In the quantum domain, company  credibility is rarely created through a single announcement. A company may reach an important technical milestone, secure a major partnership, or launch a new product, often through a press release. But an announcement celebrating notable wins is not considered in isolation. The intended audience interprets it through a cumulative lens, taking into consideration everything they already know – or do not know – about the company.  This is where thought leadership, especially as it relates to written content, becomes essential. It creates an ongoing layer of credibility and visibility around the technical work and gives people the context required to understand what a company has achieved and why it matters. It creates the story around the company.

In 2025, the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, as designated by the United Nations, many of us working in quantum attended a slurry of events. I was traveling, on average, once a month, with one particularly intense stretch taking me from Italy to Poland to South Korea. This was quite a shock considering I had received my first passport only months before. The benefit of traveling abroad comes in many forms. There is the obvious benefit of seeing different regions and cultures, but there is also something to be learned from experiencing the broad range of communication that comes with them. People receive and share information in many different ways. While this is differentiated at the individual level, it is also deeply influenced by culture, education and upbringing.

Last week, I joined 1,300 participants at the 2026 Quantum.Tech World in Boston. The event drew a wide-ranging audience, including scientists, government officials, investors, journalists, and even an NFL player.  I’ve spent most of my PR career involved in emerging tech, most recently in the AI world, but this was my first quantum show. And here’s what I found interesting.

It was a tale of two cities. But it wasn’t the best of times and the worst of times. It was only the best of times, having not one, but two, World Quantum Day events to go to here in Southern California, where HKA is headquartered.

Few would deny that 2025 was a momentous year for the quantum tech industry.  Whether you measure technological advancements, capital pouring into both established and startup companies, or the many worldwide events tied to UNESCO’s 2025 International Year of Quantum Science & Technology (IYQ), tremendous growth was obvious everywhere.

Confined for years in staid research labs, quantum technology made its presence felt amid the glittering lights of Las Vegas last week at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).  And maybe for the first time, quantumwas widely positioned as a practical force coming soon to our daily lives.  

We tentatively entered the world of quantum back in 2019. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what we were getting into. Our agency, HKA Marketing Communications, previously enjoyed several decades of successful PR work for many different industries. We were, in a word, eclectic.

From the topological to the philosophical, this year’s APS Global Physics Summit illuminated novel perspectives on how quantum computing can transform our understanding of the universe and how quantum ideas can play a role in our everyday lives.  With the largest physics research conference in the world happening in Anaheim – right in HKA’s backyard – I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet some of the brilliant scientists deciphering the quantum puzzles that will unlock the next era of science and technology. 

According to Seth Lloyd, a quantum computing expert and professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, newborn babies are the only people alive who intuitively understand quantum mechanics - something that fades as they grow older. Until about three months old, babies engage in what can be known as A-not-B errors, demonstrating an understanding similar to concepts in quantum physics. As they begin learning to play games such as peekaboo, they shift their focus to more human-scale physics.