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The New Century
Region Leads the Technology Charge
Related
stories:
• The Roanoke Valley Plans
for the Future
• Welcome to e-Town
• Business
Technology Parks Enhance Local Universities
•
Carilion
Expansion
The New Century high-tech region is
unofficially centered at Virginia Tech with its strong
technology focus. In addition, Tech's Corporate Research
Park is gaining an international reputation as an incubator
for tomorrow's technology leaders.
Virginia Tech is not the sole technology
star in the area, although its reputation is a main
draw for many new entrepreneurs to the area. The New
Century Technology Council was formed to help coordinate
the efforts to bring a technology focus to the region,
which includes Alleghany, Bland, Botetourt, Craig, Giles,
Floyd, Franklin, Montgomery, Pulaski, Roanoke, Smyth
and Wythe counties.
"As a region, we have a phenomenal
asset in Tech and we're taking advantage of that, but
there is still so much more that can be done,"
says Gordie Zeigler, executive director of the Tech
Council.
The mission of the council is to stimulate and guide
the attitudes, priorities, infrastructure and governmental
environment of the New Century Region to create the
most favorable climate for long term profitability,
competitiveness and success of technology-based enterprises,
both those already in place and those which such efforts
will attract to the region.
The council exists to help member firms
such as technology and supporting firms, grow. This
is accomplished by focusing on several key areas that
have demonstrated success in helping regions to become
more prone to entrepreneurial success:
- Diversity in Sources of Capital
- An Enabling Culture
- Strong Local Networks
- Supportive Infrastructure & Educational Institutions
- "Entrepreneur Friendly" Government
One key area the council is focusing
on is biotech, especially due to the presence of Carilion
Biomedical Institute, a partnership between Carilion
Health System, the University of Virginia and Virginia
Tech.
"We're identifying additional clusters
or areas of technology and biotech seems to be one of
them," says Zeigler, noting that a dozen of the
council's member companies have formed a biotech committee.
The council is a vibrant organization
with many key initiatives currently underway that are
helping foster growth in the region: The launch of The
Technology Directory, an online registry of technology
companies and the businesses that serve technology is
planned for October; a major push is on to grow membership
in the region, a networking group for manufacturers
called Forum for Advanced Manufacturing Experts represents
another major initiative and finally there's Capital
Access Forum, an organization designed to help stimulate
interest in the regional technology industry and help
attract investment funding. All this activity has helped
the organization double the size of its membership in
the last year.
The New Century Technology Council is
a privately funded, nonprofit corporation. For membership
information, contact Carrie Williams (540) 776-9820.
Email: carrie@serendipitycom.com.
For general information log on to their Web site at
www.thetechnologycouncil.com.
Return to Virginia Business -October 2002
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