4 biggest stories of 2024

Newsletter for November 27, 2024

Thanks to all who showed up for your colleagues, friends and the innovation community by voting in this year's Technical.ly Awards. After thousands of votes, we have our winners — learn more below.

We also have a recap of the four biggest stories out of the region's tech and startup ecosystem this year. Check that out before you head into this holiday, however you do or don't observe it, and we'll catch you in December (aka next week!).

— Sameer, Technical.ly editor in Baltimore and DC

Thousands of readers cast votes in our latest year-end awards, this time with new categories — and the results are in.

From a longtime ecosystem builder to a piece of consequential legislation, this year's Baltimore honorees capture the breadth of products, people and developments that make this ecosystem hum. Plus, one of them announced something major for 2025.

➡️ Get the scoop and meet the winners

Baltimore's tech, entrepreneurship and economic development worlds had a lot to celebrate in 2024. That's even with the really obvious setbacks — like the Key Bridge falling into the Patapsco, or the snub for Phase II EDA Tech Hubs funding. During those moments, the community came together, breaking down barriers across subsets and silos.

We rounded up the top stories of the year in the latest preview of our forthcoming State of the Tech Economy report.

➡️ Here are the stories that dominated 2024

• Four years in the military helped the head of NPower's Maryland branch abandon common assumptions about tech careers — and who can have them. [Technical.ly]

• Check who won the Techstars Founder Catalyst showcase and hear what went down on a panel with Moore admin and US Coast Guard officials about the response to the Key Bridge collapse. [Technical.ly]

• Fearless CEO Delali Dzirasa believes the White House's new action to remove degree requirements from federal IT contracting will open doors that once froze too many people out of the lucrative process. [Technical.ly]

• Spark Baltimore is giving away a six-month single office membership for a small business or startup. Apply by Nov. 30. [Spark]

• Barely six months after it partnered with NASA to launch the IM-1 lunar mission and leased a facility in Glen Burnie, an early contract termination led Texas aerospace company Intuitive Machines to lay off as many as 35 workers. [Technical.ly/Houston Inno]

• City Councilmember Kristerfer Burnett laments the defeat of two measures to protect Baltimoreans from "the invasive clutches of mass surveillance technology". [Baltimore Beat]

• Major funding news: BCR Cyber and the Maryland Association of Community Colleges got a $1.8 million grant from the state's Department of Labor to build up an accelerator in tandem with its extant cybersecurity workforce development project. In addition, the Baltimore Development Corporation and state Commerce Department approved a $200,000 conditional city loan, on top of $2 million in conditional state funds, for the Connect Labs initiative at the University of Maryland BioPark's 4MLK building. [BCR Cyber/BDC/UM BioPark/Technical.ly]

Get ready, because TEDCO is back with another Entrepreneur Expo, returning after a pandemic break. Next week brings the 10th edition of the popular daylong conference designed to celebrate and boost the Maryland innovation ecosystem.

The event features dozens of speakers (both founders and funders) as well as networking opportunities, a keynote lunch and a closing reception. It all goes down right on the water in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor on Wednesday, Dec. 4 — get your tickets today.

➡️See the full agenda and register to attend

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