Empowering Careers at the Philly Biotech Jobs Fair with BioLabs’ Melina Blees

During our recent “What’s the Buzz?” podcast, BioBuzz Networks CEO Chris Frew sat down with Melina Blees, Head of BioLabs Philadelphia, to discuss the preparations and impact of the Philly Biotech Jobs Fair, which took place in November. Here’s a quick recap of what they covered:

Chris started by welcoming Melina, who played a key role in organizing the Philly Biotech Jobs Fair alongside BioStrategy Partners. As the 2023 Community Builder of the Year at BioBuzz’s Greater Philadelphia Annual Awards, Melina emphasized the vital role community plays in the biotech ecosystem.

BioLabs, founded in 2009 by Johannes Bruehoff, has grown into a national network with a presence across the US, Europe, and soon Japan. Their extensive service offerings, investor days, and tech transfer showcases help biotech companies connect and thrive.

The Philly Biotech Jobs Fair emerged from a clear need for biotech-specific job opportunities. Partnering with BioStrategy Partners and other organizations like Keystone Lifestyle Collaborative and the Good Jobs Challenge, the fair aimed to create meaningful job placements in the life sciences sector.

Melina shared how the event reflected the collaborative spirit of Philly’s biotech community, where even competitors come together to support the larger ecosystem. This culture of cooperation is what made the event possible, with backing from organizations like Life Sciences PA, the Chamber of Philadelphia, universities, BioBuzz, and workforce development groups.

With over 32 companies participating, including major players like GSK, Century Therapeutics, and several universities, the jobs fair brought together a diverse talent pool. The event also featured resume reviews, mock interviews, and career panels, providing value beyond just job openings.

Sponsors like Sansar Tech, Sol Ewing, CSS, and Thermo Fisher played a crucial role in covering logistics and ensuring the success of the event.

One standout feature of the event was its focus on community-building. The fair wasn’t just for job seekers—it also supported initiatives like the HR Peers Network and Keystone Lifecycle Collaborative’s peer-to-peer networking groups, aimed at fostering connections and providing shared resources for those in biotech.

Watch the Full Interview:

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Transcript:

Chris Frew [00:00:03]:

Hi, everybody, and welcome to another episode of “What's the Buzz?!” Our bimonthly podcast where we talk to ecosystem builders and leaders that are fostering an inclusive, growing, buzzing ecosystem where they're at. And I'm thrilled today to be joined by Melina Blees from BioLabs in Philadelphia. Melina, welcome.

Melina Blees [00:00:27]:

Thanks so much for having me.

Chris Frew [00:00:29]:

My pleasure. When I think of ecosystem builders, you are absolutely at the top of my list.

Melina Blees [00:00:36]:

Thank you.

Chris Frew [00:00:37]:

And you're at the top of a lot of people because you were our Community Builder of the Year award last.

Melina Blees [00:00:43]:

Year and absolutely honored and thrilled by it.

Chris Frew [00:00:49]:

But what I love about that, Melina, is our Bible Awards are people's choice. So we had, I think something like close to 4,000 votes in Philadelphia last year. And awesome. Again, it's, you know, that's part of it. We create the buzz and, and the people that are out there working to grow this industry, you know, definitely get some visibility and recognition, so.

Melina Blees [00:01:13]:

Well, thanks again.

Chris Frew [00:01:14]:

Yeah, my pleasure.

Melina Blees [00:01:15]:

Everybody who voted.

Chris Frew [00:01:17]:

Yeah. And our awards are kicking off very soon for this next year.

Melina Blees [00:01:22]:

I've already voted.

Chris Frew [00:01:23]:

All right. And I hope you nominate someone else that I have done. So that's great. It's really what it's all about.

Melina Blees [00:01:32]:

I voted in the national election. I voted in the BioBuzz award.

Chris Frew [00:01:37]:

All right, there we go. So early voting for both.

Melina Blees [00:01:40]:

Yeah, exactly.

Chris Frew [00:01:42]:

Well, great. Well, so for everybody joining, I'm Chris Frew, founder of BioBuzz. At BioBuzz, we're an ecosystem building platform here. We care about really two main big things. One is growing community and the other one is helping you hire and attract top talent. I'm excited today because today we get to talk about both of those things. Today's topic conversation is an upcoming ecosystem wide job fair that Melina and her team and many other people are helping to put on. So excited to dive into that. But before we get there, Melina, do you mind just making an introduction and tell a little bit about people what you do?

