It’s hard to believe that 2022 is already coming to a close. Thank you for helping us grow the technology community this year and celebrate the great work that is coming out of the Roanoke and New River valleys.

This year, the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council expanded its team and service offerings to members and the greater tech community and hosted an amazing TechNite celebration, including inducting a new RBTC Hall of Famer.

Here’s a look back at some of the key highlights of 2022:

• RBTC expands team with Taylor Spellman as associate director, and hires Katie Conner as technology talent strategist.
• A new networking and event series, Beer & Biotech, launched in the spring. The ecosystem-building series brought together investors, physicians, academics, inventors, startups, and state and regional leaders who are influential in the biotechnology industry. It will continue in 2023.
• RAMP brought on a new director, Lisa Garcia, and welcomed another cohort with five startups.
• More than 400 people came together to celebrate TechNite in May, highlighting some of the great innovations happening in the region and welcoming Victor Iannello into the RBTC Hall of Fame.

There’s a lot more in store in 2023 as well from the Verge alliance. Verge is a strategic coalition of organizations that lead and drive public and private collaboration on innovative projects in the Roanoke-Blacksburg region of Virginia that expand to the state level and beyond. The Verge alliance, including the Regional Accelerator & Mentoring Program (RAMP) and Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council (RBTC), provides programming, coaching, talent attraction/development, and connectivity to elevate the greater technology and biotechnology sectors in Region 2.