Orlando needs more tech talent, has strong verticals like e-sports that aren’t elsewhere else in Florida and also really wants to work with other organizations in the city and state.
These are some of the few suggestions from experts who came together Wednesday at the Orlando Science Center for the fourth biennial Digital Orlando, which brings education, government and technology officials under one roof.
Since the day was filled with over 600 registered attendees, 37 exhibiting companies and 54 speakers, we've broken down some of the key takeaways from the day.
Orlando needs tech talent
"The good bad and dirty of Orlando is we don’t have the talent we need," Suneera Madhani, founder of startup Fattmerchant said. "We have great universities, great junior level talent, great programs from UCF, Rollins College. Such fantastic talent, but we have to bring it and grow it. We’re not getting mid-level talent or senior executives. So we're having to grow, recruit and hire agencies and it's very costly. We want to create an environment we thrive in but also create an environment for the talent to work with us."
"You can't hire what's not out there," Avani Desai, president at CPA firm Schellman & Company, said. "It's very difficult to get someone in their 20's, to convince someone to be in emerging tech. If you go to where they have a lot of tech talent you'll see they started really early in elementary and middle school."
The city needs to work together and is looking toward Tampa as an example
"Something's happening in Miami and Tampa — with Tampa specifically, a hospitality executive and restaurant executive did an angel deal investing in a company in Tampa," Dennis Pape, co-founder of coworking space Catalyst said of the unnamed deal. "I was thinking 'We have not sufficiently energized the business community of Orlando into the innovation economy.' But I see it happening in Tampa and Miami."
"I do believe our geography works against us statewide and even within the community we're very decentralized," Linda Olson, president and CEO of Tampa Bay Wave said. "But I think the thing that I see that holds us back is more external than internal. Florida does not have a strong coordinated effort like SXSW, so it's hard to make the case we have a state of innovation when we don’t have a strong message coming from five or six hubs and it's just one city saying it."
Transportation and the upcoming Virgin Trains USA might be a game-changer with connectivity
The formerly called Brightline train project is moving forward, which will create a fast rail system from Miami to Orlando and is eyeing a stop in Tampa in the future. While geographically Florida will still be spread out, it's one way to get over the distance by drastically cutting travel time.
"Driving across downtown Miami takes an hour and a half — to take that long to drive 20 miles is horrifying," Brian Breslin, founder of Refresh Miami said. "Driving up here to Orlando, which is the closest big city to Miami, is a four hour plus drive. So one of the things I'm looking forward to in the long run is a better transportation system. We have the benefit of having better tools to communicate virtually, but nothing compares to face-to-face. It's one of the key things to figure out how to improve collision factor within our communities and break down communication barriers we may be seeing."
Businesses need to play a larger role in working with startups
"We need to work on corporate involvement," Ben Patz, deepwork managing general partner said. "There's a lot of businesses but very few involved in the startup community. Nothing scales a small business than to get it into a real company doing billions in sales. We need to figure out how to coalesce in companies, as a first customer."
Carol Ann Logue, member of the UCF Office of Innovation, agreed and stated it's one of the key things she and her co-workers are working on.
"One of the biggest challenges we have is getting companies into innovation," she said. "They're not consumer-based, they're defense, aerospace. So strategic corporate partnerships with a big company are something we’re constantly working on — they’re looking for innovation and solutions but haven't figure out how to bring them together."
There's plenty of money in Florida, but it needs to shift sectors
"Rise of the Rest is a prime example; 150 startups plus applied, more than has ever applied in the Rise of Rest tour," Charlie Lewis, co-founder of Blue Wave Recruiting Orlando said. "To me, that tells us we’re starving for getting connections to capital support from government and there's a lot of good stuff but we need more of it — a lot more — if we’re going to have an ecosystem that will support the scale."
"We’re the only organization in the state that's investing," Patz said. "It's hard because you know you can make a boatload of money in real estate but it doesn't generate change or jobs. But the positive thing is, that mindset is changing."
"I'll pick on Tampa where they're knocking it out of the park, where they are bringing an ecosystem and bringing people who invested in one successful company into another company and it will transform that market," Patz added. "We’re stating to get that but still years to get from where we need to go."
