Here’s What’s Going Down at SXSW This Year

Philly’s sending what’s likely to be its biggest team ever and it includes Mayor Kenney. Some highlights: plenty of Philly tech exhibits, a concert of Philly artists and a panel featuring our Mayor.

Scene from the Philly booth at SXSW 2016. Photo courtesy of PSL.

Scene from the Philly booth at SXSW 2016. Photo courtesy of PSL.

We are less than a month away from Austin’s annual SXSW conference, and things are looking great for Philadelphia. Amplify Philly, the team coordinating the city’s SXSW presence for the second consecutive year, started planning for the conference as early as last summer and have put together an impressive slate of participants: 18 companies will showcase at the conference and 15 local sponsorships brought in a pool of $140,000 in funding.

Local Philly artists will be in the spotlight, too. Amplify Philly leaders Yuval Yarden and Dave Silver will host two activities—a happy hour and a concert—to give conference goers a chance to mix and mingle with Philly talent. Both events will feature DJ Jazzy Jeff and the music showcase attendees will jam to Bilal, DJ Aktive, Good Girl, The Districts, Son Little, The Dove & The Wolf, Julian King, and Queen of Jeans.

And as we reported last December, Mayor Kenney’s got a packed agenda at the conference as well. It’ll be the first time a Philadelphia mayor makes his way to the event, and Kenney will meet with other mayors and industry leaders and creatives to talk innovation and tech among other things. And he’ll sit on a panel—Building Bridges When Others Want to Build Walls—recently announced as an opportunity for attendees to discuss the impact of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy on cities like Philadelphia.

“The City is thrilled to participate in one of the most influential tech conferences in the world, and I am personally looking forward to sharing with so many budding entrepreneurs why Philadelphia is the place to grow their business,” Kenney said in a statement.

Here are the 18 companies that will be exhibiting at the SXSW trade shows:
• BioRealize,
• Boost Linguistics,
• Chariot Solutions,
• Comcast,
• Cosy,
• Eventuosity,
• Iqinetics,
• Keriton,
• LIA Diagnostics,
• MLeads,
• Neuroflow,
• Oat Foundry,
• Oncora,
• ROAR for Good,
• SafeStamp,
• Social Ladder,
• Stratis, and
• Zivtech.

Here are the 15 local sponsors who supported Amplify Philly:

• StartupPHL
• Comcast
• University City Science Center
• Guru
• Zivtech
• Ben Franklin Technology Partners
• Chariot Solutions
• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• University of Pennsylvania
• Temple University
• Visit Philadelphia
• Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Brandywine Realty Trust
• Safeguard Scientifics
• CoStar360

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