Pinellas SBE Local Conversation Update, March 1
We have listened to the voices of our citizens and local business owners and have made improvements to invigorate the Pinellas Small Business Enterprise (SBE) program based on your feedback. Join us on March 1, 2019 at 9:00 a.m. at the St. Petersburg College EpiCenter for an update of the changes we've made to the Pinellas SBE Program and a briefing of upcoming opportunities from Pinellas County and our partners at the City of Clearwater, City of St. Petersburg, PSTA and the Pinellas County School Board. Registration is free and required.
Click here to register.
|
iSOCRATES Announces Headquarters Relocation to St. Petersburg
at Inaugural Digital First Friday
iSOCRATES, the global leader in programmatic media and marketing planning and execution, announced that the company will relocate its headquarters from Connecticut to St. Petersburg and expects to create 50 new jobs over the next five years. "With our global headquarters expansion, we expect to hire 10 employees here by the end of 2019 and eventually grow our U.S. staff to a team of at least 50," said William A. ("Bill") Lederer, Chairman and CEO of iSOCRATES. "We believe Tampa Bay - and St. Petersburg, in particular - is the perfect environment for our growing, innovative digital company." Click here to read more.
To celebrate this announcement, iSOCRATES is kicking off Digital First Fridays, a new Meetup series in downtown St. Petersburg. This event will bring together digerati to share, learn, discuss and network in the burgeoning data analytics, digital media and marketing, and technology professions in Pinellas County. The first of the series will be held on February 1, 2019, at Rising Tide and will feature Mayor Rick Kriseman, Pinellas County Commission Chair Karen Seel and the digital marketing heads of the Tampa Bay Rays and Tampa Bay Lightning. Click here to view event details and register.
|
The 2019 Pinellas County Economic Profile...
...is your guide to the changing demographics, industry, and economic data of our dynamic community. Highlights from the report include:
- Pinellas County has the lowest unemployment and largest labor force in over a decade
- Heavy trucks in Pinellas increased at the fastest pace in years, 5% from 2017 to 2018
- St. Pete-Clearwater Intl. Airport had over 2 million passengers
- Bed tax collections rose over 9%
- Overall poverty rates decreased from 13.3% to 12%
- The childhood poverty rate fell from 19.7% to 15.8%
- Pinellas County is now home to 38 craft breweries
- There are over 50,000 vacation homes in the county
- Pinellas County's foreign exports grew almost $500 million from 2016 to 2017
Read the full 2019 Pinellas County Economic Profile here to learn more.
|
2019 Business of Biotech, Feb. 22
Join Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa for this free annual conference. Business of Biotech is a signature event that attracts 400 biotech executives, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, and researchers from across the U.S., and is a unique opportunity to meet and collaborate with the innovators of our age.
Click here to learn more and to register.
|
Feb. 11 - 15 is #EconDevWeek
|
New in the Data Center...
Pinellas Workforce
Unemployment
& Participation
Pinellas County's unemployment rate falls significantly below state and national measures: December data from the Department of Economic Opportunity reports Pinellas County at 3.1% unemployment, compared with Florida's 3.3%. Low unemployment is very good news for workers and job hunters, but creates challenges for businesses looking to relocate or expand. Low unemployment does not mean no workers are available, but instead that companies may have a more difficult time finding the right employees.
Learn more about Pinellas County workforce participation and unemployment patterns by reading the report here.
|
Team Pinellas at the Synapse Summit
|
Scott Talcott, Mandi Clark, Audra Aja, Andrea Falvey, Sophia Sorolis, Teresa Brydon
|
Thank you to our municipal economic development partners at the cities of St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Largo, Pinellas Park and Oldsmar for joining us at the 2019 Synapse Summit in Tampa to share ideas for building the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Florida. #TeamPinellas
|
SPC Internship and Apprenticeship Workshops: Feb. 8, 15, 20, Mar. 1, 27
Learn how your business can partner with St. Petersburg College (SPC) to host interns or apprentices. Meet representatives from SPC's Career Services team and learn how to use the school's platform for posting internships and jobs. Workshops will be held from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on the following dates:
- February 8: St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus, SS Lobby
- February 15: Seminole Campus, Room UP 303
- February 20: Downtown Center, Community Room
- March 1: Clearwater Campus, Room ES 104
- March 27, 2019 Tarpon Springs Campus, Room FA 132
Click here to register.
|
Business Recycling is Important to Pinellas Consumers
Results of the 2018 Pinellas Residential Recycling Survey are now available and respondents placed a high-level of importance on businesses recycling. Eight in ten people (81%) consider it important that the businesses they frequent have recycling services. Learn more and read the entire report here.
Pinellas County Solid Waste offers free waste assessments through their Cutting Waste at Work Program that can help businesses identify how to reduce, reuse and recycle their wastes. Contact
sqg@pinellascounty.org
for more information.
|
|
|
|
Business Workshops
The Florida Small Business Development Center at Pinellas County Economic Development hosts a number of business workshops each month. Find a full schedule of upcoming workshops at
pced.org/workshops.
|
|
|
|