International Talent : Innovation + Job News

Temple uses tech to partner with Liverpool school and dance across the Atlantic

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, May 03, 2011

A Temple University professor is teaching a dance class in England from his office in Philadelphia. Two dance instructors have teamed up for an international dance collaboration between students at Temple here in Philadelphia, and Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. Using the internet, dancers on both sides of the Atlantic learn and perform together. Earlier this month, Temple participated in the LJMU Spring Dance Festival without leaving Philadelphia. The performance is part of a four year project, culminating this fall, to push the boundaries of dance instruction and performance using technology.

Professor Luke Kahlich, Director of Temple's Center for Research in Dance Education, connected with Pauline Brooks of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK at an international dance conference in 2006. "What happens if we try to challenge the creative process over the internet?" Adapting existing teleconferencing tools, the two schools set up cameras in dance studios in Philly and Liverpool, allowing dancers to practice and eventually perform together.

Students added their own spin with Skype, Facebook, YouTube and online chat.

"Dancers are so used to having their bodies next to another human body," says Kahlich.

Over time, that sense of distance faded. A field trip to Liverpool helped, but Kahlich also remarked that his students are way ahead of him technology wise, and are used to remote communications in so many other areas of their lives. Dance pieces were choreographed through video. Kahlich says that every Friday morning for three hours, he sat at his desk in Philadelphia and worked via the internet with the group in Liverpool, where students were divided into two practice studios.

"I would see both groups in different spaces on my computer," he says. "At the end of the session, they would come into one space, and I would be a giant head on a screen in Liverpool. At the same time we archived sessions from different angles. I could access all of those to send notes for the next rehearsal."

The resulting dual performances in front of an audience took place in both locations simultaneously, with remote dancers projected life size on a screen in the theater of the corresponding event.

The Liverpool-Philly dance collaboration follows a larger trend in higher education, says Kahlich. More and more job postings require teachers to be tech savvy. And students add that dance needs to keep up with the technological world as well.

Source: Luke Kahlich, Temple University
Writer: Sue Spolan

Navy Yard's Mark Group hiring for 70 energy efficiency jobs

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, April 26, 2011

The Mark Group, a UK company with recently opened North American headquarters at The Philadelphia Navy Yard, is hiring big time. And training, too. The Mark Group is looking for 60 to 70 new hires who can be trained to go out in the field as energy efficiency experts. The company, which concentrates on the residential market, recommends and completes refitting and repairs to make homes more comfortable and cheaper to run. Chief Operating Officer Dave Hopkins says Mark Group's average fee is $2,500, which will be returned in cost savings in two to three years.

Last week, The Mark Group graduated its first class of students at its North American Energy Efficiency Training Academy. The facility, developed with the support of a $192,000 grant from the Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation, is sending out workers who can enter a home and go places even the homeowner may never have gone, like attics and crawl spaces, to identify and fix problems like leaks and drafts. Hopkins says the company is training and hiring two types of employees: assessors and technicians.

Since The Mark Group's US launch in November 2010, 40 people have been hired, and by year's end, The Mark Group will have over 100 employees out and about in the Delaware Valley, including New Jersey and Delaware. The parent company has a presence in 20 countries worldwide, and chose Philadelphia as its first stop in the US, thanks to assistance at the state level from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, and locally from Select Greater Philadelphia. "We have plans to expand to the Pittsburgh market, Newark, New Jersey and Baltimore," says Hopkins.

So far, The Mark Group has relied on word of mouth referrals and a favorable article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and next month expects to launch a marketing campaign. The company has also signed an exclusive deal with Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors to provide energy efficiency services to the agency's clients.

Source: Dave Hopkins, The Mark Group
Writer: Sue Spolan

Gift of $20M in rare manuscripts allows Penn to boost pages, pageviews, hire curator

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, April 19, 2011

University of Pennsylvania alum Larry Schoenberg has been collecting manuscripts for decades, and over the past twenty years has been sharing parts of his collection with scholars at his alma mater. This week, Penn Libraries announced the acquisition of 280 medieval and Renaissance manuscripts from Schoenberg, valued at $20 million, and part of the agreement is the creation of The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies.

Philadelphia is an international mecca for rare books, with world class collections at The Free Library of Philadelphia (the largest with over 2,000 manuscripts), The Library Company of Philadelphia, The Rosenbach Museum, and Bryn Mawr College. The Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries lists 35 members.

