My remarks to Philadelphia City Council after resolution names April 25-30, 2011 as Philly Tech Week

Philadelphia City Councilman Bill Green introducing a Resolution formally calling April 25-30, 2011 as Philly Tech Week, flanked by Councilman Brian O'Neill at left and Councilman Wilson Goode at right, with Sean Blanda and myself, in City Council chambers the morning of April 7, 2011.

With the passage of Resolution 110218, Philadelphia City Council officially named the last six days of April officially as Philly Tech Week, as celebrated with a reading of the resolution in council chambers Thursday morning.

There, my colleague Sean Blanda and I, two of the three co-founders of Technically Philly and organizers of Philly Tech Week, received an embossed copy of the resolution from Councilman Bill Green, who introduced the legislation, and Councilmen Brian O’Neill and Wilson Goode, who co-sponsored the measure. I addressed council briefly to note two things: that (1) technology and the Digital Philadelphia vision is more than just gadgets and (2) the Philly Tech Week resolution featured two dozen groups and organizations because the technology community is so broad.

These resolutions can be a little silly, but they do serve as validation of the interest and growth of the technology community in Philadelphia. It was an honor to represent the community, even though we’re only a small part of its growth.

Below, watch my brief remarks and see the notes that I should have prepared.


What my written remarks would have looked like if I had taken care to have actually made them:

Thank you for this opportunity and for highlighting the technology community. Thank you Councilman Green for introducing the resolution and for the rest of council for supporting it.

Most importantly, I want to highlight that we’re not just talking about gadgets with this technology community.

Think about the Digital Philadelphia vision that former City Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank and the Division of Technology have highlighted: technology can make this city better by creating jobs, improving access for lower income communities and making government more transparent and efficient.

Secondly, I want to point out how many proper nouns are in this resolution. There are so many different corners of the technology community of Philadelphia that are still coming together to collaborate to make this region better.

For more than two years, we have been a part of that collaboration with technology news site Technically Philly. Now Philly Tech Week will do so in a bigger, broader way. Thank you again for recognizing so early how powerful this community can be.

After finding interest from Green’s office, I wrote the resolution hoping to show how inclusive and industry-diverse the community is.

Sean and I with all of City Council

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