Welcome to Philly Tech Week 2016*

*For the fifth year in a row, Mother Nature has interfered with our grand plans. Due to rain, we are postponing the Arcade @ Dilworth kickoff event that was scheduled for Friday night. The event will be held from 5-10 p.m. on Saturday, April 30. We are still very, very excited to see you all there.

---

We hear it often: It’s all about the narrative. But this year felt different. People were actually doing something about it.

You had big institutional players working to put Philly on the map as a destination for health-tech and healthcare IT. You had a visit from a prominent investor on a profile-raising tour of non-traditional tech scenes (i.e., not Silicon Valley and New York). You had an organized contingent of Philly tech folk representing at South by Southwest in a major way.
Thing is, other regions seemed to be doing the same thing.
That’s the preface for the PTW Print Mag cover story this year. Technical.ly Philly Lead Reporter Juliana Reyes looks at local efforts to advertise this region’s tech-related strengths. And, really, it’s also a challenge to you, beloved Philly Tech Week attendee: How does your city stand out? How should it?
Those questions were at the heart of an exciting project we undertook this spring in partnership with Comcast NBCUniversal. The first leg of the Tomorrow Tour was a six-city exploration of how next-generation local economies fit into a national context.
Because even if Des Moines is trying to impress the same SXSW-loving technologists that we are, it’s not a zero-sum game. Everyone will have their own tech community and that is good and fine. The Tomorrow Tour was a way to convene key players in each region for an honest discussion about Denver’s strengths and Atlanta’s shortcomings and Detroit’s next steps for becoming a better version of itself.
And really, that’s what Philly Tech Week is, too: A group exercise rooted in the optimistic belief that we can hack together a more perfect Philadelphia.
Let this magazine serve as a guide for making it happen.
Sincerely,
Zack Seward, Editor-in-Chief, and the entire Technical.ly Philly team

---

Pictured above, the Technical.ly Philly staff, left to right: Events Coordinator Alexandria Leggett, Marketing Manager Jeanette Lloyd, Events Director Molly Rose, Client Success Manager Alisha Miranda, Business Manager Peter Erickson, Events Manager Catherine Sontag, Editor-in-Chief Zack Seward, Lead Reporter Juliana Reyes, Cofounder and Editorial Director Christopher Wink, Culture Coordinator Justin Malone, Senior Business Manager Vincent Better. (Not pictured: Cofounder and Business Director Brian James Kirk, Product Manager Cary Betagole.)