Honoring our 2022 Life Changing Awardees

In a normal year, EDC’s Annual Dinner brings together 900 of the region’s business and community leaders to celebrate our organization and San Diego’s success over the last year, and to honor select individuals and entities whose work has stood out as most benefiting the region.

With two years of events missed and the words ‘COVID’ and ‘pandemic’ now part of everyday vernacular, our 2022 Annual Dinner will again bring the San Diego business and civic community together for a night of celebration.

EDC is proud to present the inaugural Life Changing Awards to:

The San Diego Foundation:

 

And, the region’s healthcare systems:

San Diego’s Good News of the Week – June 3, 2022

Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.

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For the week of June 3, 2022, here’s what we’re reading:

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A note on EDC’s Annual Dinner from Mark

Join us and more than 900 business and community leaders on June 9 for a night of celebration, honoring our region’s healthcare systems and The San Diego Foundation with the 2022 Life Changing Awards.

Read More and Join Us


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A note on Annual Dinner from Mark

Honoring the most ‘Life Changing’ among us

For the first time in almost three years, San Diego Regional EDC will welcome investors, board members, and community partners to our Annual Dinner.

This year’s event—hosted under the night sky at Petco Park—will feel a bit like a family reunion for us, having had so much time pass since we have been able to gather with the region’s broader economic development community to celebrate our work and our relationships. Alongside sponsors who represent an amazing cross-section of our economy and our work, there are two special relationships we will be taking time to recognize on June 9 with the 2022 Life Changing Awards:

The first is The San Diego Foundation. For almost 50 years, The San Diego Foundation has served as our primary community and philanthropic foundation, supporting a wide range of causes and organizations throughout our region. But never has its work been more important or its resources more critical to San Diegans than during the many months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the region’s healthcare systems and public health officials grappled with an unprecedented crisis and managed new and changing regulations, threats, and policies emerging around us, The San Diego Foundation sprang into action, starting the COVID-19 Community Response Fund to get resources directly to those hit hardest by the pandemic—individuals who were out of work, families who needed to put food on the table, elderly residents who were shut off from services and support, and more. The Foundation raised and distributed more than $65 million to more than 250 non-profits and community-based service providers in the first 15 months of the pandemic to help ease the suffering, uncertainty, and fear felt across San Diego.

We will also be recognizing the most visible heroes of the pandemic—our region’s healthcare professionals and systems. For more than two full years, the individuals who work within and lead our hospitals, clinics, medical practices, and healthcare access points throughout the county have supported, treated, and healed countless local and neighboring patients and families.

From testing, to vaccinations, to life-saving care, to mental health and emotional support, and much, much more, words cannot possibly express what we know they have been through nor what they have meant and continue to mean to our community. Thanks, awards, and accolades seem insignificant in the face of true heroism, selflessness, and service. But as an economic development community, we will pause to remember, celebrate, and thank our region’s healthcare professionals for being the very best of who we are through the most difficult times we may ever know.

So please join us for this special evening, in a special place, surrounded by special people, who all play their part in making San Diego the ‘Life Changing’ place we continue to know and love.

join us june 9

Mark

Mark Cafferty
Mark Cafferty

President & CEO

San Diego’s Good News of the Week – May 27, 2022

Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.

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For the week of May 27, 2022, here’s what we’re reading:

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EDC’s Annual Dinner at Petco Park

On June 9, EDC’s signature event will again gather more than 900 business and community leaders for a night of celebration. Join us at Petco Park for a unique dining experience, conversations with colleagues and new friends, and a short program honoring our region’s healthcare systems and The San Diego Foundation.

Get Your Tickets


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San Diego’s Good News of the Week – May 20, 2022

Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.

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For the week of May 20, 2022, here’s what we’re reading:

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San Diego’s Economic Snapshot: Q1 2022

Every quarter, EDC analyzes key economic indicators that are important to understanding the regional economy through trends in employment, housing, and investment.

In Q1 2022: VC investments in Life Sciences continue amid uncertainty surrounding inflation, while home prices continue to soar despite fewer sales.

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Red Door Interactive unveils new HQ in Sherman Heights

EDC, local leaders cut the ribbon on Red Door’s innovative office space

Today, EDC member Red Door Interactive, a national, award-winning marketing agency, unveiled its new San Diego headquarters alongside EDC and staff from Councilmember Vivian Moreno’s office at a ribbon cutting ceremony. Reflective of Red Door’s company culture and vision for the future of the modern workplace, the company’s three-building campus features panoramic views of Downtown San Diego, a variety of collaboration hubs, seven outdoor patio spaces, an urban garden, and state-of-the-art technology for interactive video conferencing throughout the campus, among other amenities for its 90-person staff to enjoy.

For Red Door, the project has been years in the making; the company originally purchased the land in Sherman Heights, a designated Opportunity Zone, for its new headquarters in 2020. Despite a variety of pandemic-fueled hurdles, construction for the project was crafted entirely by local vendors including AVRP, Swinerton, Cultura, and many more.

“We’re excited to bring our diverse team of talented, creative minds to this neighborhood,” Reid Carr, CEO and co-founder of Red Door Interactive, said. “This is not only a place of work for us, but a home for the work we do as a collective. We built this campus with an eye toward the future of work, along with the ability to reflect some of the best San Diego has to offer—outdoor spaces, accessibility, and the spirit of its unique neighborhoods.

