IndyHall & Weblinc play FOOTBALL against I-SITE for charity!
Filed under: Announcements, Community Support, Events, Independents Hall, Indy Hall Fit Club
The European kind, of course. You know, with the round ball that’s black and white.
Big kudos to Johnny Bilotta for “running ahead” with this one, and putting together a KICK ASS team comprised of IndyHall community members and Weblinc employees. For those who don’t know, Weblinc is the web development/e-commerce company with many friends we’ve made through National Mechanics…mostly because Weblinc and National Mechanics are in the same building and have the same owners. Note that this competition is friendly and for a good cause. That doesn’t mean our team won’t stomp I-SITE’s. :)
The game will be held at Chamounix North(map) field in Fairmount Park. We’ll kick off at 3pm, and then head for post match pints at 5pm @ National Mechanics. We’d love for you to join us at any point to cheer for us (or the opposing team, if you must). No RSVP necessary.
BONUS: Our long-time friend and community member Kevin Fitzpatrick is hosting a going-away happy hour at the same time at National Mechanics. He’s going to be working overseas for a few weeks (and potentially a few months) and we want to show him how much we’ll miss him by buying him rounds of free drinks. If you can’t make the game, we hope you can make that.
IgnitePhilly is TONIGHT!
Filed under: Announcements, Education/Workshops, Events
I know that not everybody is tuned in to the same channels for news and events, and while it’s been on the IndyHall Calendar, IgnitePhilly doesn’t have much description or meaning to lots of the newer folks.
Tonight is the 4th IgnitePhilly, an event co-organized by a number of awesome community members (including our own Geoff DiMasi).
What is Ignite? It’s a fast paced presentation format. In Philly, it’s REALLY fast. Rock show fast. Ignite takes over Johnny Brenda’s at Front and Gerard and have presenters from all corners of Philadelphia’s most exciting projects and gives them 5 minutes to share something special…without self-promoting.
5 minutes and 20 slides later, your mind has been blown. Go grab yourself another beer. There’s another presentation coming up.
I’m a huge fan of the quote from Brian James Kirk:
“Perhaps the most interesting thing about the evening was that these important players in Philly’s advancing creative communities didn’t get on stage to show off their resume and reel. They used the forum to talk about what others are doing to make a difference…The fundamental takeaway from IgnitePhilly is that that the ability to change the world is more real than ever.”
If you’ve never attended an Ignite, I highly encourage you to make it tonight. Presentations start at 8 but doors are at 7, and you REALLY need to get there early. We’ve sold out a 300+ person room every single time this has happened.
If you want to lock down your spot, there are still some $5 pre-sale tickets available.
All proceeds are going to the Philadelphia Food Trust, so Ignite doesn’t make a dime. Ignite has already raised over $500 in ticket pre-sales so far.
I hope to see lots of new faces tonight, the presenters list is full of some of the smartest people I’ve met, and plenty I can’t wait to meet.
Calling All Java Developers! November 1st, CodeRetreat @ IndyHall!
Filed under: Announcements, Community Support, Education/Workshops, Events, Independents Hall
At code retreat, we retreat from the world to advance in our craft. We sharpen our saws, together.
We retreat from production and business value to increase our production capacity, our quality, our velocity, our ability to produce business value.
We retreat from immersion in deep technology issues to advance in our ability to learn and adopt to any technology well.
We retreat from our fears, and embrace new practices and patterns.
We retreat from our local ponds and swim in a larger pool. We connect with other passionate coders who we seldom get to code with. We make new connections and learn new lessons.
At code retreat everything is about the journey and nothing about the destination.
Sebastian Hermida is organizing, and we are hosting, what sounds like a very exciting, interesting, and valuable event for the Philadelphia Java developer community. The iterative build/breakdown/discuss model of a “Code Retreat is explained rather well on his post about the event.
If you’re a Java developer in or near Philadelphia, I highly encourage you to register to attend the Code Retreat at IndyHall on Sunday, November 1st. They are requesting RSVPs, so please head to their sign up page if you plan to attend.
We love supporting events like this that are designed to bring people together for the sake of improving their craft. If you and your user group have plans for a similar event, please talk to us about hosting your event!
