First up,

IndyHall Town Hall.

From the IndyHall website:

We’ve come a really long way in just a year and a half. We’ve connected with so many new people in so many new ways, and welcomed lots of new friends to our community. The physical space, the clubhouse, for IndyHall has been at 32 Strawberry Street for 18 months and recently we’ve found ourselves running out of desks. Unlike a gym or an airline, who can oversell and bump users, we care about our members more than anything, and are going back to our roots to figure out how to deal with this issue. Next Tuesday, March 3rd, we’ll be meeting at 32 Strawberry St at 6pm to discuss what the future of the IndyHall workspace is. Geoff and I have been working really hard to distill this issue into some key points, and talking to a lot of people about it. But we didn’t get here without everyone else’s hard work and we certainly can’t see how it makes sense to continue to grow without you. This town hall meeting is open to all IndyHall members, but also the community at large. Are you on our waiting list? Don’t miss this meeting, we want you to come be a part of our next steps. Are you someone who’s been watching us all along and wants to see what our next move could be? You’ll want to be there. Please RSVP on Facebook or by leaving a comment. We hope to see you at IndyHall. Bring your A-game. This is going to be a fun night.

This event is really important to me, and to the community, and I hope to see a lot of our supporters there.

Philadelphia Facebook Garage

The Stuzo Group is hosting the second Philadelphia Facebook Developer Garage which will focus on methods to drive sales and brand interaction for companies within Facebook.  The Philadelphia Facebook Developers Garage will be held on March 9, 2009 from 6:00 to 10:00 PM at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse, 1426 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia.   This event is open to the public and attendees are asked to RSVP at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=62898818432

Talking to Olivia and Gunter from Stuzo, I found out that the event is meant to be useful to agencies, developers and businesses alike. They’re going to be featuring case studies and presentations around Facebook Platform projects and businesses. There will be some news surrounding Facebook Platform (and I have to imagine Facebook Connect) from some folks from Facebook. The event is free.

Where do I fit in? Olivia and Gunter asked me to come in and be the closing keynote. The entire day will be very Facebook-focused, discussing techniques and tools, and they’ve asked me to come in and help zoom out after the day and talk about the large scope of social technology in business. I’m pretty stoked for this.

P.S. The venue at Del Frisco’s is a Bank Vault converted into a Wine Cellar. I hear it’s sick. The event will be worth coming to if only to see that, and let my awesome closing keynote be a bonus.

Watch out, Austin

It is nearly March, and that means SXSW is coming. This will be my 2nd year as a speaker at SXSW. I’m currently leading one core conversation and on one Panel.

Core Conversations: Working Alone Sucks: Join the Coworking Revolution – Saturday March 14th – 11:30am-12:30pm We’ll be holding a round table conversation with some leaders and members of the coworking community. If you’re a veteran, or a newb, this is going to be a great session to meet some folks and learn from them. Also, don’t miss the coworking meetup at the Hotel San Jose being organized by Julie Gommell of Launchpad Coworking in Austin.

Panels: You may also be interested in… – Monday March 16th – 5:30-6:30pm Drew Olanoff from Strands asked me to join Mike Hudack from Blip.tv and Trevor Legwinski from Strands on stage to talk about how recommendations online are changing how we make decisions offline. I didn’t know how I’d fit into this panel, but now that I’ve seen some of the talking points, I’m pretty excited about it. Plus, I finally get to meet Mike.

Also worth checking out is my partner-in-crime Geoff DiMasi’s panel, “Building Regional Whuffie” on Sunday, March 15th from 3:30-4:30pm. The panel ALSO features some of my other partners in various other crimes, including Tony Bacigalupo (karaoke crimes), Matthew Wettergreen (Sriracha crimes), as well as Susan Evans (from Office Nomads) and Julie Duryea (from Souk).

And that’s all in the first 2 weeks of March. Holy shit. Here goes nothing.

