The Texas tech talent hub: Dallas Fort Worth’s resurgence poised for tech innovation lead growth

. After all, it’s not just the network changing; it’s the evolution of everything around connectivity that is completely reshaping our world. Web 3.0 technology is built on a fundamental premise that ubiquitous connectivity prevails, which will in turn, allow new innovations like the metaverse, decentralized finance, mainstream crypto currency, NFTs and more to flourish.

Consumers are already seeing the value – for the metaverse specifically, our research found that more than 80% of consumers surveyed saw promise in what it has to offer. But none of these innovations and emerging use cases will be feasible without the tech talent and partnerships that fuel them. There won’t be one company that creates the future, but an ecosystem of many with the right technology, expertise and drive to get it done. Collaboration is at the heart of both 5G and Web 3.0.

As the technology leader of a public tech company that works with many of the largest communications service providers in the world, one of our largest challenges is sourcing great tech talent. We have offices in more than 85 countries to help satiate the constant need for cloud architects, DevOps engineers and more; but we’ve seen a surprising boom in talent in one specific place - the Dallas Fort Worth metropolitan area (DFW).

Working together to bring new telecom technologies to Dallas

Since the advent of the pandemic in 2020, DFW has seen massive growth in available technology talent. It now ranks third for the best places in the U.S. for technology jobs – but more impressively, grabbed the No. 1 spot for the addition of new tech jobs last year. The number of tech workers in DFW is expected to rise 2.5% in 2022.

This resurgence in tech and telecom talent stems from a few sources. The relatively low cost of living has resulted in DFW becoming a top migration market for tech talent, who increasingly abandoned cities like San Francisco as the pandemic caused many to re-evaluate their priorities and living space. DFW is also well-positioned to supply brand new tech talent given the abundant, well-regarded universities in the area (the region also ranked in the top 10 for tech degrees).

So where will this new tech talent pool drive innovation next? Given the proud legacy telecom has in the area, and the proximity of companies who have Texas-based headquarters and offices, such as AT&T, Verizon, Metro PCS, T-Mobile and more, we’re banking on DFW driving the telecom industry towards a new, pervasively connected future.

Creating an environment for collaboration will build a better digital future

Amdocs has a decades-long history in Texas supporting some of the industry’s premier customers, and recently moved to a new world-class facility in Plano where we plan to continue to grow our business. Here, we unveiled our 5G Experience Lab, focused on making ubiquitous, ecosystem-enabled connectivity a reality. It’s designed to act as a sandbox, where industry-leading service providers, enterprises, Amdocs and its 5G edge applications will stretch the limits of connected experiences, to unlock new opportunities across industries. Our solutions and services act as a catalyst, providing a platform for network access and capabilities. We are partnering with 5G ecosystem vendors across RAN, core, edge and security, to bring new use cases to life, because we believe the future of connected experiences is in partnering with the best in the business.

Already, we’ve seen some exciting pilot use cases ranging from augmented reality field support to mobile private networks, to immersive entertainment experiences – and with tens of use cases and partners in the pipeline, we’re excited to bring together a diverse ecosystem of players to make the 5G promise a reality for enterprises and consumers alike.

Success is more than just a technology investment

Having the right collaborative space means nothing if you can’t attract the right talent. We identified the greater Dallas area as a place we should deepen our investment, but advertising interesting job openings isn’t enough to drive success.

Even in an area booming with tech talent, there are strategies we’ve had to employ in order to ensure the candidate pipeline remains strong. For example, we’ve pursued an acquisition strategy to source talent who already had deep local roots. A series of acquisitions totaling more than $400M included DFW-area companies projekt202 and TTS Wireless. We’ve also pursued partnerships with local universities to help grow this tech talent from the ground up in Dallas, a practice we hope to continue to grow in the coming months.

Finally, the pandemic has had a lasting impact on what tech talent expect from a job. Our research found with the rise of remote work came increasing concerns around growth. A third of respondents worry they’ll have fewer opportunities for training and reskilling, or they’ll disappear entirely with the rise of remote work.

To combat this, we’ve introduced a new upskilling platform for employees covering the most strategic technological domains and enabling future-readiness; cloud training, next-generation digital experience, and machine learning among others. More than 7,000 employees have taken part since 2020, and we found it helped us cope with the ongoing impacts of the pandemic. We’ve also evolved our perks and focused on flexibility, with new offerings like hybrid work paths and what we call vacation without limits, a progressively global implementation of unlimited vacation.

There is massive opportunity right now in Dallas Fort Worth. We believe the region can become the country’s telecom innovation incubator if we are willing to explore the new and exciting possibilities of these technology innovations together. Conceptualizing the promise of 5G is already happening in Dallas. Fully realizing and deploying those new use cases will require not only technology collaboration, but also an intensifying focus on attracting and retaining the next generation of tech talent.

This article originally appeared on VentureBeat.