BREAKOUT! Festival comes to Philadelphia
Filed under: Community Support, coworking, Events, In The News, Independents Hall
When some of our friends from Manhattan’s New Work City told me about The Breakout! Festival, I was instantly on board. A group of people who wanted to take advantage of public places to create new, interesting, and stimulating work environments sounded like such a cool mission. Given the availability of power and internet, and the mobility of our workforce and their needs, this project is a beautiful expression of work no longer being about where, but HOW people do their jobs!
BREAKOUT! is a month long event where groups of people congregate in different places to work for a period of time, or discuss alternatives to work places. In many cases, it’s a “break out” session, encouraging usual cube-inhabitants to get out and meet some new people. Sound familiar?
Tomorrow (Monday, October 12th) the BREAKOUT! NYC group is going to “break out” of Manhattan and join us for a few hours in Philadelphia! They’ll be taking the Bolt Bus, an awesome wifi-enabled transport option between NYC and Philly, working for the two hour commute, then joining us at IndyHall for a bit. We’ll welcome their group and discuss mobile work alternatives, and weather permitting, head out to Washington Square Park for an outdoor brainstorming session.
The group, organized by Anthony Townsend (a researcher dedicated to working on the role of telecommunication in urban design and development), is providing an excellent opportunity not just to make for an interesting Monday morning, but a valuable opportunity to tie neighboring cities together. Philadelphia and New York are SO close, and the transportation is SO accessible, if you haven’t taken a day to work from each others’ coworking spaces you are missing out.
One of the biggest values of coworking is adjusting perspective for the sake of improving your own productivity. I hope you join us around 11:30-12 tomorrow, Monday the 12th, at IndyHall to welcome our friends from NYC and take part in BREAKOUT! NYC comes to Philadelphia.
Oh, and Anthony is bringing a BBC reporter, so as he suggested to me, “make sure you have your coworking sound-bites ready!”
Philly Startup Leaders “Hack Weekend”: October 17th and 18th
Filed under: Announcements, Events
This is an event that we’ve been talking about doing for a while but I’m thrilled to see PSL get one off the ground!
PSL 2.0 Weekend is an open hack on the technologies and communications that hold us together as a community. In one weekend, we are going to:
1. Redesign our web presence
2. Rewrite our core documents
3. Develop new communication and collaboration tools to bring the regional tech community even closer togetherNo one knows exactly what will come out of it. All we know for sure is that with so much brainpower and know-how in one room, it’s going to be awesome.
We want to see you there. If you’re a hacker, designer or writer, this is a great opportunity to meet and collaborate with your peers — all stars in the Philly scene — on a vision you dream up together. It’s also going to be blast. By day we’ll be cranking away on our projects, and by night we’ll be watching improv comedy and parading around Philly in a geek entourage that’s sure to turn heads.
When:
Sat 10/17 from 10AM-6:00 PM (with improv comedy and party to follow)
Sun 10/18 from 10AM-6:00 PM
Where:
Baiada Center @ Drexel – 3225 Arch Street, PhiladelphiaBring:
Your creativity, your laptop and your favorite t-shirt
I’m looking forward to this event, and hope that people come out to spend the weekend banging on their projects and producing some AMAZING stuff, while making new friends and meeting your peers.
Kudos to the PSL crew of putting together an awesome-sounding event! I hope that we can take away some great lessons and do something similar for the IndyHall community in coming months.
IndyHall joins the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours for their 10th year
Filed under: Announcements, Community Support, Events, Independents Hall
Philadelphia Open Studio Tours allows visitors to “Follow Art to the Source” by organizing & promoting artists (and now Indies) to open their spaces, show, and sell their work in a unique setting – their own. POST, now celebrating it’s 10th year as the largest annual tour of artist studios in Philadelphia features hundreds of artists during the first two weekends in October:
- East of Broad October 3-4
- West of Broad October 10-11.
This year, Indy Hall is participating in POST, a grassroots city wide event, as a Community Partner defined as “a way to build coalitions between professional artists, local businesses, community institutions, and arts organizations”. During the first weekend of October Indy Hall will showcase it’s space for the Artistic Community of Philadelphia, while introducing the Indy Community to fellow creatives and their colleagues.
