By Debbie Wibowo, Senior Associate, Outreach at Upwardly Global

Edwin moved to the U.S. from Colombia with a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Engineering and two years of professional experience with reducing contamination in water supply systems. Like many immigrants, Edwin moved to the U.S. to improve his career opportunities; however, upon arrival he quickly realized that segueing into an engineering career was harder than he anticipated.

To make ends meet, he worked at SAKS Fifth Avenue as a customer service assistant, but was anxious to work in his field and felt that every day he spent side-tracked by his survival job was...

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today presented “A Stronger, More Resilient New York,” the comprehensive and ambitious report that analyzes the city’s climate risks and outlines recommendations to protect neighborhoods and infrastructure from future climate events. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Bloomberg launched the Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency and charged it with recommending steps the City should take to protect against the impacts of climate change.

Under the...

By Julie Chan, Senior Project Manager

Vote for your favorite Innovate Health Tech NYC Challenge submission and help determine the Popular Choice Award, in which one of the lucky finalists will get to present their technology at our upcoming Demo Day on July 10th! Spread the word through your social networks and help a NYC health tech startup move forward to compete for $50,000 in prizes. Browse the

NYCEDC and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. announced the groundbreaking of a 133,000-square-foot retail development at Broadway Plaza in the Bronx, which will activate an approximately 80,000-square-foot site located along the Broadway retail corridor. The developer, Equity One, plans to invest approximately $54 million to construct the two-story, multi-tenant retail development and approximately 130 covered parking spaces that will make up the site, which is located on 230th Street between Broadway and the Major Deegan Expressway. The project is expected to create over 250 new full and part-time jobs and approximately 500 construction jobs.

“Broadway Plaza will...

By Kathleen Sun, Project Manager and Sri Swaminathan, Assistant Vice President, International Initiatives

From April 8-11, 2013, NYCEDC staged NYC to Israel 2013, a four-day trip that toured the best of the technology communities in the “startup nation.” Danny Schultz, Co-founder and Managing Director of DFJ Gotham Ventures, chaired the 27-member delegation, which consisted of New York City-based CEOs, senior executives, entrepreneurs, investors and university representatives.

By organizing a series of roundtable discussions and site...

NYC Business Innovation Challenge is thrilled to announce an exciting free webinar on Friday, June 7th at 2:00 pm EDT to learn from top business leaders as they share some of their best practices for workforce engagement.

The webinar is co-sponsored by Next Street, American Sustainable Business Council, ROC Restaurant Industry Roundtable, B-Lab

A new Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) research report, "Hot Spots 2025: Benchmarking the Future Competitiveness of Cities,” commissioned by Citi, reveals that New York City is expected to continue to be the most competitive city globally in 2025. The city leads in a number of competiveness categories in the report, and is among the most competitive in terms of financial maturity, institutional character and economic strength. Released at the New Cities Summit in São Paulo, the report forecasts the competitiveness of 120 cities in 2025 based on their projected ability to attract capital, business, talent and tourists.

“The Economist...

NYCEDC today announced a partnership that will lead to the creation of Harlem Biospace, a new life sciences incubator which will provide affordable wet-lab and microbench facilities, specialized laboratory equipment, mentorship, and business support to early-stage life sciences companies. Designed to help create a thriving biotech community for turning revolutionary ideas into products that will solve important health problems, the initiative will provide up to 20 startup biotech companies with the tools and resources they need to grow in New York City.

NYCEDC is launching this initiative in partnership with...

NYCEDC and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) announced the second class of New York City-based fashion companies selected for Design Entrepreneurs NYC, a free, intensive “mini-MBA” program that teaches emerging fashion designers how to run a successful label. The program, which will launch at a kickoff orientation and reception at the G-III Apparel Group (G-III) offices in Midtown, will take place during the summer at FIT, led by FIT faculty and other industry...

This year, NYCEDC launched Bio & Health Tech Entrepreneurship Lab NYC (ELabNYC), a training and mentorship program for aspiring entrepreneurs in New York City’s life sciences and healthcare community. The Lab was designed to serve graduate students of science, post-docs, and early-career researchers interested in forming new biotech and health tech ventures. With the support of NYCEDC partner Design Technologies, 18 new ventures were selected from a highly competitive pool of 80 applicants to participate in our inaugural class.

On May 16, 2013, the ELabNYC community held its...