The Kimmel Center as well as the Greater Philadelphia Marketing and Tourism Corporation formally announced today the 2011 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts in a press conference at the Perelman Theater. PIFA is the brainchild of Anne Ewers, President and CEO of the Kimmel Center.

PIFA promises collaboration, innovation, and creativity among the Philadelphia cultural scene and aims to combine uncommon art forms to create new sounds, sites, and talents. The Orchestra and two Philly DJ’s performed a mash-up on stage to demonstrate the collision of genres. PIFA is all about creating “PIFA Moments” and encourages everyone to “Join the Moment,” using the former as their official slogan. The visual representation of PIFA is a cube, to be seen throughout the festival in both abstract and concrete renditions.

Inspiration for the festival comes from Paris 1910-1920, arguably one of the most influential periods in defining the art of today. It is yet to be determined if PIFA will have the same influence as the Parisian decade, but the attempt to do so is inspiring for Philadelphians as well as hopeful for the city’s tourism.

The $10 million in funding was received by the Annenberg Foundation, one of the last acts of philanthropy from Leonore Annenberg. Mayor Nutter appeared at the conference, endorsing the importance of globalizing Philadelphia’s cultural talent and drawing the outside world into our city from April 11, 2011 to May 1, 2011.

Some video footage of the mash-up performance from the event can be seen here.

2011 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts

PIFA Manifesto

Paris Inspired PIFA

[Update 1.26.10 2:12pm] It has been speculated that the next cities have been chosen, Boston and Austin. These are unconfirmed by Fast Company as of this update. We encourage Philadelphia's entrepreneurial community to continue sending comments and voicing Philadelphia's attributes.

Call to Organize for Philadelphia’s Entrepreneurs

Fast Company is releasing a 5-part series on great cities for start ups. So far, New York City, Boulder, and the latest, Seattle, have been published. That only leaves 2 spots and Philly should be one of them. Innovation Philadelphia asked Fast Company how Philly could get noticed because, well, it deserves to be. To get our great city included, send your thoughts and ideas on Why You Should Start a Company in... Philadelphia to ideas(at)fastcompany(dot)com.

Shine a spotlight on this incredible, budding, entrepreneurial city of ours. We are a changing city of innovative and global minds, unafraid to be entrepreneurs and are supportive of entrepreneurs. Contact Fast Company and tell them why you came to Philadelphia? Why did you start a business here? Why do you support Philly startups?

Read the first 3 in the series – NYC, Boulder, Seattle. Philadelphia is a great city to start a company. Forward those reasons to ideas(at)fastcompany(dot)com.

[Update 2.1.10] We were sent some of the letters Philadelphian's sent to Fast Company and would like to share.

From Entrepreneur's Entourage. A related blog post can be found here.

To whom it may concern,

Many think of Philadelphia as industrial, dated and a little on the maniacal side when it comes to sports fans; but in reality, our city has only been on the up and up with making our neighborhoods green and eco-friendly, providing accessible resources for small businesses to launch, and providing better services for our budding entrepreneurs.

Our top Universities excel in providing programs and opportunities for entrepreneurs and start up companies alike. The University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University both have entrepreneurial clinics and offer many services to our community out of their Small Business Development Center. Another great resource that my partner and I have been invited into is the entrepreneurial clinic at the University of Pennsylvania Legal Clinic. Each year graduating seniors work with companies in the area to help meet their legal needs pro bono. We were able to utilize the clinic to form our partnership agreement as well as help negotiate some business documents.

I came to Philadelphia 4 years ago when my job as a magazine publisher moved me here. As part of a large west coast media company I did not get very involved in my community and neighborhood within Philadelphia. But, when I left the magazine a year ago and decided to start my own company with a local friend, I was immediately embraced by the community and exposed to the limitless opportunities for networking, support, and social marketing. We couldn't imaging running our virtual company, Entrepreneur's Entourage, from anywhere else. We have been able to provide our clients with great services like web design, branding, internet marketing and project management by including so many of Philly's talented entrepreneurs and free-lance consultants on our team of professionals.

There are many more reasons why my partner and I have found great success with our new business as a result of being located in Philadelphia. I would be happy to answer any questions or provide you with more information to help Philly be recognized as a top city for start ups in your Shine section!

Sincerely,

Cheryl Amaya

VP Entrepreneur's Entourage

www.entrepreneursentourage.com

Twitter @EntrepEntourage

From Bressler Group.

To whom it may concern.

I am managing partner for a product design firm in Center City Philadelphia. And while the firm is not a startup, me and two other colleagues just completed negotiations to buy the firm from the long time owner. So we’ve decided to restart and grow our consulting firm here in Philly.

I’m personally a transplant from metro NY. And while Philly is not New York we enjoy a lot of the same benefits here in the northeast corridor. Quality of life is very good, access to the arts, mass transit, great and diverse restaurants and culture, ocean / shore access, etc. Plus here in Philly the cost of living and running a business is modest compared to NY, DC and Boston.

I’ve lived here now for nearly 20 years and have seen the city grow better every year. I own a home with my wife and have two kids. We live about 10 minutes by foot from my office. Most of our 19 employees walk, bike or take a short train ride to work. Like NY and Boston, it’s very convenient for employees to live where they work and mix business and pleasure in town.