A few ideas instantly came to mind, such as using the Front Conference room as a portfolio / gallery space, and potentially having workshops or demos in different areas of the Hall, but this is your time to shine. Bring us your best ideas for utilizing the space. Think of it as a Show and Tell on a larger scale. This is an open call for participation. Show us what you’ve got.
This is also an opportunity for people that can’t otherwise come to Indy Hall during the week to see the new space we moved into in May It’s an opportunity for you to show your friends & family what you do and where you do it. It is also a great opportunity to form professional relationships & possible collaborations with artists, creatives, and the people who support them. All kinds of people go on the tours, and this is a great way to reach out beyond the artistic community as well.
So come hang out for the first weekend of POST. It’s pretty much a guaranteed good time, with an excellent group of people, and of course snacks and beer, but that goes without saying. As an added bonus – Indy Hall is offering a Free Day Pass for October 3-4, just reserve your spot using the online reservation form to guarantee your space for the weekend.
Saturday Morning Cartoons Event!
Filed under: Events
I am a cartoon freak! I cannot get enough of them. In recent years kids have been denied the pleasure of wasting their Saturday mornings in front of the TV, eating Count Chocula, and enjoying hours of killer, side splitting animation. So, in an effort to bring out that little kid in us all, this big kid is organizing a new monthly event to bring Saturday Morning Cartoons back from the dead.
Starting this Saturday, the 29th of August, IndyHall will kick off its first Saturday Morning Cartoons extravaganza! So grab the biggest bowl you can find in your house, get some Lucky Charms, a spoon, and a SERIOUS gallon of milk and meet us at IndyHall to set this thing off, kid!
We will have breakfast type items for every one to enjoy, however if you have a favorite cereal, or would like to bring in a breakfast item (muffins, bagels, etc.) feel free. Hell, if you wanna come help me cook, come on down a little earlier and we will trade the secrets of perfect French Toast.
Cartoons for this week have not been picked as of yet but we have some members, including myself, that will be providing a library of classics and some new favorites. In the future we may even have some events follow a theme. If you have favorite cartoons or animation that you would like to see, let me know at the event and we will see about getting them in the rotation.
Please RSVP here so we can plan accordingly: http://anyvite.com/zh1si2tacj
So, remember to wake up early on August, 29th for animated fun at IndyHall! Hope to see you all there!
IndyHall gets a Weekly E-Mail Newsletter
Filed under: Announcements, coworking, Events, From the Business Side, Independents Hall
After nearly 2 years of being open, IndyHall finally has a regular e-mail newsletter.
We haven’t really actively communicated in public via e-mail since the earliest days of IndyHall’s community building, when we had a rather active google group. Over time, that e-mail list fell into the typical form of most of the regional e-mail lists, being primarily job-postings.
Multi-way communication improved within the community despite the loss of the Google group, mostly thanks to Twitter. We no longer had the need to clutter up each others’ inboxes. We extended that with the relaunch of the IndyHall website, including an aggregate Twitter feed of IndyHall members on the home page.
Internally, the IndyHall community continues to use e-mail as an extension to BaseCamp, which we use for community discussions, to-d0s, sharing, ideas, announcements, etc. The problem with Basecamp is that it’s private, only available to IndyHall members.
And so, we move back to e-mail for announcements of weekly activity in the local tech, creative, independent, and entrepreneurial community. We’re using Newsberry, an email newsletter application built by Wildbit, who are active members of the IndyHall community. Our mailings will be weekly (well, that’s the idea anyway) and will include things like:
- Weekly Events. Events coming up soon, both IndyHall and throughout the Philly creative, tech, and entrepreneurial landscape. We can’t link to everything, that’s why we have a calendar (and anything we miss, Technically Phillyand Philly New Media Hub catch). Consider this your weekly “here’s what you’ll find IndyHall folks doing” redux.
- Event Tips. Events you should “save the date” for. Maybe not coming up this week, but coming up soon. Watch this spot if you like to be in the know BEFORE Technically Philly. ;-)
- New Member Welcomes! We’ve got new folks coming by every week, and sometimes it can be a few times to IndyHall before you catch someone’s name. We’re gonna try to put the kibosh on that problem by welcoming new community members every week in our newsletter.
