26 Mar 2008, Posted by Matthew Reinbold in Tech Clusters, UT, 2 Comments
Telling Utah’s Tech Business Story
Today I was giving an interview with New York based media for the upcoming RIA Dev Shed. One of the first questions asked was something that I get from a lot of people outside the state: why Utah?
The knee jerk is something that smacks of juvenile delinquency such as “Why not?” or “Because I’m uncomfortable being on a first name basis with the airport frisker”. However, the professional answer is because this is where things are happening.
The same factors which swayed my decision to move here after completing my undergraduate degree still hold true: continued infrastructure reinvestment on a grand scale (then the Olympics, now downtown revitalization, commuter rail, Utopia, etc.), youth driven and entrepreneurial workforce (which translates to more ideas per capita), and modest costs of living. Put those things together and you have an environment that, despite the grim news elsewhere, continues to be a great place for doing business.
Unfortunately, while those here in the trenches have hashed and rehashed the local news of the last year to (sometimes) fearsome degree the details are still unheard of outside our cliques. What are those stories (presented in no particular order)?
- LogoWorks is sold to HP
- Mozy is sold to EMC Corp for $76 million
- Omniture now handles analytics services for eBay, AOL, Wal-Mart, Gannett, Microsoft, Neiman Marcus, Oracle, General Motors, Sony and HP
- Doba is listed as the #2 top company in software and #5 company intending to go public
- BackCountry.com is bought by Liberty Media
- The Generations Network is bought for $300 million
- University of Utah is second only to MIT for starting technology companies from its research despite spending a third less on research funding
…and I’m sure there are many more that I’m forgetting. However, the point is this: while the rest of the nation is asphyxiating on uncertainty we have a chance to make a major positive difference. It is imperative that at this point in time we’re nurturing our human capital in the same way we court our investment capital. Throwing events is just a sliver of what programmers need to continue their professional development – but it is a piece. And that’s why I’m organizing a conference in Utah.
Curious on upcoming technology events in Utah? Check out the calendar. Wanna get something on the calendar? Contact me.