Community Connect #8 | Where to Grow: The Capital Region's Next Life Sciences Chapter
Join us for the Community Connect, Montgomery College’s signature biotech networking event hosted by the Pinkney Innovation Complex for Science + Technology (PIC MC).
This event is part of DC Startup & Tech Week (DCSTW), the DMV’s largest Startup & Tech Conference and Community. Think SXSW, but for DC — five days, 9,000+ attendees.
OVERVIEW
Every life sciences company that scales eventually faces the same question: where do we grow?
In the Capital Region, that question gets contested twice. Companies weigh the region against Boston, the Bay Area, and North Carolina. Then Maryland and Virginia compete for the same companies, the same talent, and the same capital. Some of the region's most important companies have stopped choosing and simply built on both sides of the Potomac.
The region has the science, the talent, and the room to grow. What it needs is gravity: places that pull companies in and give them reasons to stay. Building that gravity depends on three groups that rarely share a room. Innovation hubs create the pull. Developers decide what gets built. Public leaders decide what it's worth to close the gap.
This program brings them together for a candid conversation about what's taking shape, where deals break, and how the region compounds when it builds as one ecosystem.
If you're building, investing, or scaling in life sciences anywhere in Maryland, DC, or Virginia, this is the room.
AGENDA
Stay for the whole program or drop in at your convenience. Networking will be ongoing throughout the morning.
8:00 AM — Registration + Networking
9:00 AM — Welcome + Open Remarks
9:05 AM — Building the Ecosystem
Companies don't choose buildings. They choose places with gravity. The Capital Region has more of the raw ingredients than almost anywhere, but they're spread across hubs, counties, and two states that too often build alone. A new generation of innovation hubs is taking shape on both sides of the Potomac, and the region's anchors already work across both, proving the pieces connect. PIC MC and Nexus234 share what they're building from the ground up: what it takes to create pull before the gravity exists, which lessons they're borrowing from established hubs, where the gaps are that no single hub can close, and how the region's gravity compounds when its hubs build as one ecosystem.
9:20 AM — What It Takes to Build
Gravity creates demand, and developers decide whether that demand becomes buildings, and where. Three of the region's leading life sciences developers get candid about the deal itself: where it pencils, where it breaks, what makes one site win over another anywhere from the I-270 corridor to Northern Virginia, and what it would take for the region to build ahead of demand instead of chasing it.
Andrew S. Chod, Co-President, Minkoff Development Corp.
9:55 AM — Closing the Gap
Every deal that breaks leaves a gap, whether in financing, land, risk, or time. Across the region, states and counties compete for the same projects, often with the same tools. Public finance and economic development leaders respond to what the developers just laid out: where public capital can step in, how the deals the market won't close get closed, and where the region would win more by competing less.
10:30 AM — Networking
11:00 AM — Site Tours
THE VENUE
BIOSCIENCE EDUCATION CENTER
Montgomery College’s Germantown Campus is home to 6,000+ students and offers leading programs in biotechnology and cybersecurity. The BioScience Education Center features laboratories, classrooms, meeting spaces, and a conference center tailored for biotech education and research.
To learn more, visit montgomerycollege.edu.
PARTNERS
HOLY CROSS GERMANTOWN HOSPITAL
Montgomery College is the only community college in the U.S. with a full-scale hospital on campus, providing unparalleled real-world learning opportunities.
To learn more, visit holycrosshealth.org or follow them on LinkedIn.
HUGHES NETWORK SYSTEMS
An EchoStar company delivering broadband and network services to millions globally.
To learn more, visit hughes.com.
GERMANTOWN INNOVATION CENTER
Montgomery County's incubator in partnership with Montgomery College featuring premier office and laboratory space for life science companies.
To learn more, visit montgomerycountymd.gov.
BIOTRAIN
A workforce partnership shaping the region’s biotech talent pipeline.
To learn more, visit montgomerycollege.edu.
BIO-TRAC
Over 17,000 Scientists Trained • 300 Scientist Instructors
Open to the scientific community, each Bio-Trac® workshop is designed by active researchers for bench and research scientists with focus on the latest relevant techniques necessary for laboratory research. Bio-Trac clients represent every major sector of the biotechnology industry and include attendees from across the globe.
Our 30+ year wealth of relationship capital and program management expertise enable us to develop, implement and deliver training on up-to-the-minute relevant innovations in biotechnology.
To learn more, visit biotrac.com.