WeWork is hosting a series of talks on ‘the future of Philly’

When venture-backed WeWork came to town with that 30,000-square-foot space in Northern Liberties in June we asked if a mural of Rocky was all it was doing to reach out to the Philly ecosystem.

Come Jan. 25, the coworking space will host an event that aims at keeping its promise of making Philly-specific programming: The Future of Philly is a series of conversations around this city’s potential in areas like food, art and real estate. Take a wild guess on what the first topic will be? That’s right: the future of tech.

https://twitter.com/WeWorkPHL/status/816762524678975489

With Temple University’s Ellen Weber as moderator, three technologists will share their insights on the future of Philly tech: Danielle Cohn, director of entrepreneurial engagement at Comcast; Tiffanie Stanard, CEO and Founder of Stimulus and — interestingly, hailing from New York — Stephanie Glenn, VP of SMB sales at Salesforce. 

The event’s full name is Philly Tech: A Global Perspective for a Local Market. According to Anita Shannon, WeWork’s Philly lead, the event is a sign of how the coworking provider plans to leverage its multinational status in a regional context.

“We’re very excited about the local community that’s been built here,” said Shannnon. “We also have the unique opportunity to use WeWork’s global network to bring a big player from outside of Philly.”

Here’s what strikes us as unique about this event. Unlike Mission:Possible, a multi-city program offering startups coworking space in Philly as well as a handful of other cities, this event series seems to be — so far — unique to our town. It also seems to be both a salute to Philly’s existing tech scene and perhaps an acknowledgement of WeWork’s status as an out-of-towner.

Sly marketing move, WeWork. We see you.