Described as an excellent model “Beyond SXSW” by Inc. Magazine, the festival offered an alternative to conferences often fixated around one profession like software development, marketing, mobile apps or social media, and instead allowed professionals from all walks of the digital realm to mix, mingle and formulate new solutions for the digital economy. All of which transpired while taking in the flavors of Charleston, currently ranked by Condé Nast Traveler as the top destination on the planet.

Dig South attracted both young and veteran tech pros. From small one-man startups, to Fortune 100 companies like CNN, Twitter and Facebook, today’s emerging leaders were visibly present.  And if the inaugural festival is any indication of what’s to come at the Southeast’s gathering of the brightest minds, we advise listening in and preordering for next year. Here are a few top reasons to keep a close eye on Charleston’s tech scene:

• Dig South’s take on the “Digital Economy”: The broad focus on the future of the“Digital Economy,” meant that marketers and developers could collaborate to apply new approaches to solving industry challenges. For example, on a panel discussing the digital world in 2020, Charleston’s Levelwing CEO Steve Parker, hailed big data as a key player in solving the nation’s healthcare problems, while journalist Shane Snow (@ShaneSnow) pointed out that freelancers are using big data to find jobs, a group that is predicted to make up 40 percent of the workforce in 2020.

• Progressive Thought Leaders: World renowned digital experts from Robert Tercek, Oprah’s OWN Digital Media CEO; to Meredith Artley, CNN Digital’s GM; spoke with attendees on how they perceived the role of technology evolving in everyday life, in media and in consumption. Charleston leaders like PeopleMatter’s Nate DaPore discussed innovation in the workplace and the software space, by going beyond the data mining and straight to the core of what makes his business successful: creating a rewarding office environment that uses software to improve employees work lives.

• The Southeast’s Newest Stars: The Festival displayed a varied mix of Charleston’s and the Southeast’s emerging technologies and startups. The Studio Strut, a jaunt from one creative ad/digital agency to another in the heart of Charleston’s historic business district, gave attendees a chance to leave the conference arena and explore the creative office spaces and inventive work at some of the region’s most cutting edge companies. Attendees were able to mingle with creatives like digital media agency Blue Ion and the innovative minds at Hook, two of the many agencies that not only provide local services to the Charleston community, but  ork on national award-winning campaigns.

• Southern Hospitality at its Finest: From after-parties to a long list of musical side shows, everyone was offered a chance to checkout Charleston’s thriving arts & cultural scene and find something to dig into. The music mix included headliner Lee Fields and the Expressions, and the new dynamic duo Lady, offered up soul music with a modern beat. You can’t be in Charleston and not eat well. From food trucks to James Beard winners, the food and atmosphere was quintessentially fresh, local, and artfully presented; signifying the area’s respect for the past, and its enthusiasm to embrace the international Southern Exposure focused on this inspiring destination for business and talent.

Dig South showcased how Charleston’s companies and entrepreneurs are playing a large role in the Southeast’s future digital economy. We encourage you to come see for yourself why the tech world is now looking to the “Silicon Harbor” for solutions.

 DIG SOUTH Festival, will be launched here in the Charleston region. The three-day conference lineup will feature leading voices from Facebook, Twitter, Coca-Cola, AOL Ventures alongside Charleston’s very own TwitPic, Blackbaud and PeopleMatter, BlueIon, Benefitfocus, SPARC and more.

While the interactive digital, media and arts festival may ring South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW) bells, DIG SOUTH seeks to put a more personal touch on tech conferences—serving as an platform for emerging entrepreneurs and larger companies alike. Check out the peninsula’s creative talent and get inspired visiting more than a dozen local firms at Friday’s self-guided Studio Strut.

The Charleston Regional Development Alliance (CRDA) has partnered with the Charleston Digital Corridor and DIG SOUTH to co-host, “Upload Charleston: Welcome to Silicon Harbor” on Friday, April 12, kicking off this premier event, spotlighting Charleston’s most innovative companies and entrepreneurs.

