The Baltimore Banner’s annual innovation conference returns for a second year with a program focused on the infrastructure supporting digital businesses and the research institutions helping develop new products and companies.
BannerX will be Sept. 30, in Columbia, Maryland. The event launched last year to explore how organizations could navigate the intersection of AI and cybersecurity. This year, the conversation shifts to what it takes to build and sustain the foundation in this space through four main discussions:
- Data center development
- The risks of adopting AI
- Collaboration in the life sciences
- How tech intersects with economic policy
The program also includes a conversation on Maryland’s innovation future, bringing technology, public policy, workforce development and economic strategy into one discussion. It will explore how those areas intersect and the role of partnerships across government, industry and the broader business community.
Speakers leading the conversations represent a range of perspectives from academia, government and industry.
They include W. Mason Emnet, senior vice president of public policy at Constellation; Jason Michael Perry, founder and chief AI officer at PerryLabs; and Monica Lopez, privacy officer at VHC Health and cofounder and CEO of Cognitive Insights for AI.
Also slated to participate is Bezawit Sumner, chief information security officer and senior director of security and compliance at CRISP Shared Services; Mary Morris, director of innovation initiatives at the University of Maryland, Baltimore; and Bret Schreiber, senior vice president of life sciences and technology at Fulton Financial Corp.
Together, the sessions aim to help answer questions like: “Who is prepared to use a new technology?” “What infrastructure does it require?” “Which organizations need to work together to put it into practice?”
With the central discussions plus space for networking, the event creates a venue for conversation between the people and institutions involved in turning technological capability into everyday use.
BannerX takes place Sept. 30, 2026, on the first floor of 10285 Lakefront at 10285 Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia, MD. Doors open at 8:30 a.m., and the program runs from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Tickets are $45 and include the discussions, networking and breakfast. The full agenda and registration are available online.
