Location, global accessibility, connectivity.

These are the qualities highlighted in a video released this morning by Philadelphia’s coalition to make the city home to Amazon’s second North American headquarters. The video is the first of three to be released this week as part of the city’s #PhillyDelivers campaign, leading up to Amazon’s proposal deadline on Thursday, Oct. 19.

For the video series, the coalition interviewed nearly 30 representatives from the Philadelphia region’s business, culture, arts, culinary, academic, athletic and real estate sectors.

Featured in the first video, which calls attention to Philadelphia’s logistical strengths, are interviews with:

• Apu Gupta, CEO & Co-founder of Curalate;

• Bill McNabb, CEO of Vanguard;

• Brigitte Daniel, Executive Vice President of Wilco Electronic Systems;

• And Adam Grant, Wharton professor and Option B co-author.

For Gupta, what makes Philadelphia an ideal spot to do business is the city’s airport, as his company has more than 850 clients scattered around the world.

“We need to be able to travel, and we need to be able to travel easily,” Gupta said. “The Philadelphia airport’s a 15-minute Uber from here. It’s incredibly convenient and it gets me anywhere I need to go, almost always non-stop.”

Both McNabb and Wharton highlighted the city’s close proximity to other major cities like Washington D.C. and New York, noting that each can be accessed by train in less than two hours.

“This central location is fantastic from that regard,” McNabb said, adding that he doesn’t find the prospect of living in New York or D.C. “anywhere near as attractive” as living in the Philadelphia region.

Daniel praised Philadelphia for being a city centered around corporate partners and “innovation hubs that are building and growing.”

“I’ve been able to go to D.C., I can go to New York, but why I chose Philadelphia is because of that unique proximity to all of those value-added parts to a community,” Daniel said.  

Last week, economists Mark Zandi and Adam Ozimek of Moody’s Analytics identified Philadelphia as a top potential location for Amazon’s second headquarters based on these factors: business environment, human capital, cost, quality of life, transportation and geography. In the analysis, Philadelphia ranked third behind Austin and Atlanta.

At a Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce event on Thursday, Mayor Jim Kenney commended the city’s Latino community for its contributions to improving Philadelphia’s business corridors and neighborhood schools, making the city an attractive possibility for companies looking to expand, such as Amazon.