Comcast to be title sponsor of Philly Tech Week

Comcast Corp., which has pledged greater support for local tech start-ups, will be the title sponsor of Philly Tech Week in April - an event that drew 20,000 participants in 2014.

The cable-TV and media giant has said that it would like to energize the tech scene in Center City ahead of the 2018 opening of its new skyscraper.

The Comcast Innovation and Technology Center, designed as the tallest building in Philadelphia, will house the company's new-product development teams and engineering. Comcast officials believe the city has to burnish its entrepreneurial reputation to allow the firm to recruit talented employees.

Comcast would like Philadelphia to be ranked among the nation's top entrepreneurial cities for technology firms, with Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, and New York City, Sam Schwartz, the company's chief business development officer, said Tuesday.

"Philadelphia has all the elements to be on that list," Schwartz said.

Christopher Wink, cofounder and editorial director of Technical.ly, the online publication that organizes Philly Tech Week, would not disclose the financial terms of Comcast's sponsorship. This year's event is scheduled for April 17 to 25.

Last year, Comcast participated in the weeklong event by hosting a closing party for 1,200 people in its lobby and pavilion, Wink said.

The sponsorship expands Comcast's involvement, he noted.

Technical.ly reports on the start-up community in Philadelphia and has sister publications covering the same topic in Brooklyn, Baltimore, Washington, and Delaware. It is based in University City; its website is www.technical.ly.

Technology start-ups won't replace the hundreds of thousands of jobs - mostly in manufacturing - that Philadelphia lost over the last 50 years, but they are an important and growing sector, Wink said.

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