Making Philly the tech hub it's meant to be: by us, for us.
PhilaCon Valley was born from a simple truth: Philadelphia has incredible tech talent, but too many of us – Black, Brown, LGBTQIA+, and underrepresented folks – face barriers to breaking into and thriving in tech.
Founded by Waskar Paulino, PhilaCon Valley started as a vision to create a different kind of tech community. Not another networking event where you hand out business cards and leave. Not another conference where you sit and listen. A real community where we learn together, build together, and lift each other up.
We meet at Pennovation Works and other spaces around Philadelphia for hands-on collaboration sessions. No lectures. No passive learning. Just us, building real projects, pair programming, sharing knowledge, and supporting each other's growth.
We deliberately center Black, Brown, LGBTQIA+, and underrepresented folks in tech. This isn't just inclusion – it's making sure our voices lead.
We believe the best way to learn is by doing. Our events are collaborative build sessions, not passive lectures.
We're not competing with each other. We're building each other up. Your success is our success.
This is Philadelphia's tech community. We're building the future of tech right here in our city, our way.
All our projects are open source. All our resources are free. Knowledge should be accessible to everyone.
Everyone is welcome here, regardless of experience level. Whether you wrote your first line of code yesterday or you're a senior engineer, you belong.
Our flagship event. We meet regularly to work on real projects together. Bring your own project or join someone else's. Learn through pair programming, code reviews, and building together. No presentations, just building.
Hands-on technical workshops covering everything from Git basics to building APIs. We learn by doing, and we learn together.
Resume reviews, interview prep, job search strategies, and connections to inclusive companies. We help each other land jobs where we'll be valued and can thrive.
We build tools for our community – job boards, learning platforms, portfolio builders. Real projects that solve real problems and give us experience to add to our resumes.
PhilaCon Valley centers Black, Brown, LGBTQIA+, and underrepresented folks in tech. We know that tech isn't always welcoming to us. We know the barriers, the microaggressions, the imposter syndrome.
This space exists for us to learn, grow, and build together without having to code switch, without having to prove ourselves, without having to be "the only one in the room." Here, we're not the only ones. We're the majority. And we're building the tech industry we want to see.
Everyone is welcome at our events, but our focus and resources center those who have been historically excluded from tech spaces.
Philadelphia has always been a city of innovation, from Benjamin Franklin to The Fresh Prince. But when people talk about tech hubs, they talk about Silicon Valley, New York, Austin. Not Philly.
We're changing that. Philadelphia has the talent, the diversity, the creativity, and the grit to be a major tech hub. What we've lacked is the infrastructure and community to support homegrown tech talent – especially talent from communities that have been historically locked out.
PhilaCon Valley is building that infrastructure. We're proving that you don't need to move to San Francisco to work in tech. You can build a tech career right here in Philadelphia, surrounded by people who look like you, support you, and believe in you.
Be part of building the Philadelphia tech community we want to see.