Is a tech hub still a tech hub, even without the offices?

Ryan Rea helps run Miami Tech Life, an organization that emerged from the pandemic and helps tech workers — especially those who just got to the city — connect. Rea said there’s a desire for connection in tech cities even during remote work, and the group helps foster that. And more than that, the fact that the group exists shows how tech hubs aren’t going dormant. They just look different now.

Remote work is changing tech hubs. As I wrote in Source Code this week, lots of people aren’t going back to the office, but they’re not leaving cities either. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said there hasn’t been a mass exodus from the city even while office vacancies persist.

• The same could be said about other cities filled with tech workers. They aren’t fleeing in droves, but hybrid and remote work is as popular as ever.
• As a result, cities are talking about how they can adapt to less foot traffic around offices. “Our concerts, our activities, our conventions, a lot of the things that people would want to visit a major city for is what we have to also focus on,” Breed said.

The hub is still there. Employees just might not feel the need anymore to crowd around downtown San Francisco or other areas where offices are concentrated.

• Mark Muro, a senior fellow and policy director at Brookings Metro, told me that workers might spread around the city. They could move to neighborhoods or suburbs farther away from the office, for instance, because they don’t need to commute as much.
• But to be clear, a tech hub is still a tech hub even when you take offices out of the picture. “We never defined tech hubs as places with a bunch of offices,” San Francisco chief economist Ted Egan told me. “We always defined it as places with a bunch of talent, places with a lot of financing, places with an entrepreneurial culture.”
• Egan added that as long as universities keep producing research and VCs keep investing in new ideas, cities like San Francisco and Seattle won’t lose their tech charm.

Tech workers just need to find other ways to interact with one another. For Miami Tech Life, at least, that involves a mix of coworking sessions, socials and happy hours — not necessarily time in the office.

• Rea, the director of growth for Miami Tech Life, said the organization plans boat day dinners, mixers and other social events. Tech workers with a particular interest, like crypto, also plan coworking sessions a few times a week, and Rea organizes office hours (then a corresponding happy hour) with employees who just moved to Miami.
• Rea said he’s happier than he was before the pandemic began because he’s been able to meet people across companies while working remotely in the city. “When you were in an office, you sort of fell in with certain groups or certain cliques,” Rea told me. “And that was your world. But now everyone does different things [together].”

Tech hubs might be changing, but they certainly haven’t gone away. On top of rethinking what an office is used for, maybe it’s time to think about what the rest of a city is used for, too.