WASHINGTON 鈥� While the D.C. area awaits news from Amazon about its big second headquarters, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser leads a city economic planning team on a trip to Silicon Valley to pitch D.C. to other technology companies.
Bowser, and Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Brian Kenner, travel to California Feb. 9 through Feb. 12.
Meetings are scheduled with companies including Lyft, Cisco and Yelp. Yelp has already announced plans for a new office in D.C. that will create 500 jobs over a five-year period.
The delegation will also pitch the District鈥檚 work related to autonomous vehicles, with a meeting with the .
Bowser will use the trip to brainstorm for ideas for the administration鈥檚 , a program that aims to increase access to capital for D.C. entrepreneurs, particularly underrepresented entrepreneurs, including minorities and women.
鈥淲ashington continues to rank No. 1 as a place for entrepreneurs who are women or people of color to thrive, but there are barriers that still need to break down, including access to capital,鈥� said Kenner in a statement.
Amazon, which will choose its location for its second headquarters later this year, has included both D.C. and Northern Virginia on its short list of 20 finalists.
