Editor’s note: RTP Beat is a regular feature on Thursdays.Talk about expanding the menu of choices.
IT services provider Celito Communications in Raleigh has inked a deal with Bear Rock Foods to install Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) access in its Bear Rock Café restaurants. Celito is testing Wi-Fi in six Bear Rock outlets in the Triangle. Two more are in the works.

Wi-Fi access will enable Bear Rock clients to bring their laptops to the restaurant, tap into their wireless network and surf the Web. The service will be free of charge to Bear Rock customers.

“It’s part of our breakfast push, in part, and gathering place mentality,” says Deneen Nethercutt, vice president of marketing for Bear Rock Foods. “People come at different times of day and linger and get work done. It’s an added feature that’s attracting a lot of business people.”

Celito will manage the access points at Bear Rock Café and capture user information, says Sharat Nagaraj, president of Celito Communications. “It’s a custom-built access point.”

Bear Rock’s move to provide wireless Web access to its customers is part of a larger national trend. On Tuesday, fast-food behemoth McDonald’s announced that it’s installing Wi-Fi access in 70 of its restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area. Starbucks already offers wireless Web access in thousands of its coffee shops.

Bear Rock Foods, headquartered in Cary, has 18 cafes nationwide and has commitments to expand with more than 100 new restaurants to 17 states in the next couple of years.

Celito, founded in 1999, has five employees and a data center in Raleigh. It offers high-speed Internet access, Web hosting and IT services to more than 110 business clients.

N.C. Technology Fast 50 gets new media sponsor

Deloitte and Touche’s annual North Carolina Technology Fast 50 program is getting a new venue this year. The event, which recognizes the state’s fastest growing technology companies, is moving to the Business to Technology (B2T) Conference at North Carolina State University’s McKimmon Center. The change is sparked by the shift in media sponsors from The Business Journals of the Triangle, Charlotte and the Triad to Business Leader, which along with the N.C. State Computer Training Unit puts on the annual B2T Conference.

Combining the N.C. Technology Fast 50 awards luncheon with the B2T
Conference “creates a real opportunity for C-level executives from
non-technology companies to meet with technology companies,” says Dan Davies, publisher of Business Leader. “The programming is designed for the non-tech executives to learn about the technology they can use to improve their business.”

The Technology Fast 50 awards luncheon will take place on Sept. 17, the day of the B2T conference,at noon. To qualify for the N.C. Technology Fast 50, which is now in its ninth year, companies must be a technology company; be in business a minimum of five years with 1998 revenues of at least $50,000 and 2002 revenues of at least $1,000,000; and be a public or private company headquartered in North Carolina.

The B2T Conference targets executives of mid-sized and large companies as well as local and state government agencies. Panel discussions will address IT-based marketing tools, spam, Internet security, IT outsourcing, Wi-Fi, crisis management, training and employee development and best practices.

Local Tech Wire is a media sponsor of the conference.

Shameless self-promotion

Local Tech Wire is proud to report that it received more than 1 million hits in June, up 25 percent from May. Those hits in June came from more than 14,000 unique visitors. According to statistics provided by LTW’s web host and services provider, the average visitor is staying for almost 12 minutes.

Don’t forget Tech Exec

Just in case you’ve been able to turn a blind eye to the pop-up windows, Le Tech Exec takes place this evening at Peak 10’s data center in Morrisville. More than 200 business and technology executives have already registered for the quarterly networking event. The hand-shaking starts at 5:30 PM. Peak 10 also is taking execs on tours of its new facility, which is located in the former headquarters of Interpath.

What do you see on the tech horizon? A ray of sunshine, a thunderbolt or rain shower clouds? E-mail Cal at: cal@localtechwire.com