With 20 years in offices in Downtown San Diego, including an award-winning, ground floor space in the DiamondView Tower at Petco Park, this new headquarters marks a bold move to a nearby neighborhood. It also represents Red Door’s commitment to physically coming together as a team, while also continuing to openly support hybrid and remote work—a philosophy the company embraced long before the pandemic.

Red Door hopes its new campus is a step toward bringing more awareness and investment to Sherman Heights. The neighborhood has long been regarded as a vibrant, historic place, rich in culture with fantastic views of downtown, Coronado, and the Bay—but it’s also centrally located around some of San Diego’s greatest assets. Sherman Heights provides easy access to Interstates 5 and 15, and state Routes 163 and 94. It’s also a few minutes from the San Diego International Airport and walkable to Balboa Park, and the unique neighborhoods of East Village, Golden Hill, and Barrio Logan.

EDC’s Mark Cafferty shares, “Reid and the team at Red Door Interactive have always been stewards of our region—investing in organizations like EDC and charting paths for other local companies in San Diego’s urban core. Twenty years ago, the company began a movement in East Village that proved to be monumental for the growth of Downtown. We know Red Door will bring that same vision, passion, and creativity to the historic and vibrant Sherman Heights community.”

San Diego’s Good News of the Week – May 13, 2022

Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.

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EDC Monthly Report: April 2022

With and through nearly 200 investors, EDC works to maximize San Diego’s prosperity. From connecting companies to tax credits to connecting taking small businesses online, here’s what EDC did in April 2022.

Apply Now


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MetroConnect VI: Meet the Life Sciences companies

World Trade Center San Diego (WTCSD)’s MetroConnect awards companies with matching funds, connects them with relevant export-oriented partners and resources, and arranges specialized workshops to increase their knowledge and awareness of global export trends and regulations.

Since the program’s debut in 2015, the 80 small- and medium-sized MetroConnect companies have collectively added 269 new regional jobs, signed more than 543 new contracts, and set up 22 new overseas facilities. Notable alumni include Scientist.com, Dr. Bronner’s, Cypher Genomics (acquired by Human Longevity Inc.), Planck Aerosystems, White Labs, and more.

Now, WTCSD is pleased to welcome the newest group of MetroConnect companies representing the diversity of San Diego’s innovation economy. Below, meet the Life Sciences companies:

Meet the four Life Sciences companies going global with MetroConnect:

 Nano PharmaSolutions

  • Location: San Diego, CA
  • Description: Nano PharmaSolutions’ NanoTransformer™ technology turns insoluble drug molecules to nanoparticles so they can be more effectively absorbed.
  • Key bottlenecks: Building out international marketing plan, outreach to identify prospects

Sparsha Pharma USA

  • Location: Oceanside, CA
  • Description: Sparsha Pharma, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company, creates transdermal drug delivery system and orally dissolved film products.
  • Key bottlenecks: Understanding regulatory landscape in target markets. Identify partners and distributors

 iAssay

  • Location: San Diego, CA
  • Description: iAssay®’s Point-of-Care Test (POCT) diagnostics solution tests patients wherever they are. Multi-tech/format POCT cartridges commercialized by hundreds of companies are used with iAssay® designed adaptors. Its AWS Cloud validates devices before testing can start, captures raw data, and offers time/date stamped results available through internet portals.
  • Key bottlenecks: Building out international marketing plan, outreach to identify prospects

Solecta

  • Location: Oceanside, CA
  • Description: As manufacturers deal with variable raw material quality, rising costs for energy, and increased quality standards for their finished products, Solecta helps improve separations processes through membrane solutions like microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis filtration products.
  • Key bottlenecks: Effective outreach to potential clients, targeted market research, local language barriers, understanding of local regulatory requirements

 

 

What’s next?

The 15 MetroConnect VI companies will gain access to a suite of resources to support expansion into international markets, including executive workshops, flight discounts, language translation, and up to $30,000 in grant funding.

“Programs like MetroConnect help ensure the world knows just what San Diego is made of—innovative, high-impact products and services across a wide range of industries,” said San Diego City Councilmember Raul Campillo. “I’m proud to support and welcome WTCSD’s new cohort, and look forward to seeing the companies’ impact on a global scale.”

Interested in growing your business internationally?

World Trade Center San Diego works directly with companies – free of charge – to help them expand internationally and grow in San Diego. Whether your small company is interested in learning about exporting and international growth, or your SME is ready to export and grow internationally, WTCSD is here to help.

Ready to get involved? Click here to receive our quarterly Global Brief Newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox.

 

San Diego’s Good News of the Week – May 6, 2022

Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.

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San Diego Biz Hub: Free digital services for small businesses

GoSite and EDC are still accepting applications for the San Diego Business Hub, which offers small, service-based businesses the full suite of GoSite products at no cost. Services include payment and invoicing, bookings, review management, customer communications, and template websites.

Apply Now


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San Diego’s Good News of the Week – April 29, 2022

Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.

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For the week of April 29, 2022, here’s what we’re reading:

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Case Study: Left Coast Engineering leverages Advancing San Diego to hire intern, strengthen talent pipeline

Like many companies during the pandemic, Left Coast Engineering faced challenges in accessing a diverse talent pool and building up its workforce. EDC’s talent initiative Advancing San Diego stepped in to help.

Read More


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