Innovation is everywhere. It touches every facet of our economy — from the ones you’d expect, like technology and banking and medicine, to the ones that have come along more recently, like new software for construction and apps that have transformed how we get around town (Lyft, Uber) and even shop for groceries — Rouses and Whole Foods are now both offering online shopping and home deliveries.
How is New Orleans faring in this new innovation economy? Pretty well. Recent ratings have placed us No. 1 for growth in tech and healthcare jobs, No. 2 in the country in terms of the share of women in computer and math jobs (No. 1 is Sacramento), and the No. 3 city in the country right now for young entrepreneurs.
We’ve got tech companies like LookFar, zlien and Lucid claiming the top three spots for best places to work in New Orleans (according to Zippia) and this year’s most celebrated newcomer, DXC’s Digital Transformation Center, representing the biggest economic development jobs win Louisiana has ever seen.
The fastest-growing tech conference in North America has been held here for the past three years and this spring we celebrated the 10th iteration of New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, an event that has been instrumental in our booming entrepreneurial ecosystem.
It’s mid-September now as we head to press and I’m excited about two upcoming events. The first is the 39th Annual Tulane Business Forum, which will be held Sept. 21 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. This year’s theme is Digital Transformation: Strategy to Execution. The second is another innovation-meets-business-themed event, the 8th Annual Economic & Real Estate Forecast Symposium Oct. 9 at Loyola University. The theme of that will be New Orleans as an Innovation Economy: Making the Connections. This is our third year partnering with this event to create our annual real estate issue. I hope to see you there!
Happy Reading,
Kimberley Singletary
Managing Editor
Kimberley@BizNewOrleans.com
