CREW Boston’s March Luncheon Program focused on the topic of Incubator Lab Spaces, why they were created, what they offer, and how they function. Moderated by CREW Boston’s Past President Kerry Hawkins, a highly active and engaged leader in the industry, panelists included Maggie O’Toole, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President at LabCentral; Carey Ann Comeau, Senior Director of Wet Lab Operations at Greentown Labs, and Thomas Ryden, Executive Director of MassRobotics.
The panel discussed how their spaces are intended to foster a collaborative, inclusive working environment for their member start-ups, and the progress that all three companies have made in ensuring that the tech industry is more inclusive of women and underrepresented communities, including communities of color. Although the current state of the market may mean that growth for start-ups may be slower than the meteoric growth of the past two years, all the panelists were optimistic that their members will continue to bring important innovation to market to respond to, among other things, the climate crisis, cancers, and other diseases.
The biggest take aways from the event included:
- All three companies are focused on the 3 C’s : Convening, Collaboration, and Communication.
- Attracting young talent into the fields is critical and have programs established to help share, educate, and attact talent. These include:
- Lab/Central Ignite Program: “LabCentral Ignite is a first-and-only-of-its-kind platform that’s addressing systemic racial, gender and other underrepresentation in talent across the life sciences and the biotech industry – from labs to leadership, and from the STEM student pipeline to the entrepreneurs advancing life-changing innovations.”
- Lab|Central Career Forge Program: “Career Forge identifies exceptional career-ready people (“Forgers”) and empowers them with the relevant technical skills needed to forge their path into the biotech industry with meaningful career opportunities.”
- Lab|Central MOSAIC Innovation Consortium: “The MOSAIC Innovation Consortium (MIC) convenes top Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) to establish a new era for biotech."
- Lab|Central What the Heck is Biotech? This STEM workshop is for the young future STEM innovators, “where you will learn what biotech is about, hear about some of the most cutting-edge science that companies are working on right here in Cambridge, experience life as a scientist for an hour (lab coat and all!), and discover what potential career opportunities exist for you, your family, and friends.”
- MassRobotics Jumpstart Fellowship Program: Provides opportunities for diverse Massachusetts high school girls to learn about STEM careers in robotics and develop their professional networks through direct engagement with industry professionals.
- Greentown Labs ACCEL Program: A new accelerator from Greentown Labs and Browning the Green Space (BGS), is bolstering BIPOC-led startups as they develop critical climate tech solutions by offering access to funding, networking connections, resources, and opportunities that structural inequities put out of reach.
- Economy and Future: The industry has slowed down, but all organizations are still forging ahead and staying on course…just at a slower (reasonable) pace vs the frantic fast run they have all experienced in recent years. As a result, they are seeing much better and stronger companies in their mix (This is great news for the industry and our region).
A big thank you to our panelists and to Kerry Hawkins for moderating this great discussion!
