Richard Milam says it’s time for Orlando to be “brutally honest.”
Milam, the founder of Orlando-based Enablesoft and its CEO before it was acquired in 2019, currently serves as executive chairman of the Entrepreneurs Alliance of Orlando, a group of successful entrepreneurs vying to help build investment-grade companies in Central Florida. The group on Jan. 20 released an 11-page report called “The Opportunity Orlando Call to Action” that details the need for more high-wage jobs in Central Florida’s economy and the need for more successful entrepreneurs and tech firms to create those jobs.
The plan, signed by 54 leaders in Central Florida businesses, nonprofits and higher education institutions, also lays out steps to make more high-wage, high-tech jobs in metro Orlando a reality. However, the report is not just a plan; it’s a call to action for the local business community, which Entrepreneurs Alliance of Orlando members say must lead efforts to diversify the region’s economy.
The problem
The report summarizes the issues that plague metro Orlando’s economy, which include an abundance of low-wage jobs, the region’s reliance on hospitality that leads to downturns whenever travel drops and a net outflow of local tech degree graduates to other cities.
While low-wage jobs are abundant in the leisure and hospitality sector, the report doesn’t attack the industry for which Orlando is best known. In fact, the report credits the economic benefits brought to the region by theme parks, resorts and tens of millions of annual visitors.
The alliance’s desire is simply to grow technology work in Orlando as the tourism sector continues to expand, alliance member and SeedfundersOrlando CEO Dennis Pape told Orlando Inno. “That’s not our fight. No one wants to slow the growth of leisure and hospitality.”
Instead, the report presents an increase in high-wage jobs as a boost for all of Central Florida. That’s because it can diversify the economy, enabling it to emerge from recessions faster, and because it creates a larger, more dependable tax base for local governments.
Indeed, more high-tech work would mean more high-wage jobs, as metro Orlando’s average annual tech wage is $89,000, CBRE Group Inc. reported in 2021. For comparison, the metro’s overall average annual wage is only $48,535, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Plus, most major employers in the region rely on technical talent to succeed. For example, tourism giant Universal Parks & Resorts employs more than 300 tech-focused workers in Orlando, with plans to hire another 200 by 2025.
Solutions
The report’s proposed action items include unified regional efforts to attract new businesses, nurturing existing local businesses, leveraging the local tourism industry to create an entertainment tech hotspot, easing red tape for business owners and more.
As an example, the call to action points to Austin, Texas. The city is a tech hub success story, transforming from a college town to the No. 1 city for IT jobs in the nation in 2020, according to the Computing Technology Industry Association.
However, Central Florida doesn’t need to try to replicate any other city, Engineering & Computer Simulations CEO Waymon Armstrong, another alliance member, told Orlando Inno. “Orlando and Orange County are never going to be Austin or Miami.”
What’s next?
Of course, there’s an open question as to who will lead these efforts. The alliance makes it clear in its report that it doesn’t view itself as the group to implement these strategies, though it can play a role.
Another regional tech growth plan is in the works. While the Entrepreneurs Alliance of Orlando in August 2021 began talks of formulating its call to action, public/private economic development group Orlando Economic Partnership in December 2021 announced it’s formulating a five-year strategic growth plan for the local innovation and tech ecosystem.
The alliance specifies in its report its members, while researching and writing the report, began conversations with the OEP that played a role in the OEP’s five-year plan efforts. However, the OEP’s plan, which is being crafted with the help of a task force of local business leaders, is separate from the alliance’s report.
The efforts may be separate, but the missions are aligned, OEP Executive Director of Innovation & Technology David Adelson told Orlando Inno. “They’re all trying to solve the same thing.”
While Milam is in support of the OEP’s efforts, he stressed that local businesses need to take the reins to make these changes happen. “We think businesses need to lead on this. We’re here to help.”
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