Technology without boundaries. Early on, the industry recognized the importance of a regional approach to everything from marketing to education reforms

South Florida CEO, June, 2005 by Carrie Ann Perez

For South Florida's leading technology and telecommunications executives, the idea behind a regional marketplace is fairly simple: there is strength in numbers.

Companies see the three-county region--Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade--as one metroplex, with potential customers in any of the counties. But it is not just a matter of where they draw on their own customer base.

Marketing as a single region, both within the United States and abroad, has many advantages, these executives say.

H. Logan Pierson, CEO of Broadband Oasis, a wireless access (Wi-Fi) company based in Boca Raton, puts it simply: "I'm in my car right now driving back from Naples and it's not like I have to break out my passport when I cross the county lines."

Michael Corbit, executive director of the regional technology industry development group InternetCoast, knows this all too well. "Even three to four years ago, there was still a lot of competition between governments, economic development groups and the educational system," Corbit says. "We've been working to show that there are strength in numbers; that we need to reach across county lines, collaborate and open up a dialog."

Much of South Florida's technology industry is made up of small- to midsized companies. Because individually, they lack the marketing resources and clout of larger firms, the executives running them were among the first in the region to see an advantage to working together, Corbit says.

One of the strengths of the South Florida region is its proximity to other parts of the country and the world, especially Latin America.

Companies such as Microsoft Corp. and organizations such as the Sister Cities program have held large group meetings here just for that reason. "That's really big," Corbit says.

For those reasons, and others, Spanish telecom giant Telefonica decided to open a subsidiary in Miami. Established in 2000, Telefonica provides information-technology services to US multinationals operating in Latin America and Europe.

"For us, the common thread is Latin America. If you create a trading block, a bunch of clusters will form. In California, they figured out how to do that," Pizarro says.

He feels South Florida has the infrastructure with the airports, seaports and communications already in place.

"We look at South Florida as the central communications hub for the Americas," Pizarro says. "If we brand ourselves as a tri-county economy, we can leverage that .... We really need to focus on executing that." He adds that many outsiders still think of South Florida as only Miami.

Still, companies and organizations within the tri-county region are continuing to push through those county lines.

Broadband Oasis has served primarily Palm Beach and Broward counties, and is now making that push into Miami-Dade County, says CEO Pierson.

"We really saw Dade as a separate area, but now we're making a push down there ourselves," he says.

Like many technology, telecom and communications-related businesses, Broadband Oasis's customer base is inherently without county borders. Business people travel up and down Interstate-95 and Florida's Turnpike without regard to county lines.

"It's a natural fit for us. Someone who subscribes want to know that the service is ubiquitous where ever they go," Pierson says.

Some opportunities have been missed though, Pierson admits. The company pitched offering Wi-Fi on Tri-Rail commuter rail service several years ago, but train executives balked.

"We really thought that was the ultimate in regionalism, with the Tri-Rail line literally as a spine for the region, with Wi-Fi at every station," Pierson says.

Organizations such as the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association (SFIMA) see a huge need for networking within the tri-county region. But the organization, which often meets in Broward County, sometimes has trouble drawing people from Miami-Dade to its meetings.

"The traffic down here can be a real challenge. People from Dade can't get up to Broward for a meeting after work because the traffic is so bad," says Susan Kidwell, president of the SFIMA.

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She also says organizations need to do more to change the image of South Florida as a place with a lot of retirees and nothing else.

"We need to let people know there are a lot of young, creative people here," she says.

Avenue A/Razorfish, a multinational consulting company with an office in Fort Lauderdale, works in digital marketing and serves a number of large clients in South Florida, as diverse as Carnival Corp. and JM Family Enterprises.

"That's what regionalism is about for us--knowing our customer base across the region and making sure we're serving our clients," says Daniel Alpert. director of integrated marking at Avenue A/Razorfish.

Telefonica's Pizarro says he sees a lot of positive things happening in regionalism. "South Florida will become one of the economic strengths in the US. It's not a matter of it, but when," he says.