Louisville, KY: An Emerging Tech City

LEVERAGING A TECHNOLOGY ECOSYSTEM

Overcoming job disruption caused by automation

The Greater Louisville Inc. – Metro Chamber of Commerce declared 2019 as The Year of Tech. With 1,915 tech companies and as the area’s fastest-growing job classification, the technology industry has become integral to the Louisville, Kentucky regional economy. The Software Guild, Code Louisville, LouTechWorks and Academies of Louisville are efforts to elevate how Louisville prepares the workforce for tech jobs.

Nanotech. Software and tech-based entrepreneurs. Telecommuters in coworking spaces. Remote worker jobs. Meetups. Maker faires. Predictive and assistive healthcare. This is Louisville, an emerging tech city in America. We’ll always have our core sectors of aging care, food and beverage, logistics and advanced manufacturing. But we turn to tech to reprioritize investment, create jobs and more opportunity. And every company is now a tech company to some degree.

The Year of Tech initiative was launched to promote conversation about Louisville as an emerging tech hub. The goal of the initiative is to bring awareness, build consensus, and ultimately galvanize support for regional growth of the industry.

The Chamber promotes tech-related programs, events, and information under the name Tech City. They also commissioned a formal mapping of the region’s tech companies to further economic development efforts.

Tech City events focus on technical innovation, professional skill education in the applied sciences, application development, blockchain, engineering, healthcare tech, information technology, and robotics. Events that carry the Tech City stamp are cross-promoted on Greater Louisville Inc. – Metro Chamber of Commerce social media platforms and featured on GreaterLouisville.com. The Chamber also developed the Tech City toolkit to empower people to join the conversation and to drive attendance at Tech City-related events. Through Live in Lou, our talent attraction initiative, we will continue to recruit tech workers.

As a region facing job disruption as a result of automation, Louisville’s Year of Tech program played a critical role to bring awareness of the city’s emerging tech hub. This campaign was recognized with a national chamber innovation award.

Here’s a recap of just some of news and events marking the explosive Year of Tech for the greater Louisville area:

JANUARY

• GLI calls for urgency, proclaims 2019 the year of tech in Louisville 

FEBRUARY

• GLI Hosts Annual Meeting

MARCH

• GUEST COMMENT: Making a commitment to Louisville’s future in the ‘Year of Technology’ 
• Louisville tech company completes accelerator that boosted Airbnb, Reddit 

APRIL

• U of L to launch partnership with IBM

MAY

• Health Enterprises Network Releases Key Takeaways from Startups + Big Cos Event 

JUNE

• Microsoft announces new regional artificial intelligence hub in Louisville 
• JCPS to offer computer science courses as part of Louisville initiative to grow tech jobs 
• KFC’s new flagship to serve as technology learning lab 
• Community Tech Training Program Targets the West End 

JULY

• Lane Report features Year of Tech in its annual market review
• Market Review: Louisville invests in growing tech workforce, positions itself as emerging tech center
• CBRE selects Louisville as an emerging hub for tech talent 
• Adtech firm El Toro Internet Marketing announces new $10.5 million headquarters in Louisville
• GE Appliances donated $70,000 worth of technology to JCPS

AUGUST

• GLI’s Innovation Tour to Indianapolis to study tech. View recaps of the trip by one of the attendees: Day 1 | Day 2
• CodePLOUsa event held at the Hyatt Regency downtown. Learn more at https://twitter.com/CodePaLOUsa
• The 2019 Vogt Awards winners were all tech companies: View the announcement
• Fortune 500 company will provide mentoring, money to Louisville startup 
• Interapt takes training program national in deal with New York company

SEPTEMBER

• GLI hosts GLIDE trip to San Francisco Bay area to study tech and tourism. Here are the takeaways.
• TALK’s hosts TechFest event. View recaps at https://twitter.com/TechFestLou
• The NuLu entrepreneurial hub finally has a name 

OCTOBER

• Louisville to host first tech start-up week, seeks to help grow entrepreneurship and innovation 
• Humana to invest $20 million in technology partner
• Together Digital Louisville hosts Scary Digital Trends event 
• Louisville’s tech sector has momentum — let’s keep it up

NOVEMBER

• University of Louisville announces Artificial Intelligence Consortium and event: View the news story | VIew the event recap 
• Louisville moves up on world’s most innovation-friendly cities list 

DECEMBER

• Louisville hosts Techstars Startup Week: View recaps: https://twitter.com/startupweeklou
• GLI’s Business at Breakfast event gives preview of tech ecosytem inventory.  View slides here. View the story
• Louisville hosts Women in Technology Conference
• New program helps people prepare for tech jobs
• University of Louisville  and the University of Kentucky join six other institutions across the state with five-year, $24 million grant to support next generation manufacturing technologies, flexible electronics and robotics
• The nation’s first live-action gaming experience to open in Louisville