The First Coast is being connected to the international tech community and in kind, the world is beginning to learn about the broader Jacksonville area.
Highlighting that effort, industry leaders in fintech, medtech and development kicked off the second day of the second annual Jacksonville Venture Competition at the West Club at EverBank Stadium.
"For me, this story of connectivity is personal," Dr. Charles Bruce of Mayo Clinic said.
He recounted the story and showed a beach day photo of him and his mother in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, about 60 years ago. He noted Port Elizabeth was Jacksonville's sister city. Bruce's mother's eventual death due to a stroke eventually spurred his innovation streak and in partnership with Jacksonville's Mayo facility, was able to bring a sophisticated heart monitoring platform to market to help people like his mother.
"Who would have thought that this little kid over there holding his mom's hand would one day be speaking to you in its sister city?" Bruce asked the JVC audience Wednesday morning.
But Bruce is doing more than just talking to Jacksonville. In his day job as a cardiologist and his work with Mayo Clinic's Innovation Exchange, more than 90 companies throughout the world are being connected to Mayo and the region.
Jacksonville has an opportunity, Bruce said, to build its innovation infrastructure and support innovators from the ground up. Building the region's ecosystem has been a decade-long project for Wednesday's keynote speaker Laura DiBella, government affairs advisor and former Enterprise Florida CEO.
She touted PaySafe's move to Jacksonville and its new headquarters as the most recent success story for the region before reiterating the city's potential to leverage its many advantages, including its time zone, to its benefit.
Other speakers like Tony Cho, CEO of Future of Cities, which is behind the revival of the Phoenix Arts District near downtown; Joey Sanchez, who was senior director of ecosystems at Houston-based innovation hub The Ion; JaxChamber President Daniel Davis; and Jason Dean, the Jacksonville Jaguars' production and network systems manager, agreed and said the region is in a unique point in time and has the potential to redefine its future.
The second annual JVC was capped off with two pitch competitions — one between students at local universities and the other between several startup companies. The startup competition could lead to an investment of up to $1.2 million.
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