Melina Blees [00:02:19]:

Sure. So I am the Philadelphia head of BioLabs, which is an international organization that was started in 2009. We were founded by a MD, PhD, serial entrepreneur in the biotech space out of Cambridge, Johannes Bruehoff, who also founded Lab Central. And we have grown since then across the US we landed in Philadelphia in 2018, which is when me and many of the members of my team first joined biolabs. And we have had the great pleasure of working with a lot of really exciting companies and fantastic ecosystem partners across this ecosystem as well. As across our whole network. We're now across the entire US as well as in Europe and we have a site coming in Japan as well.

Chris Frew [00:03:06]:

That's exciting.

Melina Blees [00:03:07]:

Yeah, it is.

Chris Frew [00:03:09]:

So when you think about BioLabs, how do you talk about what makes biolabs different from some of the other similar platforms out there?

Melina Blees [00:03:21]:

Yeah, so I think, you know, it's always people 100% of the time. And I'm not saying other folks don't have great people, of course they do. But we're really boosted by being part of a network who's been in the industry for such a long time. So, you know, in addition to the amazing staff we have in Philadelphia, we also have, you know, national level folks doing our procurement and our environmental health and safety and our lab operations and our connections to service providers and pharma companies and VCs that really, really I think has been a big differentiator for us. And you know, for member companies who can visit other BioLab sites across the world when they travel and when they're taking a VC meeting in Boston or you know, Paris, they can get into a nice conference room and get some of those introductions as well. So a lot of the other things we do in this ecosystem include things like a BioLabs Investor Day every April, April 22 this year, which is a, you know, a couple hundred people attend. It's usually a selection of really, really, really carefully curated companies pitching to investors from both in market and out of market as well as we do a tech transfer showcase in collaboration with BioStrategy Partners.

Chris Frew [00:04:30]:

That's great. And BioStrategy Partners is also partnering on the job fair. Right. So is there a major partner on this job fair with, with BioStrategy?

Melina Blees [00:04:39]:

Yeah, we're, we're actually very good friends with them. They have, they're a member of BioLabs now as of very recently, which we're really thrilled by. We worked with their team for a long time and really, really love them. They're a coalition of tech transfer offices from many of the regional universities as well as the institutes and hospitals. So that group includes, and I'm hoping I'm going to get this exactly right, but Jefferson, Temple, Chop, Wistar, Penn State, PCom and I know I'm forgetting another one. So Jefferson and Temple both, right, Amazing group. They have worked with us and collaborated with us for years on many different events and you know, run many events of their own. In the case of the jobs fair, they're going to be managing all of the parallel programming which is a really Fantastic series of career pathways panels as well as mock interviews and resume reviews and have really taken the lead on that.

Melina Blees [00:05:37]:

So that's fantastic. You know, one of the things I like about BioLabs is it's, and talking to Johannes as well is, you know, it does come to the people and when you talk to anybody there you really get the feeling that you're, you really trying, are trying to unburden the entrepreneur. And that's the feeling I get when you know, I've come up, you know, several times, you know, and I feel like as an organization you really feel that, that you're trying to unburden the entrepreneur. And I love the things that you do like the Investor Day and Tech Transfer showcase, right. One of the best that I've been to in the markets and I've heard really great things from, from the invest from again both a high quality investor group that you get but also from the entrepreneurs and companies pitching. But again it's like the investor day job fair, right? The, you know, the support services and you have a discount vendor purchasing program that you rolled out. Like it's, it's like let's unburden the entrepreneur so the entrepreneur can focus on the science and focus on in their next milestone. And you can again, that is a lot of work.

Melina Blees [00:06:46]:

That is a whole lot of work that they're doing and they don't need to also be worrying about, you know, their dry ice shipping.

Chris Frew [00:06:53]:

Indeed, indeed. Well, that's what you all are there for and again, I think you do a great job. So let's talk about the job fair. So can you tell how did this all come about? And this is the, this is, is this the first one you're doing?

