Personal Updates – CGW's Blog

Technical.ly accepts Online Journalism Award for technology reporting excellence

This was originally a Linkedin post, shared here for archiving purposes. (I previously shared about the win here)

Well, at last night’s splashy Online News Association in New York, they may have given more stage time to producers of The Daily Show, leadership at La Nacion in Venezuela and the Reuters team who fearlessly covered the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. That included enthusiastic hosting by Vitus Spehar of Under the Desk News.

Still, let it be known that last night, Danya Henninger and I were plenty proud that Technical.ly was honored in such company for excellence in technology reporting. It was a genuine honor to stand next to the impressive WIRED team, including Vittoria Elliott and Andy Greenberg. Congratulations also to Nilay Patel and The Verge team, which was up for several honors (I meant to say a proper thank you for the inspiring work for us locally.)

Keynoting the LION Publishers conference on AI usage

I led the opening plenary for the LION Publishers conference held in San Diego this month.

I couldn’t be away from the kids for too long, so I arrived late Tuesday evening, had dinner with a friend and checked into my hotel. The next morning I walked some of downtown San Diego before returning to the conference opening.

I led a conversation on real-world, practical AI uses, and sat in a slate of sessions. That evening a reception opened by honoring Technical.ly as one of just 11 local news orgs that have reached a mature level of sustainability.

Then I flew back home the next morning. Details here and photos below.

Technical.ly awarded national Online News Association award for tech reporting

Incredible honor: I am overcome with pride for the Technical.ly’s newsroom big win at the Online News Association’s annual awards, first announced last night.

Alongside Wired and Reuters, Technical.ly was honored for Excellence in Technology Reporting. The only local newsroom to get this distinction.

This particular award is for our deep, insightful and balanced data center coverage, led by Danya Henninger, Katie Malone, Alice Crow and Sarah Huffman, and the kind of work we’re now doing in 10 U.S. states and growing. It took 18 years and many hands to get to this level.

The case for a throwback summer

What is your favorite childhood summer throwback?

I, for one, remember a lot of morning sitcom reruns, sandlot baseball, the icy-chill of a well-conditioned library and an annual block party. What’s yours?

I enjoyed joining the impressive Cherri Gregg and Avi Wolfman-Arent on WHYY’s Studio 2 this week, alongside Stephanie Humphrey and Marc Faletti.

This is especially timely as the parent of young kids, as I embark on a summer of activities and camps — balancing developing and fun, boredom and screens and all the rest. Give this a watch and let me know what you remember from your own summer childhood! https://lnkd.in/gZ-VqfVr

A vision for Philadelphia 250 years from today

This might be the project, and the writing, I’m proudest of in my career thus far.

Find here the backstory, and an Inquirer op-ed here I wrote. Below find the words of a vision statement for Philadelphia 250 years from now, which has now inspired a mural by my friend Sean Martorana and Mural Arts Philadelphia.

AI a Performance-Enhancing Drug: my interview on WYPR

Host Jason Michael Perry sits down with Chris Wink, cofounder and CEO of Technical.ly, to explore whether AI is becoming a performance-enhancing drug for founders and what that means for workers, entrepreneurs, and the cities trying to build ecosystems around both.

Recorded in Philadelphia during Philly Tech Week at the WHYY studios, the conversation digs into Chris’s framework for cutting through the AI noise, the gap between what AI could do at work and what people are actually using it for, why the most exposed workers may not be who you expect, and what the bar is now to be taken seriously as a founder in 2026.

LISTEN HERE

ESHIP “Builder of the Day”

The tribe I feel closest to are the ecosystem builders: those who work their tails off to bring entrepreneurship to the center of local strategy.

One of the chief conveners is ESHIP Alliance, which is growing an online community of just such ecosystem builders. Smartly, and generously, there they’re highlighting longtime and active ecosystem builders. I’m proud they kindly highlighted my Technical.ly work today.

This is a clever strategy 🙂 Thanks to ESHIP leader-organizers and champions

Yes, I vibe-coded a new landing page

I’ve been blogging for at least 20 years now, which means this site has lots of embarrassing signals of previous versions of myself. That also means whatever particular post I put up doesn’t necessarily present the particular person I think I am.

So I thought it would be helpful to have a simpler landing page online for my work and identity as a journalist and community contributor — one that isn’t owned by some distant publicly-traded corporation. Meanwhile, I was looking for a tiny coding project that I could complete on my own with the current generation of AI tools.

Here it is: I vibe-coded a (very) simple landing page at ChristopherWink.com, migrated my decades-old WordPress blog to a new hosting provider and brought it to a new subdomain.

Mega-events have failed cities before. Are we learning?

Cities love hosting mega-events — the Olympics, World Cup, NFL Draft. But decades of research suggest they rarely deliver the long-term economic boost leaders promise.

Are we learning? This was the focus of the plenary discussion I moderate this week in Washington DC at the annual leadership summit hosted by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).

I also wrote about it for Technical.ly here.

My 2026 resolutions

For my annual resolutions, I thought more about my ends.

I think often of Vonnegut’s advice that the very point of life is “to experience becoming.” I get personal joy from identifying experiences and goals that give me meaning, and their pursuit is the point.

I find meaning in becoming a better version of myself, of becoming the man I want to be — and that is a lifelong pursuit. After years of resolution-making, this year I also wrote down a few areas I want to be stronger, and that better tied why my resolutions for the year fit now. Both areas of growth and resolutions are below.