Back at Penn, the goal with the Schoenberg Collection is to digitize the whole thing so that anyone in the world can access these historic documents without having to come to Philadelphia. Right now, the online collection is scattered among several sites, and with the exception of the recently launched Penn in Hand, many of the manuscript indexing pages are difficult to navigate.

"What we've done is made a commitment to the Schoenbergs to recatalog all the manuscripts according to the library standard," says Joe Zucca, Director for Planning and Communication for Penn Libraries.

The goal is to have all items scanned by 2012 to meld with Schoenberg's philosophy of combining rare and unique material with digital technology. Meanwhile, says David McKnight, the Director of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the 6th floor of Penn's Van Pelt is now undergoing an estimated $18 million renovation of the 6th floor, the Special Collections Center, to serve as home for the new institute, which will include classrooms and a digital media lab. McKnight is actively looking to hire a curator for The Schoenberg Institute, and is optimistic that the library can fill the position by the beginning of the new academic year. McKnight says that in addition to digital access, the Institute and its holdings will also be open to the public.

Source: Joe Zucca, David McKnight, Penn Libraries
Writer: Sue Spolan

CHOP Idol: Seacrest creates multimedia center at Children's Hospital

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Ryan Seacrest! Is awesome! The media mogul has chosen Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to build The Voice, a state of the art multimedia studio. The Voice, a freestanding broadcast center funded by The Ryan Seacrest Foundation, is being built in the main lobby of CHOP, in the Colket Atrium. It will be accessible from the hospital's 34th street entrance and will serve CHOP patients and their visitors and families as a much-needed distraction.

Elana Brewer, CHOP's Director of Child Life, Education and Creative Arts Therapy, explains the setup: "Within the actual physical studio, there is a space designed for a DJ, as well as tabletop space for up to five patients, family members, siblings, celebrity visitors or guests to interact with the DJ."

Off mic, there will be additional seating for children who want to come to the studio but may be less inclined to jump on the mic. Two video cameras will capture the action in the studio, and the entire audio and video feed will be available throughout the internal TV system in the hospital buildings. Due to legal and privacy issues, Brewer says The Voice broadcasts will be strictly in-house, aimed exclusively at patients, families, friends and staff.

The Voice is designed so that passers by in the lobby can peer in through the curved glass partition, and its location in the atrium means that rooms and balconies overlooking the vast open space will have a direct line of sight into the broadcast center.

Brewer explains that tween, teen and young adult patients are the target audience for participation. It's a bit of a forgotten age, because younger children use playrooms, but there's not a lot to keep the older set happily occupied. "It's a great distraction," says Brewer. "The chance to use a state of the art studio will have a normalizing effect, and will give patients a sense of control often lost in the hospital environment." Brewer looks to The Voice as a creative outlet and a great opportunity for socialization, which is especially important for the adolescent population. Kids who are unable to leave their rooms will still be able to participate through on-air trivia quizzes and giveaways.
Seacrest selected CHOP as the second children's hospital in the country to be outfitted with The Voice. The flagship is at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Hospital. The Philadelphia location is scheduled to go live this summer.

Source: Elana Brewer, CHOP
Writer: Sue Spolan

Philly native and tech scribe Steven Levy gets close, still respects Google in the morning

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Steven Levy is coming home to Philadelphia to talk about his new book, In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. Levy, who grew up in West Oak Lane and wrote for Philadelphia's early alternative weeklies in the 1970s, is now a senior writer for Wired Magazine and former chief technology writer and senior editor for Newsweek. He will be a guest of the World Affairs Council this Thursday, April 14, as part of a speaker series that draws international talent to Philadelphia. The event begins with a reception at 6:15 p.m., and Levy will sit down with Philadelphia Daily News music and technology writer Jonathan Takiff at the Arden Theater Company starting at 7.

Levy was given unprecedented access to the inner workings of Google's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, also known as the Googleplex, where employees are treated to 3 meals a day, massages, haircuts and laundry service. Levy also traveled with young company managers on a world tour that provided an intimate view of cultural and technological thinking at the top.

