The Intersection of Innovation program will augment the Mayor’s Transforming Tampa’s Tomorrow initiative by fostering innovation to enhance mobility, workforce development, housing affordability, development, and sustainability.
The City will work with the innovators to make it easier to engage City departments, understand the Mayor’s vision and deploy projects to address community needs.
This is a call to action for Tampa’s innovators. The City will provide opportunities and develop the next generation workforce right here in Tampa. Our goal is to build a smarter Tampa from within.
- Engage local accelerators and incubators to develop startup skills and map talent to available opportunities
- Host ‘Customer Immersion’ sessions to expose City departments to local startups’ products and services. These sessions will also develop entrepreneurs’ skills to pitch their services to potential investors or clients
- Host ‘Reverse Customer Immersions’ to highlight needs to the innovation community
- Department tours and webinars for startups to learn more about doing business with the City. This can augment existing Bridges to Business program
- Remove red tape and create a fast track process for startups to provide services to the City
- Build on ‘City as a Lab’ approach, create a program to deploy low-risk pilot projects. This will provide a living lab for local innovators to demonstrate their products and services. (The City currently runs a couple of similar pilot projects as part of our Smart Mobility program). Deploy pilot projects using mechanisms like Synapse challenge
Benefits
- Opportunity: Create opportunities for Tampa’s creative class
- Betterment: Provide two-way value for startups and the City of Tampa
- Inclusive: Broad focus across disciplines and industry.
Send your ideas and suggestions to Intersection@tampagov.net