Technology
At HardTech, Holyoke wants to sell itself as a place ‘for companies from Boston to land’ in a new manufacturing economy
HOLYOKE — This city — with its affordable old mills-turned office lofts, affordable green hydropower and proximity to markets and to educated workers form the Five Colleges — kept coming up during a technology conference in tony Cambridge last week. And Mike Stone — resident, co-founder and principal of Cofab Design here and an organizer […]

HOLYOKE — This city — with its affordable old mills-turned office lofts, affordable green hydropower and proximity to markets and to educated workers form the Five Colleges — kept coming up during a technology conference in tony Cambridge last week.
And Mike Stone — resident, co-founder and principal of Cofab Design here and an organizer of the upcoming HardTech Holyoke — insists he wasn’t the one bringing his adopted hometown into the conversation.
“Holyoke is on their minds,” Stone said. “There is an energy.” The energy is for Boston- or New York-grown companies looking for a place where they can grow.
CoFab is a five-person engineering consultancy working on designs for manufacturers.
The trendy word is HardTech, hard technology meant to differentiate manufacturing physical things from developments in AI or software.
“We work in atoms, not bytes,” Stone said.
The second-ever HardTech Holyoke event will be held Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m. at Mill 1 at Open Square. More information is available by emailing hello@hardtechholyoke.org or online at hardtechholyoke.org.
A mix of networking, information and making connections, the event provides space for representatives of established companies in Holyoke to meet with firms potentially looking to locate here and learn about all the positive assets Holyoke can provide, said Aaron Vega, director of planning economic development for the city.
The first event — in August 2023 — drew 100 people.
“It was this scene-building activity,” Vega said.
With an admittedly loose definition of “annual,” Stone said he goes for a relaxed vibe without a lot of presentations. There will be food and conversation with displays of technology developed in Holyoke.
“More like a gallery opening, but for manufacturing and engineering,” he said
A buzz, he said, generated by success stories like Clean Crop Technologies which is developing new ways to remove contamination from seeds and foods and is located just upstairs from Stone’s Cofab Design in the Wauregan Building at 340 Dwight St.
Sublime Systems has helped put Holyoke on the map despite the loss of a federal grant supporting its plans to bring an innovative cement manufacturing process to Holyoke.
Sublime says it is moving forward and hopes to recapture the federal money.
Xenocs, with offices in Open Square in Holyoke, uses X-ray technology to analyze nanoscale materials. It will participate as well.
Based in Sunderland, Florrent, a maker of supercapacitors for energy storage, is also part of the event.