There was a time where I was stepping out into the world and despite the quality of the industry connections I did have, I felt very alone. I longed for a scene. Not the San Francisco tech scene. Not the New York tech scene. I longed for a scene that embraced everything that was already great about Philadelphia. The pieces were there, but they were fragmented.

2 years later, I’ve never been more sure that we’ve succeeded in catalyzing that thing that I, and many others, so disparately wanted. How we got here is a whole other story. But I wanted to share my latest excitement.

Geeks who Give is a post-Barcamp Philly brainstorm. The principle is simple, and very close to my heart:

Everyone has something to contribute. Long term goals include idea, goods & services, and resource banks from which we can draw as well as coordinating volunteer opportunities on an individual basis and organizing large scale volunteer efforts for continued organization-based support. The vision is for this to happen organically, for those things which resonate to surface, and those which don’t to naturally recede. Everyone in the community is invited to participate at whatever level they feel most comfortable — from planning & organizing outreach to attending events — to blogging, promoting and evangelizing the cause. We are more than the sum of our parts, and together, we are capable of anything.

Geeks who Give has organized their first event for this upcoming Tuesday, December 9th at National Mechanics. They will be hosting a Food Drive & Tweetup to benefit Philabundance. The event will take place at National Mechanics in Old City from 6 to 9pm.  At 7pm, local food podcasters Fork You will be giving a cooking demo with non-perishable food items. The event will be followed with everyone’s favorite, TechKaraoke at 9pm.

Admission is a minimum of 5 non-perishable food items. The food items must be packaged in boxes, cans or plastic bottles, and should not have to be refrigerated. In addition to drink specials, guests will receive 1 raffle ticket for the first 5 food items, and more tickets for additional food items. The current list of raffle prizes includes:

• Dinner with the City Paper food critic, David Snyder, PhilaFoodie,
• Dinner for Two at Fork in Philadelphia,
• A Gift Certificate and T-shirt from Tattooed Mom’s,
• Treats courtesy of Open Source Cupcakes,
• A $75 gift certificate to the Wine School of Philadelphia.

And more prizes are being added every day.

I encourage everyone to join us for this event, bring your dontations, and help out an incredibly important cause in our city.

Social Dev Camp East II

I unfortunately missed the first Social Dev Camp East, though I DID finally get to meet Dave when I was in Vienna for Amy and Thomas Fuchs’ wedding back in September. Dave’s a great east coast entrepreneur and social technology developer, and I’m excited that he’s got Social Dev Camp East II coming up in just a couple of weeks.

On November 1st, a few hundred of the east coast’s finest social technologists will gather at the University of Baltimore to for a day of exchange and creation, relationship and application building alike.

There’s WAY more info on the Facebook event, and even more on the wiki. The event is fast approaching capacity, so sign up soon. If you’re in Philly and planning on going, reach out and we’ll try to carpool.

New Work City Kickoff Party

One of these days, I’m going to figure out how to be in two places at once. In the mean time, I’m planning on driving really, really fast between Baltimore and Manhattan because later in the evening on November 1st, Tony Bacigalupo and the team behind New Work City will be having a launch party to celebrate their opening of their Manhattan community-powered coworking space. I’m so excited for this because it’s such a long time coming. Just a few weeks ago Tony remained uncertain as to whether or not it could happen. Now they’ve secured desks at an office at 200 Varick St, sharing space with consulting firm element^n.

The party goes down at 8pm until “2am”, but I know what it’s like to party with Tony and doubt we’ll call it at 2. The Facebook is the place to RSVP, and you can be certain that it’s not to be missed. If you heard about the insanity that went down at the IndyHall anniversary party, a good number of the same people will be making the trip from afar. I’m quite excited. You should be too.

So I’m not going to talk about it.

What I am going to talk about is my view on how it will affect me, and my corner of the industry, my friends, and my peers.

I hope that I’m not naive in my estimations, because I’m neither an economist nor have I weathered an economic downturn like this. I’m just making my own predictions based on what I believe to be true from the past experiences I do have, and the ones that I’ve observed.