And while there are still some annoying tax issues for businesses to contend with there seems to be a push to reduce things like city wage tax over time. The city has also opened a number of K zones to support business growth. And the political power structure is more progressive now than in the recent past.

And for entrepreneurial companies, there is a young and growing professional core. We have world class universities here in the city and more and more grads are choosing to stay and make it happen in Philly. And the more people open up shop here, even more of the best and brightest will stay.

Best Regards,

Mike Flanagan

Managing Partner

The Bressler Group

Bressler Group

Update from Guest Blogger Emily Yoder, Empowerment Group

National Pie Day is January 23rd. How are you celebrating? Homage to this tasty American treat can be paid by just grabbing a slice, but more fun can be had! Celebrate with the Empowerment Group as they visit Sweetie’s Pie Diner on January 30th. If pie isn’t your bag, learn about secret recipes and budding chefs on February 23rd at Philly Kitchen Share.

Empowerment Group is cooking up some tasty things for 2010. We’ve always been a cheerleader and aide to all Philadelphia entrepreneurs, and restaurants have a special way of spicing up the small business scene. Philly has more than 400 food institutions in Center City alone. We’re the home of the Iron Chef. Travel & Leisure Magazine ranks us 7th in the nation for best neighborhood restaurants. Everyone’s starting to realize that Philly cuisine is about so much more than cheese steaks.

Here at Empowerment Group, our clients already have a history of culinary innovation. From savory cupcakes, to a traveling coffee cart, to one of the city’s only Puerto Rican bakeries, they know how to serve up some tasty and unique treats. This year we’re more committed than ever to helping aspiring chefs and bakers find the ingredients that make a successful business.

Our Women Entrepreneurs’ Circle is always an enjoyable time for women who own (or aspire to own!) small businesses to meet, network, and visit a local woman-owned shop. On January 30, we’ll have our sweetest edition of the Circle yet. We’re visiting Sweetie’s Pie Diner, where you can build your knowledge of the start-up restaurant industry while building your own delicious pie. Enjoying the company of other women entrepreneurs is really just the icing on the cake (or pie, if you so choose).

On February 23, we’re teaming up with Philly Kitchen Share to help transitional cooks. Have your friends been begging you for Nana’s secret casserole recipe? Do your co-workers keep telling you that you that your cookies are good enough to sell? Our workshop, On the Rise: Transition from a Home to a Commercial Kitchen, helps you figure out how your prize-winning recipe could lead to a lucrative business.

We have the business background, and we’ll help you figure out if your food can keep you afloat once we untie those proverbial apron strings. Come out to our events. It’s all for a greater—and tastier—Philadelphia.

From Christopher Hire, Executive Director, 2thinknow

Mr. Hire comments on Philadelphia's place in the Innovation Cities Analysis Report released October 2009.

Philadelphia placed 6th in the USA, 5th in North America behind Toronto, and 32nd globally. "Neighbourhoods will be increasingly critical as the auto-dependent suburbs are vacated, or at least, evolve. Philly is centred around interconnected neighbourhoods, giving us even the term 'Philadelphia Rows'. A high degree of cultural assets both nationally historical & scientific, relative to other US cities. One example of this more globally-focussed US city is the Rodin Museum, a French sculptor, an example of Pennsylvania outward-facing cultural thinking."

"A passionately supported multi-million dollar sports industry, like number one-ranked city Boston, is also critical to Philadelphia's development. Multi-nationals, a large domestic market of 5 million plus, as well as a good US domestic market complete the picture."

"For Philadelphia to improve further globally, Philadelphia must work to improve it's global direct air connections, commercial ties and tourist profile throughout Europe and strong developed Asian countries like Australia or Japan - perhaps at the city-level. Philadelphia is a key innovation nexus, critical to the development of world-class ideas, and will, on balance, exert a leadership position within North America within the critical 2010-2020 period."

Business Development 101

Creative agencies have been hit hard by the recession as well as client’s hesitation to take on new initiatives during these uncertain financial times. As director of new business for a creative agency, it is my job to define and implement ways to sell while simultaneously positioning my company for explosive growth at the onset of an economic uptick. I try to do that by helping companies see they need to be doing the same.

Companies should be focusing on their current business but also on positioning themselves for the future. That’s where creative agencies like ours can help.

New business development unfolds in several stages - narrow, prospect, sell and develop. These stages are best managed and tracked through organized documentation.

Narrow

Narrowing is the identification of key types of businesses your company would like to pursue. This could be business of a certain size, industry, age or within a particular region. You should first assess how new business prospects will help with your company’s short and long term goals. Rank your targets with the rationale behind why you’re pursuing them. For example, we begin our narrowing process by designating industries that would most benefit from technologies such as video, SEO and web tracking. Once industries are identified, we then set clear measurable goals for our new business development so that we can evaluate our approach’s effectiveness and efficiency.

Prospect

Prospecting requires scouring sources for appropriate businesses to contact, researching the quality of each lead, and documenting useful information. Researching a company before introducing your own is crucial. Beyond familiarizing yourself with the information on the company website, try searching for information within avenues such as past news articles, social networks or old press releases. While new business is often built upon existing/tangential business or personal relationships, being prepared and informed from the onset is crucial.

