Maryland Restaurant Week kicks off its fifth year on September 13, 2024. The dining public is invited to enjoy these Maryland Restaurant Week-specific specials from September 13-22, 2024.
Earlier this year we let you know that TOUS les JOURS, a French-Asian bakery will be taking over the space currently occupied by Corner Bakery in Rio. Corner Bakery’s last day of business in Rio was Thursday, February 22nd. Exterior construction has begun and it has included the removal of the clock that was part of the Corner Bakery decor for more than 25 years.
Talent is one of the most important factors influencing where companies choose to invest, expand, and grow. As competition for skilled workers intensifies, employers are embracing a broader talent strategy: one that leverages partnerships. Last week, almost 120 business leaders, elected officials, and members of Montgomery County’s business community attended the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation’s (MCEDC) panel, “The Talent Advantage: A Growth Strategy for Companies in Montgomery County, Maryland,” to hear how local businesses are capitalizing on the County’s world-class academic institutions, innovation ecosystem, quality of life, and economic development resources to attract and retain top talent.
Moderated by Dr. Anne Khademian, Executive Director at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG), the panel included executives from businesses and institutions across industries, including Lockheed Martin, TrilliumBIO, Thales Defense & Security, Johns Hopkins, Montgomery College, and AstraZeneca, who discussed their companies’ strategies for developing their workforce.
Talent as a Business Strategy
For companies competing in highly specialized industries like the defense industry, access to talent directly influences where they choose to locate and grow. For Lockheed Martin, which employs nearly 1,000 people in Montgomery County, talent is one of the primary reasons the company chose to be headquartered here.
“Talent is in the top one or two reasons why we are in the County,” said Todd Cohen, Senior Lead of Strategic Workforce Development, Lockheed Martin.
According to Cohen, Lockheed Martin begins working with partners to develop their talent pipeline well before students enter the workforce, including partnering with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) on programs such as coding challenges. Lockheed Martin also maintains close relationships with local higher education institutions, including the Universities at Shady Grove (USG).
That local talent pipeline is also an important factor for AstraZeneca, which employs more than 5,000 employees and contractors in Montgomery County. According to Tiffany Lukis, Director of STEM and Community Engagement at AstraZeneca, the company often taps into its alumni base from Montgomery College (ranked #26 nationally among community colleges) and USG (which offers nine different public universities onto one campus), and other local institutions to fill highly technical roles.
Local Companies Are Developing Talent and Not Just Finding It
According to the panelists, investing in existing employees is just as important as recruiting new ones.
At Suburban Hospital, workforce development is closely tied to talent retention. The hospital partners with local educational institutions to provide employees with opportunities to gain new skills and advance their careers. Programs include a Certified Nursing Assistant program through Montgomery College and English as a Second Language classes.
“A huge part of our talent strategy is to prioritize holding on to our top tier talent,” said Corey Lewson, MSW, Program Manager, Workforce Development, John Hopkins Medicine.
For smaller companies, developing talent internally can be especially valuable. Lane Edwards, Vice President of Operations, TrilliumBIO, a biomarker discovery company with fewer than 20 employees based in Rockville, described the challenge of balancing the need for highly specialized expertise with the realities of building a team at an early-stage company.
“When it comes to hiring, we have to be very strategic,” Lane said. “Do we have someone who has the expertise or someone that we can build on?”
Each month our very own Mr. MoCo releases his favorite dish to eat and in August he went with a breakfast sandwich from the only Maryland restaurant included in the Washington Post’s “10 Best Breakfast Sandwiches in the DC Area” list. While WaPo mentioned the Bistek, Mr. MoCo went with a different sandwich from Lapu Lapu.
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Spirit Halloween opened its first Montgomery county location at 30 Grand Corner Ave. in Gaithersburg’s Rio Lakefront in August this year. A second planned location is coming to Rockville and Spirit has just added a third Montgomery County location in Aspen Hill.
When I moved back to Northern Virginia after several years in New York, most of my old friends had moved away. I found myself rebuilding a social circle from scratch.
I had plenty of people I could connect with online, but that wasn’t translating into anyone to grab a beer with after work, play trivia with, or text when I wanted to get out of the house. Making new friends as an adult required far more deliberate effort than I remembered.
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October 10 & 11, 2026
The MoCo Epic is a festival celebrating mountain biking, natural surface trails, and the community that makes this region a great place to ride! 2026 marks the 16th anniversary of the MoCo Epic.
2024 is not only an Olympic year, but also a World Championship year for the sport of Acrobatic Gymnastics. This summer at the 2024 USA Acrobatic Gymnastics National Championships and World Team Trials in Minneapolis (the same week and location of the Artistic Gymnastics Olympic Trials), USA Gymnastics selected two groups from Rockville’s Xtreme Acro to represent Team USA.
District 4 Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) Commander David Smith shared several incidents that occurred around Wheaton on Friday night, including arrests for distribution of fentanyl, handgun possession, and stolen headphones.
Montgomery Parks is hosting a day of fun and fitness at the Wheaton Passport to Sports event at Wheaton Regional Park on September 8, 2024 from 11am-3pm. Coaches will be on hand to give pointers as participants try various fitness activities at the park, including pickleball, tennis, ice skating, ice hockey and field sports.
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Starbucks is coming soon to the Aspen Hill shopping center. Permanent signage is up and construction is ongoing at 13677 Connecticut Ave, the former home of shuttered women’s clothing store Dress Barn.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown has announced that former dentist Seyed Hamid Tofigh, who previously defrauded the Medicaid program and practiced dentistry without a license, was sentenced to 18 months in jail for violating his probation by attempting to return to dentistry using a fake license and leaving home detention without approval. (more…)
The F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre at 603 Edmonston Dr in Rockville will close from December 17, 2024, to September 1, 2025, for renovations focused on improving accessibility and sound, including upgrades to comply with ADA standards. (more…)
The City of Rockville has announced that the speed camera recently installed near the intersection of southbound Wootton Parkway and Wootton Oaks Court will begin issuing citations by the end […]