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Your guide to Philly at SXSWi

No worries. Technically Philly is here to give you the low down on all things Philly at the music/movie/tech festival that is South by Southwest.

sxsw2009So let’s just say you just (hypothetically) graduated from college and moved into new digs in the city. Then, let’s assume that you don’t (hypothetically) have the money to take a five day vacation to Austin, Texas and immerse yourself in the biggest tech conference of the year. Sure, that may be the story told by most of Technically Philly’s (hypothetical) staff, but we’d bet that not every reader is leaving us on a jet plane headed for SXSWi.
No worries. Technically Philly is here to give you the low down on all things Philly at the music/movie/tech festival that is South by Southwest. The “i” component of the festival, meaning “interactive,” is four days of panels, talks, parties and even karaoke. Plop down in your favorite chair, and read along about those with ties to the metro area who will make noise in Austin. It will be like you’re there. Sorta.

People

Patrick Moorhead, Director of Emerging Media – Avenue A | Razorfish
Moorhead is leading two panels with David Polinchock of Brand Experience Lab: The Invisible Web and Ubiquitous Computing and Emerging From a Recession with Emerging Media Intact. He is not currently living in the city, but he was a teacher at Drexel, was involved in PANMA and his employer might best be known for the philly.com redesign.
Geoff DiMasi, Owner – P’unk Ave.
DiMasi, along with several other coworking leaders around the country, is part of the Regional Whuffie Building: Attracting Innovation to Your City panel. The panel is meant to prove that innovation happens outside of the Silicon Valley, and we’re glad a Philadelphia rep on board. As a co-founder of Indy Hall, founder of South Philly-based interactive firm P’unk Ave., host of Junto and co-organzier of Ignite Philly, DiMasi may know what he is talking about.
Darlene Cavalier, Founder – Science Cheerleader
We may have a pro-Temple bias given TP’s own academic history, but Cavalier should do just fine leading her panel about allowing amateurs mine large amounts of scientific data. The former Temple student and 76ers cheerleader runs the Science Cheerleader blog and is an advocate for increasing the accessibility and profile of amateurs contributing to science. She started out stuffing envelopes at Discover magazine and worked her way up to be a Senior Manager at Discover’s parent company, Walt Disney. She still lives in in Philadelphia.
Alex Hillman, co-founder – Indy Hall
Coworking will be on Hillman’s mind as it often must be, while he leads a panel by himself about the coworking movement. Several other coworking leaders will be in Austin, so either none of them felt like getting up at 11 a.m., or Philly’s Indy Hall has become the ideal coworking model. Hopefully the latter. Hillman will also be part of a group panel on recommendations in Web applications and e-commerce, such as the “you might be interested in…” box on Amazon.
John Gruber, blogger – Daring Fireball
You know you’ve made it when Merlin Mann, the saint of Internet productivity, is on a panel with you. Gruber and Mann are set to discuss ways to increase credibility on a blog. His own blog, the Apple news site Daring Fireball, is a full time job for Gruber, who lives in Philadelphia.

Parties

The parties do not have individual links, you’ll have to comb through the party page.
SXSW Interactive Opening Happy Hour hosted by Razorfish
Razorfish isn’t primarily based in Philadelphia, but they do have a Philly office. So there is an outside chance some local peeps will attend. Although if the event’s Facebook wall is any indication, you might be better off going somewhere else.
OK! Happy Cog’aoke
Locally based Happy Cog is throwing a Karaoke competition that has at least four local competitors that were voted in the top 20.
Surely there are more events containing Philly residents, but we did are best combing through the stacks of events and panels. If we missed something, drop a comment and we’ll add it above.

Companies: Daring Fireball / Razorfish / Science Cheerleader
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