Sell

First impressions only happen once and are extremely important. Therefore when you first introduce yourself, your company and its services- make sure to be simple, clear and direct. Be prepared to break down some barriers in the initial conversation and don’t be too pushy. People tend to work with people they like, so be personable and approachable.

Your job is to articulate why and how your services can achieve their short- and long-term business goals. I generally start the dialogue by asking what they feel can make their business more appealing or efficient and about their short and long-term business goals. If you peak their interest, begin with your pitch about how your company can help them meet their goals.

Develop

New business development revolves around developing relationships for now and the future. It is difficult to adhere to most self-imposed regimens, and business development is no exception, especially with so many diverse daily responsibilities. However, merely attempting to stick to this plan is more productive than settling for a "referrals will come to me" philosophy. Even if your labors are not immediately fruitful and you can't persuade the prospect to "act now," your expertise and relationship has been established when the potential client decides to move forward. It requires an investment of time and occasionally money, but the outcome is more potential for future growth. A failed business prospect but a positive impression is still progress; because you never know when your card and their new business will be passed along.

Sam Huntington is director of business development for Brolik Productions, a full-service branding and interactive agency that adds a vital creative pulse to businesses through web design, video, brand marketing and innovative strategy in Philadelphia, PA. He can be reached at huntingtons@webrolik.com or by visiting www.brolik.com.

Job Seekers Register Here

Employers Register Here

“I wish something like this (Philly Startup Leaders and the Founder Factory) existed when I was starting my business”, proclaimed serial entrepreneur David Brussin at a recent Advisory Board meeting of Philly Startup Leaders.

Brussin, co-founder and CEO of Monetate, is one of a number of successful entrepreneurs scheduled to speak at this year’s Founder Factory conference.  Designed to help foster the growth of Philadelphia’s startup company ecosystem, the Founder Factory brings together all of the key players in the community for a day of success and lessons-learned stories, peer to peer advice and networking; all meant to energize and empower young startup founders to build better businesses.  The Founder Factory is one of a handful of yearly events run by Philly Startup Leaders that is open to the general public.

The format of the Founder Factory conference is quite different from the typical business conference.  In keeping with Philly Startup Leaders’ grassroots approach, the Founder Factory offers a chance for interaction across multiple generations of business, venture capital, education and technology leaders.  The all day event at the World Café Live begins at 10:00 AM with a presentation from Wharton Finance Professor Jeremy Siegel, author and frequent guest on CNN, CNBC and NPR. Siegel will dissect the macro-economic climate as it relates to this year’s Founder Factory theme ‘Lessons from the Edge.’ 

To gain additional perspectives, Doug Alexander, President of Internet Capital Group, will examine the venture capital outlook for the region. Geoff Cook, CEO of MyYearbook, the nation’s fastest growing social network, will discuss the hurdles facing venture-backed startups. Rounding out the lineup of speakers will be David Brussin, CEO of Monetate.

Interspersed throughout the day, three local companies will be given the opportunity to present a business problem they are currently facing to the panel of featured speakers.  Known as Fishbowl workshops at Philly Startup Leaders, the company will give a short presentation describing the relevant aspects of their business and discuss the problem at hand.  Next, the panel of speakers will offer advice, followed by suggestions and questions from the audience.

"Presenting my company in the Fishbowl was rewarding. I received a lot of actionable feedback, not only from the esteemed panel members, but from the audience as well.  Afterward, many attendees came up to me to continue the conversation. I'd recommend the experience to any local entrepreneur." said Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of search engine DuckDuckGo.com, a 2008 Founder Factory Fishbowl company.

Joining this year’s Fishbowl panels will be speakers from the 2008 Founder Factory, including Steve Goodman, a Partner in Morgan Lewis’ Business and Finance Practice, Lucinda Holt, CEO of Click Equations, Gil Beyda, Managing Partner of Genecast Ventures, and moderator Colin Evans, Managing Partner of Sandwith Ventures.

The Founder Factory will wind down the day with networking, beginning at 5:00 PM.  For those unable to attend the conference during the day, networking-only tickets are available, though space is limited. 
Tickets for the 2nd Annual Founder Factory Conference are available online at www.founderfactory.com.

2nd Annual Founder Factory
November 19th, 2009
World Café Live
www.founderfactory.com

About Philly Startup Leaders

Philly Startup Leaders is the largest and most active community of startup entrepreneurs in the Philadelphia region.

They connect technology-focused startups with the things they need most – information, inspiration and a community of their peers. They are run entirely by volunteer entrepreneurs who contribute their sweat and passion on top of 70+ hour workweeks at their startups.

Philly Startup Leaders host dozens of events each year. Their members share advice, wisdom and startup humor on their vibrant e-mail listservs.

Philly Startup Leaders’ members are startup entrepreneurs, early stage companies and people who wish they were startup entrepreneurs (like technologists, investors and community leaders).

On Monday, November 2, I attended the Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic's panel on Mobile Commerce, which asked the question, with mobile technology usage growing excessively each day, why hasn't the U.S. succeeded in making a more rapid transition to conducting financial transactions via mobile devices? 

