Sean Blanda

Above: Sean's new job

I’ll admit it, I have been out of the loop lately.  That’s why I missed the recent conversation spreading across the Web about the proposed BarCamp: News Innovation.  That is, until my buddy Christopher Wink clued me into the tragedy that was occurring.

If you missed it, a bunch of people way smarter than myself are looking to organize a forum for getting forward thinking media-people together to discuss the future of news.  I agree with the concept, but what I disagree with are the proposed locations.  There is only one place this could possibly go down: Philadelphia.

Why?

Location Location Location. Whenever any group proposes any kind of big event, there is usually a tug of war between New York City and Washington D.C. This never made any sense to me, as Philadelphia is right in between these two locations.

On the Barcamp Wiki, DC and Boston area is proposed as one location.  This is lunacy.  Philadelphia is in the center of the corridor of Northeastern cities being less than a two hour drive from every major city except Boston.  Having the event in DC and Miami, totally alienates everyone north of the capital.  Having the event Boston increases the travel time for those coming from D.C.

Media Market. Aside from the central location, Philadelphia is the forth largest media market in the country, and second largest on the East Coast.  The other proposed locations?  Miami is 6th, D.C. is 7th, and Boston is 11th.  Philadelphia is the 6th largest city in the country (and it would be ranked higher if Phoenix and Houston didn’t have FOUR TIMES the square mileage Philadelphia does).  Miami and Boston don’t even crack the top 20.

Burgeoning tech scene. We’ve all heard ad nauseum how “with it” Silicon Valley and New York City are.  We don’t need another insidery gathering in cities known for their insidery gatherings.  This event is about fresh faces and fresh ideas.  And, as luck would have it, Philadelphia is currently in the midst of a tech explosion.  As Indy Hall co-founder Alex Hillman put it, a few years ago there were hardly any tech related events in the City of Brotherly Love.  Now?  Ignites, Barcamps, and Juntos are fostering a tech community like no where else.  Groups such as the Hacktory, Make: Philly, P’unk Ave, and Indy Hall are leading the way, featuring the wonderful technology related events and people that live here.  And these communities aren’t just Web 2.0. Or design. Or journalism.  They’re cross-genre.  Junto is even having a dialog with local nerds on health care this Thursday.  Health care! A similar dialog on Journalism would get a wonderful turnout full of fresh faces.

Philly has talent. Philadelphia is one of the few remaining two paper towns.  However, both the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer have been shrinking rapidly.  This means there is still a large amount of very qualified journalists floating around (maybe in the old Pen and Pencil club?), many of whom might be interested in this conference. And these ex-deadtree reporters are up to some wonderful things.  For example, TreeHouse Media was started by an ex-Inquirer staffer.  The Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab at Temple University was founded by an Philly ex-broadcaster.

The availability of venues.  Temple University, The University of the Sciences, LaSalle University, Drexel University and The University of Pennslyvania are just a few of the colleges all located within blocks of Center City.  Plus, The Pennsylvania Convention Center is being expanded … again.

Anyone who disagrees with me is welcome to drop me a line here or on Twitter, but I can not think of a more convenient and better equipped location that Philadelphia.  Miami (sorry Mr. Linch), Boston, and New York all lack the essential aspects of an event like this: a central location, an underserved community, and the facilities to handle this.

And if you live in Philly and would like this to happen, drop a note on the BarCamp wiki.  Cmon, Why Cant Us?