While there are already several well regarded bestsellers on the business of Google, Levy says his perspective is a new one. "The honeymoon's over. No question about that. The halo has a few dents in it. It's an interesting time to be immersed in Google," says Levy, who sees the company having to come to grips with its immense power. "David has become Goliath. It's attractive and feisty when the little guy wants to do something audacious, but when the big guy wants to achieve the same things, it's a different story." Levy cites the company's longtime desire to digitize every book in the world, and how the initiative has sparked court battles, drawing opposition from unlikely corners, including Arlo Guthrie's lawyer.

Levy addresses the future of the massive company, which started out revolutionizing search but has expanded everywhere, even developing self driving cars. "Google has to do what no company in the technological arena has done," says Levy, who terms it the innovator's dilemma. "If some company leads and dominates by technological advance in one period, they are at a disadvantage to lead in the next period. They are so successful at what they do that they have a vested interest in maintaining their dominance. What's next will topple the current leader."

After all that intimacy, Levy still respects Google in the morning. "It's still an amazing company. As a company gets big, it changes. Google knew I'd come out writing about a few warts. By and large, I use the products myself." As far as Google's early creed of "Don't Be Evil," Levy says executives don't say it anymore, but it is still very much a part of the company's DNA.

Levy's Thursday evening talk will also address recent management shakeups at Google, as well as the company's influence on global political issues, such as the controversy in China.

Source: Steven Levy, Wired Magazine
Writer: Sue Spolan
Photo: Marion Ettlinger

Wallquest's World: Wayne wallcoverings firm wins small biz award for exports, hiring up to 40

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Wallquest has China covered. Dubai, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and India, too. The Wayne-based wallcoverings firm was just named Small Business Exporter of the Year by the Export-Import Bank, and received an award this week in Washington, DC. Wallquest's exports rose 76 percent to more than $17 million since 2008, thanks to robust sales overseas. Jack Collins is Vice President of the family-run company, which he runs along with his brother and father, who acquired Wallquest in 1985.

While the original customer base was domestic, big box retailers and toll free sales left no one to sell to in the United States, and Collins says Wallquest had to go overseas around 2005, now selling environmentally-friendly products in more than 50 foreign markets. With a good brand name in America, the company has had great success in emerging markets in Asia and the Middle East, and the trend is toward American design.

"You wouldn't think someone in Saudi Arabia or China would want American country style, but they do," says Collins, who explains that among affluent Chinese homeowners, a big wooden kitchen table is a sign of wealth, and American design dovetails with that table.

While Wallquest is a relatively small company, says Collins, its line is more extensive than competitors', with around 35 collections coming out this year.

"Our business used to be more seasonal, and now it's not because of our international clients. When the US market is strong in winter and spring, it's Chinese New Year, and in the summer, when the US market is down, the Chinese and Middle East markets are coming up."

Collins is grateful to both Ex-Im Bank and PNC Bank for playing an essential role in the company's global growth. Wallquest wallcoverings are made with water based inks and the highest quality printing technology in the main manufacturing facility in Wayne; recently, the company acquired and retooled two other factories in New York and New Jersey, bringing the total number of employees to 150. Later this year, Wallquest plans on opening another facility in King of Prussia, hiring an additional 30 to 40 employees.

Source: Jack Collins, Wallquest
Writer: Sue Spolan

Global reach, local team: Empathy Lab takes digital advertising from Conshy to NY, Paris

Flying Kite Media Monday, April 04, 2011

There's a powerful global interactive agency right here in your backyard. You've probably never heard of it, but that's by design. Empathy Lab, based in Conshohocken, is set to break $14 million in revenue this year with clients you've definitely heard of, including Sony, Nautica, Kipling, Saucony, Clarins, Lexmark, Comcast and Verizon. The digital agency, founded in 2005, employs around 70 people in its suburban Philadelphia headquarters, and unless you're in the know, you'd pass right by.

"We don't necessarily focus on the region as our target for clients," says Kevin Labick, CEO of Empathy, explaining Empathy's local low profile. "We made a decision to be world class in two areas: eCommerce, and media and entertainment as it pertains to the digital channel."

Empathy's target companies are in New York, Los Angeles, Paris and the Netherlands, with just a few in Philadelphia. Its secret to success is an intimate approach to customer needs and motivations.

"Everything we do revolves around understanding the customer's point of view," says Labick. "Almost every project we work on involves contextual inquiry. We go into people's homes and offices, and sit with them on the way to work in their cars, to understand how they use our clients' brands."

