll learn how to get more involved in the civic innovation community at this Q&A.

Open Data in the Classroom
April 10, 4:30pm–6:00pm | TBD

Access to open data for civic startups has increased substantially, but what about for students. This event looks at how the city can begin to transfer this access into the classroom.

ReThink Philly EdTech
April 10, 6:30pm–8:30pm | VentureF0rth, Suite 201, 417 N. 8th St

This event mixes the inspiration of a TED conference with the exploration of an un-conference. Six EdTech leaders will each give a 10 minute talk about a powerful idea, experience, or project with the intent of making the audience think more deeply about a topic in educational technology.

This A Side of Tech: How Technology Influences Local Food Practices
April 11 10:30am–12:00pm | Parkway Central Library, Room 108, 1901 Vine St.

How does technology complement your efforts to bring about a healthy, socially inclusive and sustainable food future? Explore this question and others with moderator Nic Esposito, writer, urban farmer, The Head & The Hand Press publishing company founder.

N3rd Street BBQ
April 11, 2:00pm–6:00pm | Liberty Lands Park, 926 N. American St.

The official City naming ceremony for N3rd Street, the N3rd Street BBQ gathers all the great people and businesses making it happen in this innovative corridor of Philly. So come out and have some food, drink, and celebrate Philly Tech Week N3rd style! Official naming ceremony at 4:00 pm.

Which events are you most looking forward to attending? Let us know in the comments!

Check out a recap from last year’s Philly Tech Week:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gkCc3fn_Wc&w=560&h=315]

(Images via PTW)