In the United States, towns with around 50,000 residents rarely appear in global conversations about innovation. Gallatin, Tennessee, 30 miles northeast of Nashville, functions mostly as a quiet commuter suburb. Prescott Valley, Arizona, and Everett, Massachusetts, similarly remain far from the innovation spotlight.
Yet Santa Rita do Sapucaí, a Brazilian town slightly smaller and located more than 120 miles from São Paulo, has gained international attention. Recently highlighted at the Big Towns Summit in Lafayette, Louisiana—a forum exploring strategies employed by mid-sized cities of 100,000 to 500,000 residents—the fact that a town half that population emerged as a leading example surprised many participants.
“Santa Rita challenges the notion that smaller towns must limit their ambitions,” said Nathaniel Brooks, a Boston-based urban strategist. “It has built something larger than itself, driven by education and creativity.”
The town’s transformation began in the 1950s, when educator Luzia Rennó Moreira founded Brazil’s first technical high school focused on electronics. The initiative quickly turned a rural community of about 10,000 into a magnet for engineering talent from across Brazil and neighboring countries.
Over the following decades, INATEL—often compared to a telecom-focused MIT—solidified this technological foundation. By the 1980s, local leaders branded Santa Rita as the Vale da Eletrônica, Brazil’s version of Silicon Valley. The campaign attracted entrepreneurs and inspired the creation of FAI, a business school supplying essential managerial skills.
But global economic shifts challenged the local model. Many businesses transitioned from hardware innovation to assembling imported components. International corporations—including Seattle-based WatchGuard, Swedish telecom giant Ericsson, and Chinese tech leader Xiaomi—acquired local firms, turning them into research hubs. This reshaped the landscape and eroded some of the town’s original inventive spirit.
Rather than decline, civic and business leaders launched a strategy in 2012 centered on the creative economy. Independent cafés and cultural spaces multiplied, and a new wave of startups focused on artificial intelligence, automation, and IoT revitalized the town’s technology sector. Today, nearly 200 tech companies and startups operate there, supported by multiple accelerators, innovation programs, and even a publicly funded incubator, a rarity in Latin America. Still, attracting sustained investor interest remains challenging.
Building on this momentum, local entrepreneurs created HackTown in 2016, a unique mix of festival and conference. Rejecting traditional formats, the event unfolds across the entire town—cafés, bookstores, parks, schools, and private homes become immersive venues for ideas. HackTown connects Santa Rita’s residents directly to global innovators, positioning the community at the forefront of creativity and technology.
Now in its ninth edition, scheduled from July 31 to August 3, 2025, HackTown expects more than 30,000 attendees, surpassing half of Santa Rita’s total population. Residents open their homes to visitors, and neighboring towns assist, turning the event into a regional phenomenon.
“HackTown turns the town’s modest scale into its greatest asset,” said Brooks. “You’re not just attending panels; you’re immersed in a vibrant network of ideas.”
With new initiatives continually emerging, Santa Rita demonstrates that global relevance comes not from size, but from clear vision, sustained community investment, and continual reinvention.