Here’s one way I see this playing out, from a couple of different vantage points:

It’s pretty well accepted that the first things to be cut from the agency side of the industry are going to be: marketing budgets, and contractors. That doesn’t mean that work doesn’t exist for contractors, or that marketing doesn’t need to be done, it means that the agencies aren’t the ones that are going to be the ones in the middle.

Let’s be clear: just because the economy is in the hole DOESN’T mean that companies are going to stop selling, and advertising is part of selling. What does change is that they’re going to need to be more efficient in their expenditures, and large agencies with big overheads and process process aren’t going to fit the bill anymore. And bringing the work in house…well…we all know how that usually goes.

So back to the agencies: I firmly believed they are going to be pinched at both ends. Their clients will be looking to cut costs, and that not only puts accounts at risk but it also puts agency employees at risk. I think that this will lead to many agencies dissolving or downsizing to a core focus that is sustainable through the downturn.

In the mean time, with talent leaving the agencies (on their own or by force), that leaves a smattering of independent talent in the same arena as the companies that recently fired their expensive, lumbering agencies and are looking for a cheaper, more agile (albeit, potentially riskier) solution.

So far, so good, right? Only the most focused of agencies stick together, and the talent that’s newly independent has plenty of work available…if they know where to look, and how to get their hands on it.

That’s where…you guessed it…coworking comes in. As communities of freelancers form, the stratification of experience in freelancing within those communities becomes an asset. The experienced independents help the newbies get better at whatever they are trying to get better at, and the newbs help the experienced weather the influx of newly available work.

If constructs like coworking allow independents to be SMARTER and MORE EFFECTIVE freelancers, to bridge the harder gaps to cross when getting your legs as an independent, they have the best chance of enduring through economic crisis. In fact, the freelance market will not only survive the trying circumstances we’re in, but I think it will actually thrive.

Unless, of course, you suck. My entire thesis is based on the fact that you are good at what you do, and you focus on that. Agency or independent, this is based on your willingness to work your face off. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s massive opportunity if you’re willing to hustle and stay focused.

On the other hand, if you’ve been riding the coattails of your coworkers, or slacking off at your cushy agency job. Then the odds are…

yes. You’re completely screwed.

I’ve recently turned a quarter century old, and decided that it’d be appropriate to spend the weekend with good friends and full of debauchery!

The weekend begins…well…NOW, as Tara Hunt (of Citizen Space) and Matthew Wettergreen (of Caroline Collective) are both moments away from arriving in Philadelphia. There will be wining. There will be dining.

But the rest of you can join us throughout the weekend:

STRANDUP PHILLY

In a 30-second speed-dating style meetup hosted by Strands and IndyHall, you’ll have a chance to meet some of your future party-going comrades. Led by Drew Olanoff and myself, this is bound to be a good time. Come, enjoy, make friends. 6:30-7:30pm, Saturday August 30th, at IndyHall. Let us know if you’ll be joining us with your RSVP system of choice: Facebook & Upcoming.

THE PAR-TAY: INDYHALL TURNS 1.0

This party is not to be missed. We’ve all worked hard to get where we are, and one year after our grand opening, we’re celebrating with: EVERYBODY!!! Starting at 6pm on Sunday, August 31st, we’ll be taking over Triumph Brewery at 2nd and Chestnut. There will be food. There will be drinks. There will be celebrations. This party is not, I repeat, NOT to be missed. Come meet the IndyHall community, come meet your neighbors, come meet our out of town visitors. Maybe even some celebrities. Internet or otherwise. Alexis Bledell came to the Caroline Collective opening in June, so hey…anything could happen.

We’ve got visitors coming from all over the country for this one (Matthew and Tara didn’t just drop by for my birthday, after all). Please, don’t make me beg. Come to this party.

WEREWOLF

It’s been promised that there will be at LEAST one game of Werewolf this weekend. If at no other time, it will take place AT IndyHall after the party at Triumph. Why are we playing Werewolf? Because Geoff is addicted and it’s a sure fire way to attract a certain Vaynerchuk.

SEE EVERYONE THIS WEEKEND!