Focused on how the city can attract more businesses and jobs, mayoral candidates questioned a panel of experts Wednesday during a forum sponsored by the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.
The four mayoral candidates didn’t debate. Instead, they mostly listened. At the forum, each candidate was given the opportunity to ask a question to the panel, which was made up of five experts who collectively knew about technology, startups and finance. The point was to share ideas about how to get Philadelphia’s economy growing more quickly.
During the discussion, which took place at the University of Pennsylvania, talking points developed around how the business climate could improve. They included enhancing Philadelphia’s national reputation, training and keeping qualified workers and developing an identity that would make the city more marketable.
“Our challenge… is how can we break through the old perception, how can we develop a bigger reputation for all the amazingly positive things that happen here,” said panelist Jeanne Nevelos, vice president of business expansion services with Select Greater Philadelphia.
She said once businesses visited Philadelphia, they were often wowed by what they saw - the city is no longer what it was 20 years ago when many businesses did their best to stay away.
Mayoral candidates Lynne Abraham, Nelson Diaz, Jim Kenney and Doug Oliver, all of whom are part of the Democratic field, were in attendance. While the panelists sat on stage, the candidates were given front-row seats with the audience.
Diaz asked how to link investors with the right entrepreneurs who were going to start the next great businesses.
In response, panelist Robert Cheetham, founder and president of Azavea, a technology company, said tech startups don’t always need a lot of capital to get off the ground but that a local government receptive to innovative thinking was important.
As an example, he talked about businesses trying to find a solution to the everyday headache of finding parking in an urban center. Cheetham said one way to potentially solve the problem would be to create an app that would tell you where to find free spots. Such an app would need sensors to monitor parking vacancies and a local government willing to cooperate.
“Can Philadelphia be that place where we are building a city government that is a platform that has sufficient transparency and provides the kind of data and other kinds of tools that enable entrepreneurs to come up with ideas?” he asked.
San Francisco had done this, and he said he believed Philadelphia could as well, which would help bring in talent.
Each candidate was allowed to ask a single question - although Oliver snuck in a second.
Abraham focused on education, and Kenney asked how larger businesses could assist smaller startups.
Oliver asked how to get well-qualified college students who graduate in Philadelphia to find work locally instead of leaving for jobs elsewhere.
That question highlighted points that were made throughout the hour-and-a-half forum, where panelists said the city’s low cost of living, vibrant downtown and young educated populace were attractions for businesses. The city needed to exploit those, they said, as well as its location in the Northeast near the biggest local economies in the world.
“We sort of have to try harder,” as a city to attract businesses and people said Nevelos. “And I think that is the wonderful spirit we have here.”
