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
9:10 AM — An Anchor in the Ecosystem
Companies don’t choose buildings. They choose places with gravity. ATCC, the global nonprofit biological resource center, has felt that pull on both sides of the Potomac: decades in Rockville, a headquarters in Manassas, and centers today in Gaithersburg and right here in Germantown. President and CEO Ruth Cheng, PhD, shares why ATCC keeps investing across the region, what’s next, from new federal awards to the upcoming Centennial Biomanufacturing Center, and what the region still needs to keep its anchors growing here.
Featuring:
Ruth Cheng, PhD, President and CEO, ATCC
9:35 AM — What It Takes to Build
Gravity creates demand, but demand doesn’t build anything on its own. It takes a developer willing to take the risk, capital that fits the deal, and public partners ready to close what the market won’t. In one candid conversation, developers and public leaders from Maryland and Virginia get into where deals pencil, where they break, what makes one site win over another, and where two states would win more by competing less.
Featuring:
Andrew S. Chod, Co-President, Minkoff Development Corp.
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.