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Jan 2, 2022

2021 | A Year In Review

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From a continued worldwide pandemic with major loss to one of the biggest years for real estate, venture capital, and growth of the tech and startup ecosystem in South Florida, 2021 was surely a year for the history books.

We started as Palm Beach Tech in 2015 with a mission of building the Palm Beaches into a tech hub, but quickly saw the need for a regional Tech Hub here in South Florida. Many of the issues that South Florida faces such as funding and resources for startups and the need for a consistent stream of high-quality tech talent are not a county-wide issues, but a regional issues and must be addressed as such.

We began the 2021 year off by announcing our new name of “Tech Hub” and efforts to make the year  all about growth, collaboration, and new partnerships.

Although we still have a lot of work to do, we had some needed discussions, poppin’ events, fantastic funding news, and the real beginnings of regional collaboration.

Real change takes a lot of committed people and organizations – these are a few of those people and their stories Tech Hub highlighted throughout the year. 

 

JANUARY

We started off the year with a discussion about our messaging around South Florida and becoming more unified.

We had David Coddington, Co-Chair @ TechGateway, Daniella Levine Cava, Mayor @ Miami-Dade County, Michael Udine, Vice Mayor (now Mayor) @ Broward County and Scott Singer, Mayor @ City of Boca Raton join us.

 

 

FEBRUARY

From fun community events such as the annual Tech Hub TEE OFF to a discussion with Mayor Francis Suarez on our South Florida Tech podcast and a lively Community Coffee conversation about Augmented, Virtual & Mixed Reality Technologies, February was a strong month to getting 2021 started!

Check out the Tech Hub TEE OFF photos here.

 

 

MARCH

This was the month of important conversations – Supporting Our Under Resourced Students, Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, and the Business, Beaches, & Basics in South Florida – and big events such as the Synapse Summit 2021. I think my favorite was being there for he launch of the ‘Engineer The Change” scholarship.

 

APRIL

From a death in the tech community to discussions about  why tech talent leaves the region and hundreds of jobs created for the region, April was a month of ups and downs. Newsworthy stories came left and right!

 

MAY

The Tech Hub Career Expo, Startup Committee Panther’s hockey night, #BocaTechHappyHour and the Startup Founders & CxO BBQ and Hoppy Hour were events that brought out hundreds of people in the region that wouldn’t normally get a chance to connect.

Panels about VCs in South Florida and AgeTech Vs Proactive Healthcare were two of the topics of the month.

 

JUNE

From Tech Hub’s first in-person Tech Talk in over a year, the announcement of our new HealthTech & Life Science committee, and Tech Hub’s partnership with the ITEXPO in Miami, we had a busy month. Some of the topics of our Community Coffee panel discussions were Intersectionality of Underrepresentation in Tech and Innovation in Agriculture Technology which was the first for us as an organization. We also held our first-ever Startup Showcase in partnership with FAU Tech Runway, 1909 and the Founder Institute and our first-ever Ambassador’s Dinner!

 

JULY

This month was a BIG one with Tech Hub celebrating our 6th year anniversary with a birthday party at the Boca Raton Innovation Campus (“BRIC”), our first-ever hybrid career expo, and announcing our growth plans with Nikki Cabus as our new Interim CEO.

We also discussed The Growing World of eSports during one of our Community Coffee panels. This discussion drew a lot of attention.

 

AUGUST

This month was full of awesome panel discussions on crytocurrency organizations getting back to in-person events and closed out with the Magic City Cup 2021 with soccer (futbol), music, tech, startups and all coming together to create a beautiful culture of sports, tech, and innovation. Tech Hub was so proud to be a major organizer alongside partner organization such as CIC Miami and The Shrimp Society.

Plus, Inc 5000’s 13 high growth Tech Hub members who made the list!

 

SEPTEMBER

We also attended the Fuel Venture Capital grand opening, held our first ever ‘Community Connection’ with Congressman Ted Deutch addressing legislative initiatives that could impact tech companies and startups in South Florida, and partnered with DSS for the AI & ML Week 2021 for the launch.

You’d think that was a fun-packed month, but we topped it all off by announcing the merger of TechLauderdale and Tech Hub!! Oh, and we had our #LauderdaleTechHappyHour to celebrate.

 

OCTOBER

What a month full of exciting news, including two special shoutouts for Tech Hub’s Interim CEO (now CEO), Nikki Cabus:

Thank you to SFBJ for highlighting the ‘Women In Miami Tech You Need To Know and SFBW for honoring Tech Hub’s Interim CEO as an “Up & Comer” for the category of technology. What an honor!

 

NOVEMBER

The month started off somber with the passing of Jerry Hildebrand from Lynn Unniversity’s Social Impact Lab and his memorial held on November 8th.

This month highlighted very special events for the South Florida tech and startup ecosystem including the Tech Hub Hackathon and this year’s theme of ‘Hack for Inclusion’ with team Visualbility creating winning solution at Hack for Inclusion event.

Global Entrepreneurship Week 2021  offered workshops, meetups, pitch contests and a gala raising over $50k!

 

DECEMBER

Ambassador gift exchanges, toy drives and Panther’s games, and a first ever women’s tech event with CareerSource Broward were all a part of the month’s activities, but nothing could match the perfect night of CEOs, startup founders, and many more tech industry professionals hitting the dance floor to celebrate Tech Hub South Florida and Tech Lauderdale’s unification with their “One Brand | One Voice” gala and naming of Nikki Cabus as the organization’s permanent CEO. What a perfect way to end the year!

 

TOGETHER, we are all #BuildingSoFlo!