• E-Newsletter

Now hear this: The Northern Virginia Technology Council, in conjunction with the Greater Washington Partnership, is seeking employer input to help identify and define opportunities for entry-level IT workers that do not have a four-year degree. The study is in support of the Talent Ready Initiative, an effort to provide more access to jobs in the IT field for those who lack four-year college degrees and to help level the playing field for traditionally under-served populations. Employers can contribute to the survey until 5 p.m. this Friday.

New rooms — with a view: IDEMIA, which specializes in “augmented identity” and security services, hosted an official grand opening and tour of its new offices in Reston Town Center on June 20. The Paris-based company moved its North American headquarters from suburban Boston, creating top-floor offices and a demonstration center at 11951 Freedom Drive. “Fairfax County is an amazingly rich technology area,” said IDEMIA CEO Ed Casey, “Not only will we be doing our part to bring jobs but we will look to drive innovation in the area.” Reston Now’s Fatimah Waseem picked up on IDEMIA’s new digs.

Blue-ribbon workplaces: The Washington Post published its list of 152 Top Workplaces in the D.C. area. The paper invited more than 3,000 companies to participate, and 347 were surveyed with rankings based on responses from employees. Fairfax County-based firms among the top small companies (149 or fewer employees): No.2 Expel, No.7 Navitas Business Consulting and No.9 ThunderCat Technology. Mid-size firms (150 to 499 employees) in the top 10: No.5 Acclaim Technical Services and No.9 SMS Data Products. Among large firms (500 or more employees): No.2 Century 21 New Millennium, No.3 Great American Restaurants, No.4 HITT Contracting, No.6 Appian, No.7 Goodwin House, and No.10 Jim Koons Automotive. See all 152 firms here.

Reality, 50 years later: Celebrating the 50th anniversary of NASA’s moon landing, Tysons-based Gannett and its USA Today Network will launch a two-part augmented reality experience of Apollo 11. The AR broadcast, available through a dedicated AR app called 321 Launch, will enable users to view the mission in real time as it took place in 1969. According to a release picked up by Potomac Tech Wire, content will be available for download beginning July 4, with live broadcasts commencing July 16.

Progress on the Pike: Plans for the development previously known as International Place at Tysons could finally take shape after separate buyers completed deals worth nearly $50 million combined for two properties on Leesburg Pike. According to Daniel J. Sernovitz of the Washington Business Journal, Thallium LLC, an affiliate of Cogent Communications Holdings, closed a  $30.25 million deal for a property with a nine-story office building, while McLean-based Tepe & Hisar LLC, an affiliate of a Turkish real estate company, bought the site of a former Ford dealership for $19.5 million. Approved plans called for 386 multifamily units with office space, retail, restaurants and recreation areas on the 5.4-acre combined parcel.

AI to the rescue: Reston-based NCI Information Systems continues to expand its artificial-intelligence capabilities. The company will leverage software from Holonic Technologies, an Atlanta-based provider of AI-as-a-service solutions, in order to repair and refractor code specific to federal government contracts. In a story for Washington Business Journal subscribers, Carten Cordell notes the deal is the third partnership NCI has structured since 2017, following agreements with CrossChx (now known as Olive Inc.) and Tanjo Inc.

Fresh Insight: Technical.ly/DC’s Michelai Graham reports on Applied Insight, a Tysons-based company that launched its new platform-as-a-service cloud program earlier this month. Called “Altitude,” the automated digital product is aimed at helping federal clients solve tech issues through improved cloud management. Graham notes that Applied Insight, which recently moved from Ashburn to Tysons, has added more than 10 key hires.

College teammates: MITRE, a non-profit corporation based in Tysons, is partnering with nine public universities in Virginia to create an exchange program that expects to help the government address technology requirements in areas including national security, aviation and cybersecurity. According to Nichols Martin of ExecutiveBiz, MITRE is enlisting the academic sector for ideas and seeking to recruit top students from partner universities to work as interns or full-time employees. George Mason, Virginia Tech, William & Mary and the University of Virginia are among those participating.

Out of many, one sale: Pluribus International, a provider of specialized intelligence services headquartered in the Alexandria area of Fairfax County, has been sold to METIS Solutions, an Arlington, Va.-based government services firm. Pluribus, which has employees based at Fort Belvoir, in Springfield and in Herndon, brings multiple defense clients and expertise in national security to bolster METIS’s counter-threat finance and intelligence services. Washington Technology’s Nick Wakeman was among those to report the news.

Leading Patriot: Anne Holton, former Virginia secretary of education and wife of  U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, will become interim president of George Mason Universityeffective August 1. Holton will be Mason’s first female president when she succeeds Angel Cabrera, who is leaving to become president at Georgia Tech. The Washington Business Journal’s Drew Hansen reports that Holton doesn’t intend to be a candidate for the permanent position at the Fairfax-based institution, which is Virginia’s largest public research university with more than 37,000 students. Holton, educated at Princeton and Harvard, is the daughter of Linwood Holton, who served as governor of Virginia from 1970 to 1974.

Notable contract wins by firms in Fairfax County

Upcoming Business Events

• June 26: Access to Success Multicultural Business Conference — Roadmap to Resources. Free event designed to provide practical knowledge to small, women-owned, minority-owned, and veteran-owned businesses. Presented by the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity. Click here.
• June 26: No Pressure Prospecting: Techniques to improve sales performance. Part of the Business Education Series presented by the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce. Click here.
• June 26: Wheels Up — the Canadian Market Awaits: First in a series of events focusing on the Canadian market and the opportunities it presents for area businesses. Presented by the Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce. Click here.

FAIRFACT: 30% of professional and technical services jobs in Fairfax County are held by employees aged 19 to 34.