Phila. hopes to retain students with Web site

Philadelphia is known as "The City That Loves You Back," and a new Web site aimed at student retention wants to share some of that affection with area college students. The ePhiladelphia Technology Alliance unveiled www.ePhiladelphiaInsider.com last week as part of a multimedia campaign to keep recent Philadelphia college graduates in the city. "A lot of college students don't know what's out there, they don't know the quality of life, they're just not educated on the city and what it has to offer," said Christian Marrone, spokesman for Pennsylvania Sen. Vincent Fumo, who secured state funds for this project. "We're trying to make the city more attractive to them in the hopes that it will retain more students." Although the marketing program is led by ePhiladelphia -- a membership organization focused on improving the city's technology community -- the project's $100,000 cost was covered by the city and the Center City District, as well as the state Department of Community and Economic Development. "When [ePhiladelphia] started two years ago, one of the things with all of our members was that we needed to keep knowledge workers -- especially tech workers -- here in the city," ePhiladelphia Vice President Joseph Barone said. Barone added that lifestyle is just as important as a job to the technology workers that his group is trying to court. The new Web site hopes to cover both of those bases, and also offer job opportunities from non-technology-based businesses. While some of the site's sections -- such as lifestyle and shopping -- are prototypical Web directory fare, the core of ePhiladelphiaInsider.com is designed to open up the city's technology businessplace to students. A networking area announces upcoming ePhiladelphia social events to allow students and business leaders to mix, and a featured company section to give cutting-edge companies -- which one might not expect to find in Philadelphia -- a chance to shine. Speaking before the city's chamber of commerce last month, Mayor John Street introduced his vision of bringing Philadelphia into the New Economy -- one that will ultimately depend on not letting the city's best students slip away. "The issue of student retention is critical to the City of Philadelphia," said Commerce Director James Cuorato at the Web site's unveiling. "What we're trying to do with this campaign is educate everyone about everything that we have to offer as far as the living and the playing aspects... and then have the job opportunities here as well." Cuorato said that less than 20 percent of the city's college students choose to remain in Philadelphia after graduation -- far fewer than such cities as Boston and New York. "From late-March to mid-May we're going to be on the college campuses with various types of giveaways -- we want the ePhiladelphiaInsider.com site to become part of the college environment," Barone said. The project's success will be measured by Web traffic, registered users and by determining how many users eventually become employed by area companies, according to Barone, calling it a "first step." "We're going to do this all through the spring and we're going to learn a lot," Barone said. "Ideally, what we'd like to do then is come back with another program in the fall." Another group -- the Eastern Technology Council -- is assembling its own campaign to market the region as a technology center. But ePhiladelphia Insider.com will only be targeting the city -- for now. "Our home base is the downtown and the city and that's where we want to start," said Paul Levy, executive director of the Center City District.