For the past few weeks, cities across the country have been mobilizing their offices of economic development and brainstorming creative ideas to land the second headquarters of one of Seattle’s iconic companies.
That’s right, GeekWire HQ2 has sparked an intense competition between North American cities, intrigued by the idea of bringing our brand of tech journalism to their communities.
And while we’ve not yet received a 21-foot tall cactus, a handful of enterprising cities — from the high deserts of Albuquerque to the BBQ halls of Kansas City — have entered the fray. Sorry, Stockholm! Despite your very nice bid, we’ve committed to putting our temporary headquarters in North America!
In case you missed the big announcement at the GeekWire Summit, GeekWire HQ2 is a new initiative in which we’ll place between one to three journalists in the chosen city for the month of February 2018.
Our goal? Cover the community’s technology scene, including its challenges and opportunities, innovations, leaders and its outlook on the future.
We’re excited to bring our community-focused journalism to a North American city, learning what makes this city thrive and telling our readers (many of whom work at one of the biggest tech companies on the planet) about its unique culture and tech ecosystem.
The deadline to respond to our Request for Proposals (RFP) is Nov 17.
Our reporters will produce written stories, photos, videos, social media content, and more that will expose readers to the innovative companies, entrepreneurs, organizations, and other leaders contributing to the region’s growth. We will also assess the city’s potential to host a massive $5 billion corporate office.
We’re excited to immerse ourselves in another tech hub and — depending on the winter forecast in Seattle — we may stick around beyond the month of February. For more details on our criteria, check out our RFP and see the GeekWire HQ2 site.
If you represent a city or regional economic development organization, submit your proposal to host GeekWire HQ2 by emailing our team at hq2@geekwire.com to get started. Proposals can be as short as a paragraph or as long as six pages or more. It doesn’t take a lot of words to convince us to come to your city, just the right words!
We will make our final site selection and public announcement in Dec. 2017. Continue reading for our full RFP document. We look forward to hearing from you.