Labick cites research for David's Bridal eCommerce platform that involved peering over the shoulders of brides to be as they perused potential gowns on the web. With the growth of destination weddings, Empathy discovered that brides want to know what the bottom of the dress looks like so they can judge its performance on a sandy beach.

Another growth area for Empathy is digital media and entertainment. While many brick and mortar stores were closing down, Empathy positioned itself at the forefront of digital media delivery. One example is Sony's newly released My Daily Clip for Apple mobile devices. Empathy's strategic placement has paid off. While other agencies have struggled through the economic downturn, Empathy's growth is impressive: in 2009, company revenue was $8 million, in 2010, revenue jumped to $12 million, and this year's projections show more of the same.

Empathy's low profile is going to have to change, says Labick, whose staff spends the great majority of its time on client campaigns, not self-promotion. "We are growing and we need people. We don't want to open offices everywhere. We want people to be based here, and have lives here."

Labick attributes Empathy's success to deep partnerships within the industry, working closely with developers and software companies to deliver innovative channel solutions to clients. Earlier this year, SmartCEO Magazine selected Empathy as a Future 50 Company in recognition of its tremendous employee and revenue growth over the past three years.

Source: Kevin Labick, Empathy Lab
Writer: Sue Spolan

Philly solar conversion company among highlights of Cleantech Investment Forum

Flying Kite Media Monday, April 04, 2011

Clean technology is a big draw for potential investors. Several hundred people gathered at the Academy of Natural Sciences on March 31 for the 3rd Annual Mid-Atlantic Cleantech Investment Forum. Sponsored by Blank Rome Counselors at Law, the Academy and Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, investor panels discussing the future of renewable energy, clean water, recycling and waste disposal were followed by presentations from area entrepreneurs.

On hand were members of the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings. Williams J. Agate leads the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, developing and managing the Philadelphia Navy Yard, which is now in the process of creating a smart grid energy master plan.

The Fostering Cleantech Investment Panel included Kevin Brophy, of Meidlinger Partners, who talked about the future of clean water investment, and said that while innovation in the field came from the middle cap, the greatest opportunity for future investments is in the huge lower cap market. Also on the panel were Gary Golding, from Edison Ventures, who addressed rapidly improving awareness of water issues, Arun Kapoor of SJF Ventures, who mentioned 100 percent Pennsylvania wind provider Community Energy, and Josh Wolfe, the founding partner of Lux Capital. Wolfe described Lux as an early stage high risk venture fund valued at $100 million, and had a different take on the market than his fellow panelists, explaining that Lux focuses on companies that are long on human ingenuity and short on government rationality. Passing on biofuel, nuclear and natural gas investments, Lux is instead investing in nuclear waste management, calling it the energy industry's biggest unsolved problem.

The only presenting entrepreneur based in the immediate Philadelphia area is solar power conversion company Alencon Systems, Inc. Now in the research and development stage, Alencon addresses the problem of energy efficiency with large scale photovoltaic systems, which are currently created by aggregating multiple small systems. Alencon, which was borne of research at Rowan University, aims to simplify solar and wind power systems from distributed harvesting to centralized conversion. With a prototype already built and tested, Alencon slates projected sales of its streamlined systems at $45 million by 2014.

Source: 3rd Annual Mid-Atlantic Cleantech Investment Forum
Writer: Sue Spolan

Adaptimmune brings tools in the fight against cancer, HIV/AIDS to Science Center

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Imagine cancer treatment without debilitating chemotherapy and damaging radiation. Researchers in the field of fighting cancer and infectious diseases have recently come up with a way to remove, edit and replace patients' own cells to turn them into cancer and HIV super soldiers in the body. Adaptimmune LLC, one of University City Science Center's newest tenants, is the first company of its kind to develop a methodology for generating high affinity T cell receptors. Dr. Gwen Binder-Scholl, the Vice President of Operations at Adaptimmune, says that this powerful approach is a major departure from previous forms of cancer and infectious disease treatment, offering the advantage of much higher potency with far fewer side effects.

Traditional chemotherapy attacks any rapidly dividing cell in the body, knocking out cancerous tumors, but also killing cells that generate hair and mucous membranes. In this new treatment paradigm, T cells, which are the body's immune soldiers, are harvested from the patient, modified and placed in cell factories to grow, and then returned to the patient via vaccine. The whole process takes only three weeks from manufacture to release, according to Binder-Scholl, so that cancer and HIV can be treated fairly quickly.