Charleston’s tech scene is experiencing tremendous growth and momentum and folks around the world are starting to take notice:  

• In March, Charleston ranked #3 in Under30Ceo.com’s annual “Top 30 Best Cities for Young Entrepreneurs” in the small-size city category.
• Just weeks later, we learned Charleston-based Benefitfocus was looking to go public (following in the footsteps of its Charleston neighbor, Blackbaud).
• Days later, Charleston’s HR software startup PeopleMatter, whose clients include Applebee’s, Dunkin Donuts and Pizza Hut (to name a few), announced a $19 million VC win from Silicon Valley.
• Most recently, a feature in the Financial Times, “Southern ascent: Charleston is on the rise as a high-tech hub” showcased Charleston as a metro area that has “always punched far above its weight” noting our region’s “increasing numbers of young creatives” and “thriving high-tech sector” as major contributors.

Charleston has the data to back up the buzz: with some 250 small-scale high-tech firms as well as major players like Google and Amazon, there are currently 11,000 direct jobs from Charleston’s digital economy, according to the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Business Research. In fact, Charleston ranks as one of the top 10 fastest growing U.S. hubs for software and internet technology, despite being the nation’s 75^th largest metro area.

Home to “Silicon Harbor,” now we’re home to “SXSE.”  We hope to see you in Charleston next week for DIG SOUTH and take part in this impressive group of leaders, innovators and interactive fun.

To learn more about DIG SOUTH, visit DIGSOUTH.COM. More updates to come on this inaugural Charleston conference after the show!

Home to the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Department of State, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Atlantic (SPAWAR), Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, General Dynamics/Force Protection and Joint Base Charleston, our region also hosts more than 250 defense contractors—all dependent on defense work, until now.

In last week’s article, “Charleston’s economy girds for leaner defense budgets,” USA Today’s economics correspondent, Tim Mullaney, explains that Charleston’s key to fighting sequestration is diversification—for both our target industries and the defense contractors themselves.

Mullaney goes on to report how the Charleston region is expanding its existing industries such as aerospace, information technology and computer security, renewable/wind energy and biomedicine in addition to housing major players such as Boeing, SPAWAR Atlantic, Medical University of South Carolina and the Clemson Energy Campus (CURI).

Charleston contractors featured in the article, UEC Electronics and Geocent, showcase how the region’s highly skilled defense workforce has allowed contractors to shift from government based contracts to the private sector. For example, UEC Electronics is pending on a contract with Boeing to produce Dreamliner parts. Similarly, Geocent, who makes applications for government security and the Veterans Administration, is using the same technology to develop consumer and company mobile apps.

Last month, our industry leaders were also profiled in National Defense Magazine’s piece, “Charleston Contractors Show Optimism in Face of Budget Cuts” as being “prepared for looming austerity,” while the editor’s letter in Security Products stated: “An interesting lesson learned while in Charleston, is that most of the companies represented at the summit are comfortable wearing many different hats.” Both pieces note the innovative applications of regional contractors such as Scientific Research Corporation (SRC), Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), SPARC and more.

In the USA Today article, Mullaney points out that this is not the first time Charleston has faced an economic challenge head on. The region experienced a similar threat in the nineties when BRAC closed the Navy base—resulting in an unemployment rise from 2.6% to 7.1% from 1990-1993.

Mullaney’s piece goes on to show how Charleston has added nearly 18,000 jobs in the past three years and now sits in the top 15% of U.S. metros for economic vitality, according to Moody’s analytics. “The outlook for Charleston is pretty good” remarks director of regional economics at Moody’s Analytics, Steve Cochrane. Twenty years later, Charleston’s current unemployment rate of 6.3%, stands well below the national rate, and its economy is diversified.

Stacked up against technology hub rock stars Silicon Valley, Austin and Raleigh, the Charleston region ranked 4^th in the country for high-tech industry output—growing  30 percentage points faster than the national average for the five years ending in 2011.

Overall, Charleston placed 9^th among 200 U.S. metropolitan areas in The 2012 Milken Institute’s Best Performing Cities Index for creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth. Data drawn for the index accounts for jobs, wages and salaries, and technology growth. Regional sectors cited for contributing to Charleston’s performance include aerospace, automotive and manufacturing.

As for Charleston’s score in The Brookings Institution report, the region ranked in the highest tier for job recovery amongst U.S. metros. At no. 9, Charleston outpaced major cities like Dallas, New York and San Francisco in the category.

