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Chamber kick starts Montana technology infrastructure discussion
Technology & Communications High technology was the topic at the opening of the first annual Regional Tourism & Business Technology Expo, dubbed tEXPO6, at the Holiday Inn Convention Center
The show, which takes the place of the Billings chamber’s previous annual show, the fall showcase, began with a breakfast meeting and presentations from four panelists. The tEXPO6 discussion was the first step in assessing where Billings can go with technology, according to chamber executive John Brewer. The chamber board also will be pursuing the subject of Billings as a technology hub and the status of the area as technologically up-to-speed.
“We laid the foundation today,” Brewer said after the tEXPO6 meeting. “We have a little better understanding now where our assets are.”
Chris Dimock, president and CEO of 180 Communications Inc. in Billings, started the large audience thinking by summarizing the state of Montana’s technological infrastructure. This was a “substantially underserved” area in 1995, he said. “We’ve certainly come a long way since then.”
His company has put fiber optic lines down virtually every alley in the downtown Billings area and started collocation services in 2000. Another infrastructure strength in the state is the MAIN network, which was formed by telephone cooperatives joining their fiber networks.
The infrastructure is here, and there are very qualified people in the region, Dimock said.
An example of a company that is thriving by using the available technology is http://www.PrintingForLess.com, a commercial printing company that sells to customers across the country. The company is building an $8 million facility in Livingston and is one of the fastest-growing companies in the nation.
PFL President and CEO Andrew Field said at the tEXPO6 meeting that he has six full-time programmers on staff and 100 percent of his company’s sales are by e-commerce. To communicate with customers and its printing partners, PFL needs robust technology, and it has it right here in Montana.
The Billings chamber also brought in two people from out of state to speak about what their communities are doing to develop their technology infrastructures as well as build employment in the high-tech sector.
Paul Ellis, director for metropolitan development at the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber in Washington state, said that, like Billings, Tacoma was not known as a technology center. Despite Seattle’s huge technology presence nearby, Tacoma retained a blue-collar image. But Tacoma has gone through a striking transformation, and the pattern could be learned from in Billings, he said.
“Any community can be a technology center,” Ellis said. “We had as much against us as for us.”
(Many thanks to the Montana Chamber of Commerce for passing this story along. Russ)
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