ORLANDO, Fla. — During the State of Downtown Address, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer discussed the growth and future possibilities of tech here in Central Florida.

The mayor said the city is becoming a hub for technology companies and is the fastest-growing US city for IT talent and the second fastest-growing city for tech worker salaries.

“The Metaverse is literally being created right here in Orlando,” explained Mayor Buddy Dyer.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer added that the foundation for the technology economy moving forward is the metaverse. The virtual world was a major part of Wednesday’s speech, and it was also how he presented the downtown address in Creative Village, the city’s tech hub. He said the impact technology is having on the city is extending beyond a virtual world.

“This moment, the highest concentration of game developer licenses in the entire country are right here in central Florida,” added the mayor.

Ben Noel is the Executive Director of the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy at UCF and believes this is just the beginning for technology in Orlando.

“It is one of the fastest growing areas. Maybe not the biggest, but fastest growing,” explained Noel. “We have seen that and again 20-30 years ago, it was harder to attract people to Orlando. The people were coming from other places. They could hardly bring their families here. They were worried about if I lost my job in that one tech job, what do we do? Now those concerns aren’t there.”

He said students are coming to the graduate program with the goal of staying in Orlando and working at a company like EA.

“I got stories of kids that are coming saying what am I doing, I’m moving into the Julian, I’m coming to FIEA, then I’m going to go work at EA,” added Noel. “16 months later it is exactly what they are doing.”

He believes there are resources in the city to attract workers in the technology field to move to Orlando, especially Creative Village, which relies on the evolving digital media industry.

Mayor Dyer said during his speech there are 2,500 tech jobs open in Orlando that are working to build the metaverse, and he’s calling for tech professionals to come be a part of what’s happening here in that next generation economy.