April 22, 2016

Philly Tech Week returns with 141 events and kick-off festival

Find an event to attend on the 2016 list

By Sinead Cummings
PhillyVoice Staff

Philly Tech Week/Technically Philly

Philly Tech Week gathers the city's best for a week of events.

UPDATE: Philly Tech Week's kick-off festival at Dilworth Park is postponed until Saturday, April 30. The event will run from 5-8 p.m.

Philly Tech Week 2016 will be Technical.ly Philly’s sixth annual week-long celebration of technology and innovation. The dates for this year are Friday, April 29 through Saturday, May 7.

The week is organized into six different "tracks" or themes: Creative, Access, Development (Dev), Civic, Business and Media. Some events fall into multiple categories.

To kick off Philly Tech Week 2016 there will be a festival at Dilworth Park on April 29 (or April 30 if it rains). Find the App Arcade and Maker Corner again this year, as well as live performances and food & drink.

Highlights include a video game dance pad from 5-7:30 p.m., which will let attendees help remix music by Pixel8ter, 21 games to play in the App Arcade and wine, beer and empanadas from Rosa Blanca Cafe.

After the initial festival, there will be 141 Tech Week events to choose from in the city.

If searching through the list of events seems daunting, ease into it with this roundup of five:

Through a Prism: Why Diversity Matters in Design & Tech (Dev, Creative, Access, Business)

Join AIGA Philadelphia for an evening to discuss why diversity and inclusion matter so vitally in the fields of design and technology. The distinguished panel includes innovators, creatives, business owners, cultural activists and academics.

Thursday, April 28
6 p.m. to 9 p.m. | $5-$20 registration
Franklin Square Capital Partners
201 Rouse Boulevard

How Tech is Changing the Way We Eat (Business Track)

Join Abbie Riley of Foodee for a brief overview of how tech is changing the way we eat, particularly at work. She will discuss rapidly changing office cultures, the tech startups racing for a stake in the burgeoning food delivery business, and how you and your company can eat well. Complimentary beer, wine and hors d'ourves from Farmer's Keep will be provided.

Monday, May 2
5-6:30 p.m. | Free with registration
Farmer's Keep
10 S. Twentieth Street

Hive76's Retro Gaming Night (Creative)

Your favorite retro games are brought back to life on their mostly original hardware. Featuring Commodore 64, Atari 400, NES, SNES, N64, Game Gear, Panasonic 3DO, MAME cabinets, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Game Boy and Atari Lynx.

Tuesday, May 3
7-11 p.m. | Free
The Bok Building
1901 S. Ninth Street

PhillyCHI 10th Annual Design Slam (Dev, Creative, Civic)

The 2016 PhillyCHI Design Slam is a collaborative event in user experience design, where participants compete in teams to develop the best design solution for a given challenge. Each team will develop a compelling solution to this year's challenge using the materials provided. Teams will pitch their designs to the group and a panel of judges will select the winning design. Spectators are welcome.

Tuesday, May 3
6-9 p.m. | Free
1401 John F. Kennedy Boulevard

The Hacktory's Robot Universe Showdown (Creative, Dev, Access)

Join in an epic showdown of all kinds of robots. Beginners and young makers are invited to build their own bot to battle it out in the Featherweight class, Kit class, or score points for creativity in the ArtBot class. Experienced robot enthusiasts can compete for cash prizes in the Heavyweight or Remote-controlled classes. All ages and skill levels are encouraged to attend and spectators are welcome. This event was inspired in part by the Japanese Hebocon Event, or “Robot Battle for the Technically Un-gifted.”

Saturday, May 7
1-4 p.m. | $10 general admission; $30 to compete
417 N. Eighth Street

Of course, these are only a few of the events being offered during Philly Tech Week 2016. Find the second Philly Start Up Crawl, a DIY Philly Love Bot Workshop (a response to the destruction of HitchBOT), a workshop on asking the right tech questions and BLEEP, Blops and Bloops: Music Tech Concert and Demo, among others.