Check out top ideas from our ‘Help Plan Philly Tech Week 2015’ brainstorming event

On Monday night, over 90 community members from organizations across Philadelphia met over pizza and beer at Slice Communications in Old City to brainstorm new and exciting ideas for the fifth annual Philly Tech Week, to be held April 17-25, 2015.

Attendees split into groups based on the week’s six tracks (Creative, Dev, Civic, Access, Business and Media) to discuss local and national ideas that should be included in PTW15.

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Here’s a few of the great ideas that came together:

DEV

• Youth-led dev event, with young adults teaching code.
• Hackathon focused on four different technologies solving the same problem.
• Incorporate some ideas from the Wisdom 2.0 Conference, put down our devices and remember the importance of reflection, meditation and living for a greater meaning or purpose.

BUSINESS

• Hackathon that pairs business people and technologists to create a product over the course of 2015. The goal is to ensure that the hackathon product is developed to fruition.
• Utilize a matchmaking program to pair cofounders, technologists, etc.
• Mini-accelerator programs with specific topics like: how to begin a startup, finding the right cofounder, getting funded, etc.

CREATIVE

• Encourage the maker and creative communities to collaborate on an installation.
• Twitter or “Product Scavenger Hunt.”
• Create a human computer where each participant represents a different element in an algorithm.
• More events that incorporate art and technology (for example, how can we use tech for fine art preservation?).

CIVIC

• Leverage the academic and research community to help solve civic problems.
• Event focused on improving transit infrastructure.
• Integrate the upcoming mayoral race — have candidates discuss local tech issues.

ACCESS

• Tech tours — both in Philly and surrounding suburbs. Focus on accessibility.
• Connect community development corporations that may not have dev expertise with developers to improve an internal process/product.
• Accessibility of event spaces and transportation — designate on website and print magazine which spaces are the most accessible.

MEDIA

• Create a drone video promoting Philly Tech Week that shares a unique POV of the city.
• Get Vooza involved to create some satire videos around Philly-based startups for PTW15 promotions.

GENERAL

• Kickoff meeting to explain general functionality, tips and tricks for hosting an event as a part of the week.
• Encourage local buildings and screens to display #PTW15 throughout the week.

Couldn’t make last night’s event? Join us next Monday, Dec. 15 from 2-3 p.m. for our first-ever PTW Twitter chat. Follow us at @PhillyTechWeek and use the hashtag #PTW15 to join the conversation. We’ll be sharing some insider tips and tricks for organizing an event and getting involved.

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Philly Tech Week is made possible by our awesome community event organizers! See an idea that excites you? Reach out to events@technical.ly to find out how to get involved and make some of these ideas happen.

Did you participate in our PTW Networking Trivia last night? In case you didn’t figure out all of the answers, check out some fun Philly Tech Week facts below:

• This is our fifth year of Philly Tech Week, we can’t believe it.
• We’ve played Pong and Tetris on the Cira Centre, what do you think this year’s game should be?
• 2014 had over 140 community events, will we top it this year?
• Last year’s T-shirt said We Game on Skyscrapers, any awesome ideas for our 2015 shirt?