The first thing CEO David Adelson spoke about when announcing his June departure from the Orlando Economic Partnership to lead the new tech nonprofit Innovate Orlando was an upcoming summit that would bring the best and brightest in the tech scene to Orlando. It would be called Metacenter Global Week, and now it’s only three weeks away.
“This is going to be a South by Southwest experience,” he said, referring to the annual Austin, Texas, mix of festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March.
Adelson linked up with Synapse Orlando and Immerse Global Summit to add oomph to the three-day conference at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts (DPAC) from Oct. 17-19, and his hope is to show the larger tech community what Orlando has to offer.
Adelson described Metacenter Global Week as Innovate Orlando’s debut, the new organization’s opportunity to stake a claim.
Other leaders in Orlando’s tech scene see Metacenter Global Week as a “step forward on the global stage,” as 302 Interactive CEO Kyle Morrand put it. “Our community has a more practical and lifestyle-oriented approach to technology than what I’ve seen in other communities, and I hope to see that showcased in a refreshing light to the rest of our global partners.”
In his May 24 State of the City address, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer noted that IT salaries in Orlando are on the rise and said, “With our density of talent in areas like modeling and simulation, gaming and AR/VR, Orlando is Ground Zero for the next generation of the digital experience.”
Adelson is riding that wave.
“It’s a very big lift for us. It demonstrates our action and our commitment to doing something large for the city of Orlando. I have about 50 people from the Orlando Tech Community who are leaning in to push this forward. We're getting into the weeds. I've pulled the community in to develop all the aspects — arts, entertainment, music, restaurants.”
As such, summit experiences will spill out beyond DPAC: A scavenger hunt will scour downtown on Oct. 17, a live jam will take over Church Street on Oct. 18, and EDM star Lost Frequencies will perform on Church Street on Oct. 19.
In between the celebrations, speakers from Sony (Nasdaq: SONY), Unity (NYSE: U), NASA, Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and many other heavy hitters will share their knowledge about artificial intelligence, gaming, blockchain, space, simulation and more.
While the summit is designed to have standalone strength, it’s but one piece of a puzzle created by Adelson. He’s set on changing the world’s view of Orlando, putting an end to what’s been dubbed “brain drain” — when tech-educated workers and entrepreneurs move away to chase their dreams.
“If I were to peel back a layer, the reason there's a brain drain is because there's not enough companies hiring here. The way you end up attracting companies to move or start here is that you build an ecosystem they want to live inside,” he said. “You have to create the vibe. So having the right restaurants and nightlife, showing our innovation in the market and even putting some of that on display at some of these places is what we want to do,” he said.
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