Answers to the question span from privacy and security concerns, lack of standardization in the mobile space, poor user design and user experience, and the number of platforms available, which present a daunting task to companies who want to develop mobile commerce services. 

With mobile commerce applications, mobile payment platforms balance the other side of the mobile commerce equation.  The more comfortable, secure, and easy it is for a customer and vendor to conduct transactions and feel fully satisfied in the outcome, the more seamless mobile commerce will integrate into popular consciousness. According to Gartner, by the end of 2009, there will be 74.4 million people using mobile devices to purchase goods and services globally, and by the end of 2012, that the number will likely double.

Harold Hambrose, CEO of Electronic Ink and author of Wrench in the System, gave the opening remarks.  As a pioneer in user-centered system development, Hambrose emphasized the inverse relationship between design and mobile technology.  Design challenges increase as mobile technology grows smaller, but increases in usage.  When developing technology services and user experience, we have to keep in mind the destination of our customers: what they need and where they need to go. 

Ray Sosa, Founding Partner of MPOWER Ventures and Chairman and CEO of MPOWER Labs gave a fascinating keynote presentation.  MPOWER Ventures delivers financial empowerment to underserved populations.  Its portfolio spans international payments, mobile payments, asset building and retail financial services in regions including North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.  Sosa defined underserved populations as the estimated 2 billion people around the world that lack access to safe, convenient and affordable financial services.  These individuals are underserved by traditional bank offerings and are living in a cash economy that has very high transaction costs, no opportunity for leverage or asset building, and are caught in a permanent state of financial instability and insecurity.  This population has leapfrogged technologies, incorporating cell phones into their daily lives where there was once little to no communication technologies.  They represent a global opportunity for mobile commerce services.  He offered key considerations when developing mobile commerce services for not just underserved populations, but for all customers: universal access, funding and fungibility, simplicity, scalability, cost efficiencies, and time to critical mass. 

Omar Green, Director of strategic mobile initiatives at Intuit, presented a case study.  He introduced Intuit’s newly launched Credit Card Acceptance service, GoPayment.  After several years of research and development, GoPayment launched catering to the merchant vendor who is constantly working in the field.  Intuit sought to address the problem of getting paid for services quickly and on the spot.  It’s the fastest growing payments product that Intuit has ever launched.  View the demo here.

Other panelists included Noah Glass, Founder and CEO of GoMobo, Anil Jacob, First Vice President of Card Strategy with JPMorgan Chase, and Mike Urban, Senior Director, Fraud Solutions for FICO.  Rick Rasansky, Founder and CEO of Yorn LLC and Co-Founder of Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic, served as the moderator. 

Rasansky’s first question to the group was: why hasn’t mobile payment taken off in the U.S. as quickly as other regions?  Roy Sosa responded that in the U.S. carriers dominate and are reluctant to share customers across multiple carriers.  In other countries, mobile users are accustomed to switching out SIM cards for a various purposes.  Omar Green stated that banks and networks own you as a customer and haven’t figured out how to split profits.  How much will the bank get and how much will the operator get?  Mike Urban added that is also a challenge to figure out who owns the risk.  Anil Jacob discussed the fact that we haven’t reached a point where we can discuss sharing profits.  He thinks it’s not just about payments, but about adopting a system that works for everyone.  Noah Glass added that he agreed and also thinks the challenge lies in user adoption. 

An interesting debate surrounding the differences between mobile banking and mobile payment systems began, but unfortunately was cut short due to time constraints. 

I wished there was more of a discussion regarding user adoption, especially in different regions of the world.  How do cultural differences play into mobile commerce, especially when catering to underserved populations in emerging markets?  Also, there wasn’t much time spent discussing security issues.  Mike Urban did draw parallels between mobile devices and computers, saying the same steps to make a computer secure would have to be done to make mobile devices secure.  He mentioned that NFC (Near Field Communication) technologies are more secure than signing your name on a piece of paper, alluding to the fact mobile commerce transactions should be more secure than traditional transaction technology. 

On Monday and Tuesday, October 5 & 6, 2009, the 2nd Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit took place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.  There were approximately 900 participants at the Summit, including the people who registered and those who attended the free and open to the public events.  161 speakers took part in 30 panel discussions and10 workshops.  The Summit also hosted 4 keynote speakers: Elizabeth Gilbert, best-selling author of Eat, Pray, Love, Peter Shankman, Founder, Help A Reporter Out and Founder and CEO, the Geek Factory, Inc., Jane McGonigal, Director of Game Research and Development, Institute for the Future, and Randall Kempner, Executive Director, Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs.  Now that the Summit has ended, the real work begins and Innovation Philadelphia is busy compiling and synthesizing the content, participant reactions, and opinions on how to implement some of these ideas in the Philadelphia Region. 

“Many people have expressed interest in future Summit participation,” says Kelly Lee, President & CEO of Innovation Philadelphia.  “We are already discussing how we can improve the Summit, such as holding it in a smaller venue.  Small hands-on workshops, planned for 30 people took place in rooms for 200.  On the one hand, this was not the ideal atmosphere for the intimate interaction we wanted to create.  Yet, an advantage of holding the Summit at the Convention Center was when Jane McGonigal could not travel due to illness, the technological capabilities of the Convention Center and the production team allowed her to Skype in and give her keynote in the ballroom on larger-than-life screens,” added Lee. 

