Idea and innovation summit boasts major technological advancements that will create thousands of new jobs in the region

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.— Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County are known to have agricultural communities and beach towns that draw in tourists from all over.

These counties also have academic institutions like Uc Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo that make this area an often overlooked tech hub.

Wednesday morning community leaders up and down the coast talked about promising progress in multiple fields— from the clean tech and climate to semiconductors and space.

The space industry is projected to create 2,000 new jobs by 2030.

“We've gone from a time when we might have $1 billion satellite that would be launched into orbit out of Vandenberg to now today, where we have dozens and dozens of communications satellites that are being launched, smaller, cheaper satellites, thousands of them are in orbit today and many, many more in the pipeline that are creating opportunities for us to have cell service anywhere in the world,” said REACH Vice President of Policy and Economic Development Josh Boswell.

Back in 2020 reach launched a 10 year plan to create 15,000 good paying jobs on the central coast by 2030.

They are excited to see the economic growth that results as investors continue to support new ideas and as more people fill in the new positions that arise from these growing industries.