By David Capelli
For decades, March in Miami has been known as the best vacation hotspot on earth. This March tells a different story for many Miamians during Spring Break. On a warm 87-degree night, American Airlines’ newly announced nonstop flight to Austin, Texas departed into the sunset with entrepreneurship hopefuls and heroes.
SXSW Interactive, a four-day series during the first portion of the world famous music and film gathering, welcomed guests from around the world in technology, entrepreneurship, and creative industries. Miami made a splash, to say the least. Here are five takeaways from the SXSW gathering from a student entrepreneur in Miami’s tech scene:
Miami’s time to become a global entrepreneurship hub is now.
If there was a moment where I realized when Miami needed to take an even more aggressive plunge in building a start-up hub, it was the General Assembly and Kauffman Foundation event at SXSW. Political, institutional, and student leaders in the entrepreneurship community need to come together and make Miami the city it is destined to be. People are waiting for Miami’s boom in entrepreneurship. They see Miami as a true opportunity to be the next best entrepreneurial ecosystem. Now is Miami’s moment.
Miami needs to own its identity: we are a global community unlike anywhere else in the United States.
I noticed how Austin lacked a strong international business community and relationship-based culture, yet embraced their “Weird” techie brand. It’s working. Miami needs to brand itself as the most diverse and vibrant entrepreneurship hub in the world. This helps other strong local industries in real estate, tourism, and trade. We have an entrepreneurial bug. One can feel it walking anywhere downtown or driving past cargo stations in Doral. We aren’t like any place else, and that’s fine.
Students need to get more involved in the entrepreneurial community.
I met a group of Michigan State students who came together and crowd-funded a bus/hotel package and came to SXSW for free. I connected with Texas-Tech students who were sponsored by their school. Local universities need to expose students and provide more financial opportunities for students to engage in the entrepreneurial community. Most importantly students need to empower each other – entrepreneurship is a team sport; building a culture starts with us, regardless of our school affiliation.
People want to move to Miami but don’t know where to begin.
If I received a dollar for every time I heard “I love Miami and would move there, but I don’t know where to begin,” I could be making six-figures. Simply put, Miami is overwhelmingly awesome and needs a welcoming, streamlined pipeline for people to come and stay in Miami.
Like Austin, Miami is still a new city with a world of opportunity.
Transportation is a major issue that needs to be taken more seriously by all community members. Politicians can’t do it alone. Austin has a sprawl issue: it is the fastest growing city in the United States. Miami has a different issue: the city exists but is changing rapidly. A deeper understanding of why Miami traffic is so terrible is proximity of resources. Currently, there is not one walk-able urban district with safe, tech-friendly public transit, affordable housing, and centralized start-up resources for the emerging entrepreneurial community. Until this happens, young talent will continue to leave, and traffic will continue to plague the city. Projects like All-Aboard Florida are sparking the trend for building better transit in Miami. The transportation panel at SXSW left a solid reminder for I want to emphasize: Sustainable, privatized innovation and technology in transportation improves lives of all citizens, regardless of political views.
SXSW was an invaluable experience. Meeting Matt Haggman and seeing so many people enthusiastic about Miami made me as a student excited to graduate and continue to lead the student entrepreneurial movement in Miami. Miami will forever be a top vacation destination in the world, but as the months go by, a new story is being told on Magic City’s horizon.
David Capelli is founder of TECH Miami student non-profit and a former Operations Intern at Miami- Dade Aviation/MIA.