One year of Philly Tech Calendar

On April 16th, 2023, I registered the domain phillytechcalendar.com. As I write this, it's nearly a year later. I'm extremely proud of what PTC has become. This website isn't a community — though we do have a Discord server with some really fantastic folks! Instead, it's become clear to me that PTC is a tool for a greater Philadelphia community:  just one of many bridges connecting us.

Many meetup groups in Philadelphia stopped existing over the course of the pandemic. By April 2023, just about everyone I talked to was asking: where are all the events? PTC, admittedly, has helped me advance my not-so-hidden agenda: furthering the goal of there being more in-person events, within city limits, that are free to attend.

Let's look at some data. Here's a chart of the number of events, per week, over time, with a trendline laid over top of it:

That's approximately 1.5 more events per week since PTC started!

But actually, this chart doesn't include this past week; if we include it, we see that this past week was a major outlier, and hopefully a sign of things to come:

That's a total of 239 events over the past year!

Where have the events been hosted?

I can't emphasize enough how much of a crucial role Iffy Books has played in connecting people, hosting impactful conversations in both hardware and software.

I also want to shout out Indy Hall for being both an exceptional community and a pillar of the greater Philadelphia Tech community — and for hosting JS Club.

I'm extremely grateful for the opportunities that PTC has afforded me so far. For me, there's been a number of moments that have only happened because of PTC which will stick with me for the rest of my life. I've met some really amazing people, and learned more in the past year than I could have ever imagined.

It's been a great year, and I'm looking forward to the next one. I'm throwing a birthday party for Philly Tech Calendar on April 25th — I hope you'll consider coming by to help us celebrate!