Colorado Predicts Bullish Technology Future

DENVER, Colo. — The focus was on economic development through expansion of the tech sector at the fourth annual Colorado Technology Summit held last week in Denver. Scores of the state’s top technology companies, representatives from government agencies and leaders from academia attended led by Gov. Bill Owens, who has made economic development a hallmark of his administration.

Darby Patterson Govtech.net

"We want to provide a framework that allows the private sector to do its magic," he told a crowd of more than 2,500 attendees. "The focus is to make Colorado become one of America’s premier technology hubs."

Like many states, Colorado has experienced a downturn in the growth of tech companies over the past three years. However, top advisors in the state’s private sector told the crowd they believe the "bottom has been hit" and predict a resurgence of the technology industry in the near future. Governor Owens shares their optimism. "The digital economy will be the primary generator of the economy in the 21st century," he said.

Many of the nation’s leading technology companies that sponsored the high profile summit have major hubs in Colorado, mostly in the Denver region. A panel of industry experts addressed issues of job growth and creation in the technology sector, leveraging conferencing technology that brought participants in from Grand Junction and from Colorado State University in Southern Colorado. The message was largely upbeat — companies planned to hire, rather than lay-off.

A companion component to economic development is building the state’s technology infrastructure and governance policies according to Chief Technology Officer John Hansen who said the Office of Innovation and Technology is poised to offer "policies and legislation that supports technology growth." Hansen, along with CIO Leroy Williams, has been building an aggressive technology strategy for the state, one that could include enterprise architectures and polices inside a new IT governance model.

Hansen said his team will focus on key areas that include collaboration with existing companies, working with industry associations and outreach to other sectors such as biotechnology, aerospace, natural resources and academia. "We are very bullish about Colorado in the tech sector," he said. "I believe Colorado will be the leader in the second wave of technology hubs."

According to CIO Williams, the ultimate goal is "to transform state government through technology innovation." William’s office has been formulating a plan over the past nine months in consultation with stakeholders in state government, the private sector and leaders in higher education. "We want to make Colorado a sustainable 21st century business operation," he said, "and to be recognized as a world class leader and national best practice."

The state already has many of the basic ingredients in place. Colorado was one of the first states to make a cabinet-level position for technology policy with Mark Holtzman serving as the state’s first CTO. (Hansen, like his predecessor Holtzman, does not accept a salary for his public service.) Colorado also has the distinction of producing the most educated workforce in the country, according to a recent Milkin Institute study, and was identified as the fifth most friendly to business in terms of its tax structure.

The former CEO of J.D. Edwards agreed that technology will be the engine of growth for the state. "The future of the technology industry is brighter today than it has ever been," said Robert Dutkowsky, whose company had been a mainstay of Colorado’s technology sector before being bought by PeopleSoft earlier this year. He added that similar mergers will be the wave of the future. "The industry is in the midst of an aggressive change," he said. "Today there are about 25,000 technology companies. The world doesn’t need 25,000 technology companies."

Hansen and Williams said they will take information gathered at the speaking sessions and workshops and integrate them into the state’s strategic IT plan. Williams estimates the next major step in the process should happen in November. "We intend to deliver value through technology, aligned with business and education," he said.

There was unanimous agreement that the state holds an attraction that will continue to defy the swing of the political and economic pendulum. "There is one thing that Colorado has that no one can take away," said Teresa Taylor, a panelist and executive vice president of Qwest Communications," and that is the lifestyle."

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