I remember it pretty distinctly. It was last summer, and I was just getting off of work at the City Paper. Along with a few friends I rushed a few neighborhoods over to attend Ignite Philly. Ignite was an event that gave a series of speakers five minutes on stage to say whatever they wanted. The speakers had 20 Powerpoint slides that rotated automatically every 15 seconds. A simple enough concept, and I thought that a few dozen people would show up at most.
When I showed up an hour late to the bar, something seemed funny. As I walked down the sidewalk I had to step over bikes that were thrown anywhere there was space. Most of the bike rack slots were taken. A ton of noise was coming from the inside, and the guy guarding the door was staring at me like I was a 15-year-old trying to buy beer. I was greeted with a sign that said the event was full and nobody else was getting in.
There were no rock stars in there. No bands. No comedians. Just a bunch of Philly locals talking about innovative products and ideas. And those local people managed to pack a bar to the brim like it was a Friday night. And that’s when I knew, something was happening here. Philadelphia was about to get a kick in the pants from the tech community.
I spend a lot of time that summer and winter trying to convince my friend Brian James Kirk to start a technology-based news site with me. He said things like “no” and “wait until I graduate” and “seriously, Sean get off of my doorstep before I call the cops.” He had been writing a tech column named Technologicology the local blog Philebrity, and was gathering a loyal readership (see his Ignite wrap up here). Well, after a lot of convincing I’m proud to announce Technically Philly, a joint collaboration between myself, Brian, and Christopher Wink.
While in a soft launch phase, we have confirmed what we always knew: The Philadelphia tech scene is thriving. Every day we add a handful of start ups, design firms, or locally-built Web applications to our coverage list. Our event calendar is packed to the brim, and we feel that we have barely scratched the surface. People are emailing the three of us out of the blue to show signs of support and to offer information.
But my personal motives for co-founding this site go further than a desire for news. Personally, I’m tired of Silicon Valley getting the bulk of the technology coverage on the Web. I’m tired of Philadelphia getting breezed over when it comes to hosting large technology-based events. I don’t want innovative thinkers in Philadelphia to feel that they have to move West to accomplish anything. It’s about time that Philadelphia stood up and let the world know that wonderful things are happening here.
For all the above reasons and more I’m proud to unleash Technically Philly to the world. I hope you follow along and subscribe. We are also always in search of local companies and people that are doing wonderful things in the city. Please, drop us a line.
Oh and I’ll be presenting more details about how we got the site up and running in less than a week at my BarCamp News Innovation presentation.