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Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, that was incorporated in May 1925. According to the 2010 U.S. there are 84,392 people living in Boca Raton. "Boca Raton" means "Mouth of The Mouse" in Spanish, which is suggested to describe the nautical inlet of the city's beaches and rocks that would gnaw at entering at ships.
Although settling of the land of Boca Raton began in 1895, it was not until the 1960s when Boca Raton became the true southern hub for technology and innovation. Notably, around 1965, IBM with the Arvida corporation, purchased several-hundred acres of land just west of the CSX rail line which runs just west of where I-95 is located today. Together IBM and Arvida constructed a massive campus on the land, which would later be used to develop and manufacture a number of important technological projects including IBM's PC's and voice recognition software. Then, in the 1990s, after converting its manufacturing facilities to labs and offices, IBM sold the land.
Today, many of the buildings of the old IBM campus and office parks developed in the surrounding area are used as incubators, headquarters and regional offices for innovative technology businesses, or have been converted to schools. IBM now maintains offices at Beacon Square near Congress Avenue and Yamato Road.
Besides being home to many current and former IBM employees, Boca Raton boasts multiple universities, colleges and places of higher education including: Florida Atlantic University; Lynn University; Palm Beach State College; Digital Media Arts College; and, Everglades University. As the home to many affluent investors and venture capitalists, it is no surprise, that Boca Raton is home to three of the Forbes top ten most exclusive communities in the United States. Boca Raton has two major rail lines, its own airport, and is near the major ports and airports of Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
These factors combined with a comfortable sub-tropical climate, beautiful beaches, restaurants, parks and night life have made Boca the ideal place in Florida for innovation and invention, as evidenced by the inventors and their inventions described on this web site. Boca Raton is Silicon Beach™.
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