Last week, hundreds converged on Raleigh, NC for the annual Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) Tech Venture Conference. The result was a wildly informative conference, with some great pitches, two great panel discussions, and a great interview about the notion of scaling. Further, there was a ceremony recognizing the seven companies from the NC Research Triangle who filed IPOs this year (video montage on YouTube), a speech from Pat McCrory, the Governor of North Carolina, and a speech from the James H. Shelton, III, the Acting Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.
So What?
The significance of this conference goes way beyond the actual substance of the event. The quality and turnout of the event speaks volumes, and in some ways affirms, everything that we and others have been saying for some time: the Southeast is becoming a hotbed of innovation and technology. It is no secret that cities like Raleigh, and the greater Southeast as a whole, are rapidly growing in population, % of population with a bachelors degree, % of overall US GDP, % of workforce employed in STEM occupations (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), among other indicators. Further, Forbes has highlighted The Best Big Cities For Jobs 2013, The Best Midsize Cities For Jobs 2013, and, you guessed it, The Best Small Cities For Jobs 2013, in which the Southeast is heavily represented. Perhaps even more telling of the regions growth is Forbes’ The Cities Winning The Battle For America’s Biggest Growth Sector – Their description is kind of cryptic, but they are referring to the BLS industry designation of “Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services.”
The fact that the CED was able to make this happen is a testament to the rise of the Raleigh, and the region as a whole. Again, this happened in NC, not in Sunnyvale or Mountain View. It is clear when traveling around the Southeast, that this is very real. From The Iron Yard in Greenville, SC, to CoWorkJax and One Spark and The Factory in Jacksonville, FL, to the CED and the NC State Technology Incubator in the Research Triangle of NC, to Flashpoint and the new AT&T Innovation Center in Georgia, the Southeast is becoming a major hub in the technology industry.
There is even more!
Wednesday, Google announced – as part of their Google for Entrepreneurs initiative – that it would be partnering with a “network of six tech hubs,” where they will, “provide a venue for developers and the wider tech community to engage directly with companies and training partners like Google.” Two of these six hubs are located in the Southeast. The American Underground has three locations within the North Carolina Research Triangle, and plays a vital role in fostering and developing the Triangle’s tech community. The Nashville Entrepreneur Center is the center of the Nashville tech ecosystem, uniting investors, entrepreneurs, mentors, and the community-at-large under a single roof.
The New “New South”
It is certainly an exciting time for the technology industry in the Southeast United States. Organizations like the CED, and the Charleston Digital Corridor, Google for Entrepreneurs, The Iron Yard, and countless others are facilitating this great industry-wide transition, or migration if you will, away from the traditional technology hotbeds. There is still much to do, but the writing is on the wall. Pardon the cliche, but it seems appropriate here: “The South Will Rise Again.”
It seems fitting to end with a selection from Henry W. Grady, the Georgia politician and journalist who in the aftermath of the US Civil War, offered his vision of the “New South.” Although written in 1886, Grady’s words seem no less relevant now:
The new South is enamored of her new work. Her soul is stirred with the breath of a new life. The light of a grander day is falling fair on her face. She is thrilling with the consciousness of growing power and prosperity. As she stands upright, full-statured and equal among the people of the earth, breathing the keen air and looking out upon the expanded horizon, she understands that her emancipation came because through the inscrutable wisdom of God her
honest purpose was crossed, and her brave armies were beaten.
To think of the Southeast in terms of politics and values, or the southern accent, or the affinity for fishing and hunting and football, is folly, to disregard the growth of the regions technology sector world be something worse.
