Turns out, iSOCRATES thinks St. Petersburg's a pretty fantastic life choice, too. Shockingly, they're not thinking of all the breweries and high rises. They're thinking about the opportunity.
iSOCRATES announced yesterday that not only are they moving their HQ from blustery, overcast, snowy Connecticut to warm and sunny St. Petersburg, they're probably going to create 50 jobs in the area.
The company, which calls itself the "global leader in programmatic media and marketing planning," already has some operations in place in the 'Burg (they have co-work space at Rising Tide on Central and 4th Street). Their clients include CBS, The Economist and News Corp.
"We believe Tampa Bay — and St. Petersburg, in particular — is the perfect environment for our growing, innovative digital company," Bill Lederer, iSOCRATES chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
By the end of 2019, iSOCRATES says it will make 10 Tampa Bay hires, with an ultimate goal of 50 hires for the US-based company.
Of course, local politicos had nothing but good things to say.
"We're very pleased to welcome the iSOCRATES team to Pinellas County," County Commissioner Karen Seel wrote in a press release. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, too, expressed his pleasure "for the iSOCRATES expansion here in the Sunshine City."
Kriseman credited the county's economic development staff for bringing iSOCRATES to St. Petersburg.
"I thank our partners in the Pinellas County Economic Development office, and all our Economic Development colleagues, for making this possible," he said.
iSOCRATES will begin holding what it calls "digerati" meetups on what St. Petersburg has deemed "Digital First Fridays," effective this Friday (Feb. 1). The first such event will take place at Rising Tide Co-Work Space (433 Central Ave., St. Petersburg); Kriseman, Seel and the digital marketing heads of both the Tampa Bay Rays and the Tampa Bay Lightning will all be at the meetup.
These meetups will have rousing discussions about data analytics, digital media and digital marketing. Register for the inaugural digerati meetup here.
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This article appears in Jan 24-31, 2019.