Melina Blees [00:07:07]:

This is the first one we're doing. It was something that was really just driven by, we saw it as a gap in the market that there was a need for it. It's honestly not really our core business. It's not a direct business builder for us. It was just we've been really engaged with this ecosystem for a long time, as has BioStrategy Partners. And it was something we kept talking about. Gosh, it would be really great if there was a biotech specific jobs fair. So I really do want to underline the fact that BioStrategy Partners was really foundational in making this event happen from the very beginning. We also brought on two additional partners which we're absolutely thrilled about, which is the Keystone Lifestyle Collaborative and the Good Jobs Challenge as our impact partners for the event. So what they're going to be doing is helping to track what is the actual outcome of this over time. What kinds of jobs are being created, what kinds of jobs are being filled because of connections made at this event. They're a phenomenal kind of umbrella organization for the ecosystem of business. Businesses in the life sciences space who, you know, are coming together to try to grow both business to business connections, but then also the workforce in the life sciences for the whole of Pennsylvania and especially the greater Philadelphia region. So really delighted to have them on board as a partner on this event because it really feels like an organic fit.

Chris Frew [00:08:27]:

That's great. Well, so you saw a need in the market and it is, you're calling it an ecosystem wide job fair. So like there's a lot of people and I've been on some of the calls, so I know how many people talk to us about kind of talk. Can you talk to me about that? Like how many people it takes to like to have one of these go off successfully?

Melina Blees [00:08:49]:

Yeah, I mean, I think from the very beginning we and also BioStrategy Partners knew we didn't want this to just be a BioLabs event. Right. We wanted to include everybody in the ecosystem who is interested in this topic. It's also something where, you know, Philly, frankly is just a very warm and welcoming and collaborative ecosystem in general. But there are people participating as a partner, as, I'm sorry, as event partners on this event who are technically our competitors in practice. We all know each other, we're all friendly, you know, they also do great work. But we, this is a topic where we can kind of all get together and say, let's all put our, our brain power behind this. Let's all put our brands behind this. Let's all put, you know, our connections and our companies and our spaces and all of these things together. So our partners on this event, I mean, it's a very long list. You probably don't want me to read it right now. But it includes, you know, Life Sciences pa, the Chamber of Pennsylvania, the Chamber of Philadelphia, all the universities in the region, BioBuzz, all the incubators in the region, a lot of the workforce development groups. So the Philadelphia STEM Equity Collective, the Science Center, the Skills Initiative, Life Science Cares. Like it's just a very long list. And I do apologize, I cannot name everybody right now.

Chris Frew [00:10:09]:

But they're all listed on the website, which is all listed on the website.

Melina Blees [00:10:13]:

Really fantastic groups kind of from across the whole industry who are all contributing. You know, we have a steering committee meeting every Friday and we're getting together and saying, hey, who's got good ideas for additional things? We can add additional groups. We can bring in companies who might be hiring who I don't necessarily know. Right. Going to them kind of as a sounding board and a talent pool and all of these other things at the same time. So it's really been very much a joint effort of the whole ecosystem. It's not just BioLabs and BioStrategy partners who are putting this together. It really is everybody kind of coming together and pitching in.

Chris Frew [00:10:50]:

Yeah. That's fantastic. I'll tell you just from a story wise, we came to Philly two years ago and started with the media element and it really is a welcoming community. And that was one of the first things I recognized up there is, you know, it was, it's like friendly cooperation. You know, it's.

Melina Blees [00:11:13]:

Yeah, exactly.

Chris Frew [00:11:14]:

So one, there, there's, there's more private incubator kind of spaces in Philly than in most markets, which I think says a lot about.

Melina Blees [00:11:22]:

Absolutely.

Chris Frew [00:11:23]:

It says a lot about the tech transfer and it says a lot about the pipeline. But even though there are a lot of these incubators, there's a lot of collaboration in between them all and. Absolutely. So I, I really think that's fantastic. And this, this job fair definitely showcases that. And, and again, you know, we, culturally, that's why I think we love Philadelphia too is like we, we're that way as well. We lead with mean with media because it's something everyone get by. We can tell everybody's story. We love telling the stories. And then.

Melina Blees [00:11:55]:

Exactly.

Chris Frew [00:11:56]:

Again we have our, our hiring platform that we're launching in March and the same thing, everyone needs jobs and so like that's, that's something we could all get behind. So we're glad to be a partner and, and again, philosophically and culturally kind of, we really, we love the Philadelphia ecosystem because I feel like it just like it aligns with that and, and I think that's why you're seeing such amazing growth and in the region.

Melina Blees [00:12:21]:

Fully agreed.

Chris Frew [00:12:22]:

Yeah.

Melina Blees [00:12:23]:

The science is here. Right. The talent is here. It's just a matter of putting those into companies and it's happening fast.

