Three local companies that focus on employment software, cybersecurity and data analytics are finalists for Technology Company of the Year in the 2018 Tampa Bay Tech awards.
Geographic Solutions in Palm Harbor, KnowBe4 in Clearwater and Nielsen in Oldsmar are vying for top honors in the category, which recognizes a Tampa Bay-headquartered company committed to advancing the region’s technology community and able to demonstrate excellence in their people, programs and projects within their industry.
1 Million Cups, an initiative to connect and support entrepreneurs and the local community, will celebrate its fifth anniversary in St. Petersburg Wednesday.
After 480 presentations by startups, and thousands of questions and offers of advice from the community, the program now is looking at expanding, said Sean Kennedy, community organizer at 1 Million Cups and vice president of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce.
The CEOs of Peerfit, a Tampa digital fitness business, and Marxent, an augmented and virtual reality firm in St. Petersburg, made national news as they highlighted the growth of their companies.
Ed Buckley, chairman and CEO of Peerfit, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal Friday in a news story about how the low unemployment rate makes it tough to find tech talent, while Beck Besecker, Maxent founder and CEO, was on CNBC’s Squawk Box discussing his company’s deal with Macy’s for in-store virtual reality experiences.
The national attention to local firms is a signal that the area’s tech industry is maturing, and could serve to attract other businesses that want to be part of a strong tech cluster.
When St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman stopped in at an Edge District café a few weeks ago to talk barbecue and listen to music, he wasn’t merely having a great time. He was sending a not-so-subtle message that St. Petersburg is a cool place for businesses.
Candace Blackburn, Executive Vice President of The Missing Piece, believes that outgoing furniture still has value - and she wants to give consignors a chance to profit from useful and beautiful pieces.
The most impactful thing about El Sueño Americano, the photographic exhibition on view at the ArtsXchange gallery (in the Warehouse Arts District) Oct. 8 through Nov. 5, is that it puts a face on the raging debate about illegal immigration – without depicting any faces at all.
Do these prizes get the sort of world-saving results they aim for? There’s little quantified evidence to back that, and some leaders in philanthropy are broadly skeptical.
