Entrepreneurship : Featured Stories

Over the past decade, "cyber" has become a catch-all term stuck in front of anything remotely related to IT or Internet technologies. It's come to mean everything but define nothing. That got us wondering what "cyber" really means in the Greater Baltimore Area. Here's what we found out.

Including a technology showcase in the nation's largest free arts festival may leave many arts lovers scratching their heads. Baltimore's tech community doesn't think combining the two is strange at all. In fact they see Betascape, the latest addition to Artscape, as their coming out party, demonstrating to area residents and the rest of the country that Bmore's tech scene is badass.

If you saw Ron Schmelzer walking down the street, you'd never know that he's a radical. His background in IT wouldn't give you a clue either. Take a closer look though at the hat he's sporting and you might guess that this Baltimore-based techie has started a fashion revolution!

How do you take the cliche out of "thinking outside the box?" By actually doing that. At a time when it seems like there's a Web design and marketing firm on nearly every street corner, Fastspot, guided by Tracy Halvorsen,  has left a trail of innovation and happy clients in its wake. We wondered how the company has managed to forge its distinctly unique identity. Here's what we found out... 

Friendly? Check. Funky? You know it, Hon. As the fashion icons of "Sex and the City" strut their stuff across the big screen once again, we went out into Charm City in search of Baltimore's fashion scene. We discovered that thanks to a wealth of talent and bumper crop of boutiques, It may be high time to add "fashionable" to the city's description.

Watchen Harris Bruce has only lived in Baltimore for a few years, but in that time she's started a non-profit to help those with mental illness find a place in the workforce and been appointed the Commissioner for Liberia to the Governor's Commission on African Affairs. And, as though that wasn't enough, she's the assistant vice president and community development advisor at PNC Bank. We managed to catch up with Bruce, though it wasn't easy keeping up with her.

And while you're at it bid a fond farewell to the expensive sets, the concert halls, the tuxedoed gents, the bejeweled, perfectly coiffed, mink-wearing ladies and every other opera stereotype. Rhymes with Opera, a young company launching a three city tour in Baltimore, wants to bring opera to streets, the warehouses, and any other place you wouldn't expect it.