Urban Geek Drinks, is a monthly happy hour for a diverse group of civic do-gooders in Philadelphia. It’s an opportunity for you to connect with other people who give a damn and are working incredibly hard to make Philadelphia a really great city. Organized by Aaron Ogle of Open Plans and Alex Gilliam of Public Workshop, it grows out of a belief that some of the toughest challenges our cities face require multidisciplinary solutions that demand that we reach well beyond our organizational, professional, and generational boundaries. Creating an opportunity for a diverse group of people to come together on a regular basis in the same space (with a beer) can be an important start towards fomenting great things.
Why should you come?
When else do you get to hang out with urban farmers, civic technologists, journalists, makers, hackers, designers, teachers, students, artists, civil servants, philanthropists, community builders, and urban planners who are all working incredibly hard to do great things in Philly, all while hoisting a one liter maß?
When and where does it happen?
Urban Geek Drinks occurs on the 4th Thursday of every month in the courtyard of Frankford Hall from 6-9 pm. Happy Hour food and drink specials are available throughout. Sometimes we switch between the 3rd and 4th Thursdays if there is an overlapping event or if we are both out of town, so make sure you add yourself to the mailing list below to stay up to date.
Why Frankford Hall? They have a lot of space (pleasant outdoor space), they serve large beers, and they have been gracious hosts since we started Urban Geek Drinks in the summer of 2012 (we tried a number of other places). Would we consider other locations? We have a few ideas and tricks up our sleeves including having Urban Geek Drinks move between various non-profits throughout the City each month, but getting people to consistently show up for any event either requires predictability OR a lot of leg work. Given our incredibly busy respective work schedules, for the moment we are sticking with predictability.
Is there a format?
Other than filling out one of Public Workshop’s conversational name tags like the ones picture above (thereby providing a little bit of social glue and your pass to continuous Happy Hour specials), nope! Organizations such as Ignite Philly, Philly Nerd Nite, and Open Access Philly do a great job with presentation style formats. In this rich context, we think it’s important to have an opportunity to simply have a beer and strike up a conversation with someone else working hard to do great things in Philly.
Want to be added to the mailing list?
Click here.
Posted on May 30th, 2013 at 7:41 am by publicworkshop in Events