The report includes detailed data on unemployment rates as well as employment, output (GDP) and housing price growth for the 100 largest U.S. metros for the third quarter of 2012 (July-September). The Charleston region also showed across-the-board increases in several industries last quarter including: professional and business services, government, trade, manufacturing, finance and insurance.

Best exemplifying these top rankings for the region are Charleston’s latest tech developments—most recently being Google’s announcement this month to begin construction on a third data center in the Charleston region. The $600 million project is slated to bring additional jobs as well, with Google already employing 150 at its existing data centers in Berkeley County.

The news comes on the heels of yet another technology job addition just last month, when Charleston-based software company SPARC announced that it will bring 310 new jobs to the region over the next four years, along with an $11 million expansion investment.

We’re proud to see our community’s collaborative effort to bring jobs, investment and resources to the region is paying off in building a globally competitive and sustainable Charleston economy. Want to learn more about Charleston’s economic climate? See how Charleston stacks up against other U.S. metros with The Milken Institute’s “Compare Metros” function  or The Brookings Institution interactive feature on its website.

No doubt about it. Technology companies are red hot in Charleston, South Carolina. In the 2012 Wage and Growth Survey recently released by the Charleston Digital Corridor, a remarkable 100% of the corridor’s participating companies reported job additions and 73% anticipated continuing to hire throughout the year.

Equally important, the survey found that the jobs being added boast an estimated salary of $66,862—significantly higher than the state’s average per-capita salary.

“This consistent year-over-year job growth is a testament to the sustainability and durability of Charleston’s knowledge economy,” notes the report. Take a look at how Charleston is using human capital to drive dollars and high-quality jobs in today’s knowledge economy:

• We put on a talent show—True talent doesn’t spring up overnight. That’s why Charleston fosters apprenticeship programs and close partnerships with local colleges and universities such as the College of Charleston and Trident Technical College. Initiatives like CodeCamp’s company-backed tech courses and computer science scholarships sponsored by BiblioLabs are paying off. Last year, The Wall Street Journal dubbed Charleston the #1 U.S. Metro for Brain Gain and we’re the #1 Fastest Growing Mid Sized U.S. Metro for Computer Hardware Engineers.

• We play matchmaker— With 80 technology companies and counting housed in the corridor, online career connector CharlestonWORKS.com ensures that top tech talent links with homegrown startups. And like our tech companies, our tech workforce keeps growing too—the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports our info tech and mathematics growth rate at a high 91.8%, far outpacing the nation’s 16.2% rate.

• We live a little—In a recent Associated Press article, “Digital Corridor Built on Charleston, Innovation” Ernest Andrade, Executive Director of the corridor remarked, “The real advantage Charleston has is Charleston.” Meaning that business and talent attraction is not just a matter of economics, but a matter of lifestyle as well.

Since its inception over a decade ago, the Charleston Digital Corridor has acted as an incubator, network system and resource center—housing tech giants like nonprofit software developer Blackbaud and the data center for Google, not to mention launching companies like BiblioLabs and BoomTown, both ranking among the Top 10 media and software categories (respectively) in this year’s Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Companies.

We applaud their contributions to Charleston and expect to see similar tech success in 2013!

By the looks of things, the three-county region has made some serious – and seriously fast – progress on many of the measures it sought to affect with its Opportunity Next strategic plan.

Launched last summer with input from hundreds of individuals and scores of organizations, Opportunity Next,  (view the full report card here) was developed to make the region globally competitive for investment by:

• Identifying the region’s existing strengths and aligning them with global business trends
• Identifying key weaknesses and finding ways to strengthen them
• Motivating a diverse army of regional stakeholders to collaborate and make it all happen.

Facilitated by nationally respected economists – Avalanche Consulting  and McCallum Sweeney — Opportunity Next arrived on the scene with some fanfare. Amy Holloway, President of Avalanche Consulting, returned earlier this summer to deliver a first-year report card on results.

The good news: our region earned a B, across the board. And that’s saying something, considering how fast 12 months goes.

