ICONic Maryland tech

Newsletter for May 28, 2024

Hey Baltimore, I hope you had an excellent Memorial Day weekend despite the heavy rain at the end. Thanks to everyone who said hello at the Greater Baltimore Committee's annual meeting last week (an impressive feat, given the size of Tradepoint Atlantic's warehouse venue out in Sparrows Point), and I hope to catch you Thursday at the Equitech Accelerator demo day!

Until then, we're back in your inbox today and Thursday with more local and national tech news.

First up is a recap of last week's ICON Awards, for which the Maryland Tech Council bestowed top honors on some of the state's highest-achieving tech execs, companies, students and STEM educators. We've also got some new perspectives on how cities can attract the entrepreneurs and economic development their leaders all say they want, courtesy of our CEO Chris Wink.

— Sameer, Technical.ly editor for Baltimore and DC

While I was at the Greater Baltimore Committee's event in Sparrows Point, I know, from your glamorous LinkedIn posts, that many of you went down to North Bethesda to see our state's tech tapestry shine at the Maryland Tech Council's latest ICON Awards ceremony. For those who didn't attend, some of the Baltimore area's notable winners included Delali Dzirasa, CEO of Fearless (which, full disclosure, is a Technical.ly client) and Digital Harbor Foundation CEO Andrew Coy.

This year's ceremony was also the first to feature the Pava LaPere Young Innovator Award. That honor went to EcoMap Technologies, the company the late LaPere cofounded in Baltimore.

➡️ Learn more about this year's awardees in DC reporter Kaela Roeder's new story.

Anybody really invested in seeing the place they live thrive through innovation and entrepreneurship (i.e. probably a lot of you reading this) invariably asks what it might take to either retain or attract founders in their region. For Technical.ly CEO Chris Wink, the solution is multifold but revolves around a core principle: The people every city wants, those who create jobs and economic impact, need a good place to build a life, not just a company.

"You should be the fiercest champions of policies that may not sound all that directly tied to tech: Build more housing to make it cheap; encourage walkable density, care about pre-K-12 education; encourage pro-immigration and childcare policies as a bipartisan, pro-growth agenda," Wink said.

➡️ Find more of our CEO's advice in his latest Builders column.

• ICYMI: The teams behind LabPair, a platform to help scientists turn unused research into new scholarly literature, and BioBuzz, a regional life sciences-focused talent network, each won $5,000 grand prizes earlier this month at the Maryland New Venture 2024 program's pitch night. [bwtech@UMBC]

• Gaithersburg-based Emergent BioSolutions' latest layoffs of 258 Maryland-based workers, part of a 300-person reduction across the company, includes five employees in the Bayview facility that Emergent also plans to fully close. [Biz Journal]

• After almost a decade, Fort Ave.-HQed mainstay Mindgrub's Jason Michael Perry is leaving the company's CTO position. [LinkedIn]

• Baltimore Homecoming seeks applications for its annual Crab Tank pitch competition by June 16. [Baltimore Homecoming]

• Whether you partied down in Sparrows Point last week or not, you can check out for yourself what the Greater Baltimore Committee is planning for the next 10 years in this report. [Greater Baltimore Committee]

• Here's some advice for second-generation Americans trying to keep their family and loved ones from echoing misinformation. [The Markup]