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Governor Kicks Off 'Virginia is for Computer Science Lovers' Campaign

Virginia launched a new PR campaign Monday to draw attention to the state’s quickly growing computer science industry. The campaign ties in neatly with Richmond Tech Week, which also kicked off Monday.

Mallory Noe-Payne has more.

Virginia has more than 30,000 open jobs in computer science, with an average starting salary of $88,000.

It’s a stat Virginia’s Governor Terry McAuliffe works into almost every speech he gives.And it resonated in front of a crowd of Richmond’s tech workforce Monday, as the Governor unveiled the “Virginia is for Computer Science Lovers” campaign.

“The reason tourism is involved is not only because of the brand but because there really is something called tech tourism,” explains Rita McClenny, CEO of Virginia Tourism Corporation.

Just what is tech tourism? Visiting places like Wallops Island, where NASA launches rockets, or Virginia Tech’s testing facility for automatic cars. The state hopes that by promoting these places as destinations they can get more young people interested in computer science.

Robbie Demeria is executive director of the Richmond Technology Council. In conjunction with that statewide effort, they’re kicking off a week-long showcase of the city’s tech businesses and talent.

“If you’ve got a tech solution that you need to be completed we want you to do that here with a Richmond business, or even a Virginia business, versus going out of state,” Demeria says. “And too often some of our businesses have done that.”

 

RVA Tech Week runs through Friday, wrapping up with a Hackathon this weekend.

 
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association

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