Technology

Newly elected Mayor of Boston Marty Walsh boldly declared last week during a visit to local tech education non-profit LearnLaunch, “We want to make Boston the tech capital of the world.” As a Boston tech PR firm, March Communications has seen firsthand over the last decade how impressive the city’s evolution – not just as a tech hub for the East Coast, but the whole country – has really been.

The Boston tech sector’s success is already central to the area’s economic growth, but Walsh’s comments crystallized the collective efforts of city and state officials to make Boston the global technology hub.

Look no further than the Public Space Invitational – a contest to solicit ideas from local innovators to liven some of the drabbest civic spaces in the city, including the urban tundra of City Hall Plaza. That project will reward Boston’s brightest innovators in much the same way startup accelerator program MassChallenge does. And then there’s MassBigData.org, which serves as a gathering place for tech pros in the Big Data space. These efforts to spur the Boston tech industry are paying clear dividends.

Following its annual meeting last Thursday, the Mass Technology Leadership Council (MassTLC), released a report about the Boston tech sector, and the results are encouraging. Tech is responsible for one-fifth of the state’s workforce (209,000 direct jobs) and one-quarter of the state’s wages.

City and state officials have been relentless in their talking points regarding the future of Boston tech – channel the vibrant creativity already within the city’s walls, retain innovative companies in the Commonwealth through financial and infrastructure support (i.e. better broadband connectivity), and educate the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Local officials are practicing what they preach, too. The mayor’s office uses geolocation technology to monitor neighborhood-specific complaints on social media so they can be addressed in real time. The mayor’s chief-of-staff said that during a recent snowstorm, he was able arrange for a constituent’s driveway to be plowed within 15 minutes of her reaching out on Twitter.

Part of being in the Boston tech PR space is interacting with some of the most innovative companies the city has to offer. We’re proud to be able to share our clients’ successes and we can report, from our offices here on Causeway Street, that all the pieces are in place for Boston to live up to Walsh’s “tech capital of the world” pledge.

 


This post was first published by Jimmy Young on March Communications’ blog PR Nonsense.