"We are really the only company taking the next step towards commercialization of adoptive T cell therapy with high affinity TCRs," says Binder-Scholl, who has been working on T cell receptor research at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute for about three years at the June Laboratory under the guidance of professor Carl June, MD. Binder-Scholl explains that Adaptimmune, a subsidiary of a UK company, approached her to manage and carry forth U.S. clinical trials. While Adaptimmune already has a close relationship with Penn, its overseas leadership qualifies it for the SciCenter's Global Soft Landing Program.

This month, Adaptimmune is opening three new oncology indications: a trial for melanoma, which is very common, and trials for the less frequently occurring cancers synovial sarcoma and multiple myeloma. Depending on how the clinical trials go, Binder-Scholl expects to see data emerge within 12 months and hopes to get approval for the experimental treatment with the decade.

Source: Gwen Binder-Scholl, Adaptimmune LLC
Writer: Sue Spolan

Rowan University gallery set to become South Jersey contemporary art hub

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, March 29, 2011

South Jersey could become the area's next contemporary art hub, if Mary Salvante keeps up the good work at Glassboro's Rowan University Art Gallery. The Program Director and curator of the space opens a show tonight that melds a multitude of disciplines. Artist Beverly Semmes' exhibit, entitled The Feminist Responsibility Project, combines installation with live performance and video to explore what Salvante terms the third wave of feminism.

"The title is heavy handed in a way. It's a response to the weight of feminism and the role it has s played in culture and politics. It's meant to be ironic and paradoxical as well," says Salvante, who is in her second year as gallery director. The installation, which includes a massive white cloud made of fabric, altered pornographic images, a video of a woman kicking pink potatoes across a white frozen lake, and a performance piece involving two archetypes: The Bitch and the Super Puritan, who sit down to a puzzle made from an altered pornographic image. These elements are meant to juxtapose the last wave of feminism, now considered somewhat over the top, with the attitudes of young women today.

Salvante first saw Beverly Semmes at The Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia, and says she was drawn to the way Semmes uses fabric as a sculptural material,and how the multimedia aspect of the work adds to the tension of what she is trying to communicate. Semmes lives in New York City and has exhibited internationally, brings a new level of quality to Rowan's offerings, offering the South Jersey institution the opportunity to expand the size of its regional cultural community. The Feminist Responsibility Project opens tonight, Tuesday March 29, from 5 to 7:30 p.m., with a talk and live performance, and runs through May 14.

Source: Mary Salvante, Rowan University
Writer: Sue Spolan

Make room for the Aerotropolis: Drexel's Mobilities in Motion conference explores 'logistics' cities

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Mobility. The word conjures up a multitude of meanings. The ability to move. Mobile devices. Passing through physical and virtual space. Remaining motionless. Social networks and location based apps. Handicapped access. Planes, trains, automobiles, and skateboards.
Drexel's Center for Mobilities Research and Policy, or mCenter, headed up by sociology professor Mimi Sheller, offers a new way to group ideas not previously considered connected under one umbrella. The mCenter is the first in the United States to study mobilities, drawing on the many disciplines of arts, design, social sciences, engineering, computer science, business, law, media, environmental studies and public health.

Tasked with studying movement as a social science, the one year old mCenter drew an international crowd to its conference, Mobilities in Motion: New Approaches to Emergent and Future Mobilities. Held March 21-23, presenters considered scales of mobility, migration, borders, mobile phones, and all kinds of ways to get around, from the skateboard as urban transportation, to air travel, to creating an avatar and traversing virtual environments. Participants from a dozen countries, including France, Japan, the UK, and Brazil, as well as from more local addresses in the United States, spoke on emerging concerns like surveillance and privacy, the continually accelerating cycle of mobile device obsolescence, ethics and social rights, borders, sustainability and more.

Sheller, who is also co-editor of the international journal Mobilities, said, "The event has been incredibly successful, even beyond my expectations. We had excellent keynote presentations and very high quality papers in all of the sessions. People felt a real sense of dynamic interaction and stimulating dialogue across different disciplines and research approaches."