Innovation Philadelphia also received feedback on the plethora of sessions to choose from, covering a wide range of topics.  Future Summits will limit the amount of presentations held at the same time in order to provide participants the opportunity to attend every session.  Additional feedback can be found under Summit testimonials.  Thoughts, comments and suggestions on the Summit are welcomed here.  Overall, the two-day Summit was a success in attendance, impact and quality content. 

Read the full article from Issue 24 of Innovation Matters here.

Swarthmore, PA – The newest addition to the Scott Arboretum opens on November 6 amidst the fall foliage of Swarthmore College – the “most beautiful campus in America.” The Wister Education Center and Greenhouse, designed by Archer & Buchanan Architecture, Ltd. of West Chester, PA, is an energy efficient multipurpose facility that supports the programs and aspirations of the Scott Arboretum.

“The building is a teaching tool as well as an enclosure,” said Dan Russoniello, AIA, LEEDAP, a partner at Archer & Buchanan. “The Scott Arboretum is committed to sustainability and the organization sets a national example with this building.”

The new 5,200 square-foot structure provides a classroom for public educational activities, exhibit areas for horticultural displays and plant evaluations, a greenhouse for cultivation and propagation, and support space for arboretum staff and volunteers.  The building and site design have several innovative features, which will form the basis of a case study in sustainability. The new building replaces a much smaller greenhouse that had become functionally obsolete over the past 25 years. The project team is working toward LEED certification.

“After nearly a decade of planning and fund raising and 18 months of construction, all of us at The Scott Arboretum are extremely excited to see the Wister Education Center and Greenhouse open,” said Claire Sawyers, director. “At last we have a space designed for hands-on horticultural educational programs, where soil and pots, plants and people can flourish.” 

The entire College campus is an arboretum, and one of its features was a grove of Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Dawn Redwood. These trees occupied a prime building site, and in 2004 they were cut down to make way for a pair of new residence halls. The wood from these trees was, dried, stored, and cut into shingles for the new building, carefully matched to other sustainably-harvested and FSC-certified lumber.

“Swarthmore is one of a few colleges in the US that makes a point of recycling harvested materials in this way,” said Russoniello. “They turned the loss of these trees into a win for sustainability.”

The building’s roof design captures rainwater, which is directed to a cistern for irrigation of the surrounding gardens. The heating-air conditioning system functions on exchanged energy with the campus’s underground chilled water loop, taking advantage of existing infrastructure to reduce initial construction costs and generate ongoing energy savings. Over 80% of construction waste was sorted and recycled. Local, recycled and recyclable materials were used in the construction of the facility. The green roof, which will come to life in the spring, will be planted with Sedum, Talinum, Delosperma, Campanula, Allium, and Dianthus. This is the College’s fourth green roof and will serve as a demonstration project for the latest techniques of green roof construction.

In early 2009, the design of the Wister Education Center and Greenhouse was named a “Green Building of America” award-winning project. The center was selected from more than 2,500 nominated projects and will be spotlighted in Real Estate & Construction Review - Northeast Green Success Stories in early 2010.

The LEED accredited design team included Archer & Buchanan Architecture, Ltd.; Bruce E. Brooks & Associates, Mechanical / Electrical Engineers; Gilmore & Associates, Civil Engineers; and W.S.Cumby, Inc., Contractor.  Other members of the team were Jonathan Alderson, Landscape Architect; G.H Weaver, PE, Structural Engineer; and Rough Brothers, Greenhouse Consultant.

On Thursday, November 12th at 5:00 PM in the Wister Center, the architect will give a tour and presentation on the design and construction of the new building. “The Story of the New Wister Center” is open to the public but pre-registration is required – call (610) 328-8025.

Covering more than 300 acres of the Swarthmore College campus and exhibiting over 4,000 different kinds of plants, the Arboretum displays some of the best trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals for use in the Delaware Valley.  Established in 1929 as a living memorial to Arthur Hoyt Scott, the Arboretum is open to the public year-round, free of charge, from dawn to dusk.  Adam Levine in the Nov/Dec 2002 issue of Garden Design Magazine described the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College as “the most beautiful campus in America.”  Visit www.scottarboretum.org  (610) 328-8025.

Archer & Buchanan Architecture, Ltd. is an award-winning architecture firm known for timeless design, attention to detail and exquisite craftsmanship. Projects include new structures as well as thoughtful renovations, additions, country property planning, master planning and feasibility studies, and adaptive re-use of buildings throughout the eastern seaboard. Among clients are private home owners and institutions.  Visit www.archerbuchanan.com, (610) 692-9112.

A Free, Fashionable Invitation

Arts of Fashion , the premier international student fashion competition and symposium, will spend a week on Drexel’s campus starting this Saturday, October 24th. While there are separate paid admissions for the Arts of Fashion Show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on October 28th and for the Master Class series, we’re very excited to invite all Drexel students to attend many other Arts of Fashion events including the Fashion Speaker Series and the Tandem Speaker Series, all for free with a valid Drexel ID. If you’re interested in high design and the fashion industry, this is your chance to join student designers from 21 countries  to interact with international designers Aurore Thibout, Anthony Vaccarello, Christian Wijnants, Mathew Ames and fashion industry experts like Susanna Lau who may be better know to you as Susie Bubble.

