TOURISM, ARTS CONSTRUCTION & CULTURE OVERVIEW
Arts and culture Almost 90% of locals know that tourism enhances Hillsborough County’s cultural opportunities according to a survey by Visit Tampa Bay. In a survey last year, WalletHub ranked Tampa as the fifth-best city in the country for recreation. Despite a largely industrial economic boom driven by the cigar industry, Tampa flourished during World War II, when it served as a main base for the Army Air Corps and later Army Air Forces because of its privileged location on the country’s East Coast. The air bases set up during this time became international airports – now Tampa International Airport and St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport – and brought in busloads of new residents and tourists in the mid-19th century. The city’s business owners were quick to adapt, and steadily captured the attention of more and more visitors with the establishment of attractions such as Busch Gardens and Lowry Park.
Brian Kornfeld President & CEO Synapse
How is Synapse working to help keep quality talent in Tampa Bay? Talent is one of the most important focus areas of Synapse, as talent attraction and retention in Florida are vital to our future. Synapse helps to tell the top stories of growth and success on a statewide and national level. This helps to ensure people know about all of the great things happening in Tampa Bay. We enable connections between talent, startups, and companies through our Synapse Summit, Synapse Challenges, and the Synapse Connect digital platform. How is Synapse Connect helping to connect entrepreneurs and bring their ideas to life? When we first started Synapse, the idea was this platform that has become Synapse Connect. The thought of running a conference was not even on our radar, so it is interesting that our conference is what we are now best known for while Connect is still up and coming. The goal is that in the future Synapse Connect will be at the center of Florida’s innovation community. It will be the logical first step when somebody joins the innovation community, so they can find what they need or share what they have. What is the key challenge facing the startup and entrepreneurial community in Tampa Bay? Part of the challenge with the startup community in Tampa Bay is trying to find our identity. We are pretty wide in terms of the different industries that we are trying to service, but we need to focus our efforts on being great in just a couple areas. This way we can be an inch wide and a mile deep. We have core leading industries such as cybersecurity, digital health, and financial tech. We need to continue to play to our strengths. Startup companies also need to be educated on how to build for a customer’s needs, to solve a problem and learn how to create a product better than their competitors. After these companies have mastered this, then they can learn from there how to grow and scale. www.capitalanalyticsassociates.com
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