The 16th floor of the Omni Hotel will now be a shared workspace for start-up technology companies.
The Austin Chamber of Commerce announced the initiative today. They’re calling it Austin TechLive.
The facility will provide entrepreneurs with office, meeting and event space in exchange for monthly membership. And with over 4,000 tech companies responsible for over 100,000 jobs in the Austin area – and that number expected to grow by 5,000 jobs this year – the city's tech community is burgeoning. Joshua Baer is the Managing Director of Capital Factory, a partner in Austin TechLive. He says the space will also serve as a training ground for those interested in entering the tech field by hosting meet-ups and classes.
“We’re going to be both attracting them through the meet-ups, bringing them here so that thousands of people a month are coming through," Baer says, "and then also teaching them specifically the things those start-ups need, which might be programming, or how to make an iPhone app, or how to do search-engine marketing."
Earlier this month, the chamber said Austin needs more qualified workers to fill mid and upper-level tech jobs.
