Phorum 2015 is all about digital transformation

Local entrepreneurs, technologists and business executives will have the opportunity to better understand how to better integrate emerging technologies into their existing enterprises.
Digital transformation will be the focal topic at Phorum 2015; leveraging mobility, big data and the cloud to better integrate every branch of your business.
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The annual technology conference will be held at the Penn Museum on April 14. The event is hosted by the Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies (PACT), and they’ve corralled some big names for this year’s conference.
Attendees can look forward to keynote addresses from the likes of Zuckerberg Media founder and CEO Randi Zuckerberg, Gartner VP of Research Merv Adrian, LiquidHub CEO Jonathan A. Brassington, CIO Magazine Editor-in-Chief Maryfran Johnson and Phorum mainstay Peter Coffee, VP of Strategic Research at Salesforce.com.
“The concurrent celebration of both technological change and the role of talent, entrepreneurship and economic vigor in a city like Philadelphia has really set Phorum apart as an event,” Coffee said. “It’s the mission of the PACT group to say we are about making sure technology doesn’t exist in a vacuum, but as an enabler of economic growth.”
Coffee said since the initial launch of Phorum in 2012, the conference’s impact has expanded its reach. It has gradually attracted businesses and individuals from New Jersey, Delaware, Western Pennsylvania and beyond.
That much is evident in the startups featured in this year’s demo pit:

• Livegenic (Philadelphia, Pa.)
• Boxly (Philadelphia, Pa.)
• Collected (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
• MongoSluice (West Chester, Pa.)
• Nfoshare (New York, N.Y.)
• SETVI (Philadelphia, Pa.)
• Shibumi (San Francisco, Calif.)
• Tesorio (Philadelphia, Pa.)

One of these startups will win the Best in Show award, which comes with a spotlight demo at the Philly New Tech Meetup later that evening.
Applications to be featured in this year’s demo pit were up 50 percent from last year, according to Allen Born, director at Fairmount Partners and chairman of Phorum’s steering committee.
Born said choosing from the pool of applicants was a challenge. “We looked at their technology, how innovative it is, how much momentum they have, how far along they are,” he said. “We could have had a demo pit that consisted of 15-20 [startups].”
Born said attendees can look forward to meeting and watching demos from a few of the most cutting-edge regional firms, all of which incorporate the latest and newest technologies relevant to this year’s theme of digital transformation.
The demo pit will inevitably be a draw, though Coffee admits he always enjoys the panel most. “That’s when you get the contention of different perspectives,” he said. This year’s Phorum will host over 25 panelists in six different panel discussions on digital transformation.
“The panels are filled with enterprise users and technology providers who are thought leaders in the sectors they’re speaking,” Born said.