Just last weekend, in my few spare moments, I was channel surfing and came across one particular movie scene that every teenager of the 90’s remembers with great accuracy. It was the scene in “Clueless” when Cher’s best friend Dionne pulls her car onto the Los Angeles freeway, immediately going into full freak-out mode and nearly creating dozens of collisions based on reputation of the big-bad highway. As a former Los Angeles resident who used the freeway system for a daily commute, I can promise you this scene was greatly dramatized. Quite honestly, very rarely were cars able to drive faster than 10 miles per hour based on traffic!
Now imagine a magical world where Clueless took place in Central Florida. How do you think the scene would look? Do you think getting onto I-4 to drive from Tampa Bay to Orlando would create such a reaction that millions of teens around the United States would immediately grip to memory?
I am here to tell you the following: I-4 is not that scary. This 132 mile stretch of road is what prevents the Tampa Bay area and the Greater Orlando region from being seen as one business mega-region, similar to Dallas-Ft. Worth and Minneapolis-St. Paul. It does not have to be this way. As outsiders look at the demographics, data, and companies in a vacuum, one city does not tell the entire story. For example, there are approximately 400,000 residents of the city of Tampa, while there are 3,100,000 people in the greater Tampa Bay region and nearly 6,000,000 people across the I-4 corridor. We are not talking about a distance that requires a plane flight. We are talking about a ninety minute drive.
The potential strength of one strong Tampa Bay-Orlando innovation community speaks volumes to the future of possibilities. For starters, corporations across the corridor are very strong. We already have involvement from large nationally known organizations such as Nielsen, Disney, Jabil and EA. The talent pipeline of the university system is vast, including USF, UCF and Florida Poly, among other top institutions. The support organizations are present and prevalent, waiting and offering to help.
This is why Synapse is excited to be joining forces with the Orlando Economic Partnership to bring to you Synapse Orlando on October 18. We don’t just see this as bringing the Synapse community to Orlando. We see it as part of our core mission of connecting the state. As people within markets and between markets all become closer connected, everybody in the region is one step closer to the resource they need to progress in his or her innovation journey.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has said that "the most common question that gets asked in business is, ‘why’? That’s a good question, but an equally valid question is, ‘Why not’?” With all of the present opportunity, my only thought is to channel Bezos and ask: why not join forces? Most people’s answer would be that they dislike I-4. However, it is a shorter drive, mostly traffic-free (particularly compared to other markets) and rather scenic. You’ll feel calm and collected like a race car driver at Daytona National Speedway, not in a state of panic as if you were in “Clueless”.
I promise you, I-4 is just not that scary. Don’t let one road be the barrier to being a part of a region that will be a national powerhouse.