Chris Frew [00:12:30]:

That's right, it is. And there's some good success stories coming. Legend bio is coming and two more. Jim Wilson's lab spun out and there's.

Melina Blees [00:12:38]:

Really good momentum participating.

Chris Frew [00:12:41]:

Yeah. So come to the job fair. So let's move in. Let's continue to talk about that because I think you and I could probably geek out about ecosystem building. All day long. So, first and foremost you've got a, you've got a few key sponsors who have also come in. Not just the partners on the, on the steering, but absolutely, yeah. So do you want to talk about them as well? Like who's, who's really kind of helping to support this?

Melina Blees [00:13:06]:

Yeah, absolutely. This is, you know, this is not at all a moneymaker since we are trying to cover the costs of the event so we can keep doing it. Every year we're renting out the whole atrium of the Curtis. It's a huge space. We're going to have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people in there and it's made possible by our sponsors. So Sansar Tech is a sponsor for the event. Sol Ewing, CSS Thermo Fisher and we are still taking some additional event sponsors to kind of help us close the last gap. So please, if you know anybody in the industry who's interested in meeting a ton of really great senior HR folks from major life science companies, send them our way.

Chris Frew [00:13:47]:

All right, I like that. So just let's, let's, let's continue to tease that out so we can share that with everybody. How many companies are participating? How many attendees are coming?

Melina Blees [00:13:57]:

Yeah, so it continues to grow but we really have significant momentum on this one. So we've got 32 companies participating so far. We've got space for just a couple more. So again, any companies hearing this who are interested in participating, give us a shout. A basic table is free for employers to participate. We have two like employer highlights companies who are going to have big booths that spark therapeutics and Pharma block. We are delighted by their support of the event and really excited to showcase them. And then the list of companies who are participating, I mean it is again a very long list. The event website is philly biotechjobs fair.com. we've got everything from GSK and as you mentioned, the Wilson groups, Spin Outs and Century Therapeutics. A lot of the universities are hiring for staff roles and, sorry, staff roles and postdocs. We've got, you know, some non, non labs roles that are available for project management and business development and things like that. Really a great breadth from tiny startups who are hiring for one or two really senior scientists up through, you know, large manufacturing companies who are hiring for lots of intro level roles as well as more senior roles. In terms of kind of the response we've had, we have just broken the 400 candidates ceiling today, which is really exciting. And the majority of those folks have advanced degrees by no means all. And our goal is really to sort of have a good match between the employer needs and the candidates in the room. So far it's been almost a perfect match. So I think, you know, there's going to be many hundreds of jobs being hired for and a really great pool of candidates who are really good match to that as well. And then I think I already mentioned it, but I do want to really emphasize, you know, the parallel programming is going to be an amazing component of this as well. Of all those folks who are coming there looking for jobs are also going to have opportunities to have their resume looked at by professionals and to hear from people who both have, you know, taking different careers within the industry on the science side, but then also some non labs roles within the industry. There are a ton of jobs that are available in HR and IT and all of these support services and team members that it takes to really run a biotech company. Right. To get it from, you know, an academic lab into a patient, that takes a whole village. I think before I joined this industry I didn't realize quite how many people it takes to make any of the drugs you take, you know, on a regular basis. Truly extraordinary in scale. And all of those are amazing opportunities and really good paying jobs and jobs where you get to have a chance to do something important. Right. You know, I'm not the one in the lab. I'm here, you know, making introductions between people and making sure that their lab coats fit them. But I feel good about putting my energy and my efforts towards an industry that I believe is ultimately saving lives. I'm sure you do too. And I think that's a really fun thing to get to talk about and to get folks engaged in as career opportunities.

Melina Blees [00:17:08]:

That's great. I agree. I mean, I think I don't meet anybody in this industry that, especially after they've come into it new from another field, they just don't get hooked. And a big part of what hooks them is they're like, not only am I doing interesting work but, but I'm, you know, I'm making a difference. And, and I think that there's, you know, there's very few industries out there in the world that you can say that as clearly as what, what the companies and the people and the workers in this industry get to get to experience. So you have so adjacent career paths is one of them. And, and I agree, like, you know, my old neighbor in the, in the, in the city was an HVAC technician and he'll be like, oh, you work with all these doctors and PhDs. I'm like, I work with HVAC technicians too. Like, you know, clean air and everything. It's really important to produce things, but people don't think about that sometimes. There's this misconception. So I love that you have an adjacent career path part of this. You also have resume reviews and mock interviews. So that's another thing you have.

