2013: Innovation, Acceleration, and a Community on the Move
2013 was a year when Massachusetts tech didn’t just evolve — it accelerated. Across cloud computing, healthcare, marketing, and workforce development, MTLC’s communities confronted the realities of rapid technological change and rising expectations. The conversations that unfolded throughout the year revealed a region leaning into innovation, wrestling with complexity, and preparing for a future defined by data, agility, and talent.
Engineering for Speed, Scale, and Reliability
The year opened with a strong focus on modern software practices. February’s seminar on continuous delivery highlighted how engineering teams were rethinking deployment pipelines to ship faster and with greater confidence. By June, the conversation had deepened into automated testing, where leaders from Solano Labs, Brightcove, Pivotal Labs, InterSystems, and Acquia emphasized the importance of automation, test‑driven development, and infrastructure testing. These sessions underscored a shared belief: the future belonged to organizations that could build, test, and iterate at speed without sacrificing quality.
Cloud strategy became another defining theme. In March, GitHub’s Mark Imbriaco challenged the assumption that cloud adoption was primarily about cost savings. Instead, he argued that agility — not price — was the real value driver. Leaders from Acquia, Carbonite, Ipswitch, and Scribe compared their approaches across Amazon, Rackspace, Azure, and private infrastructure, revealing a landscape where flexibility, vendor independence, and architectural discipline mattered more than ever.
Healthcare and Life Sciences Push the Boundaries of Data
Few sectors felt the pressure of technological change more intensely than healthcare and life sciences. February’s big data seminars brought together experts from Harvard, the Broad Institute, Pfizer, and Oracle to discuss the staggering challenges of genomics, neuroscience, and clinical research. These fields were generating data at a scale that outpaced existing infrastructure, algorithms, and even organizational culture. Leaders described environments where datasets were too large to move efficiently, algorithms evolved faster than systems could adapt, and collaboration was hindered by proprietary tools and siloed expertise.
March’s visit to Mass General Hospital’s Ambulatory Practice of the Future offered a contrasting vision — one where technology enhanced the patient experience rather than overwhelming it. Wireless vitals capture, collaborative exam rooms, and virtual consultations illustrated how thoughtful design could transform care delivery. MIT Media Lab researchers pushed the conversation further, imagining a future where open‑source tools, community support, and patient‑driven data would reshape chronic disease management.
Marketing, Customer Advocacy, and the Changing Buyer
Marketing leaders spent 2013 adapting to a buyer who was more informed, more empowered, and more data‑driven than ever. The annual Marketing Summit emphasized doing more with less, showcasing strategies for optimizing the marketing mix, designing campaigns that resonate, and building teams capable of navigating a rapidly evolving landscape. Speakers from Ipswitch, HubSpot, Kinvey, SmartBear, and others demonstrated how analytics, experimentation, and cross‑functional collaboration were becoming core marketing competencies.
In June, the sales and marketing community tackled the challenge of tying marketing to revenue. Panelists urged organizations to focus on KPIs, scoring models, and tighter alignment with sales leadership. By October, the conversation had shifted to customer advocacy. Companies explored how to formalize programs that turned satisfied customers into strategic assets, debating ownership models, KPIs, and the balance between tactical activities and long‑term strategy. The message was clear: in a world where buyers trust peers more than vendors, advocacy was becoming a competitive advantage.
Talent, Workforce, and the Emerging Skills Crisis
The workforce development community confronted one of the year’s most pressing issues: the widening gap between open roles and available talent. December’s summit brought together HR leaders, data scientists, and organizational experts to examine how analytics, behavioral data, and new leadership models could improve hiring and retention. Presentations from GILD, Sociometric Solutions, athenahealth, and Kronos highlighted the shift toward evidence‑based talent management and the need for organizations to measure what matters — from voluntary turnover to internal leadership pipelines.
The year also saw major investments in computing education. Microsoft’s $350,000 grant to the MassTLC Education Foundation underscored the urgency of expanding K‑12 computer science access and addressing long‑term workforce needs. With demand for computing skills outpacing supply, the region’s future competitiveness depended on broadening participation and strengthening the talent pipeline.
Celebrating Excellence and Community
The 2013 Technology Leadership Awards showcased the breadth of innovation across Massachusetts, honoring leaders in big data, cloud, robotics, mobile, healthcare, and more. Hundreds of executives gathered to recognize the companies and individuals shaping the region’s future, reinforcing MTLC’s role as a connector, convener, and catalyst for the state’s technology community.