This newsletter provides the details on all of these great, free events. For further information on these and how to purchase tickets to the Arts of Fashion Show, click here.

Fashion Speaker Series

International and American fashion professors will give the inside scoop on fashion education today. The Fashion Series, free for Drexel students, will be on Tuesday, October 27th from 1 PM-6 PM in Bossone’s Mitchell Auditorium. The presentations schedule is:

1:15 PM: Fashion Thinker: Teaching Fashion with Concept, by Jonathan Kyle Farmer. Jonathan is a British born fashion designer/illustrator and an Associate Professor of Fashion Design, Parsons The New School for Design, New York

2:30 PM: Fashion in the Czech Republic, by Helena Krbcova. Helena is a Czech born fashion designer and is a Professor and the Head of the Fashion Design Department at the University of West Bohemia in Pizen, Institute of Art & Design

3:45 PM: Fashion Master: Inside and Through Fashion at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Andrea Reynders. Andrea is an American fashion designer and is a Professor and Sage Foundation Endowed Chair of Fashion Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

5:00 PM: Book Presentation: Face/Fashion, published by 9 Heads Media, Nancy Riegelman. Nancy is an American artist and fashion illustrator and is the author of Colors for Modern Fashion, 9 Heads and many other books on fashion and fashion drawing. She is a Professor of Fashion Drawing at the Art Center of Design, Pasadena, and the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles.

The moderator for each presentation will be Steven Faerm, an American Fashion Designer and the Director of the BFA Program in Fashion Design at Parsons The New School for Design in New York.

There will be a reception in the Bossone Lobby from 6:30 PM-8:30 PM following the Fashion Speaker Series.

Aurore Thibout Exhibit
and Opening Reception

French artist, designer and performer Aurore Thibout just showed her recent collection at Paris Fashion Week. As part of Arts of Fashion’s CarteBlanche Series, Aurore will display her work, Traces: Installation and Memory Clothes, in the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery from October 24th through November 20th. For Aurore, clothing becomes a poetic expression, through her imprints and embedded shapes, using lightly woven fabrics to create a ballet-like wardrobe. Creating the feminine clothing, she uses layering and transparencies to make her work appear ghost-like.

The reception for this exhibit, on Saturday, October 24th from 6 PM-8 PM in Nesbitt Hall’s Chapman Court, is free for all Drexel students and offers the opportunity to meet Aurore and talk with her about the exhibition.

Tandem Series

The Tandem Series is an interactive dialogue and debate between experts in different fashion fields about the challenges and opportunities facing the fashion industry today. Here’s the schedule for these free Wednesday, October 28th events which will take place from 11 AM-4 PM in Bossone’s Mitchell Auditorium.

11 AM: Aurore Thibout and Anthony Vaccarello will present on DNA and Fashion Image . Both young designers have their own lines, and they will discuss the DNA that makes up a creative fashion designer and how image and communication are important first steps. Aurore is a former assistant fashion designer at Givenchy and Maison Martin Margiela and has recently exhibited her work in Paris, Brussels and Athens. Anthony has worked for Fendi in Italy designing fur collections under Karl Lagerfeld.

1:30 PM: Christian Wijnants and Matthew Ames have both been recognized by many prestigious organizations as premier womenswear designers. They will present on the Business of a Young Designer . Christian was the assistant of Dries Van Noten, and Matthew worked for Jurgi Persoons and Miguel Adrover. Their collections have been presented in Paris and New York and are carried by high-end retailers the world over.

2:45 PM: Susan Scafidi, a visiting Professor at Fordham Law School and the author of Who Owns Culture? will discuss Copyright in Fashion. Susan is the first U.S. law professor ever to offer a course in Fashion Law and she has testified in Congress regarding the proposed extension of legal protection of fashion designs through the Design Piracy Prohibition Act. Click here to read Susan’s blog.

The moderator for these presentations will be Susanna Lau, aka Susie Bubble, the writer of one of the most widely read fashion blogs, receiving 20,000 hits a day. Susie is also the Commissioning Editor for the online Dazed & Confused Magazine and was crowned ‘First Lady of Fashion Blogging’ by Elle Magazine.

Cinetoile Series and After Party

Hear the best stories and witness the action behind the scenes before the exciting runway shows of Sonia Rykiel’s 40th Anniversary celebration in Paris and Karl Lagerfeld’s Fendi show in Milan, in The Day Before , a series of documentaries by French filmmaker Loic Prigent. Capturing the moment when design and business must come together, Prigent portrays the unique energy, mood, character and rhythm, along with the colorful moments of panic, last minute inspiration and ego-unleashing, during the final hours before the show opens. Prior to The Day Before, we'll present the premiere of a short, animated film by Westphal Fashion Professor Cindy Golembuski and Liz Golberg. The Cinetoile Series is on Tuesday, October 27th from 9-11 PM in Bossone’s Mitchell Auditorium.

Following the series will be an After Party for all Arts of Fashion participants at World Café Live (3025 Walnut St) from 11 PM – 2 AM. Both the Cinetoile Series and the After Party are free for Drexel students with a valid ID.

