Grue & Bleen at the Philly Tech Week Innovation Crawl
The Beginning of the Crawl
Philly has a rapidly growing tech community, which is why Grue & Bleen jumped on the opportunity to see everything the city had to offer at the 2017 Philly Tech Week Innovation Crawl. Josh and Pete brought out the cameras to record interviews and product demos from 50+ organizations throughout 8 locations across the city. Paul followed along as well and took still photos of the event.
(This blog is our written experience, see it in image-style in the Philly Tech Week Innovation Crawl Gallery and video-style in the Philly Tech Week Crawl Video)
OK on to the first stop!
PTW17 Headquarters @ Technically Media HQ – 601 Walnut St, Suite 1200 West
The first stop was Technically Media Headquarters where Grue & Bleen interviewed OpenDataVote and talked about a cooperative effort between Azavea, Tech Impact, Technically Media, Code for Philly, and the City of Philadelphia regarding the data that the government should release as open data. They also interviewed Technically’s own Roberto Torres, who led the pack across the city.
- Quadratron games
- Super Rock Blasters (& more from their studio)
- OpenDataVote
- The Type-In
- Rob Shields Illustration
Augmented and Virtual Reality @ PhillyCam- 699 Ranstead St
Augmented and Virtual Reality @ PhillyCAM – 699 Ranstead St – The second stop on the tour was right up the street at PhillyCam. 2017 is all about VR and the Grue & Bleen team got to experience the developments in VR first hand. The highlights were seeing what visual artists and sculpture artists have been able to design and create to enhance the experience of viewing art.
• TECH IN THE COMMONS: Augmented and Virtual Reality bootcamp for nonprofits
• Bowstring Studios
• The Greater Philadelphia Virtual and Augmented Reality Group
• VRPHL
• VeeR Goggles
• Milkroom Studios
Gaming @ The Yard – 21 S 11th St
The Yard had that fresh new building smell. The Grue & Bleen team took a tour of the new space, checking out the office and also enjoyed playing “It’s Lit,” a Philly focused version of the popular app game “Head Up.”
◦ OriGaminc
◦ Bobby V. Klein Games
◦ It’s Lit
Inventor’s Alley @ CultureWorks – 1315 Walnut St, Suite 320
Next stop was CultureWorks! Smack Innovations was one of the highlights on this stop with a steering wheel cover with controls on it that could control the functionality of your smartphone!
◦ Smack Innovations
◦ AgileSwitch: Programmable gate drive boards for use in power control modules
◦ Big Bright Monster: Augmented Reality Software for Gaming
◦ Polyaurum: Gold Nanoparticles for Diagnosis and Treatment of Disease
◦ Lia Diagnostics: Flushable Pregnancy Tests
◦ Xeed: Wearables for Parkinson’s Patients
◦ Roar for Good: Wearable Sexual Assault Prevention Device
◦ Urban Turbine: Wind Turbines for Rooftops and Boats
◦ Sanguis: Cell Counting Device for Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy
◦ DatumX1: Data Analysis, Data Integration & Migration, Data Intelligence
Fun & Gaming @ Benjamin’s Desk – 1608 Walnut St
The Grue & Bleen team felt right at home at Ben’s Desk. There were plenty of drinking games, a full keg, and lots of familiar faces. As board game aficionados, Pete and Josh had a long conversation with Benjamin Farahmand, designer of Faza, a cooperative board game set in a post-apocalyptic science fiction future.
◦ Celestial Spinz and Troupe
◦ Instructional Hula Hooping
◦ Faza
◦ Shapes The Game
Impactful Orgs @ WeWork – 1900 Market St
WeWork Center City was another brand new co-working space in the heart of the city. In addition to the beautiful office spaces, Impactful Orgs were showing off non-profits transforming the local food industry.
◦ Plas.md
◦ Experience fundraising of the future with a VR relay
◦ BonBids
◦ Making fundraising innovative for nonprofits
◦ Philly FoodWorks
◦ Transforming the way Philly sources local food
◦ Benefits Data Trust
Makers Corner and Food Innovation @ MakeOffices – 2001 Market St
Makeoffices was our last stop on the tour, finishing it off with some of the best jerk chicken the boys had ever tasted. One of the most interesting innovations was Lighting Packs, a backpack with springs and a generator designed for the army that can generate electricity as a soldier walks or runs.
◦ Lightning Packs
◦ Tiny Docs
◦ Jerk Chicken Man
Last stop! Good Times.
Over 1,000 people came out to see some of the nicest offices and co-working spaces in the city for the innovation crawl. The Grue & Bleen team had a blast checking out new cutting edge technology, playing with locally made video games and board games and of course: eating federal donuts, drinking Yards, and having some fun! Grue & Bleen, signing out! XOXO
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