Geeks on a Train: Baltimore technology crew visits University City, Center City [VIDEO]

The East Coast corridor is dense, transited and its various technology communities are relevant to each other.

It’s something close to our hearts at Technical.ly, so after our friends at the Greater Baltimore Technology Council helped organize Geeks on a Train in May to bring technologists from D.C. to Boston with all the major stops on the way, we wanted to get involved.

This Friday, Technically Baltimore worked with GBTC to bring more than a dozen Baltimore tech scenesters to Philadelphia, and we at Technically Philly put together a day-long crawl of Center City and University City colocation spaces, closed out with a rather well-received inter-city tech scene quizzo match.

The focus of the day was to introduce a team of Baltimore entrepreneurs, developers, civic and tech community leaders to two of the more vibrant corridors of startup and technology culture in Philadelphia, though it was no small goal to have Baltimore city CIO Chris Tonjes meet with his Philadelphia counterpart Adel Ebeid. (And a drop in from Mayor Nutter too)

It’s something we hope to do more of, but for a start, take a look at what you missed below.

The crowd at Seed Philly before the start of the Baltimore/Philly Inter-City Tech Scene Quizzo

See the original agenda here.

• Arrive at 30th Street Station: discussed overview of University City (Drexel, Penn, University of Sciences, Science Center) and then Center City portions of day, though noting that we won’t have time for N3rd Street, the Navy Yard, Northern Liberties or other pockets of innovation in Philadelphia.
• University City Science Center for Quorum: discussed the Science Center’s growing interest and presence in the consumer and online space, playing a role as a large institutional connector
• NextFab Studios: Ahead of its move, discuss maker spaces and communities in Philly and how they intersect with technology, including the Hacktory, Hive76, Dept. of Making & Doing. Tour of NextFab from VP of Member Services Ross Kessler.
• DreamIt Ventures: discussed the growth of colocation facilities and early-stage identity. Tour the accelerator from founder Steve Welch.
• First Round Capital: walk through Penn’s Locust Walk to 4040 Locust St. the new home of early stage investment firm, discuss growth of city and suburbs conversation, regional focus, but dense identity.
• SUBWAY to Center City
• Reading Terminal Market for lunch
• City Hall City innovationin the Mayor’s Reception room
  • Open Executive Order — Mark Headd, Chief Data Officer
  • New Urban Mechanics — Story Bellows and Jeff Friedman
  • Philadelphia Cultural Office and CultureBlocks.com — Moira Baylson
  • Phila.gov/map — Maura Kennedy, Licenses and Inspections
• City CIO meeting: Philadelphia CIO Adel Ebeid meets with Chris Tonjes in 1234 Market Street
• Benjamin’s Desk: new ‘corporate-culture’ coworking space in Rittenhouse Square, given a tour from co-founder Michael Maher, who discussed how many incubation spaces the city might be able to support.
• Good Company Ventures: talk social entrepreneurship at 1650 Arch Street, and toured from Zoe Selzer the Executive Director, who discussed their niche and two-tier program: accelerator and incubation.
• Seed Philly: A welcome from founder Brad Denenberg and the first ever Inter-City Tech Scene Quizzo!
• SUBWAY back to 30th Street Station

Watch our cofounder Brian James Kirk speak to the GBTC crew about the tour before it happened.

[tech]3lw_1KYh0YU[/tech]

WHYY covered the effort to boot here.