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the New York Times #1 Best Seller Eat, Pray, Love, debuts as a keynote speaker at the Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit (www.GCECS2009.com) on October 5, 2009 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Ms. Gilbert’s speech on “Creativity without Drama” will challenge the idea that creative people must suffer for their artistry in order to be taken seriously, and will emphasize the importance of teaching and practicing creativity without embracing distracting dramas along the way.

“We are so pleased to announce Elizabeth Gilbert as a keynote speaker, and are thrilled to have her speech open the Summit,” said Innovation Philadelphia President and CEO Kelly Lee. “She has tremendous insight when it comes to discovering your creative abilities and we know our attendees will learn a lot from her about embracing the creative process.”

Ms. Gilbert, a former Philadelphia resident, first broke into the literary scene in 1993 when Esquire magazine published one of her short stories. Since then, Ms. Gilbert has published several books, including the wildly successful Eat, Pray, Love, which documented the year she spent traveling the world alone after a difficult divorce. Since that time, Eat, Pray, Love has been published in more than 30 languages with more than 7 million copies in print, and Ms. Gilbert has experienced a wave of success including being named one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2008.

In addition to Ms. Gilbert’s speech there will be several panels and workshops dedicated to exploring the creative process as part of the Summit’s Creative Economy 201 track. Some examples include: Creating a Culture of Entrepreneurial Journalism, Civic Innovation Lab, Success Practices: Why Reinvent the Wheel?, The View from Amber Street, Creativity Around the Globe, Crowdsourcing Culture, Facts and Stats of the Creative Economy, and Regional Creative Economy Strategies. The other Summit tracks include Creative Entrepreneurship, Creative 21st Century Workforce, Creative Technologies, and Creative Sustainability.

Full registration to the Summit is $225 and includes access to all Summit-related panels, workshops, presentations and tours, as well as all meals and receptions for both days of the Summit.  A “No Frills” registration option is also available for $75 and includes access to all Summit-related panels, workshops, presentations and tours, but does not include meals. Individual tickets to keynote presentations may be purchased as well.  Elizabeth Gilbert’s October 5 keynote address will be sponsored by Drexel University. It will be held at 8:30 a.m. and tickets are $50 and include breakfast. 

About the Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit
On October 5-6, 2009 Innovation Philadelphia will host the 2009 Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit, which will bring together entrepreneurs, business leaders, and creative industry professionals to network, exchange ideas, and share information on emerging technology and initiatives that drive a successful creative economy. The Summit will be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, located in the heart of Philadelphia at 1101 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Accommodations are available at the Summit’s official hotel, the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, conveniently located at 1200 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA  19107.  Registration for the two-day Summit is $225. For more information about the Summit or to register online, please visit www.GCECS2009.com.

NxtUp Philly’s (www.nxtupphilly.com) is a two-week open calendar of events celebrating Philadelphia’s creativity, commerce, and community.  Running from October 5 to 16, 2009, NxtUp Philly will feature more than 150 creative events taking place throughout our region. 

The open calendar will highlight innovation and new ideas and present discussions of art, design, film, business, architecture, fashion, food and much more.  If you, your organization, or business has a program or event to share with Philadelphia’s creative community during the twelve-day showcase, we welcome you to post it on www.nxtupphilly.com.

Highlights include The Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit, DesignPhiladelphia, Ignite Philly and NxtUp Education.  The events and programs being presented cover the entire spectrum of the region’s creative economy and will be held all over the region. NxtUp Philly provides a chance to make the market visible, see what others are doing, create new networks, develop new partnerships and see new ventures.  Come see what’s NxtUp Philly!

by Peter Kageyama

During October’s Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit, attendees will hear from some of the world’s leading experts in the creative economy, entrepreneurship, placemaking and technology.  There will be keynote presentations, panels and breakout sessions on a wide range of topics and this year, there will be a new addition to the conference. 

For the first time Innovation Philadelphia will feature two pecha kucha sessions as part of the program.  Pronounced “pa-chok-cha”, the presentation format was devised by architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham in 2003 in Japan.  They were trying to create a forum for architects and designers to present their work to each other and they recognized that these folks could go on for hours (death by PowerPoint) if left unchecked!  Their solution, limit each speaker to 20 slides each on screen for 20 seconds, advancing automatically, for a grand total of 6 minutes 40 seconds.  The result was pecha kucha, which is the Japanese phrase for the sound of people talking. 

The format itself reflects our time constrained, attention challenged age where we are all trying to assimilate the daily deluge of information.  Is pecha kucha the cause or merely a symptom of that deluge?  Probably both, but the impact of the format has been significant. 

Pecha kucha has proven to be hugely popular and a worldwide phenomenon.   It is being used in conferences everywhere and has even spawned special “Pecha Kucha Nights” in cities all over the world.  Pecha Kucha Night (www.pecha-kucha.org) has spread to over 200 cities worldwide, including Philadelphia.  Topics are limited only to whatever the presenters are passionate about.  People will talk about everything from their work, their hobbies, their pets or their breakfast, which turns these presentations into a bit of performance art.  It forces presenters to tightly focus and really strip their presentations down to the critical elements.  Speaking from experience, I can tell you that it is far more challenging than you would expect and it is very good for sharpening your thinking.  And because of the shortness of the presentations, there are many speakers, covering a lot of territory. 

