Philadelphia corporate bus rentals

Home to the University of Pennsylvania, arguably the oldest university in the US and one of the founding members of the Association of American Universities, Philadelphia is a top destination for higher learning. The city has more than 300,000 college and university students in the Metropolitan area attending over 80 universities, colleges, trade, and specialty schools, and boasts five of the country’s top schools of medicine, as well, including the oldest med school in America, UPenn’s Perelman.

Once called the “Workshop of the World”, Philadelphia has seen its manufacturing numbers reduce considerably (from almost 400,000 jobs in the 1950s to around 20,000 today), but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a bright future. The landscape of manufacturing is changing, and it looks less like menial factory work than it does highly skilled technical work. In fact, the emergence of 3D printing as a manufacturing tool has allowed for many startups to get creative in shaping the definition of manufacturing, and what it means for Philadelphia.

Since the second half of the nineteenth century, Philadelphia has been America’s petroleum hub. Its location near the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers provided easy water access for the refining process as well as for export. The city’s role as an exporter waned significantly over the course of the twentieth century due to increased drilling activities around the world, among other factors. The industry has remained resilient, however, adapting well to the changes in the oil industry, and today much of its activities are centered around imported shale oil.

Given that the city is home to five prestigious schools of medicine, it’s no wonder Philadelphia is at the forefront of the healthcare industry. The sector accounts for more that 20% of employment in Philadelphia, higher than the national average. Its recent emergence as a hub for biotechnology has bolstered the city’s healthcare industry as well, allowing for important advances benefitting hospitals, clinics, and research centers alike.

So many Biotech companies are choosing Philadelphia over more traditionally popular tech hubs such as Silicon Valley, for a multitude of reasons. First, being home to a number of highly reputed medical schools has created an environment for innovation to thrive, as well as a highly-collaborative community. And, since hosting the BIO conference in 2015, Philadelphia has seen unprecedented growth in areas including lab space, NIH funding, and more, as well as a 50% increase in venture capital funding.