Bloomington Shines as ‘Rising Tech City’
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe city of Bloomington stood out to judges in the 2021 TechPoint Mira Awards and earned the Rising Tech City Award. Bloomington’s tech culture grows from a deep partnership among The Mill, Bloomington Economic Development Corp., Indiana University and Regional Opportunity Initiatives Inc. Pat East, executive director of The Mill, says the city’s growing tech ecosystem is supported by the Trades District, a certified technology park that was established to spur economic development.
In an interview on Inside INdiana Business, East said The Mill has served as a rallying point for the city’s tech community to come together.
“It’s not just coworking. It’s not just office space. We really think of it as kind of the lightning rod, the epicenter of all things entrepreneurship here in Bloomington, all thing startup,” said East. “It’s where people get together where they create together, where they literally and figuratively run into each other. We know that the more ideas that people have, the more innovations [are] created and so it’s not just a coworking space. We try to create programming and run programming that furthers that mission of trying to create innovation.”
TechPoint Chief Executive Officer Mike Langellier says The Mill has become a hub not just for innovation, but talent as well. He says the city has excelled in placemaking and creating a quality of life that is attracting new talent to the region.
East says, looking forward, now is the time to continue investing, especially as the community recovers from the pandemic.
“We’re going to continue investing in our people, continue building up our staff. We’ll continue raising money, raising capital on behalf of our startups. We’ll continue all the programming that we’re doing. We’re going to expand our programming. So, everything that we did last year and the year before that, we’re going to continue to double down on.”
You can view the full list of Mira Award winners by clicking here.