Reflecting on 2025 and Looking Ahead
A note from Executive Director, Matt Classen
As we close out 2025, I want to take a moment to reflect on what we accomplished together at TMA BlueTech. This was a year defined by execution, clarity of purpose, and momentum. Every initiative we pursued was designed to reinforce a larger strategy and position TMA for long term impact.
Convening and Ecosystem Building
Throughout 2025, we maintained a consistent cadence of convenings designed to strengthen relationships and accelerate collaboration across the Blue Economy. In San Diego, our BlueTech networking events brought together founders, established companies, researchers, investors, and public sector leaders in an informal but purposeful setting. We extended this work through targeted engagements in Boston, Rhode Island, and the San Francisco Bay Area, strengthening inter regional connections and reinforcing TMA’s role as a national connector rather than a single location organization. These gatherings created trust, surfaced new partnerships, and ensured that our community continues to grow in depth as well as reach.
BlueTech Month 2025
BlueTech Month served as the flagship platform for the year and reflected a step change in ambition. Designed as a multi part experience rather than a single event, the series convened leaders across maritime defense, decarbonization, ocean resilience, data, autonomy, and ocean enterprise. The conversations focused on real world deployment, speed to capability, and international collaboration. For me, BlueTech Month demonstrated that our ecosystem is ready to engage at a higher level, tackle harder questions, and align around a shared vision for the future of maritime innovation.
Global Engagement and Market Entry
In early 2025, we led a trade mission to Singapore aligned with Singapore Maritime Week. This mission provided participating companies with direct exposure to global maritime markets, strategic infrastructure, and international partners who are moving with urgency and clarity. The experience reinforced an important truth. Global competitors are not waiting, and sustained leadership requires proactive international engagement. This mission now informs how we think about future trade missions, market entry support, and TMA’s role in helping companies operate confidently on a global stage.
Thought Leadership and Strategic Insight
In parallel with our convening work, we expanded TMA’s role as a source of insight and perspective. The launch of TMagazine created a dedicated platform for thoughtful analysis, lessons learned from global engagement, and forward looking commentary on maritime innovation, geopolitics, and economic competitiveness. This work complements our events by extending conversations beyond the room and helping our community think more strategically about where the Blue Economy is headed and how to lead within it.
Workforce Development and Well Paid Blue Jobs
One of the most meaningful milestones of 2025 was securing the California Jobs First grant, which allows TMA to design a Maritime Workforce Equity Pipeline. This initiative focuses on connecting residents from underserved communities with well paid, future oriented careers in the Blue Economy while helping industry address critical workforce needs. For TMA, workforce development is not a peripheral activity. It is central to economic growth, resilience, and long term competitiveness. This grant marks the beginning of a new arm of TMA that we will continue to build and scale in the years ahead.
Supporting Innovation and Ocean Enterprise
Throughout 2025, we continued to support early stage innovation through our partnership with the StartBlue Ocean Enterprise Accelerator. By helping founders access visibility, relationships, and commercialization pathways, we are strengthening the pipeline of companies that will define the next generation of maritime technology. Supporting entrepreneurs remains a core part of our mission and an essential driver of ecosystem vitality.
Strategic Partnerships and Global Presence
In 2025, we formalized a Letter of Intent with the Ocean Autonomy Cluster in Norway, reflecting years of trust and collaboration. This agreement lays the groundwork for a stronger TMA presence in Europe and deeper transatlantic cooperation across maritime autonomy and ocean technology. It reinforces our belief that the future of this sector will be shaped through international collaboration and shared leadership rather than isolated effort.
Looking Ahead
When I step back and look at 2025 as a whole, what stands out most is alignment. Our events, trade mission, grants, partnerships, and strategy all reinforce one another and point in the same direction. Nothing we did this year was accidental. Each step was taken with a longer horizon in mind.
In January, we will share a clear and ambitious vision for 2026. It will build directly on the foundation laid this year and reflect where we believe TMA BlueTech must lead next. I am proud of what we have accomplished together and excited about what comes next.
Thank you for being part of this work and this community.
Warm Regards,
Matt Classen
Executive Director
TMA BlueTech
