Photo thanks to Chop Photography

In Baltimore, if you have an idea which you are passionate about, there is a strong community here ready to give you the support you need to make your vision a reality. The speakers at LightCityU reinforced this concept, and this is one of the many reasons we love our city.  Day 2 of the Social Innovation Conference, like day 1, was full of solid talks, great people, fresh ideas and a non-stop buzz of positive energy about the existing power and potential of our city. It’s also been nice to see some familiar faces day after day, which highlights the notion of “starting conversations” that we often hear about. There is definitely a community (bigger than we even know…and will probably ever know) dedicated to realizing Baltimore's potential, and making it the greatest city in America…and if you hang out enough and pay attention, you’ll start to see the same faces, and these conversations get richer.

I met Chris Wilson at an Impact Hub happy hour last Friday. Since then, I’ve run into him at least four times. Chris, founder of Barclay Investment Corporation, a “social enterprise that specializes in residential and commercial contracting work” spoke on yesterday’s panel, “Leadership and Place”. The panel was great and so was Chris; he highlighted the need to not only focus on the creation of jobs, but also support for job creators and the importance of continuing to tell the stories of those here in Baltimore. Chris is an all-around inspiring guy who chose Baltimore, a city on which he is clearly very bullish. We were very happy he gave us a few minutes to talk about his path to Barclay, what he’s up to and his favorite dish in the city.

(We came across Chris's Stoop Story when we were putting together the links for this post, and we recommend taking five minutes to listen.)