Note: Rick Smith, the author of The Skinny, is co-founder and editor of WRAL TechWire, which is celebrating its 20th year of operation throughout 2022.
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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – The Skinny is sure most readers of WRAL TechWire over its 20 years of existence are familiar with Marshall Brain – the NCSU professor, creator and author of “How Stuff Works,” author of the new book “Doomsday,” entrepreneur and much more …
 
Guess what – he’s joining TechWire’s growing list of regular contributors!
 
Another new contributor made her debut Monday  – local entrepreneur and leadership thought leader Grace Ueng.

Rick Smith is editor and cofounder of WRAL TechWire

 
So TechWire now features:
 
  • MONDAY: Billy Warden (life with humor and wit but serious when needed)
  • Also on MONDAYS: David Gardner (venture capital with more VCs to come)​
  • FLOATING DAYS: Grace (management, marketing)
  • TUESDAYS: Joe Procopio (entrepreneurs)
  • WEDNESDAYS: Donald Thompson (leadership plus diversity equity and inclusion)
  • THURSDAYS: Jes Averhart (management with humor and insight)
  • FRIDAYS/FLOATING: Steve Rao (jobs, economic development, immigration)
  • and (drum roll….) FRIDAYS: Marshall, the brain trust and the futurist 
Plus we still have our long-time contributor Shannon Cuthrell (jobs report, our calendars on Mondays) as well as contributing reporter Chantal Allam (breaking news, DEI with emphasis on women and minority entrepreneurs) and, of course, staffer Jason Parker
 
Partner contributors include:​
  • Hutchison Law Firm (entrepreneurship)
  • RIoT (internet of things)
  • Jim Verdonik & Benji Jones (Innovate Capital Law Firm, big tech and entrepreneurship)
 
We also count on the fire writers at the NC Biotech Center for insight into agtech, biotech, bio jobs and more 

So what’s going on?

 This is an extremly talented and diverse group of contributors whom I hope will raise the level of TW’s appeal beyond just the tech world as we begin our 21st year of operation. TW has been recruiting new contributors for months … and the door to more contributors is not closed
 
(If you have a suggestion, please send it my way: rsmith@wral.com)
 
Rather than focus on looking back at TW’s history, we’ve decided internally to “pay it forward”  in our own ways by looking for stories as well as contributors who can help us preview the next decade, deal better with today, and while not forgetting the lessons of the past keep daring to “look up” (contrary to that hit movie for a lot of reasons “Don’t Look Up”)
 
We had a record year in 2021 – so why not look up and aim for even better?
 
Thanks for reading and also working with TW!