A Year in Review as Chair of the Miami-Dade Beacon Council Technology and Innovation Committee
By: Ivan Rapin-Smith
Today marks the official leadership transition of the Miami-Dade Beacon Council Technology Committee where I step down as chair. I wanted to capture the highlights of the work we did with my partner in crime Christine Johnson.
Highlights
- Core themes:
- Raise awareness to what is available for startups and corporates who choose Miami-Dade to drive technology-enabled innovation
- Build bridges between corporates and startups in Miami-Dade
- Dedicated a meeting to how the Beacon Council can support entrepreneurs. See resource guide.
- Dedicated a meeting to alternative ways to hire tech talent in Miami-Dade. See resource guide.
- Launched a beta version of navigate.miami to map resources available to entrepreneurs. Visit site
- Lots of new attendees to the meetings, great networking and new connections!
How I got Involved
When Jaret Davis, Sheldon Anderson and Larry Williams came to visit me at the Watsco office in Coconut Grove in 2016 to ask me to lead the Miami-Dade Beacon Council (MDBC) Technology Committee I wasn’t sure how to respond. I hadn’t had much exposure to the Beacon Council until then and I tend to avoid making commitments to projects that could distract me from my work at Watsco Ventures and spending time with my family.
But Jaret made the right pitch to convince me. He connected the dots between my previous roles running tech startup accelerators and my current role driving innovation for a large publicly traded company. He knew I felt strongly about connecting corporates with startups to drive innovation and growth and made a compelling case that this role would be a great additional way for me to work on that theme and support the local innovation community. His arguments combined with the quality of the interaction with Jared, Sheldon and Larry and a better understanding of MDBC’s purpose convinced me to take on the role of chair of the technology committee.
Shortly after I accepted the mission, Mike Finney became the new CEO of the Beacon Council and Christine Johnson joined the MDBC as liaison for the tech committee. Two more great people I would have the honor to work with.
A year as chair-elect
The committees run from October 1st to September 30th. For the 2016/2017 season as chair-elect I had the pleasure to work with technology committee chair Hugo Perez. Hugo was great to work with and a true team player in the preparation and hosting of the tech committee meetings during his tenure.
One Year – Five Meetings
Meeting 1 – How the Miami-Dade Beacon Council Supports Entrepreneurs
Date: January 4th 2018 / Location: Venture Cafe Miami at Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) Miami, 1951 NW 7th Avenue, Miami 33136
For our first meeting we wanted to showcase the different ways in which the MDBC can support startups and entrepreneurs. I thought since I didn’t know much about what the MDBC could offer before getting involved, many others in the community would be in the same situation.
We ended the meeting showcasing some organizations that are doing interesting things in the innovation/technology area and kicked off the navigate.miami project.
An overview of services can be found here.
Meeting 2 – Alternative ways to hiring talent
Date: March 15th 2018 | Location: Venture Cafe Miami at CIC Miami
As we were building our product teams at Watsco Ventures, we needed to hire software developers. We decided early on to explore non-traditional channels to find talent by supporting the local coding schools like Wyncode, Ironhack and LaunchCode. Those programs have brought us amazing, hungry, motivated developers with a strong cultural fit for our organization.
In this second meeting held at CIC we wanted to increase awareness of the non-traditional ways to find tech talent for startups and corporates who are building software products.
Thank you to Wyncode Academy, Ironhack, Code Explorers, Tech Hire at Miami-Dade College, 4Geeks Academy, EcoTech Visions, and LaunchCode for sharing what they do in their respective organizations and for their contribution to developing tech and design talent in Miami-Dade.
An overview of the various organizations building software development and UX/UI skills can be found here.
Continuing on the theme of talent, Jaap Donath who runs Research and Planning at the MDBC shared some data on the growth of software development companies and job growth in those companies. In the ensuing conversation there was a consensus that the number of software development jobs seemed low compared to overall feeling of what is happening in Miami-Dade and we invited Jaap to join us for the next meeting to share labor statistics on technology jobs across all industries.
Meeting 3 – Mapping the players of in the innovation cycle
Date: May 10th 2018 / Location: Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus, 300 NE 2nd Ave, Miami, FL 33132
One of the projects we signed on to support technology and innovation in Miami-Dade is to map the players in the technology and innovation ecosystem in and around Miami-Dade. The purpose of this online resource is to guide local and soon-to-be-local entrepreneurs of organizations large and small to the resources available to them to innovate, whether it’s funding, space, talent or relevant business services.
The first iteration of this project is beta.navigate.miami.
With the help of the local community will continue to add content and features as a community project, championed by the MDBC.
In this third meeting we wanted to have an interactive conversation with the tech committee members on what the lifecycle of innovation is and ask for their input to identify the players in Miami-Dade who play a role in this lifecycle.
