Technical.ly Builders Conference 2026

300+ professionals growing local ecosystems in 20+ states

The Technical.ly Builders Conference is an annual two-day conference focused on storytelling for entrepreneurs, place-based marketers, and ecosystem builders.

Hosted by the country’s leading ecosystem storytelling news organization, Builders brings together entrepreneurs, ecosystem builders, and those that support local entrepreneurial and tech-led economic and workforce development strategies.

Our tracks include Founder Fishbowls, in which early-stage entrepreneurs exchange best practices; workshops on tools (yes, including AI) that aid storytelling; and sessions on storytelling strategies that support entrepreneurship, workforce, and other elements of local economic mobility, growth, and opportunity.

Year-round, Technical.ly CEO and founder Chris Wink shares a weekly Builders newsletter and regular Linkedin Live series on these same topics. Entrepreneurship and technology-led economic development are changing, and the Technical.ly Builders Conference is a destination to understand and exchange how, with others who are doing the work.

Event Schedule:

Wednesday, May 6th:

5-7pm Opening Reception in partnership with Morgan Lewis

Thursday, May 7th:

8:30am: Networking Breakfast & Registration

9:30am: Opening Remarks

9:45am: Plenary: Builders Live! Podcast Recording

10:15am: Break

10:30am: Breakouts

• The Case for Entrepreneurship: How to tell a story that attracts leadership, policymakers and funder
• Real Life AI Deployments for Small-Team Founders

11:30am: Breakouts

• Centering (and Funding) Entrepreneurship, Science and Innovation in our Economies
• Entreprenuer as Thought Leader (When Social Video and Event Speaking Helps, not Distracts)

12:00pm: Lunch

1:30pm: Breakouts

• The Ecosystem Stack: Common Problems, and Solutions for Place-Based Entrepreneurial Engagement: Using Events to Infrastructure to Create Signal
• Early-Stage Capital Stack Right Now

2:30pm: Breakouts

• Who Is Your Story For? Re-Defining the Audience for Ecosystem Marketing
• Selling into Corporate

3:30pm: Breakouts

• Explaining the Sciences as Economic Strategy
• Building Teams Across Time Zones

4:30pm: The Recap

Friday, May 8th:

8:30am: Networking Breakfast & Registration

9:30am: Opening Keynote by Technical.ly Publisher Chris Wink

9:45am: Real World Pro-Entrepreneurship Strategies: Lessons from Nasdaq ARIE Report

10:15am: Break

10:30am: Breakouts

• Pro-Entrepreneurship Regionalism: Economic Development across County, Regional and States
• Interactive Session With Barry Wright, Highwire Improv
• The ESHIP Way: Interactive Session on equipping entrepreneurial ecosystem builders to shift culture, transform economies and lead from the inside out.

11:30am: Breakouts

• Storytelling that drives results: Attraction, Retention, Creation, Connection and Policy Change
• Fractional Support for Startups

12:00pm: Lunch

1:30pm: Special, interactive element to celebrate the US Semiquincentennial

3:30pm: Break

Friday Evening at Drexel Square:

5:00pm - 10:00pm

To help close Philly Tech Week, we’re bringing back the Guinness-certified world’s largest video game for the first time in 12 years alongside an outdoor, interactive party