We Don’t Give Up

My friends and family in California use many descriptors of earthquakes, but one that has impressed me is the sense of ground rolling beneath with erratic periods of aftershocks long past the rumbles. I have never experienced an earthquake, but I adore metaphors, so tolerate my parallels for a moment.  

In early 2020 we all “saw” from afar that there was a virus, but keeping politics out and science in, we knew that virus’ travel would find its way on our own local soil given the global citizens we now are. However, if you had told me on March 1, 2020, that we would remain shelter in place through May 2020 and perhaps longer, I would not have “seen” that. Candidly, I do think of myself as a fledgling futurist. This time I was not prepared what these three-plus months whipped through us. 

By March 12, it was clear that we were at the onset of our COVID-19 journey in southwestern Pennsylvania. We closed our offices on that Friday and made sure everyone could work from their respective homes, sheltering in place. I had been taught and embraced the tenets of safety from ALCOA’s Paul O’Neil, (who passed away right as the virus greeted the USA, which in and of itself was ironic to me, but more on that under a separate note.)  

Over this first weekend of sheltering, a few of us on our team talked about isolation, connectivity, transformation, relationships, events and safety. What became shockingly apparent is that we would not waste a moment figuring out how we, the Tech Council, would leverage our assets, our skills and almost four decades of work to ensure Pittsburgh continued to be relevant and influential in innovation and technology.  

It is not just what we have created, it is our heightened clarity of connectivity which serves the underpinnings of all of our work. We have just begun, and we are eternally grateful for your support, our membership, as we iterate and continue to build Pittsburgh – we do not give up. Ever. 

On March 23, we launched our now strongly anchored daily Zoom series: “Business as Usual.” Our immediate incarnation was titled “Business Unusual,” but we found that was already nabbed to someone in the interwebs, so we grabbed on to the title and proceeded. Like our fellow startups and designers, we assessed our assets, connected with leaders over that weekend, tested our hypotheses with our board chair, Jason Wolfe and set up five days of noon guests. 

I knew that as an organization, storytelling and content creation is one of our many coveted capabilities. I also knew that we saw the business community rapidly worried, so engaging with our elected officials was essential in the weeks ahead. Based upon our core pillars of advocacy, visibility, business development and talent, we leveraged our trusted relationships in science, health care, advocacy, innovation and academia. 

While we built on what we knew matters to business leaders, we also experimented. School closings ignited the digital divide. Nursing homes in our region suffered the most from Covid 19 related deaths. Families were now strapped with the task of home schooling and toggling working from home. Food lines were at historic tragic levels making national news. The coveted airline industry collapsed and public transit almost halted. The philanthropic community immediately jumped in at the front lines. We knew that we had to provide a comprehensive tapestry of conversations which pushed the boundaries of our work, yet set the stage for a hopeful, not naive tomorrow. Nothing was going to be the same. And that was the invigorating part. 

And, I must point out that we could not have made this heavy lift without the muscle of long-time sponsors and true Tech Council partners Huntington Bank and AT&T. They immediately believed in this work and have stood so firmly behind us. It made all of the difference!

While we enter the summer, at the Tech Council, I am in awe of what we have created in moments of darkness: “Business as Usual” daily web series connecting with thousands of people; Virtual STEM summit over seven days; a virtual job fair because Pittsburgh IS hiring; TechVibe Radio One Mic Stand’s 100 stories over 100 days; weekly manufacturing exec sessions; and more new products as I type this.  

It is not just what we have created, it is our heightened clarity of connectivity which serves the underpinnings of all of our work. We have just begun, and we are eternally grateful for your support, our membership, as we iterate and continue to build Pittsburgh – we do not give up. Ever.