Personal Updates – Page 2 – Christopher Wink

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.

I was honored with the 2024 IBIT “Innovators Award”

I proudly accepted Wednesday the “Innovators Award” from the Temple University Fox School of Business’s Institute for Business and Information Technology. The award is “given annually to a person or persons for innovation in applying IT to create business opportunity.”

The award was timed with the launch of the 14th annual Philly Tech Week, which I founded, and the 15th anniversary of Technical.ly, a local news org that has adapted in this strange economic period for community journalism. The transfer of Generocity.org last year was also a relevant example of my work.I was proud that my references for the award were my friends journalist-turned-college-dean David Boardman and entrepreneur Bob Moore. I formerly emceed these very awards, which are led by the thoughtful and analytical Munir Y. Mandviwalla and Laurel Miller. Knowing what they put into these awards made it all the more special. I was certainly in good company: My fellow award-winner was Jeff Hamilton, who was the CIO of Pfizer while the company rolled out its covid-19 vaccine.

Below, I share my remarks from the award event.

Why do so many people hate journalists so much?

Why do so many people hate journalists so much? I think part of the answer is journalism isn’t only what you think it is. Gimme a sec.

Spoiler: I’m a journalist but more properly I’m a guy who founded a local news organization 15 years ago. Still going! So my entire professional career has been spent on the sustainability of local journalism. Career choices!

I read 56 books in 2023

Gosh, that was a lot.

How? Well, a baby waking up at 5am ended up resulting in my reading way more than usual. Poor sleep all around, come to think of it, so in some sense I hope I don’t read this many books again. I also gave up most TV weeknights, though I already didn’t watch much. Find all my reading notes here, and see the list below.

2024 Resolutions

I’ve started 2024 to continue what I started last year.

Looking back at years of resolutions I’ve had both sorts of plans: when I wanted to make change, and when I wanted to continue the work of the year prior. This year I intend to be more of the latter — no big changes intended. My post pandemic life emerged in 2023. I hope for 2024 to be stronger because of it.

My 2023 in review

I’ll now always consider 2020-2022 as three pandemic years, and 2023 as something resembling a return. Much of what I did this year felt like setting a new normal, which I hope to continue in 2024.

I felt more sure as a parent, got back on a plane and felt so much more was in place at work. There were challenges to be sure, but I’m heartened to look at back at something more like the open life I’ve been lucky to have. Below, I share some highlights and review progress on my resolutions.