Of particular note in our “strengths” column:

• Regional economic growth indicators were strong and, in many ways, outpaced the U.S.
• Also in our “win” columns: Workforce and Talent Development  (witness Trident Tech’s reach, progress on Graduate Charleston, and cradle-to-career efforts);
• Marketing/Business Development: the CRDA participated in 32 national & international marketing events; met with over 100 site selection consultants, and significantly upgraded their website and marketing toolkit; and coordinated efforts with the CVB on events like the PGA Championship
• Entrepreneurship: progress at CURI  and on key assets like a Regional Competitiveness Center, helped speed our progress.

The region earned its lowest marks in two of its toughest priority areas: infrastructure improvements and leadership.

• As population and Port activities increase, infrastructure Improvements are necessary to support the area’s economic progress. Based on slow progress in this area, the region earned a D+.
• The second lowest grade came for Leadership. While private sector and educational involvement in the execution of Opportunity Next is improving, many task forces are still undeveloped, and progress overall is slower than desired. A truly regional effort, the report points out, requires a truly regional response. It doesn’t happen without human sweat equity – especially the kind that comes from people of influence.

Armed with the report card, and a renewed vigor, the Opportunity Next “Alignment Committee” and others are expected to continue addressing the region’s greatest opportunities. They’ll need the collective effort of this community to achieve the goal of sustained economic prosperity.

A recent article in Fast Company magazine detailed the region’s tech ascent. Despite being the nation’s 75^th largest metro area, it ranks as one of the top 10 fastest growing hubs of software and internet technology.

In recent years, the region’s collective efforts and energies have helped grow the sector. Among the factors Fast Company credited:

• Growing critical mass: Born in the dot.com era, Benefitfocus is credited with spinning off nearly a dozen locally based software companies, including PeopleMatter. Today, a tech professional can relocate to the Charleston region, confident that abundant opportunities exist should they want to move on from their initial job opportunity.

• Government investment: Among other things, SC Launch runs a seed fund offering up to $200,000 in growth capital. Meanwhile, investments in incubators like the Digital Corridor’s Flagship incubator (a City of Charleston initiative) have provided fertile patches from which to grow. After opening in  2009, Flagship currently counts 80 technology companies among its tenants. In 2011, says chief cheerleader Ernest  Andrade, 80% of the tenants had hired people, and 38% of them had doubled in size.

• Charm: Armed with enviable resumes and the ability to chart their future course, tech pros can be pretty picky about where they’ll locate. The three county region has been earning plenty of praise for its positive lifestyle attributes for a long while; just ask Noah Everett http://twitter.com/noaheverett/, the founder of Twitpic, who chose to base his successful startup here for the love of the Lowcountry.

But everybody knows that past history is no indication of future performance, and many look to public/private partnerships to continue the momentum.

In his recent commentary in Statehouse Report http://www.statehousereport.com/CurrentIssue.aspx?ID=193 publisher Andy Brack notes that statewide, college graduates armed with software development credentials receive numerous job offers. Opportunities outnumber available, homegrown talent.

“Wise investments by the state’s colleges in partnership with the tech industry could create the space and brainpower to fuel bigger programs that compete with the big boys of Silicon Valley and Boston,” he wrote. “ An investment of, say, $10 million to $15 million over the three programs at Clemson, the University of South Carolina and the College of Charleston could double the annual capacity of techies to fill high-paying jobs. With new grads making $40,000 to $80,000 a year, such an investment would quickly pay for itself in various taxes paid by graduates. “

To our mind, the argument surely computes.

Numerous signs indicate this region is heading in the right direction – and organizations are aligning their efforts with Opportunity Next’s recommendations.

Case in point: Dorchester County leaders unveiled their first strategic economic development plan. Based on local input, research and insights from professional consultants, the plan sets investment priorities for building infrastructure critical to continued economic growth.

With water, sewage and roadways in place, the County can maximize the value of its rural land. It can also develop business incubators; which the growing Town of Summerville can support. For more information, visit www.dorchesterforbusiness.com.

Further evidence of a regional push forward is apparent in the Charleston Metro Chamber’s “Accelerate Greater Charleston” initiative. The five-year, $5 million plan focuses on growing the area’s high-tech workforce, providing seed capital, pro-business advocacy, and targeting jobs that are a strategic fit for our area. The alignment with the Opportunity Next regional plan is clear.

