The Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) hosted its 69th Annual Meeting last night at the expansive Tradepoint Atlantic site, welcoming more than 450 attendees from across the region’s business, technology, economic development, nonprofit, and civic sectors for a celebration of the Baltimore Region’s economic promise and resiliency. The event marked the release of “All In | 2035: A Ten-Year Economic Opportunity Plan for the Baltimore Region,” an ambitious roadmap that will determine the focus of GBC’s organizational priorities over the next decade.
The unveiling of the 10-Year plan, developed in collaboration with over 200 partners and stakeholders, provides a guiding framework for GBC’s work, including fostering inclusive economic growth, catalyzing investment across the region, and strengthening talent pipelines. To assist in this initiative, GBC engaged TIP Strategies, an Austin-based consulting firm with a national portfolio of economic strategy work.
The plan focuses on three key areas:
- Industry and Innovation: Positioning the region to be a world-class hub for jobs, capital, technologies, and entrepreneurship. This includes supporting a robust ecosystem for startups and entrepreneurs, investing in critical infrastructure, and establishing a comprehensive business retention, expansion, and attraction strategy.
- Place and Community: Prioritizing efforts and investments that create vibrant, connected destinations for businesses and residents. Strategies involve aligning land use and economic development investments, investing in creating strong, safe communities, and enhancing multi-modal connectivity throughout the region.
- Talent and People: Nurturing, retaining, and attracting the workforce needed to support growing industries. This requires partnerships to align labor force skills and employer needs, reduce structural barriers to economic mobility, and enhance initiatives to attract and retain educated workers.
“Our plan is an invitation to be all in on the Baltimore Region and help us build a GBC that not only maximizes the immediate windows of opportunity, but also provides proactive, ambitious, and sustained economic leadership over the next decade and beyond,” said Mark Anthony Thomas, President & CEO of the GBC.
Since the last Annual Meeting in May 2023, the GBC has achieved significant milestones in regional economic leadership, transportation and infrastructure, and key areas of collective impact. Some of these accomplishments include leading a unified coalition to become one of 31 federal Tech Hubs, championing downtown revitalization, advancing transit investment, supporting the restoration and expansion of the Port of Baltimore, co-leading an initiative to address the vacant housing issue in Baltimore City at-scale, and establishing a regional investment scorecard that baselines economic activity, among others. Most recently, the GBC announced its selection of the place-branding experts Resonance Consultancy Ltd. (Resonance), the market research firm Ipsos, and the Baltimore-based strategic communications firm Timbre Strategies to undertake a business investment and civic oriented messaging, branding, and earned media initiative for the seven-jurisdiction Baltimore region following a thorough vetting and selection process.
In addition to unveiling the 10-Year Plan, the Annual Meeting included remarks by Governor Wes Moore, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Baltimore Washington International Airport Executive Director/CEO Ricky Smith, and GBC Board Chair Dr. Mohan Suntha. The event featured networking, interactive activations, sponsor exhibitions, and entertainment.
The 69th Annual Meeting was made possible with support from Host Sponsor: Tradepoint Atlantic; Title Sponsor: Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport; Ambassador Sponsor; University of Maryland Medical System; Signature Sponsors: CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Medstar Health, Merritt Companies, Southwest Airlines, and Whiting Turner; Program Sponsors: Johns Hopkins University and Medicine; Patricia and Mark Joseph, The Shelter Foundation, and PWC; and Media Sponsors: Baltimore Business Journal, Baltimore magazine, I95 Business magazine, and CBS Baltimore; among others.
ABOUT THE GREATER BALTIMORE COMMITTEE
The Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) is the leading voice for the private sector in the Baltimore region, providing insightful economic and civic leadership to drive collective impact. Comprised of more than 400 organizations, including large, mid-size, and small companies, nonprofits, foundations, and educational and healthcare institutions, the GBC is dedicated to fostering the prosperity of the Greater Baltimore region. For more information, visit gbc.org.