Melina Blees [00:18:17]:

Yeah, Bio Strategy Partners is organizing all of that. We are still seeking, I believe they're still looking for some folks to help with the mock interviews. So again, folks are welcome to volunteer if they have background in the HR world because I think we're going to see strong demand for those pieces as well.

Chris Frew [00:18:34]:

Yeah, I agree. We actually had talked to someone this morning. We have one of our community members from Baltimore driving up the volunteer at the event.

Melina Blees [00:18:43]:

Awesome. Thank you so much for doing that. That's great.

Chris Frew [00:18:46]:

Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, she's great. And she's a professor at local school down here and has a. Does a lot of work. So. So, yeah, I think that's. That's huge. It's. It's a tough market out there. Really tough. We're all coming through two years of low investment and, you know, you know, very meat growth. So there's a lot of people that definitely need that support right now and.

Melina Blees [00:19:10]:

Absolutely.

Chris Frew [00:19:11]:

And I think the other thing I'll just mention in that is like, I think just being able to bring all these people together is just in itself like a good community. Like, it's tough going on the job market and, and being able to be with others and kind of get tips and help each other out. Like, don't underplay the fact. Yeah, yeah, commiserate and share horror stories. But like, you know, community is so important to that. Like, you know, that's the other thing I think that this is going to create is, is to continue that kind of workforce. Community.

Melina Blees [00:19:42]:

Absolutely. Well, and one thing I should probably mention as well is sort of on the other side about creating community. So at the beginning of the pandemic, Integral Moleculars HR team started a HR peers network. So it's a group that gets together once a month virtually and just talks about, hey, I'm having this, you know, question about benefits and I have this question about whether you guys have an internal policy for why can you guys share? And it's, it's not branded, it's not paid for by anybody. It's literally just a lot of HR folks from the life sciences industry creating a brain trust for each other. Amazing. Group strongly recommended to anybody who's interested. We're actually having a lunch the same day for that group to try to again get them together in person. So definitely recommend that for anybody in the space. But also want to plug Keystone lifecycle Collaborative. So they're working and I'm on the, the working group for the peer to peer kind of networking groups. So as part of the business to business section of Keystone Lifecycle Collaborative we're looking to put together similar, similar groups for finance, for biz, dev, for marketing. For all these different groups within the life sciences who especially at smaller companies are often the only one in their company who does that function. It's really great for those folks to have peers that they can talk to and bounce ideas off of and ask for resources and things like that. So that's going to be coming again. Anybody interested, reach out. My email address is philly@biolabs.io I'm sure it'll be in all the contact info as well. And yeah, again, Philadelphia, right. Everybody wants to work together.

Chris Frew [00:21:31]:

That's great. It is a common theme and I can't express that enough. We are, we are working on a couple other ecosystem launches in the next 24 months and we're talking to some people now and, and one of the things that I brought this up actually in a, in another podcast we did is there's a culture of community. Right?

Melina Blees [00:21:53]:

Yeah.

Chris Frew [00:21:54]:

So you can't just say hey, we're going to build a community and just like have a community like pop up just because there's people there or just because you have a. Yeah, you can't pay for that.

Melina Blees [00:22:04]:

Yeah, yeah.

Chris Frew [00:22:04]:

Or just because you have a BioLabs and there's a bunch of people working in a building that's not a community. Community is created through a culture community. So it's all the little things that you do every day, Melina, and, and that you support and then you, you, you. All the introductions you make and making a connection and, and supporting these, these smaller initiatives and the fact that more people do that like that's how you create it like that culture of community. And it's one of those things, you know, you don't read about it when you read all what you need for a life science ecosystem success is, you know, it's always IP and real estate and venture capital. But the culture of community is something I can't size enough. And I think that Philadelphia and all the partners that you mentioned and that we work, work with up there, there is that being created and I'm excited for Keystone. I'm just getting to know them a little bit. I think we're going to be at the other next group meeting, but such a great initiative. Yeah, that's really wonderful.

Melina Blees [00:23:05]:

Yeah, yeah, it's again, you know, community is a huge part of our model. It's part of why companies choose to come to an incubator is because they want to meet other entrepreneurs who are either going through the same thing or have been through the same thing before can provide advice. But it's really wonderful to be part of an ecosystem where we are not having to create that culture beyond our walls as well. That culture already exists in Philadelphia. Those larger groups and different organizations already want to work together. So when I do, you know, when somebody does come to me asking for an introduction to a core facility or a local venture firm or something like that, those people are going to say yes. Right. There's, there's less, I think less of an uphill battle than in an ecosystem that's maybe a little bit more competitive than, rather than collaborative.