- Event Recaps. Missed an event? Feeling guilty? Went to an event, think it was awesome? We’re going to start taking community submissions of short event recaps of local events so you can feel, or at least act, like you are in the know.
- In the News. Any mentions of IndyHall activities, or mentions of our community members, in press. Local or national. You’re getting ink, and we wanna spread the word.
The newsletter itself is meant to be collaborative from the perspective of content, meaning we are welcoming community contributions, tips, articles, ideas….really anything. We’re not pumping out newsletters for the sake of pumping out newsletters, we want to continue being a conduit for useful information for the community, and e-mail lets us reach a whole group of people who aren’t active participants in the social networks we usually use to share.
We’ll be posting a link on the blog to each weekly newsletter as well, for those of you who are more into RSS than you are into e-mail.
Check out this week’s inaugural newsletter!
So any thoughts, tips, article ideas, or even just kudos and high fives…drop us a line.
Oh, interested in subscribing? It couldn’t be easier. Toss your name and email into the form on the left column of any page of this site, or just visit the simple sign up form.
Hat tip to our friends at Caroline Collective in Houston, Texas for the inspiration on the execution of the newsletter.
IndyHall New Member Lunches, every Friday!
Filed under: Community Support, Events
It’s no secret that we’ve had a giant influx of members since moving into the new office, and admittedly haven’t done a very good job of helping everyone get to know each other. Most notably, there’s been very little interaction when new members join. This is to be expected when we grow the way we have, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to try to improve the situation.
Starting next week, we’re going to start having “new member lunches” every Friday. Each week, all new members are invited and encouraged to come out to lunch with other members, and get a chance to hang out outside of the workday. Everybody needs to eat, so this seems like a perfect opportunity to chill out without disrupting anyone’s workday or personal lives.
Of course, we hope this happens more often than just on Fridays and on your own schedules, but we wanted to take the lead one day a week.
Locations are to be determined, but the premise is simple: a group will be heading to lunch during the usual lunch hour (around 12-12:30) and heading somewhere for lunch together. Sometimes, we’ll have brown bag lunches here at the Hall. Anything we can do to mix things up.
You are responsible for paying for your own lunch, we’re just organizing everyone at the same place.
They’ll always be open to everyone, and this first one in particular I imagine will be a sizable group. We’re making RSVP simple, all you need to do is visit this link: http://anyvite.com/qxwlxerbp0 and click “yes” on the right.
Our first new member lunch will be at National Mechanics, next Friday August 14th.
Hope to see you there!
Oh, and you don’t have to be working from IndyHall that day to join us for lunch. If this is an excuse to get out of the house/office and change your scenery over your lunch hour, that’s awesome!
Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as Tru Blood, so IndyHall and National Mechanics co-host an August Blood Drive!
Filed under: Community Support, Events, Independents Hall
Over a year ago, we hosted our first Red Cross Blood Drive and got over 20 donors. Back in the spring, we turned it into an annual event and more than DOUBLED the donations with over 50 donors coming out on donation day. As such, we moved the donation site to National Mechanics, who graciously turned our favorite bar and restaurant into a blood donation center.
Never a group to shy away from a challenge, we took on a bid from our Red Cross liaison (and long time friend and community member) Reed Gustow: to match our donation batch from the spring, but this time, in August.
August is a slow month for blood donations, what with everyone going on vacation, to the Shore, etc. We want to buck that trend!
We’ve already got around 50% of the signups necessary to hit our goal of 52 signups. This is where you come in.
If you are an eligible donor and will be in Philadelphia on Monday, August 17th, we need your help.
The drive will run from 9am-3pm, and slots are still available from 10am through the end of the day!
Sign up is easy, especially if you’ve donated before. First time donor? What better way than to do it in the company of friends and community members.
Not only that, but since it’s summertime, the American Red Cross has upped the stakes (no, that’s not a vampire joke). By simply donating blood, you can win either an overnight stay in an Atlantic City Casino Hotel + $200 spending cash, or a $2500 (that’s two thousand, five hundred dollars) Sunoco gas card. One hotel stay is raffled off every week, and at the end of the summer, they’ll be giving out the Sunoco gas card.
Questions? Drop us a line, or send Reed a message on Twitter (@tangofoxtrot). We hope to see you out on August 17th (its a Monday)!
