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MADIA Tech Report: Cities Are Valuable Partners for Tech Development
Arcadia Weekly Jun 04, 2020
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By Brenda J. Trainor
Nonprofit organizations need local governments. Lately, the role of local governments to provide essential services like public health and safety has been emphasized, but local governments are also important contributors and participants in defining how cities grow, develop, and thrive. Working in partnerships, cities assure that the needs of a healthy community are satisfied with a good range of homes, jobs, educators, employers, services, and organizations that contribute to our overall well-being and economic development.
MADIA Tech Launch is a nonprofit organization that counts on the valuable partnerships of its municipal partners. This is evident in the name of the organization: MADIA was created with the first letters of its original partners: Monrovia, Arcadia, Duarte, Irwindale, and Azusa. Recently, the City of Glendora became the newest partner to help MADIA in its mission to “ensure the region’s technical, scientific, and industrial workforce is connected and has the tools needed to be successful.”
Glendora Mayor Michael Allawos remarked “Glendora was thrilled to be invited to join MADIA. Our city is a strong advocate for promoting economic development, not only within its own boundaries, but throughout the San Gabriel Valley; the opportunity to partner with neighboring cities in a joint effort to support the development and growth of local businesses focused on the technical, scientific and industrial workforce is one that could not be missed, especially given the current circumstances where we see how crucial technology, biology and health care is in the recovery from COVID-19.”
Municipal partners help MADIA satisfy its mission to encourage technology business enterprises to locate here in the technology heart of the San Gabriel Valley. Cities and businesses work together through MADIA to provide educational programs in entrepreneurship, business finance and operations, as well as technology development and commercialization in settings which encourage networking and collaboration in this community.
Working with its partners, MADIA Tech Launch sponsored BIOTECH 2020 earlier this year, offering a series of presentations and lectures that gave a focus to the burgeoning businesses in the area that focus on health and biotech research, manufacturing, and service delivery. And then came the COVID-19 pandemic.
Monrovia’s Mayor Tom Adams discussed how MADIA connections helped facilitate one local biotech business to adapt to new demands brought on by the current health crisis. An established medical lab is working on a soon-to-be announced expansion of its operations. Mayor Adams reported that “it is exciting to see the diversity of biotech that’s coming to Monrovia in part due to the efforts of MADIA members. The prospect of Monrovia getting possibly the largest COVID-19 test laboratory in the nation is an exciting example of how cities and nonprofit organizations can work together.”
MADIA Tech Launch is a dynamic and home-grown organization that encourages networking and interactions amongst its techno-centric community of cities, employees, investors, business owners, thought leaders, educators, government officials, innovators, and students with monthly meetings and special events as well as through online services like LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook.
