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ONLINE BUSINESS CALENDAR DATA UNCOVERS NEARLY 300 MONTHLY PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS MEETINGS IN GREATER PHILADELPHIA REGION The economy may have been slow in 2009, but people were busy meeting and doing business at more than 3,500 events, nearly 300 per month, throughout the Greater Philadelphia Region according to a recent analysis of an online regional business calendar by Select Greater Philadelphia and Basecamp Business. The data, aggregated from the first-year use of the Basecamp Business Calendar Network in 2009, reveals that business executives, entrepreneurs, financiers, and others were actively networking throughout Greater Philadelphia to build business. “The goal of the supporters of the Calendar Network was to create a ‘virtual clubhouse' that used events as a way to help entrepreneurs and others connect with people and programs that would accelerate their business growth,” said Thomas G. Morr, President and CEO of Select Greater Philadelphia. “Through this analysis it is clear that the Calendar Network is an effective tool to help achieve that goal.” During its first year, Basecamp Business identified the significant attributes of each event using a detailed set of 28 topics that fell into five broad categories: Characteristic, Skill Area, Purpose, Target Audience, and Economic Sector. Select's analysis found that the most frequently assigned topics across all the events were: General Networking (2,722), Skills (1,878), Small Business (1,835), Entrepreneurship (978), and Finance (713). “This is the first comprehensive study of professional and business networking in Greater Philadelphia, made possible by the information gathered by the Basecamp Business Calendar Network,” said Mel Baiada, Basecamp Business. “This analysis is an important indicator of the large demand for events not only in Greater Philadelphia, but for those available to companies here within a 2-hour drive of Center City .” As the Basecamp Business Calendar Network is extended into other regions, similar studies can be undertaken for those regions. By measuring and analyzing this activity, professionals and the region as a whole gain valuable insight into the interests and pulse of the business community. The state of professional networking in Greater Philadelphia can be used as a barometer to measure the overall state of business health in the region. One key finding is that 3,517 business events were held across the entire region at 1,312 separate sites and in 224 ZIP codes covering 147 different cities and towns in the Greater Philadelphia region. There are popular pockets where most events occur within the city of Philadelphia and surrounding areas. Of the top 10 most popular ZIP codes, four were in Center City and the rest either contained large universities or were located in high-growth suburban corridors along major highways such as Route 202 in Chester County , PA and Route 1 in Mercer County , NJ. Out of the 480 sponsors who registered events with the Calendar Network, 316 of them held programs in the Philadelphia MSA, while 29 sponsored events in the Trenton MSA. Event sponsors were from 72 different NAICS codes or economic sectors, but were concentrated in two of them: Business Associations with 165 events; and Professional Associations with 75 events. Within a 200-mile radius of Greater Philadelphia, there were more than 400 event sponsors who held more than 4,500 events. Of this number, 3,517 events were held in the Greater Philadelphia Region (including Trenton ). The top 10 event sponsors accounted for 30% of all events and included the following Business and Professional organizations in Northern Delaware, Southern New Jersey, and Southeastern Pennsylvania: • Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants • New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners • New Jersey Small Business Development Center • Greater Philadelphia Senior Executives Group • Cherry Hill Regional Chamber of Commerce • Centenary College SBDC • Delaware County Chamber of Commerce • Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce • New Castle County Chamber of Commerce • New Jersey Technology Council The Founding Sponsors of the regional calendar network include the Mid-Atlantic Capital Alliance, the University City Science Center , Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, the Delaware Emerging Technology Center and Select Greater Philadelphia, who support the Calendar Network to foster the culture of entrepreneurship in Greater Philadelphia. “The Basecamp Business Calendar Network makes it easier for entrepreneurs, investors, business people, academics and others to find one another more efficiently to start and grow business ,” said Morr. “Even in a slow economy, meaningful local connections are useful for economic growth.” The idea behind the Basecamp Business Calendar Network is to connect all the different organizations that are holding events through a “network” of calendars. That way, when one organization updates an event on its web site, the calendars on all the other sites in the Calendar Network are immediately updated. In effect, the Basecamp Business Calendar Network provides a single location to learn about numerous meetings and events happening within the region. The Calendar is available on the websites of the numerous Calendar Network members and is searchable by subject, organization, geography, distance and state for ease of use. “We analyzed the calendar database provided by Basecamp Business to identify the characteristics of organizations that list programs as well as the corresponding event organizers, said Phil Hopkins , Vice President of Research for Select Greater Philadelphia. “We're working with Basecamp Business to refine the categories of data collection to achieve even greater accuracy on a number data points in 2010.” |
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