Philly ‘tech walks’ encourage professionals to parade the streets — to build their networks

A parade of people dressed in business casual marched down Locust Street this week, not just for exercise but to network.

Twenty or so technologists, entrepreneurs and other members of the Philly tech community strolled through center city on Monday afternoon as part of the first tech walk, hosted in conjunction with Philly Tech Week 2024. The walk aims to help people connect with each other in a more casual way amidst back-to-back events during PTW, according to the organizers.

“Sometimes Philly Tech Week can feel pretty serious and like ‘I got to be out there networking all the time,’” Helen Horstmann-Allen, who co-organized the Tech Walk, told Technical.ly. “Part of the walk is it’s just a little bit more relaxed, it’s a little bit more fun and it really feels natural.”

Horstmann-Allen and her co-host Lindsay Tabas, who are both 2024 RealLIST Connectors honorees, often go on walks together when they meet for coffee. Horstmann-Allen specifically enjoys inviting people on walks to have deep conversations, she said. The idea comes from community runs, when people meet up in a park before going for a jog together. The thought of moving with community inspired Horstmann-Allen to start tech walks in Philly, she said.

When attendees arrived, they were given a name tag and instructed to write both their professional and personal passions. The hosts also gave out wristbands with prompts and questions to spark conversations, plus snacks to munch on.

Attendees could be looking for their next role or just looking to make more connections in the tech community, which are difficult things to talk about, especially with strangers, Tabas said. Plus, walking side by side with someone has been proven to be less stressful than talking face to face, according to the New York Times.

People came for connection, and found it

Many attendees came to the walk with the same impetus as the co-hosts: to network in a low-pressure environment. Bryce Nichols, a local software engineer, came to connect with more people in the Philly tech ecosystem.

“I just wanted to be a part of the local scene,” Nichols told Technical.ly. “I’ve lived here a long time and I have my own network, but I neglect the local people and forget that there’s good companies here and good people to talk to.”

Traditional networking can be awkward. But walking together, and the list of prompts, provided an organic way to break the ice. Samantha Wittchen, cofounder and chief product officer of Circa Systems, came to the event because she thought it would be a good opportunity to connect with people that she doesn’t normally interact with. She ended up meeting people interested in participating in her company’s pilot.

“This is a great way to interact with people outside of your typical bar situation,” Wittchen said. “It puts people on a more casual level to be walking and going in the same direction in a way that doesn’t feel quite so adversarial and high stakes.”

The tech world is very “left brained,” Tabas said, so people are always analyzing and expected to know all the answers. The walk aimed to help people stop and think creatively about their work or challenges they’re facing.

“Many people are open for collaboration,” Tabas said. “So maybe ideas can start flowing as we slow down and let our right brains and our creative sides be a part of the conversation.”

Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.