There were 75 Baltimoreans of all stripes filing into Mt. Vernon Marketplace on Monday night. They sipped beer and basil lemonade before sharing their brightest ideas for making their city stronger.
It was Help Plan Baltimore Innovation Week 2016. And oh boy, B’more brought it.
Attendees split into groups based on the week’s seven tracks (Creative, Dev, Civic, Access, Business, Media and Sciences) to discuss what they believe should be included in the fifth year of BIW. If you haven’t already saved the dates for #BIW16, it’s happening Sept. 23-Oct. 1, 2016.
Here are some of the big ideas that came from each breakout group:

Creative

• Pairing creatives with people in other industries they wouldn’t normally collaborate with.
• Mobile outreach with music and art to engage children.

Dev

• A developer conference that aims to create an app that helps an existing issue. Less talks, more doing.
• Pairing junior and senior devs to create together and learn from each other.

Civic

• A “Solve-a-thon” that brings city government employees and the tech community together.
• Events that engage the entire community about how citizens can get involved through technology.

Access

• To celebrate five years of BIW, a look at where Baltimore will be five years from now.
• A Department of Transportation/tech community collaboration to analyze the ways Baltimoreans get around.

Business

• A look back at what successful startups have accomplished in the past five years.
• Speed networking for junior and senior buisness owners.
• A “Wild Card” topic during Technical.ly’s Business Conference. Something that those attending could vote on.

Media

• Startup Crawl for kids to introduce them to the wide span of careers they have to choose from.
• Public art on display in relation to BIW.

Science

• #Failfest for Science — what researchers have learned from failure.
• How to fix tech transfer and get more businesses out of our universities.

If any of these ideas stand out to you, start planning! The Technical.ly events team will do our due diligence to get these ideas off the ground. Regardless, it takes the force of the community to get this done. Let’s do it.
So what now?
The #BIW16 Event Organizer Twitter Chat is scheduled for Thursday, July 14, from 2-4 p.m. Find that, other important deadlines and all you need to know to plan an event in the official BIW16 Event Organizer Guide.
This is a great resource
Feel free to reach out to alexandria@technical.ly with any questions. BIW season is finally here and we’re thrilled to get you involved. Cheers!