As reported in the Post and Courier, these synergistic plans indicate the region is future-proofing its economy. “High-tech…is red-hot right now, and Charleston’s economic development groups want in on the action,” said the paper, which was publicizing the Digital Corridor’s upcoming CODEcamp. (Aspiring programmers will pay $500 to learn computer language from local software gurus.)

“They recognize these cutting-edge industries and skill sets, along with population growth and other uncontrollable macro factors, could transform Charleston from a historic tourist destination into a proper 21^st century city,” the article said.

It appears all those code writers, high-tech companies and incubators are going to need space to conduct business. Commercial realtors region-wide decry a general lack of Class A office space. Occupancy has been high for some time (another symptom of the Boeing effect), and the soft economy of the last few years prevented new construction.

Indeed, the vacancy rate for top-quality industrial real estate dropped in 2011 to just 3.2 percent, the lowest in more than a decade (a health rate is 8-10%). New developments are emerging in pockets region-wide, and experts expect improving market conditions, loosened lending, and clear demand will prompt a Class A building boom.

CRDA President & CEO David Ginn told the Post and Courier “It’s an issue that’s on everyone’s mind, but having robust demand for existing industrial space seems like a better situation than having too much space available and not enough demand. “It’s an important balance,” he said.

Air India officials are expected to arrive in North Charleston next month to test, and then take off in one of the four Boeing 787s being constructed here. As reported by FlightglobalAir writer John Croft, Boeing’s local operations are presently committed to ultimately building 10 mid-sections and 10 aft sections, plus three complete aircraft, per month.

Local managers believe the 6,000 + workers here are up to the task. Notes Boeing’s local assembly and delivery manager, Marco Cavazzoni: the Charleston plant “has potential for expansion if we need to do that.”  And at a price somewhere north of $150 million per plane, an increase in production here sounds pretty good for the Charleston region.

Meanwhile, progress on Clemson University’s $98 million Wind Turbine Drivetrain Testing Facility reached a milestone with the pouring of the foundation for the smaller, 7.5-megawatt test rig. Secured with enough concrete to “fill the trunks of more than 1,000 Chevy Impalas,” the university offers a live webcam of the construction.

As we have come to learn, wind turbines are massive machines. Therefore, it takes a generous foundation to secure them. Translation: enough concrete to fill a channel 25 feet wide by 86 feet long by 10 feet deep, all resting on 75 steel piles.  When completed in early 2013, the facility will have the capability to fully-test turbines in the 5-15 megawatt range, making the Clemson facility the largest scale operation of its kind in the world.

And finally, one of the bedrock sectors of our regional economy continues to impress, based on recent hotel occupancy rates. According to the Office of Tourism at the College of Charleston School of Business,  April occupancy in Charleston County reached 85 percent; the third largest monthly rate ever. In all, nearly 92% of rooms on the peninsula were filled, well in advance of our traditional busy summer season.

All in all, a pretty positive look at the current situation – and exciting data for a healthy future.

Focusing on a Michigan community, the article said: “A metal-parts factory here has been searching since the fall for a machinist, an assembly team leader and a die-setter. Another plant is offering referral bonuses for a welder. And a company that makes molds for automakers has been trying for seven months to fill four spots on the second shift.”

Blame it on a generational shift. Yesterday’s manufacturing job relied on actual manual labor. Today’s factory worker is likely to spend days programming computerized machines, and possess specialized training.

It’s a gap we’ve seen widen in this region, too. But creative approaches seem to be helping to train precisely the workers our regional manufacturers clamor for.

The Christian Science Monitor recently covered the resurgence of U.S. manufacturing, and included Charleston in its overview of unique public/private job training partnerships. Locally, one such partnership has the state investing $45 million to train Boeing workers.

We’ve also long admired the Alcoa Mount Holly partnership with Trident Tech, which established a $100,000 scholarship in 2009, designed to nurture a team of “industrial athletes” uniquely trained to lead modern manufacturing into the future.

In the end, the new Industrial Revolution will be won by those with the mindset and skill-set to lead a high-tech world. Here’s to the Charleston region emerging victorious.