Miami ‘Hack Week’ hopes to lure tech programmers to Magic City

A key ingredient remains missing from Miami’s next-great-tech-hub brew: an abundance software engineers. A group led by longtime South Florida innovators hope they can lay the seeds to change that. They are organizing Miami Hack Week, kicking off Aug. 1. The goal: To ultimately convince 5,000 engineers to move here.

Co-organizer Dave Fontenot, a South Florida native who founded MHacks, said finding qualified talent is a problem for even the most developed tech meccas. But Miami now has a chance to play spoiler given its current momentum as an alternative to the traditional centers.

“Even in San Francisco, everyone wants more engineers,” he said. “In Miami, that problem is 10 times bigger... This is not our only shot, but it’s going to be the best one we’re going to have to convince people to come here.”

Despite seeing an unprecedented surge in tech workers, the Miami metro area still only had about 60,000 workers in computer and mathematical occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That compares with about 160,000 in San Francisco and another 144,000 in Silicon Valley. New York City had 305,000.

Seven local sponsors have lined up so far to back Miami Hack Week’s 10 official houses, where hackers will get together to work on themed projects that will be presented at the end of the week. The winner will receive a boat and sandbar party.

“While we’ve had a strong presence of venture capitalists and founders coming to Miami, we’re curating this for developers who are looking for an alternative place to go,” said co-organizer Ja’dan Johnson, marketing and community lead at networking app Upstream and venture capital scout at venture group and angel network Florida Funders.