Technology is one of Nashville's fastest growing industries, with the Nashville Business Journal originally reporting that CBRE's 2018 Scoring Tech Talent Report found a 43.3 percent increase in tech workers in the past five years in Nashville, equaling a total of 8,800 tech worker increase.
That increase in Nashville's tech industry makes it the fastest-growing small market for tech talent in the United States and Canada.
"In order to attract really highly talented people, you have to have a creative community, you have to have a great culture," Mark Scrivner, CEO of SnapShot Interactive, said.
SnapShot Interactive is a digital marketing firm that operates out of an old church in East Nashville, producing videos, animation, and marketing strategies.
They're one of many companies that have helped Nashville's tech market grow, starting out in 2010 and continuously growing over the years.
Scrivner said it's in part to the affordability of living in a hip city like Nashville. "Even though housing prices have went up over the last few years, they're still low in relative to a lot of other cities across the U.S.
SnapShot Interactive's staff is made up of about half Nashville natives and half workers from other cities, but no matter where a person is from, tech is a good business to be in.
"The average tech worker makes 66 percent more than the non-tech worker in Nashville," Brian Moyer, Nashville Technology Council president and CEO said.
Compared to other cities across the country, Nashville is one of the best for tech, according to Moyer, who said that a recent report put Nashville as the second most affordable place to get a great technology job.
"I don't see that slowing down any time soon," Moyer said. "For the last several years, on any given report that ranks fastest growing tech cities, communities, we've always been on those lists, and usually in the top 5."
Moyer said Nashville's creative nature, including the music scene, helps foster creativity in the tech world, as well.
He also said that most of Nashville's other industries, including healthcare and music, are integrating technology more than they ever have before.
The Brookings Institution found that 75 percent of jobs created since 2010 require either medium- or high-level digital skills, according to Moyer, who said it's become more important than ever to give youth the resources to learn and grow within the tech world, both in school and in their personal lives.
