Austin to Silicon Valley Types: Don't Mess With Texas

There appears to exist a civilisation shift confronting the 24/seven heads-downwardly pressure of life in Silicon Valley. Younger geeks desire somewhere to hang out and listen to live music on a Friday night, an contained film community, food trucks, reduced screen fourth dimension, and somewhere cheap(ish) to live. Which frequently means looking beyond the Bay Expanse.

PCMag recently spent a week in Denver before flying to Austin, which is sometimes referred to as Silicon Hills, or the "humming digital epicenter of the Southward," co-ordinate to co-working startup WeWork, which has iii—soon to be four—locations in the metropolis.

Of course, SXSW has been drawing geeks to Austin since 1986; we were in town for Unity Technologies' showtime-ever Unite Austin developer briefing, and decided to meet what makes the urban center tick for tech types.

Unite Austin

"We chose Austin for Unite this year, because information technology's a booming, creative city and home to some incredible, innovative tech companies, many of which are developing on Unity," Unity CMO Clive Downie told PCMag.

In the expo hall, we met Jim Cerise, an independent programmer who runs his own company, ServiceMedia, while also freelancing for diverse local tech companies, including virtual gamer outfit, Chicken Waffle.

"I was born in Houston, just got here every bit presently as I could," he laughed. "Austin'southward tech scene is vibrant, innovative, and dynamic. Downtown is condign a much more of a dynamic area, just it's expensive, so most tech is still based up north, in the Arboretum area, [almost IBM Research and the University of Texas research campus]. I live due south of the river, in S Congress, so I'yard hopeful more than tech will move down hither shortly."

Unite Austin

Autumn Rose Taylor is co-organizer for VR Austin, a VR evangelist, and KnOWLedge Purveyor and Media Master at Owlchemy Labs, recently acquired past Google. She stayed in Austin afterwards graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in part because of the diverse tech scene.

"The people are multidisciplinary, collaborative, and experimental," Taylor said. "You accept the cross-pollination of so many different industries—Motion picture, Music, Tech, Gaming—that makes everything Austin-made a unique flavor of innovative and artistic that you tin't get anywhere else."

Jean Anne Booth, CEO of UnaliWear, likewise stayed in Austin for the great startup culture, also equally, like everyone else, the good life. "I started UnaliWear in Austin because the founding team worked with me in one of my previous Austin startups. But I've been hither for so many years and founded three startups in the city because it's such a wonderful place to live, with supportive people, and an active lifestyle that I dearest."

In a post on Medium, entrepreneur and digital innovator Zoran Nasteski offered communication to boyfriend ATX arrivals: Become the Meetup app right at present, every bit Austin is full of tech events, like Video Game Makers Unite. Capital Manufacturing plant is also slap-up for co-working and hosting events, as is Galvanize.

Funny enough, i thing y'all couldn't say about Austin's tech scene, equally a whole, is that they're peculiarly keen on (press) exposure. Afterwards seeing all the local tech companies' logos (Kingsisle Entertainment, Armature Studio, Otherside Entertainment and more) wink up on the Unite Austin keynote screen, nosotros blasted out emails to go quotes, all the same very few responded.

In the cease we got 2: a (very late night?) email which said: "Purchase me tacos" (one hopes those were 3 words to sum up the Austin tech scene). Thankfully, a more considered response came from game developer Amir H. Fassihi of Expressionless Mage, who said Austin, for him, is: "Creative - Vibrant - Live" and told us there'due south a "Smaller and more focused community with a great mix of art and technology here."

Of course, not everyone is thrilled about the tech influx. One local, Tim Willingham, begs people not to move here for many reasons (heat, overcrowding, traffic) laid out in this helpful infographic.

About importantly, is Austin (even so) weird, as its tagline claims? Well, it's certainly "out there" on the calibration of strangeness and wonder. If you're in town, catch a taco from one of the multitudes of fine food trucks; participate in a prison house interruption courtesy of The Escape Game; rent Vannagram's mint green vintage VW van traveling photo booth (who needs Instagram?); and gently rock in a porch-way contraption within the Texas Capitol Visitors Heart while Matthew McConaughey laconically personifies the famous Dome, recounting its history.

How about howling at the moon with other dippers in the Barton Springs Puddle? Become yourself some decent threads at Bykowski Tailor & Garb, haberdasher to the bearded musicians of this town (if daisy the pet pig is in residence, she likes some attention); and go madly medieval with Iggy Pop in Sherwood Forest at Sound on Sound Festival.

Weirdness aside, this is still the live music upper-case letter of the world, so pick upwardly the weekly highlights at the suitably gothic (and reputedly haunted) Driskill Hotel, built in 1886, in the (yes, newspaper-based) Driskell Journal.

As we were leaving Texas airspace, Austin Startup Calendar week was but getting underway, and they were so neat to attract a new crowd to the city, they were offering to reimburse flights to those wanting work, or to build a company inside the city limits. It'south clear Silicon Hills is becoming a thing. Allow's promise information technology doesn't disrupt the city's style as well much.