Mike McMonagle is the director of sales and marketing at Industrial Resolution and Pubforge, which operate in Downtown Lancaster.

Pastoral. Quaint. Amish.

If these are the types of words that come to mind when – heck, if – you ever find yourself discussing Lancaster, let’s just say you wouldn’t be incorrect. But while the county boasts its fair share of farmlands, cattle and buggy tours, there’s also exists a tech scene in and around the city that’s fast on the rise.

Personally speaking, I wasn’t exactly given the option to live in Lancaster. Not at first, at least. My folks relocated here from Philly just before I marched into this world, and here I lived, up until I moseyed on down to Baltimore for college and eventually to Arlington, Va., for not only my first “real” job, but also my first foray in the world of tech, at a great PR agency called Merritt Group.

During my six-year hiatus from my hometown, I kept close tabs on the region’s evolution, most notably in Downtown Lancaster where new restaurants, art galleries, music venues, coffee shops and small businesses were popping up en masse. On the two-year anniversary of the date I had first moved to Virginia, I packed up and headed back home to join in on the cultural shift that was actively occurring in Lancaster. Now, seven years since returning to town, I now find myself in the thick of a tech scene that is quickly making a name for itself.

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