Tech Summits in Miami Bring Workforce Opportunities for Veterans

Veterans looking for their next job opportunity will have a chance to learn about a variety of fields at the Veteran Workforce Summit on April 23 and the Veteran Innovation Summit on April 24 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida. 

Both summits, hosted by eMerge National Security, are part of the larger eMerge Americas Conference and Tech Expo, April 22-24. The events will feature business leaders from technology, AI, cyber security, and national security innovation. Veterans will have an opportunity to connect one-on-one with industry leaders, discover what their companies provide, and build connections to land their next job. 

Carlos Romero, who works in defense and tech innovation for eMerge Americas, leads the company’s Veteran Program. Romero believes the summits will help veterans prepare for an ever-changing job market, especially in the tech fields. 

“One summit is focused on the workforce and the other is focused on veteran innovation, so think start-ups, venture capital, and different technology,” Romero told Military.com. “From the veteran workforce side, workforce development is one of the top priorities, from all sections of government and in society in general. We are short in all those areas. So, with the leadership and experience veterans come out of service with, we need to plug them into these critical sectors of government, national security and tech, specifically, that’s what this workforce summit is meant to do.” 

Miami, the New Tech Hub 

eMerge Americas, founded in 2014, was designed to transform Miami into one of the nation’s leading tech hubs. 

“A lot of what we’re seeing in the innovation space around the country is highlighting Miami as a major tech hub, similar to Silicon Valley in California, but with some distinct differences,” Romero said. “I lead the veteran program, but I’m also with the national security innovation team.” 

Overall, the conference features four themes: national security, AI, fintech and healthtech. 

“These are the strongest technology sectors in the world and definitely the strongest sectors in Florida,” Romero said. “So, we’ve intentionally selected these four areas of focus for this year.” 

It’ll be a packed four hours with a veteran hiring fair, a veteran-led panel on employment transition, a resume-building session and a roundtable discussion with hiring managers on how to retain quality employees. 

Military to Civilian Workforce

Romero, a Marine Corps veteran, knows what it’s like to have to pivot professionally after leaving the military. Becoming a Marine after high school in 2005, Romero had visions of serving for at least 20 years, building a lengthy, rewarding career until a back injury ended his time in the Marine Corps. He recovered and served in the Army for three years as a law enforcement sergeant.  

“I was an infantry Marine, going through a lot of training for Special Operations jobs, and it ended my career early,” Romero said. “It didn’t work out as planned but when I got out, I made it my life goal to either go back into the military once I was able to recover or serve those in uniform, whether they’re still in the military or transitioning out as veterans.” 

Since leaving the military, Romero has spent more than a decade creating and building venture capital businesses, many with a veteran focus. He hopes veterans who attend the summits will be inspired to pursue their own entrepreneurial dreams. 

“If a veteran is thinking about their next employment opportunity, they can come to eMerge,” Romero said, “especially in the technology sector. They’ll be exposed to a broad range of cutting-edge technology. And if a veteran is either leading a start-up or is a part of a start-up and wants to connect with that space, whether it’s national security and defense, we’ll be able to cater to those needs.” 

Romero also hopes the event will highlight all the attributes veterans bring to the workforce and innovation, skills sometimes overlooked by employers. 

“There are not a lot of events like these where you’re connecting the folks who think a certain way that served in the military and folks who didn’t served in the military will never understand that persona – there’s a big disconnect between those two worlds, and I’m trying to bridge that gap, so it’s easy to understand from a non-military background person what these people can offer to my company,” he said. “Whether it’s combat or not, the leadership veterans bring to the table is certainly valuable, along with the more technical hard skills they come out with from all different types of MOS. It’s definitely transferable to the civilian sector, but I don’t think we’ve done a very good job of communicating that and that’s my goal with these summits.”