Personal Updates – Christopher Wink

My response to a troll

I have a troll. I’ve had them before, and I’ll have them again. This one though has passed more standard comments and emails, and has shown up in person. He was there a year ago when I got struck in the face at an event by a protestor I had to remove. Now, last month, he wrote up and printed hundreds of flyers with a long missive about me. He and some others posted them up on poles around my work conference, and handed many more to the volunteers at the conference’s registration table.

I do not think about this man, but gosh, he sure does think about me — he appears to be a retiree with a lot of free time. (I’m beginning to assume he kinda has a thing for me). His attacks were fairly strange, but easy enough to dispute that I thought I’d do that here for my own well-being.

This is not funny. But it has the makings of a very dark comedy

The details were horrible, a gruesome murder scene. But, stay with me now, I was repeatedly sent screenshots of multiple local TV news segments about the discovery of a body on South Street in Philadelphia this month.

My Resolutions for 2025

This will be the last year of my 30s.

Might as well send this decade of my life out with a flourish. One way I do that is with my annual resolutions, setting goals and a direction for where I want to get.

Below, I share them for my own reference.

My 2024 in review

I closed last year having felt that I set a new normal I hoped to continue in 2024. I was right.

I traveled a bit more, spoke a bit more, wrote a bit more, all while feeling more comfortable as a parent and a bit more certain where my company had to go. Plenty of vulnerabilities remain but I feel more comfortable in my life post-pandemic and post-kid. I am blessed, if challenged.

Below I share the highlights.

THRIVING named top podcast by PA News Media Association

It’s another much appreciated honor for the two-year reporting, community engagement and qualitative research project. I was especially proud that we got the nod in the “large” newsroom category, meaning the most stiff competition. Find THRIVING here.

Technical.ly is honored for its “journalistic impact”

I’m proud to share Technical.ly was awarded the “Journalistic Impact” award (in the large tier no less!) last night in Chicago by the well-regarded LION: Local Independent Online News Publishers!

The leading driver was our big THRIVING reporting project on economic mobility, and I’m so proud that our other multi-local reporting was honored too. Best I can remember, this is our first proper journalism award, and it’s a big one — even though our communities have often kindly honored our work!

My Technical.ly Builders Conference keynote May 2024

Well the video crew somehow damaged the file of my speech, but I gave the keynote at Technical.ly’s annual Builders Conference back on May 8.

I published the themes on Technical.ly here, here and here. I wanted to share the full video here, but no luck. I do have my full notes below.

Coded by Kids named me a ‘Champion for Change’

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Coded by Kids, leaders of the youth engagement nonprofit honored others. I was flattered to be among them.

I remember hearing about Sylvester Mobley spending time at a South Philly rec center to offer basic computer and coding classes to young kids there. Soon after Technical.ly profiled his work, and I later joined their first board of directors, where I also met his wife and partner Danae Mobley. I’ve worked closely with both, especially Danae of late in her role leading 1Philadelphia.

Since I’ve known them both for so long, and challenged and collaborated them too, it meant a lot for Danae to say nice words and call me a “champion for change” at an event last night filled with other stakeholders and partners. Thanks friends.

For regional startup cities to stand out, be true to yourself

I joined Chattanooga Tennessee Mayor Tim Kelly, and Joe Kirgues, the cofounder of the startup accelerator provider gener8tor, for a discussion at COLLAB. It’s the well-polished mobility- and quantum-themed conference produced by that city’s entrepreneur support organization.

Our theme? How do small city’s stand out. My push? Talk to each other, find a consistent narrative. Be authentic, honest and repeat those people stories.

I ended up filing this story after the conference and a quantum piece here. I also hosted a webinar on the U.S. Southeast’s entreprenuership activity.

I got hit in the face and escorted a protestor from an event. What happened?

About 20 minutes left in the evening reception, and a 20-something fella came running up to me: “You got a big problem, and you better come with me,” he said, and turning.

What first crossed my mind was someone was having a health emergency. Instead, I walked into the emptying main ballroom, where perhaps 100 people so remained. A half-dozen technology exhibitors were there, including a high-school robotics demo and a chocolate 3D printer. This was the tail-end of the closing reception of my news organization Technically’s annual conference, which itself was the close of Philly Tech Week, an open-calendar of community events we founded.

It got weird.