Meet Baltimore’s winners in the 2024 Technical.ly Awards

Wow, y’all. Just wow. 

I fully expected your excitement for another chance to honor the best of the best in Baltimore’s tech, startup, founder and innovation world. How couldn’t you, with such a strong and evocative list of nominees for this year’s Technical.ly Awards?

But neither I nor my colleagues across the mid-Atlantic writing their own versions of this annual awards series could’ve known just how passionately you would turn out. 

By the time we closed votes last Monday, you and your peers in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Delaware and DC cast over 3,000 votes throughout our coverage regions. In Baltimore, some of our revised categories shook out really close, while others had clear winners. No matter who you voted for, your passion and understanding of the power of awards shone through as strong as Derrick Henry breaking through a miscalculating offensive line. 

Scroll down to see who won this year — and get some breaking news about a popular podcast, too.

Product of the Year —  Open Works’ solar-powered WiFi and charging station devices

The team at the Greenmount Avenue-based makerspace organization used funding from the Central Baltimore Partnership, Maryland Office of Statewide Broadband, Baltimore Civic Fund and AARP Community Challenge grant program to develop and install these novel devices throughout the city.

The organization and its partners, including 5G internet provider WAVEs, now boast 10 stationary and two mobile iterations of this device, according to Open Works Executive Director Will Holman. 

Open Works celebrated a few other milestones this year, including a makerspace and tech transfer partnership with Coppin State University and the first-ever Maryland Maker Meetup — a conference for the Maryland Makerspace Association (MMA) and another collaborative effort, this time with TEDCO, Station North Tool Library and DMV Petri Dish.

In 2025, Holman said to look out for more programming at pilot spaces in West Baltimore, more solar stations (and opportunities for public feedback on them) and efforts to make the MMA a formal trade association.

For now, Holman also asks anybody interested in bringing a solar station to their community to email contract services manager Zach Adams or call 410-862-0424.

Educator of the Year —  Wendy Bolger, Loyola University Maryland

A longtime ecosystem leader and frequent figure in Technical.ly’s Baltimore, the founding director of the college’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship remains a pivotal player and teacher for local ventures.

Bolger cited several key accomplishments in 2024, including investments and learning opportunities stemming from the Loyola Angels Fund and a related angel investment course; a class in partnership with Unlimited Potential that connects Loyola students with local middle schoolers; and a half-decade of the Baltipreneurs Accelerator, which Bolger said awarded $350,000 total to its 50 ventures.

The sixth Baltipreneurs cohort’s demo day will take place March 18, which Bolger said offers “opportunities for more of the ecosystem to sponsor and get involved.” She also mentioned the Maryland Student Venture Showcase coming up in February, as part of a broader state-funded collaboration with other Baltimore-area colleges. 

More broadly, Bolger plans to keep working with this community and Loyola alumni to keep growing the Simon Center and its impact.

Program of the Year — CLLCTIVLY

This local nonprofit added another tool to its ongoing toolkit of supports for Black-led entities in 2024: The inaugural Drs. Elmer and Joanne Martin Social Impact Fellowship. This project with the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Social Impact Strategy granted 18 sector leaders $2,000 per month for half a year, along with programming to develop their own capacities.

Beyond this accomplishment, COO Krystle Starvis cited impact through the organization’s sixth CLLCTIVGIVE campaign, through which CLLCTIVLY crowdfunded over $1 million for local Black-led organizations over 24 hours. 

CEO Jamye Wooten added that the organization looks forward to two particular campaigns and convenings next year. The third annual 28 Days of Black Futures campaign kicks off in February and incorporates documentary work from journalist-in-residence Sean Yoes. We Give Black returns three months later.

Creator of the Year — Aaron Dante

Dante spent years putting the voices of Baltimore’s artists, economic boosters and less famous residents into people’s ears through his popular “No Pix After Dark” podcast. This year, he made further inroads into the city’s innovation economy by hosting live episodes featuring the likes of UpSurge Baltimore’s Kory Bailey, the Novella Center’s Jeff Cherry and The Cube CoWork’s Tammira Lucas at Baltimore Peninsula.

“Hosting live episodes of ‘No Pix After Dark’ at the Baltimore Peninsula was next level,” Dante said. 

The host and creator also listed a collaboration with mental health services provider For All Seasons Inc. and live episodes at the Enoch Pratt Free Library among his long list of 2024 highlights. 

2025 comes with a big milestone: The last season of “No Pix After Dark.” 

“It’s bittersweet,” Dante said, “but I’m ready to celebrate everything this show has accomplished and go out on a high note,” he said.

But don’t fear, because Dante plans to launch another show. “Aaron Dante Unplugged” will see him traveling across the US and having conversations over meals in different locales. He’s also hoping to do more public speaking and emceeing, like when he hosted the Port Discovery Children’s Museum’s 2024 gala.

“2025 feels like a year of growth, change and stepping into new opportunities,” he said. “I’m excited to keep creating, keep connecting and keep finding new ways to tell stories that make an impact.”

Power Move of the Year — Greater Baltimore Committee’s 10-year economic plan

One of the region’s premiere economic development organizations hit hurdles this year when a major trade engine crashed into the Patapsco and the federal government passed (for now) on granting Baltimore’s tech ecosystem $70 million. But the GBC weathered these challenges and didn’t let up on its vision — one comprehensively captured in the “All In 2035 Economic Opportunity Plan” it unveiled before the region’s political and economic glitterati at its annual meeting.  

For GBC President and CEO Mark Anthony Thomas, the report was one of several actions that the organization took to establish its role following its 2022 merger with the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore.

“It wasn’t just one thing, but a series of steps toward this outcome,” Thomas said. “This included the creation of the economic scorecard, launch of the Investment Summit and the hiring of Resonance to establish our regional economic brand.”

Thomas plans to lean into this branding while pursuing new opportunities in tandem with the 10-year plan’s pillars of equity-driven growth and cross-region collaboration.

“With the upcoming legislative session and shift in leadership in Washington D.C., our voice will be important to identifying investments and opportunities to support the Baltimore Region, including housing redevelopment and transportation expansion,” he said. “With just two years now in Maryland, there’s still a lot to learn and see and many business and civic organizations who should be engaged in the tables we’re setting.” 

Money Move of the Year — Pava LaPere Legacy of Innovation Act

The Maryland Student Venture Showcase that Loyola leader Bolger mentioned above would not be possible without this piece of bipartisan state legislation, one of several high-profile initiatives honoring the memory of deceased EcoMap Technologies cofounder Pava LaPere. It allotted money for student entrepreneurship, and $500,000 already supported the cross-university program leading up to that showcase.  

Some of the Pava LaPere Innovation Acceleration Grant Program’s principals said they were especially proud of the level of collaboration from throughout Baltimore’s higher education institutions and ecosystem-building organizations to make it possible. They also had high hopes for the possibilities this could enable for Baltimore’s economy. 

“I am proud that we got representatives passionate about student entrepreneurship together from 19 universities and community colleges,” wrote Robbin Lee of UpSurge, which administers the act’s funds alongside TEDCO. “The level of engagement speaks to everyone’s grasp of this opportunity as an inflection point for student entrepreneurship in our region!”

“In 2025, we scale, growing this MVP into a platform of opportunity that matches the incredible talent and ambition of students across Maryland, added Lindsay Ryan, executive director of economic development for the University System of Maryland (USM). “Excited to make 2025 the Year of the Student Entrepreneur!”