Building A Tech Corridor

Tonight I got back from a quick roadtrip to Philadelphia, where I had several meetings with PA tech leaders.  We talked about all sorts of things, from upcoming events to regional startups.  Every time this happens it really surprises me how big the disconnect is between our Mid Atlantic metro areas.  From downtown DC the trip to Philadelphia is a little over two hours by car.  By train the trip goes by in a flash.  On the trip my I had to stop to change out a flat tire for a spare, then backtrack to a garage in Deleware that changed my tire.  By the time my tire was changed, I knew I was going to have to reschedule my afternoon meeting in Baltimore.  While I was waiting I had time to think about the proximity of cities in our region.  At the same time I started thinking about the proximity of cities in the San Francisco bay area.  When I got back I decided to check.

Here is what I found:
San Francisco to San Jose (Silicon Valley) - roughly 50 miles apart and joined by major roads and commuter rail
DC to Baltimore (Beltway Central) - roughtly 50 miles apart and joined by major roads and commuter rail

If you start comparing the two regions, there is more than just a geographic similarity that exists.  Both have a heavy high tech presence that is supported by large public and private engineering and academic programs as well as large commercial and government organizations.  Count NASA in that mix too.  Both offer a wide variety of regional amenities and a high density of well smart, well educated people too.

One of the major differences is that isn’t as obvious is that San Francisco is closer to Asia, while DC is closer to Europe.  I’m not convinced that this is a major difference between the two regions, but it would stand to reason that many of the best and brightest from Asia who have immigrated to the United States would want to be closer to their familes abroad.  I really wonder if this is a factor or not considering that most of the people who I know that travel back to various parts of Asia have talked about the distance and how important is that they be able to visit their families.

Also, given the direction that the various Asian economies are headed in these days I wonder if there isn’t a correlation there that will lend itself to further expansion on the west coast.

So what is the whole point of this?  Lately I have been spending a lot of time thinking about what attracted some of our ex-community members to Sillicon Valley.  Of those who have left, a handful moved when their DC area startups moved West.  In 2008 at least 3 DC startups moved west.  Among them were the Social Gaming Network, Qloud (they went to Los Angeles), and Jam Legend (they were moving back to California where they had come from in the first place though).  I’ve seen close to 10 top engineers and others move that direction over the last two years. One took a job with Google.  One took a job with Facebook.  Others moved with two of the companies mentioned above or took jobs with startups that were not so well known.  At least one person I know left just looking for greener pastures.  In that same time frame I’ve only met two people who moved to DC from San Francisco and neither of them was an engineer.  This is distrubing to me.  I guess thats the point.

I belive that there is a solution, but it is one that is going to take a coordinated effort across our tech community.  One that isn’t just a social media consultant leading a group of consultants.  A few have tried, but their efforts so far have been either too broad (organize the entire east coast) or too narrow (organize the organizers).  The problem calls for a coordinated effort across academia, businesses, non-profits and government.  It is also going to take a concerted effort to pool resources across the DC, Baltimore and Northern Virginia Community.

The good news is that there have been a lot of events recently that have brought the community together along these lines.  There are three upcoming events that should help to continue this dialouge and I look forward to all of them.  Among them are BarCamp DC (October 18th), Social Dev Camp East (November 1st) and Social Matchbox (November 18th).  Each of these events will bring together leaders from across the community.  they have their work cut out for them.