One highlight was keynote speaker Rina Cutler, Philadelphia's Deputy Mayor for Transportation and Utilities, "who gave an incredibly lively and entertaining talk about major infrastructure projects in the city, including her plans for developing an 'aerotropolis' at Philadelphia Airport." The idea that an airport can become a major urban hub, sometimes extending to a radius of up to 60 miles, was coined by professor John Kasarda (not in attendance), whose new book, Aerotropolis, The Way We'll Live Next, describes the next phase of globalization. With the rapid rise of logistics, global business networks, overnight shipping and increased travel, the new metropolis will have a massive airport at its center, with the city designed around it. Kasarda writes that logistics cities are now growing in Seoul, Amsterdam, Dallas and Washington, DC.

Sheller said participants, who included many PhD students as well as professors, were treated to presentations by artists and went on walking tours and as well as a mural tour. Aharon Kellerman, professor emeritus at Haifa University, remarked, "The most striking dimension of the conference was the young age of most of the participants. This is an encouraging trend by itself, notably in North America."

Source: Mimi Sheller, mCenter
Writer: Sue Spolan

Optofluidics' technology combines fluids, light to develop better diagnostic tools

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, March 22, 2011

It's one minuscule step for molecules, one giant leap for mankind. Nanotechnology startup Optofluidics, Inc. has established offices at the University City Science Center's Port Business Incubator. The company aims to develop optical devices that keep biomolecules in place in their physiological state, says Optofluidic's Chief Technology Officer and co-founder, Bernardo Cordovez. "The product will be an instrument that houses and reads the chips that we make."

As the company name implies, Optofluidics uses the combination of fluids and light to detect, identify and manipulate biomolecules and nanomaterials. The idea of adding fluids to scientific optical devices is not a new one. Back in the 18th century, rotating pools of mercury were used to create smooth mirrors in reflecting telescopes. According to Cornell University's Erikson Lab, where Optofluidics co-founder David Erikson initiated research concepts for Optofluidics, new biosensing technologies follow advances in the identification of biomarkers associated with specific diseases and injuries. Two examples are the neurodegenerative diseases Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, which have eluded early detection. The kind of non-invasive nanotechnology that Optofluidics is developing, which will diagnose and detect biomarkers at very low levels, could enable diagnosis even before symptoms appear.

The National Science Foundation recently gave Optofluidics nearly $150,000 in a Small Business Innovation Research award. "The market opportunity is tremendous because most single molecule instrumentation is made for DNA, while nano-instrumentation for handling and studying proteins is still a bit behind," says Cordovez, who adds that Optofluidics' family of technologies has very strong commercial appeal.
Making the move to the Science Center was the easy part. Cordovez cites the University of Pennsylvania's strong biosciences department which will provide "a terrific future employee candidate pool." Philadelphia is slated to become a world leader in nanotechnology research, says Cordovez, with a planned world class nanofabrication center at Penn, scheduled for completion in the next few years.

Source: Bernard Cordovez, Optofluidics, Inc.
Writer: Sue Spolan

Brazil's largest oil company seeks status as household name in Philly, US

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Brazil's largest oil and gas company, Petrobras, is looking to make some solid Philadelphia connections. Last Thursday, Petrobras, along with a consortium of sponsors including HSBC, Select Greater Philadelphia, the US Department of Commerce and the State of Delaware, hosted lunch at Brazilian steakhouse Fogo de Chao for local leaders in finance, transportation, economic development, drilling and trade. The Delaware Valley is home to major global logistics players like BDP International, a busy international port, and headquarters to financial institutions in Philadelphia and Wilmington.

For most in Greater Philadelphia, Petrobras is not yet a household name. Listed as the largest company in Latin America by market cap and revenue, PFC Energy ranked Petrobras at the end of 2010 as the third largest energy company in the world by market value. Thursday's luncheon was also timed to highlight President Obama's upcoming state visit to Brazil.

Speakers included Maria Izabel Ramos, Investor Relations Manager for Petrobras, who provided a company overview, as well as the Honorable Branko Terzic, Executive Director of the Deloitte Center for Energy Solutions, who took the podium to provide an overall look at the future of energy consumption. Terzic, who chaired a United Nations commission on Clean Energy, said that 40-50 percent of the world still relies on wood for fuel. That statistic is changing, with increasing incomes and increasing demand. "Seven hundred million people will enter the middle class in the next decade, primarily in India and China," said Terzic. "Fossil fuel, oil and gas will be their primary energy source."

