NEWS BRIEFS: DIG SOUTH Tech Summit to return in May 2022

A past DIG SOUTH talk.

Staff reports  |  The College of Charleston will partner with DIG SOUTH to host the 10-year anniversary of the DIG SOUTH Tech Summit, a premier Southern event to connect global brands with regional startups.  The event, which will be May 11-13, will be held at the TD Arena, where DIG SOUTH launched the event in 2013.

“The College of Charleston is excited to partner with DIG SOUTH again and to serve for the next five years as the physical home of their annual tech summit, which brings to Charleston many of the country’s top minds related to technology, business and innovation,” College of Charleston President Andrew T. Hsu said in a press release. “The team at DIG SOUTH, led by CEO and founder Stanfield Gray and CFO Sunny Gray, has done a remarkable job of building and expanding ‘Dig Nation’ over the past decade in order to assist and support businesses in their networking, marketing and talent acquisition needs.”

Each year, DIG SOUTH invites the South’s top executives, entrepreneurs, startups and leading global brands to convene in Charleston for three days of inspiration, networking, fundraising and strategic know-how. The 2022 theme for DIG SOUTH Tech Summit is “Resilience.” Attendees will learn strategies to make their companies and themselves more resilient in disruptive times. 

In other recent news:

Garland

Feds settle Emanuel victims’ lawsuit for $88 million.  The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday announced an $88 million settlement of a lawsuit that claimed the Federal Bureau of Investigation was negligent in failing to stop a South Carolina man from buying the gun he used to kill nine people in 2015 at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. The settlement, which will be split between five survivors and families of the victims, reportedly is one of the largest civil rights settlements in history.  “The mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church was a horrific hate crime that caused immeasurable suffering for the families of the victims and the survivors,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a Thursday statement. “Since the day of the shooting, the Justice Department has sought to bring justice to the community, first by a successful hate crime prosecution and today by settling civil claims.” Read the full story.

State’s future gravitates toward bigger cities, study finds.  While the Palmetto State may sometimes seem quaint in the eyes of the nation, South Carolina ranks among the fastest-growing states in the union, increasingly gravitating toward urban centers. In an interesting series offered today, The State newspaper looks at issues facing big cities across the state — from Charleston, Columbia and Lexington to Greenville, Rock Hill and Myrtle Beach. More: The State

S.C. increasing payments to child care providers. South Carolina’s social services agency says it is now paying more money to providers in the program that subsidizes child care for low-income families. More: AP News.

Virus positivity rate at 5 percent.  South Carolina health officials on Friday reported 729 total cases of COVID-19 Oct. 29, with 984 new cases. A total of 46 new deaths, 32 of which were confirmed, were also reported Friday. With 28,202 tests reported, 5 percent were confirmed positive.  Officials said COVID-19 vaccine booster shots also were widely available across the state. 

Two of S.C.’s U.S. House districts could change significantly due to population changes. South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District “reaches fingers into Charleston and Columbia,” one senator said, adding that the two big cities need to have their own unique representation.  If the district changes, it also likely would change the first district, which stretches from Charleston to Beaufort. More: The State.

Millions of acres of Southern marshes threatened. Salt marshes, which cover 1 million acres from the Outer Banks to north Florida, face danger from changing climate and rising seas, according to a special report.  More.  The State.  Also learn how the coastal development boom endangers salt marshes. 

First Lady visits Charleston hospital, base. In the closing days of breast cancer awareness month, First Lady Jill Biden toured the Hollings Cancer Center in Charleston on Monday. Later, she stopped at Joint Base Charleston to congratulate crews there for executing one of the largest humanitarian airlifts in history at the end of the Afghanistan war. More: AP News.  Biden also said “South Carolina has a piece of my heart” in her Charleston visit.

• Want more headlines every business day that are like this?  Visit our friends at SC Clips.