Beyond the startup-fueled buzz and stumbles, Las Vegas is building a sustainable scene

By Mick Akers

Monday, April 3, 2017 | 2 a.m.

Some of the buzz surrounding the local tech scene is about a lack thereof.

Expectations exploded on the national level after Downtown Project’s 2012 launch, its promise to lure and incubate technology companies spurring dreams of Las Vegas as the next Silicon Valley. In 2014, Wired magazine called the city a “startup fantasyland,” and news site Recode declared it “the great American techtopia.” In the years since, many startups have folded or moved, and the flow of seed money has constricted. Downtown’s tech hotbed may have cooled, but the scene is alive and growing on a wider map, especially when it comes to needed infrastructure.

“We have so much more to provide,” said Mike Sherwood, director of technology for the city of Las Vegas. “It’s a great community for startups that are still working their way to stardom. Las Vegas is ripe for growth in technology.”

Education

After tech giant Tesla accepted a $1.3 billion tax package to build its Gigafactory in Northern Nevada, researchers in Southern Nevada said the state lacked the skilled workforce to fill the thousands of high-tech jobs that would be created. The 2014 report from UNLV’s Brookings Mountain West found that “Nevada’s education and workforce training systems are inconsistently aligned with the current and future needs of the state’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) industries.”

Tesla pledged $37.5 million to boost STEM programs in Nevada public schools, and another automaker given nearly $216 million in tax incentives is partnering with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development to get local high school students on the tech path.

While building its manufacturing plant for electric cars in North Las Vegas, Faraday Future is building curriculum for the outreach program. Of $500,000 in initial funding approved by GOED, $320,000 was used to purchase robotic, pneumatic and hydraulic training systems and advanced measuring tools being tested by Southeast Career Technical Academy students.

“The program is to train automotive assembly workers ... in an advanced factory, which is not found in the valley now,” GOED Deputy Director Cory Hunt said. “The feedback from SECTA is that the students are jumping at the chance to use the equipment.”

Phase 1, slated for the 2017-18 school year, will retain the 62 SECTA students and add 33 from Mojave High School. Not only will they pick up bankable skills, they’ll earn 10 credits toward an associate’s degree from the College of Southern Nevada. Other partnerships that have been proposed would widen the net, with the goal of exposing 400 students to the program in its first year.

Workforce connection

The local chapter of the Society for Information Management brings together chief information officers, directors of internet technology and educators focused on bolstering the tech community. The group’s vice president, Joshua Leavitt, calls it a “conduit.”

“This is really about connecting the businesses with the talent, as well as working with people on the legislative side to recognize there’s potentially a huge vacuum when it comes to technical talent, especially with the Faradays and the Teslas,” Leavitt said. “We also recognize with that vacuum, there will be difficulty in sustaining them.”

He points to the same gaps in education driving GOED’s K-12 initiatives, though Leavitt sees another glaring problem in brain drain: “We’re seeing some phenomenal talent, but the talent seems to be leaving.”

Youths with great potential might seek specialized higher education in other states, and experienced tech professionals might crave the benefits of more established scenes. With the goal of making the grass here greener, SIM offers its committees as a “reputable expert resource” for policymakers, academic institutions and businesses that might need help advancing causes that could strengthen the greater tech community. On a more granular level, it hosts networking events for skilled individuals committed to the vision that got their industries so excited about Las Vegas in the first place.

So does the Innevation Center, the 65,000-square-foot collaborative workspace of Las Vegas-based data company Switch. In addition to housing more than 70 companies — including local startups, nonprofits and educational institutions — the space conducts regular meetups, seminars and mentoring events that invite the sharing of ideas and news about what’s on the horizon.

“The goal of a lot of people is that Las Vegas is going to become this new mecca of technology and innovation,” Leavitt said.

Smart City

The city of Las Vegas has invested $500 million in high-tech infrastructure toward the goal of becoming a Smart City by 2025.

In the downtown Innovation District (stretching between Valley View Boulevard and Eastern Avenue and encompassing the Arts District and Fremont Street entertainment hubs), traffic stations are being wired with fiber-optic cables running to City Hall.

“Camera arrays will count the number of vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists that pass through an intersection,” Sherwood said. “(Based on usage), we can see which areas need additional improvements, pedestrian safety-type systems, more bike lanes. ... We want to use our data and make our roadways safer and more efficient.”

The first 10 intersections will go live in the next 90 days, allowing refinement before widespread integration. Smart traffic-signal timing and monitoring of parking, lighting and air quality will follow.

Sherwood said the city hoped to increase interaction among public service sectors — transportation, energy, facilities, public works and public safety — through open-source data sharing, real-time analytics and decision support. He added that app developers would be welcome to the data. “All types of new innovations will come from our ability to collate information and provide that to the public.”

Another surge?

Phil Johnston believes the city’s investment in tech will play a major role in companies migrating here.

“The city’s vision is similar to ours, as we see Las Vegas being the next big tech-startup hub. That’s why we came out here,” said the co-founder of Virt, a company using robots to film walkthroughs of structures for virtual reality applications in business.

Johnston didn’t miss the fact that the area already had something of a boom and bust. He was drawn by the affordable real estate.

“In San Francisco, we couldn’t find anything under $3,000 to $4,000 to live at,” he said. “Wanting to stay on the West Coast, at a lower cost, Vegas was a great fit for us with its concentration of hospitality and retail. The real estate market is booming here, and there are tons of potential customers.”

In Henderson now, Virt plans to move operations downtown by the end of the year. Johnston said he had talked to others in the industry who were keeping their eyes on Las Vegas.

“The trend has still been moving forward here,” he said. “And now with the Innovation District at the helm, putting the word out, you’re going to start seeing Vegas come back to the spotlight.”