With this notion in mind, the Summit will include two pecha kucha sessions.  Innovation Philadelphia received submissions of brilliant examples of work being done all over the world and we wanted to find creative ways to showcase that work.  The pecha kucha sessions became the obvious choice.  Fun and informative, they will allow multiple speakers to share their best ideas about the creative economy.  I will be moderating the sessions as well as doing a special introductory pecha kucha for the conference, “10 Things You Need to Know About the Creative Economy.” 

For more examples of pecha kucha, you can check out the 3rd Philly Pecha Kucha, September 26 at Studio 34 (x http://www.pecha-kucha.org/cities/philadelphia/3).  You can also see a brilliant example of the format from 2006 GCECS keynote Dan Pink here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NZOt6BkhUg

Peter Kageyama is a community and economic development consultant with Creative Cities Productions (www.creativecitiesproductions.com)  and part of the 2009 GCECS Planning Committee.

Erika Mijlin, a panelist on The View from Amber Street in the Creative Economy 201 track, highlights the panel’s content and her experience as a filmmaker working to balance the relationship between community, industry, and the creative economy.

The View From Amber Street is a documentary film about a pair of old industrial buildings in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia.  The film documents the two buildings’ ongoing evolution from the centers of textile manufacturing into landmarks of the creative economy, and a home for both art and industry. 

Julie Goldstein and I produced The View From Amber Street through our media production company, Artifact Pictures, which produces a range of projects, from documentary to animation.  We quickly saw the potential to invest in creating a diverse community at the Amber Street buildings and Artifact Pictures has been housed in there since 2002. 

In 2005, we began collecting interviews and researching the history of the building.  We discovered that many of our neighbors, who were designers, manufacturers, artists and business owners, all had a similar appreciation of the unique building we shared, and had similar concerns about its tenuous future. 

The film began to take shape, telling the story of our building as part of the pattern of urban gentrification.  When manufacturing and industry leaves, it is gradually replaced by cheap space for artists, who then elevate interest in the neighborhood to a point at which they are priced out and replaced by more upscale residential tenants.  At the time, it seemed that the Amber Street buildings were going to buck the trend and find a way to accommodate both art and industry simultaneously.

Through the course of making the film, we learned that the building was being sold to real estate developers.  This change of ownership prompted some very serious questions about the future of the buildings.  How would the building fare now that it had changed hands in the middle of a condo conversion craze?  What would become of this fledgling art and industry hub?  We felt invested in preserving our unique balance of art and industry and formed a coalition with a few fellow tenants to propose our version of the building’s future.  Our film documents this process and its outcome, a uniquely Philadelphia story which has profound implications for the creative economy concept at large.

By placing the buildings within the history of their neighborhood, as well as the larger economic forces of which they are a microcosm, The View From Amber Street captures a building, a neighborhood, an economy, and a nation in a state of flux.

Beyond urban planning theories and speculation about what happens to the manufacturing class when factories close, or to the artists who pioneer our post-industrial communities, the film is a real-world, real-time example of an ongoing creative economy transformation, documented on film, and presented with a live discussion by the film's participants. The film provides a unique perspective on this history in the making, made by people directly affected, and focusing on the intricate relationship between industrial and creative production.

As creative businesses, Artifact and our fellow tenants all respond differently to the pressures that we face.  A few are featured below.

At Geiser and Son, one of the last bookbinders in Philadelphia, Allen Geiser and his sister Sandi have been running their shop for over 25 years.  As the industry changes, they know what it means to be adaptable. As artists and musicians move in around them, the Geisers occasionally question their value as tenants to a building with a changing demographic, but gradually realize the common ground that a bookbinding business shares with the artists populating the building.  “I’ve realized what we have in common with artists,” says Allen Geiser, “we have the ability to take raw materials, and through our own ingenuity, create something beautiful.  I like to think of us as artists.  In fact, my business card says Craftsman in the Art of Bookbinding.”

Mark Lueders owns and operates The Ceramics Shop, which manufactures and sells specialty products for the ceramics and pottery community.  Mark believes in the power of creative businesses to innovate, adapt, and change the face of neighborhoods and cities all over America, but he also acknowledges the need for some support from the public sector.  “If they could do something to help us stay here, or to grow, that would be great.  I’m all for it.  But they don’t always understand the problem.  One group recently held a meeting about promoting local manufacturing, and they were handing out promotional mugs that were stamped ‘Made In China’!  So that was the last meeting I went to with that group…”

Karen Bogut is one half of the clothing design studio Heyne Bogut.  At their studio on Amber Street, Karen and husband Paul Bogut create hand-dyed and handcrafted items, and have built up a loyal audience of boutique retailers over the years that they have been in business.   As experienced clothing designers and manufacturers, they have weathered the storms of textile outsourcing, deflated clothing prices, and the fleeting availability of affordable workspace.  As Karen says, “It seems like as soon as artists like us take root and draw attention to a place, rents go up and we’re effectively asked to move on.  It’s a very real situation we’ve faced repeatedly.  We need landlords and cities that understand the value of our creative energy not only for their bottom line, but for the sustainability of ours, and for the bigger picture of where this city and this country are headed.”