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Heartland Tech Weekly: Of course cities are thirsty for Amazon jobs

Though the October 19 application deadline may have passed, the conversation around Amazon HQ2 is far from over. As my VentureBeat colleague Chris O’Brien reported yesterday, 238 cities submitted bids — meaning that we have to wait for Amazon to narrow down a list of 238 contenders to one. As the deadline inched closer, the publicity stunts […]


Though the October 19 application deadline may have passed, the conversation around Amazon HQ2 is far from over. As my VentureBeat colleague Chris O’Brien reported yesterday, 238 cities submitted bids — meaning that we have to wait for Amazon to narrow down a list of 238 contenders to one.

As the deadline inched closer, the publicity stunts grew more outlandish — as we reported, the office of Kansas City Mayor James Sly promoted their city by writing nearly 90 reviews of products on Amazon that unsubtly doubled as reviews for Kansas City. And New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said that the state was willing to give Amazon nearly $7 billion in state tax breaks if it chose Newark for its second headquarters.

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All of this courting of Amazon prompted some media outlets to decry these cities as “desperate” and “thirsty.” But it shouldn’t come as a surprise that cities are desperate to woo Amazon, when you consider how large the gap has grown between cities that are dominant in tech like San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Austin, and other parts of the U.S.

First, five of the 10 largest U.S. companies by market capitalization are tech companies. Second, 75 percent of the venture capital money that should in theory go toward creating the next Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet or Apple only goes to three states. So why wouldn’t a city’s mayor think that the solution is bringing one of those tech giants to their city, even if their city only has a 1-in-328 chance?

Amazon will likely be a gamechanger for whichever city is selected for HQ2 — but the other 327 cities can set themselves up for success by investing resources in creating an ecosystem that is ripe for creating the next Amazon from the ground up.

Send feedback, news tips, or story suggestions to me via email — bookmark our Heartland Tech Channel, and please remember to share these #HeartlandTech stories on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Thanks for reading,

Anna Hensel
Heartland Tech Reporter

 

P.S. Please enjoy this video from CNBC, “Amazon HQ2 a one-off special event that could turn a city into a tech hub”

From the Heartland Tech Channel

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How to bridge the broadband divide: Allow ISPs to bid on urban-rural territories

For most city dwellers, going without internet is almost unthinkable. Every day we connect to the internet via ubiquitous Wi-Fi or 4G connections, with the occasional dropped call or slow video being the perfect example of “first-world problems.” But get outside of an urban area, even just several miles, and connectivity changes dramatically. According to the […]

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Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers pour $10 million into Wisconsin innovation hub

Today, Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers football team announced that each organization will be investing $5 million, doled out over the course of the next five years, to fund the creation of an accelerator, an early-stage VC fund, and a business development lab in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The building, called Titletown Tech, is tentatively […]

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Heartland startups may be growing faster than their Silicon Valley counterparts

Startups in Silicon Valley, New York, and Boston may get the lion’s share of funding — but that isn’t slowing down startups in the Heartland. Today, the Kauffman Foundation released its annual Growth Entrepreneurship Index, which tracks the year-to-year growth of firms that employ at least one person besides the owner. The Index found the […]

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BEYOND VB

How to rebrand a city

Products and people are brands. Why can’t the same be true for cities? In recent years, cities have realized the value of creating a brand image to attract businesses, residents, and tourists. Some cities have even moved on to overhauling their existing brand to help stimulate growth and investment. (via Forbes)

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What America is losing as its small towns struggle

Seventy-five years ago, The Atlantic published an essay by a man named Arthur Morgan. The essay, “The Community—The Seed Bed of Society,” appeared in the February 1942 issue, and was later expanded into a book called The Small Community: Foundation of Democratic Life. Both the essay and the book were arguments on behalf of communities, especially small towns, which Morgan believed had been abandoned by modernity to become “an orphan in an unfriendly world … despised, neglected, exploited, and robbed.” (via The Atlantic)

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Amazon is showing some rare Twitter love to these four states in their new headquarters bid 

Amazon’s search for a second headquarters has sent city officials around North America into a frenzy. New York City just lit its iconic skyscrapers orange, the color of Amazon’s logo, to attract the online retailer. Calgary said it would fight a bear for HQ2. (via Recode)

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In these small cities, AI advances could be costly 

It’s long been clear that urbanization and automated technologies are shaping society, but it hasn’t been obvious how the two forces affect each other. (via MIT Tech Review)

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