This input was used to add content to the first version of the site and to identify features to add to the site to make it useful for different users.
Jaap shared some more labor stats on job growth for technology skills. It was evident that the vibrant technology marketplace in South Florida has not been captured or well documented by the various stats available.
After the meeting we toured the Miami Animation and Gaming International Complex (MAGIC) Experience at Miami Dade College. We were all really impressed with setup, students and staff. MAGIC represents a great example of how to combine education, the creative industry and technology.
Meeting 4- Sources of data
Date: August 9th 2018 / Location: Florida International Bankers Association (FIBA Office), 80 SW 8th St, Miami, FL 33130
Continuing on the awareness theme, Jaap Donath shared some publicly available data resources available to innovators and entrepreneurs who want to learn more about the demographics of Miami-Dade. One useful resource is the Miami Dade sites website.
We also had the pleasure to hear from Daniel Stabile, an expert in the regulatory aspects of cryptocurrencies who shared some interesting perspective. It was fascinating to learn that South Florida is a hotbed for entrepreneurship in the blockchain/cryptocurrency space.
Meeting 5 – Year in Review and Passing the Baton | September 26th 2018
Date: September 27th 2018 | Location: MDBC Office
In this last meeting we reviewed the year and shared the deliverables that were created with the committee members and we gave a sneak peek of the themes Luis Tribin will be addressing as chair of the committee for the 2018/2019 season.
Continuing the work
As corporates invest in technology to create new experiences for their customers they will need access to sources of innovation and talent to develop and deploy new products and services to their customer base. Corporates have resources and a captive distribution channel to their customer base and startups bring new innovative products that can accelerate innovation. Working with the Beacon Council has been very gratifying and therefore as my role of chair of the MDBC technology comes to an end, I will continue to contribute to building bridges between corporates and startups as a way to drive technology-enabled innovation and economic growth.
People to thank
The work of the Beacon Council is possible through the generous contributions of volunteers in the community who extend the wonderful staff at the MDBC.
I would like to thank the following people for their efforts and contribution:
- The attendees of the Tech Committee meetings. The committee meetings are a great way to network, your presence makes the meetings worthwhile.
- Mauricio Ferrazza for the tour of MAGIC at Miami-Dade College
- Jaap Donath & Vanja Hajdukovic at the Beacon Council for providing us with great data insights.
- Natalia Martinez-Kalinina at the CIC for your generosity hosting multiple Beacon Council events in the past few years
- Mike Finney for his leadership and participation in the Tech Committee meetings. We’re blessed to have you in -Dade and I look forward to continuing to work with you to drive growth through technology-enabled innovation.
- Leigh-Ann Buchanan at Venture Cafe Miami for the brainstorming and hosting MDBC events during the Thursday Venture Cafe gathering.
- Hugo Perez for being a great chair and paving the way for a great year 2018/2019
- Romi Bhati, Executive Director, the Idea Center of Miami-Dade College for hosting us on May 10th and sharing the work you do at the Idea Center.
- Sebastian Gomez for sharing his experience with the MDBC for his startup Sunvessel
- Megan Conyers and Ezequiel Williams for helping prepare and facilitate the interactive session on May 10th meeting.
- Joseph Hovancak for his work on One Community One Goal
- Mario Cruz, Mauro Perez for developing the beta version of Navigate.Miami.
- The members of the Miami Innovation Working Group (MIWG) and Ezequiel Williams (Contexto), Erik Gavin (Venture Cafe), Nigel Harris, and participants from Code for Miami for lending their time and energy to believing in the vision for Navigate.Miami.
- Carolina Copello of FIBA for hosting us on August 9th and FIBA’s Innovation Committee Chair, Elias Tefarikis, Correspondent InnovaRock Washington and Consultant at BID, Interamerican Bank for leading the dialogue on blockchain and cryptocurrency.
- Daniel Stabile from Shutts & Bowen for his insights in the regulatory aspects of cryptocurrencies.
- David Coddington from the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance for participating in our September meeting to share the South Florida Techgateway.org initiative and for demoing the awesome Magic Leap device!
- Special warm thank you to Susan Amat who gave me the opportunity to work with her to launch the Venture Hive and introduce me to the Miami community when I moved from Belgium to Miami in 2011.
And last but not least, a warm, deep genuine thank you to Christine Johnson at the MDBC. I enjoyed working with you and am I grateful for all the work you did to make these meetings and connections happen…
Helpful links and resources:
Beacon Council Resources for Entrepreneurs
Idea Center at Miami Dade College
Miami Animation & Gaming International Complex (MAGIC) at MDC
Miami-Dade Sites (data sources)
Help us market Miami (videos):
