Scenes From the Inaugural PHL Innovation Picnic
The event, which gathered 900, raised more than $10,000 for three tech education nonprofits. Here's who showed up.
Thursday evening could not have been a more perfect time for Philadelphia’s innovation crowd to descend upon the Navy Yard to bask in the sun and in the glory of how much the community has grown.
Posted up at a picnic table all night was Cloudamize CEO Bob Moul, who managed to get nearly everyone to buy the tech community’s hottest, most coveted item: the #TEaCH shirt. There was PACT president & CEO Dean Miller, who between sips of his Dock Street beverage, managed to drop some serious knowledge on the tech tax to anyone who would lend an ear. He even informed attendees that the night’s event, in fact, wasn’t the first time the community organized an innovation picnic. About ten years ago, Safeguard Scientifics, with its own version of Sand Hill Road, brought the innovation community together out in the burbs. So the picnic was basically born out of nostalgia and the team’s effort to resurrect the gathering of the past. And then there were the folks like Technically Philly’s lead reporter Roberto Torres and pretty much the entire Stitch Data team who were high off of wins (or losses) in tug of war, Connect Four, hula hoopin’ and more.
Most notably, the event raised more than $10,000 for iPraxis, Spark, and TechGirlz, three Philadelphia nonprofits focused on connecting schoolchildren to tech education and mentors. It was also an impressive way to show that good things happen when a super long list of organizers and sponsors (organizers: Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Life Sciences PA, PACT, Philly New Tech Meetup, PSL, University City Science Center, Safeguard Scientifics; sponsors: Broadpath, Janney Montgomery MVM Associates, Viawest, Nextfab, Good Company Ventures, Mid-Atlantic Diamond Ventures, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Safeguard Scientifics, University City Science Center) get together for an important cause.
Here’s who showed up to the 2017 PHL Innovation Picnic:
Picnic sponsors and organizers. Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Volunteer Chandra Kilgore of the Chamber of Commerce and PACT | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Erin Zimich and Rachel Zydyk of PSL | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Yuval Yarden of PSL | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Staci Epstein of Be Group and Megan R. Smith of Brownstone PR | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Bob Moul of Cloudamize | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Bob Moore of PSL and Magento | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Luke Butler of Curalate, Julie Hancher of Green Philly and John Moore of ImpactPHL | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Martin Atanassov of Philly New Tech Meetup | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Jake Stein, Paul Santa Clara and Sam Glasperg of Stitch Data | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Arturs Ivanovs of Factury, Alon Seltzer and Chris Hariz of Bright Idea | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Natasha Camy, Beth St. Clair and Jessie Cunningham of Urban Tech Project | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Marcella Barker of Nextfab, Yulia Novozhilova or Monetate, Anna Greenwald of On the Goga and Glynis Meronyck of On the Goga | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Melissa Le of Waterfront Lab and Lorenzo Gibson | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Dean Miller of PACT | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Kristen Fitch of the Science Center, Lauren Cox of the Department of Commerce and Meghan Tumolow of the Science Center | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Bruce Marable of Employee Cycle and Sylvester Mobley of Coded by Kids | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left:Melissa Le of Waterfront Lab, Brian Newshel of Paragon Tech Solutions, Sergio Panu of Go Merchant and Jose Alvarez of Paragon Tech Solutions | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Stephanie Baum of MedCity News and Anthony Stipa of Safeguard Scientifics | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Steven Dorcelien of Bright Yellow Creamery and Rachel Hunter of Comcast | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Sue Spolan of Cohegent LLC and Jermaine Jenkins of Witty Gritty LLC | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Jamey DiLorenzo of Grue & Bleen, Pete DiLorenzo of Grue & Bleen, Dan Campbell of Grue & Bleen, Morgan Berman of MilkCrate, Susan Cranford of Grue & Bleen, Paul Impellizeri of Grue & Bleen and Josh Silverbauer of Grue & Bleen | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Real Estate developer Josh Matthew, TM 38 representatives and Matt Chacko of Bump Out | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Eric Glickman of PSL and Monetate, Jacob Wischnia of Centrak, Lindsay Tai of PSL and Alex Keat of Canary Compliance | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Roberto Torres of Technically Philly | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Brett Topche, Josh Reisman, David Luk of Safeguard Scientifics and Eric Yu of Ehanabi | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Drexel alums Rina Patel and Maria Allison | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Jason Bannon of BFTP | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Bob Moul of Cloudamize, Alex UA of Zivtech, Danielle Cohn of Comcast and Luke Butler of Curalate | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
Frank and Nancy Miller | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Emeka Oguh of People Joy and Bruce Marable of Employee Cycle | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
From left: Pat Woods and Dawn McDougall of Promptworks | Photo by Fabiola Cineas
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