Chris Frew [00:23:51]:

Yeah, I agree. And it's helpful. Like I said, it's unburdening the entrepreneur. Like put them in that spot where they're going to be in a friendly spot to succeed.

Melina Blees [00:24:00]:

Yeah, exactly.

Chris Frew [00:24:02]:

Yeah. Well, this is exciting. So we've got 400 plus job seekers. Yeah.

Melina Blees [00:24:08]:

It's going to be cooking close to 40, 33, I guess now companies participating.

Chris Frew [00:24:14]:

33 companies and only a few spots less. So get them while they're hot.

Melina Blees [00:24:18]:

Only a couple spots. We are running out of tables. So despite it being a huge space, we're running out of tables. I should also mention we are going to have tables from many of our events partners. So all various nonprofits who are participating. Nucleate is participating with the table. It looks like the, you know, various workforce development groups and internship programs are going to have tables. So there will be a lot of opportunities. In addition to the companies that are directly hiring and are there with job listings, there's going to be lots of other opportunities to connect to resources and support. We just brought in a group called STEM Peers, which is designed as a peer group for scientists who are starting to move out of academia into the industry that they could talk to people who've done it before and have made that step. Right. And they're also providing some advice and support on visa issues. So I think it's really, you know, it's really gotten momentum. A lot of people are putting their time and energy towards making this a success. And our hope is we can do this every year in Philadelphia.

Chris Frew [00:25:19]:

Yeah. That's awesome. Well, we're very proud to help support you and support all the community. Delighted by your partnership and it's a great initiative. Again, community and jobs, two things that we wake up every day thinking about at BioBuzz. And it's part of what makes the ecosystem go. And on November 19th, 19th, I always say this November 19th, you're going to be able to come up to the Curtis and see what that really looks like in action. Thanks to a lot of work from Melina and a lot of people that have been so many people.

Melina Blees [00:25:53]:

And I especially want to shout out biostrategy partners, team, as well as Larissa on my team, who is our OPS and events genius, who's really making this thing happen, and the Keystone Lifescience Collaborative and all of our partners on this event. Everybody has really put their time and their energy and their connections and their resources towards this to make this a success. So it is free to participate. Just apply online. Philly Life Science. Sorry, Philly Biotech Jobs fair dot com. That is jobs with an S. Philly Biotech Jobs fair dot com. And I'm sure it's going to be in the links that. That Chris sends around as well, so.

Chris Frew [00:26:30]:

Oh, yeah, we're going to. We're going to the next couple of weeks. We're going to create a lot of buzz around this and making sure that anybody that needs a job and that wants to connect knows where to go on November 19th. And I think that 400 is just a starting point. You know, bring your earmuffs.

Melina Blees [00:26:47]:

So many people.

Chris Frew [00:26:48]:

It's gonna be loud.

Melina Blees [00:26:50]:

It's gonna be loud in there.

Chris Frew [00:26:53]:

Hopefully that's the sound of people getting job offers and.

Melina Blees [00:26:56]:

Exactly.

Chris Frew [00:26:57]:

So. But I'm excited, like, it's the end of the year. I, you know, I hope that there's gonna be some really good data that Keystone can capture from this and that'll be really interesting to look at as we, as we approach 20, 25 this time of year. A lot of jobs, you know, might get offers, but they don't start until January, so. So it'd be really interesting to see what that looks like.

Melina Blees [00:27:20]:

Yeah, they're going to be continuing to track and that data will be really helpful in the future also for the state and for, you know, the city government and things like that, which I think is going to be really precious.

Chris Frew [00:27:30]:

Yeah.

Melina Blees [00:27:31]:

As well as for employers. Right. They want to know what's out there.

Chris Frew [00:27:34]:

Yeah, indeed. Well, Melina, thank you for your time today and joining us for.

Melina Blees [00:27:39]:

Always a pleasure to talk to you.

Chris Frew [00:27:41]:

Yeah, my pleasure. And I will see you just in a couple weeks in person.

Melina Blees [00:27:45]:

Sounds good. Hope to see you all there.

Chris Frew [00:27:47]:

All right. Thank you all again for joining today for this episode of “What's the Buzz?!” We'll be back again very soon. Until then, have an awesome day.