Terzic pointed out that there are hard truths where global energy needs are concerned. While the use of electric cars is on the rise, he reminded the audience that fossil fuel powers 70 percent of the electric grid. In the total electric mix, only 1.6 percent now comes from renewable, clean resources like wind and solar, and we have a long way to go. With political uncertainty in the Middle East, Terzic said we can look to Brazil's Petrobras, for the dual benefits of a diversity of supply and a stable democracy.

Attendee Paul Ellenberg, Business Development Manager for global logistics company BDP International, said he now understands that "for the world to get away from bio fuels, it will take us at least 100 years." Petrobras is newly on Ellenberg's radar, and as far as next steps, he says, "BDP Projects will reach out to become their transportation vendor for equipment from around the world to Brazil."

Source: Branko Terzic, Deloitte, Maria Izabel Ramos, Petrobras, Paul Ellenberg, BDP International
Writer: Sue Spolan

When you're underemployed, turn to The Front Section

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, March 15, 2011

What does an urban planner do while looking for a job? If you're Dan Casey, you create a dense daily digest of news with a focus on what people are not reading. The Front Section, says Casey, "is a byproduct of being direly underemployed and spending too much time online. I got tired of reading about America and American debates, and realized that I was following a lot of international news that my friends weren't." The Front Section is a densely packed and far more graphically pleasing alternative to web pages like The Drudge Report. Casey drew his inspiration from "a venerable site called Arts & Letters Daily that has a pleasantly tweedy high-culture tone and is all about Big Serious Ideas. When you load up the page, you start smelling pipe smoke and leather patches grow on your elbows.

"A faint taste of port creeps into your mouth; it's uncanny," says Casey, who felt he could fill a niche for a younger audience that is "decidedly to the left" of the Arts & Letters readership, but is still interested in good writing about the rest of the world. Casey says he took off from the overall A&L concept, but shifted its center of gravity. And added rap videos.

The site, based in Philadelphia and updated daily, attracts about a hundred visitors on an average day, but can draw thousands when it's linked from another site. Casey says the site is hosted by a generous friend, and is more of a community service than a money making proposition. Casey says his state of being underemployed may be about to change: "If I get one of these 'jobs' that I've heard so much about, maybe I'll have the chance to slow down and focus my reading, and rebuild my attention span, so the blog will probably change too. Stay tuned."

Source: Dan Casey, The Front Section
Writer: Sue Spolan

Flying Bytes: Taco Art, Bakin' & Snackin', Canned 'Nam, Flavor Saver

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Flying Bytes is innovation nuggets from throughout Greater Philadelphia, with a focus on food and beverage this week.

WHAT A LOVELY TACO YOU HAVE
It's art. It's tacos. It's coming to a neighborhood near you. Celebrity chef Jose Garces announced this week the launch of the Guapos Tacos truck, which will be hard to miss. It's covered in a mosaic of 45,000 beer bottle caps, designed by Jun Aizaki, who created the interiors of all seven of Garces' restaurants. Follow the truck on twitter @GuaposTacos.

BAKIN' & SNACKIN': A GOOD THING
Soup sales may be down, but Campbell's reports its Baking and Snacking sectors are on the rise. The company just released Second Quarter Results for 2011. While the company's core product, canned soup, decreased four percent, CEO Douglas R. Conant says "Baking and Snacking, our second largest segment, delivered top and bottom line growth in the quarter." A top seller is Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies.

IN OTHER CANNED NEWS
Philadelphia's Crown Holdings is expanding its production of aluminum beverage cans at all three of its manufacturing facilities in Vietnam. The Hanoi plant expansion will allow Crown to crank out 1.5 billion cans; in Ho Chi Minh City, expected output for 2012 is 3.2 billion cans. Crown's global clients include Coca-Cola, Heneken and Kronenbourg.

TAKE IT TO GO
Food flavoring company David Michael announced the upcoming Innovation Roadshow that will take place in Philadelphia on March 30. This year's conference is all about going global with food and beverage products and features Mary Wagner from Starbucks' global R&D division. David Michael & Co. produces over 40,000 flavors, stabilizers and natural colors.

Source: Garces Restaurant Group, Campell's Soup, Crown Holdings, David Michael & Co.
Writer: Sue Spolan