Follow the Central Maryland Chamber on Facebook to learn more about a few of our amazing member small businesses May 2 - 7!

BIPOC Business of the Year*

Shop Made in Maryland (SMIMD) is a retail incubator with a mission to grow Maryland based makers. This modern accelerator, brought to you by the founders of Shop Made in DC/VA, serves as a platform for creativity; enabling ideas, products and people to converge and build community while creating low-entry to market opportunities for Maryland based small batch manufacturers to scale their businesses. SMIMD will launch Summer 2022, with a flagship store in College Park, Maryland.

The Maryland Jockey Club at Laurel Park, Rip It Events, and Paddock Pointe, are pleased to announce a new running event, The Laurel Park 5K & 10K, to be held on October 9, 2022 at The Maryland Jockey Club at Laurel Park. Registration opens on April 22, 2022.

The Laurel Park 5K & 10K will provide runners with a unique opportunity to race at Maryland’s historic home to thoroughbred horse racing. The Laurel Park 5K & 10K is appropriate for ages seven and older (7+ for the 5K, 10+ for the 10K). The race starts and ends in The Maryland Jockey Club at Laurel Park, and participants will also run through Paddock Pointe, an award-winning, master-planned, mixed-use community in North Laurel.

All net proceeds from the race will be donated to Beyond the Wire, an initiative sponsored by the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, 1/ST Racing, Northview Stallion Station, the Maryland Jockey Club, the Maryland Horse Breeders Association and Maryland Jockeys. Beyond the Wire facilitates safe and enriching placements for retired Maryland based racehorses.

“We are thrilled to be hosting The Laurel Park 5K & 10K and raising funds to support our retired equine athletes,” said Mark Thompson, Senior Vice President of Development for 1/ST Properties, the developer of Paddock Pointe.

“The Maryland Jockey Club at Laurel Park is an extraordinary place to visit, let alone compete in a running race. We love to provide unique experiences for the running community, and this event definitely fits the bill,” said Danny Serpico, Owner & Race Director of Rip It Events.

The Department of Treasury has taken possession of a 104-acre site in Beltsville that will be developed as a new facility for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Gov. Larry Hogan announced Wednesday.

The 1 million-square-foot, $1.4 billion facility, which will be one of two complexes in the country to produce U.S. paper currency and other security products, will be built at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Prince George's County. The new facility would replace the BEP's existing Washington, D.C. production center at 301 14th St. SW, about a half-mile from the Washington Monument where roughly 1,400 people currently work.

The D.C. facility dates back to 1914 and no longer meets the agency's needs, which spurred Treasury's search for a new manufacturing center in 2019. A BEP spokeswoman told the Washington Business Journal at that time its annual maintenance costs for its current headquarters were close to $40 million. Also, roughly 65% of the BEP's employees live in Maryland — more than half of those in Prince George's.

Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman, Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (MDHCD) Secretary Kenneth C. Holt, and City of Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley congratulated the third cohort of AAEDC’s Inclusive Ventures Program (IVP) following the group’s graduation and pitch day on Wednesday, April 20, 2022.

Introduced by AAEDC in January 2021, IVP aims to help small and minority-owned, woman-owned, and Veteran-owned businesses in Anne Arundel County succeed and grow by providing their owners with a wide array of resources such as business education and training, access to capital, and mentorship. Including the third cohort, 31 total business owners have completed and graduated from the program.

Reflecting the geographic and sector diversity of Anne Arundel County’s businesses, the ten participating business owners include:

Members may post job openings to the board for free. 

Weekly Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Awareness Conversations

April is Diversity Month, a day to celebrate, recognize and honor the diversity and intersectionality of race, color, sexual orientation, religion, size, age, and beyond. And while this is a month designated to shine a light on diverse causes, voices, and stories, as leaders, we must commit to delivering DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and creating opportunities for people of all walks of life.

It is critical for leadership to develop strategies and tools to embed DEI into their company's DNA. Doing so will not only attract and retain the top talent needed for the company's growth and innovation but lead to the recovery and future of our societies and nation as a whole.

According to the 2020 Annual Business Survey (ABS), which covers 2019, approximately 18.7% (1.1 million) of U.S. employer businesses were minority-owned, and roughly 15 percent of people with disabilities have started their businesses, with those numbers continuing to grow.

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