Long Island technology companies gathered in Huntington on Tuesday at an event called Tech Day. The businesses were in search of talent and investors.
BluChip SEO is an internet marketing startup based in Smithtown. The company's managing partner, Harold German, came out to Long Island tech day to attract new talent.
“Over the past ten to fifteen years, there has been sort of a talent exodus of 18-34 year olds," German said. "that is concerning because we have a need here for local businesses to be optimized.”
Amanda Nelson, Director of Marketing for the Huntington-based data managing platform Ringlead, explains why talent acquisition is such a challenge for Long Island based companies.
“People might associate tech and where they need to be in really the bay area of San Francisco as well as New York," She said. "our challenge is to say no tech start up the growth of a company young exciting vibrant minds are everywhere including here in Huntington.”
While tech startups on Long Island may have trouble competing with those in Brooklyn and Manhattan, some say its actually easier for Long Island start-ups to get afloat.
“You have people out on the east end of the island and people out in the west end of the island everyone has their own little area." said Raymond Skittini, President of the Smithtown-based information technology company, TG Professionals.
"They’re not fighting for clients and not fighting for business and it allows them to grow." Skittini said.
Long Island tech companies aren’t satisfied being a big fish in a small pond but they say it’s an uphill battle to attract the kind of talent they need to grow.