CHARLOTTE – A mark of its evolution over the course of 25 years, 2018 has seen some key refreshers in the image of North Carolina’s tech sector association, NC TECH. It rolled out a brand refresh earlier this year with a new logo, a redesigned website and a shortened title, shifting from North Carolina Tech Association to NC TECH.

In honor of its 25th anniversary as a leading connector of the corporations, startups, nonprofits, government institutions and other organizations within North Carolina’s technology community, NC TECH and its members will convene at a “capstone” event this Thursday in Charlotte to celebrate.

The two hour event, scheduled for 5:30 to 7:30 at the Duke Mansion, is an opportunity for members to come together and celebrate the association’s longevity:

https://wraltechwire.com/event/nc-tech-anniversary-celebration/

Ahead of the event, NC TECH President and CEO Brooks Raiford talked with WRAL TechWire about the history of the organization, his time leading it, what he’s noticed about North Carolina’s evolving tech sector and his vision for the future.

Here’s our Q&A:

  • What are the highlights of NC TECH’s history leading up to today? Also, what’s the story behind the rebrand?

This year, we took the opportunity to refresh our brand with a new logo, a new look and a new website. The name didn’t really change, but used to call ourselves NCTA (North Carolina Technology Association). The shortened change to “NC TECH” has been well received. We also refreshed our vision and mission and our areas of focus.

In a nutshell, one major change over the last 25 years is that we think of ourselves less as a tech industry association and more of a tech sector association. Our founding CEO Betsy Justus had been the Secretary of Revenue under Jim Martin for two terms between Jim Hunt. This was a relevant time frame because in the late 80s and early 90s, North Carolina was starting to have some major growth with larger companies like IBM starting to have a presence here, and more companies coming and growing.

She [Betsy] created what became the North Carolina Electronics and Information Technology Association. As time moved on, halfway through our life as organization, the name was shortened to NCTA in recognition that “tech” is a pretty broad term and doesn’t need to be so specific.

Then there was an evolution of how we viewed ourselves as broad coalition. Members were companies, but as we moved along it became increasingly apparent that every company is either a tech company or is tech-dependent, so we actually revised our membership structure so any organization could join—whether it’s higher education, college, a government entity, a nonprofit or a department at a university. Also, any company could join, regardless of what they did. We always like to say: What the does the Carolina Hurricanes and the New York Stock Exchange have in common? They’re all NC TECH members.

We also recognized that more businesses were working in tech even if they weren’t necessarily a tech company. There was some nuance there—a shift in view of what makes up the tech sector. NC TECH has had to make it more clear what we do. We exist to advocate for the sector, spotlight best practices, grow and thrive, help with government policy work and highlight the success and milestones of our members partnering with economic development organizations. We do a lot of programming to feature tech companies and leaders in North Carolina.

  • You’ve been leading NC TECH since 2008. Has the mission and focus changed since you began your role?

One thing that we introduced when I came on board was to beef up representation of the startup community in the organization. Startups may not think that they have the time and resources to get involved; and we understand that finances are often a challenge. NC TECH offers an entrepreneurs membership option; those who meet the early-stage company criteria can join the association at a discount for the first year of membership.

Though it’s true that a lot of startup companies don’t last, we’ve actually seen over half or more of the startups under this arrangement continue with their membership.

When I came on board, I don’t think the association was well known for partnering with other organizations. There really wasn’t much of a connection there aside from shared board members. When I started at NC TECH, CED [Council for Entrepreneurial Development] had just brought on a new CEO as well, Joan Siefert Rose. We hit it off quickly, as both of us are very partner-oriented. We believe this partnership is additive instead of competitive—both organizations are members of the community who collaborate with one another. There has been an continued evolution of the thinking that “a rising tide lifts all boats.”

  • How has NC TECH grown or changed in recent years?

We’ve seen an evolution into a more broad based organization. We’re about double the size we were since 2008, when we had about 300 member organizations. Today, we have around 700 member companies, and those employers have created around 200,000 jobs in North Carolina. Around two-thirds are actually headquartered in the state.

About four to five years ago, we started the North Carolina State of the Tech Industry Report (NC TIR), commissioning a firm to do this research. They collect data showing how North Carolina stacks up in important metrics, along with a snapshot of what we’re doing. It has been well received—we’ve seen the Governor quote stats from the reports before. It has been a signature publication for us, with a new report coming out in January of every year.

Also, we have a great job board resource, which is open to anyone who wants to use the service. We launched an IT job trends report every month in a partnership with Gartner. It has a top 10 list of jobs in North Carolina, with information on the job types open in previous the month, skills in demand, top 10 metros in the state, open positions and the top 10 hirers. Usually about half of the employers in the top 10 list are non-tech companies (like Lowe’s, for example), and that list can change month to month. We also include a 12-month bar chart showing the total IT jobs open in North Carolina compared to the previous month and whole months prior, so you can see which jobs dip, peak, upswing or downswing.

Tech jobs available in North Carolina over the last 12 months. Copyright: NC TECH

 

  • What are some of the recent programs and initiatives you’ve kicked off at NC TECH?

Our work on talent data and the State of Industry Report are signature things we’re proud in the past five years.

We certainly continue to refine our offerings and programming. Diversity and inclusion in the workplace has been a big theme this year for us. We’ve zeroed in on some elements in this area.

For example, we’ve been focused on programs around neurodiversity. The National Governors Association gave a grant to the North Carolina Governor’s Office to get people who are on the autism spectrum placed in jobs in the tech sector; the Governor’s Office came to get involved with us in this program.

We’re able to contribute because there’s a framework in place from government and social services organizations to bring people on the autism spectrum to the table and give them support by bringing local companies on board as employers.

This initiative has been well received.

  • Any expansions in the works?

We are a statewide association, but we do have a small team of staff headquartered in Raleigh. About a quarter or our members consider their primary base the greater Charlotte region, so we opened an office in Uptown Charlotte and brought on a full-time membership engagement manager up there to expand programming and represent the association in that way.

We’ve currently reached the largest staff size we’ve ever had. Historically, we’ve had five or six employees, but now we have nine in total. We’re in a great position where we’re growing financially and we can sustain and support our own team.

  • What’s your vision for the future?

In the immediate future, our direction is to continue the partnerships we have to remain relevant and distinctive in terms of marketplace competition for resources. We will continue to strive to partner with other organizations and institutions to provide more value to our members.

Our mindset certainly has been and will continue to be finding opportunities where we can link up or partner with other organizations, institutions and resources, and direct the help they’re offering companies. We want to continue being involved in the community as a connector, convening those doing the hiring and those in the field with those in charge with producing and training that talent.

NC TECH’s members are so broad— including advanced manufacturing and aerospace, IoT, biotech and lots of other segments with their own industry associations and networks. We can be the umbrella. We want to continue to find ways to seamlessly connect these companies and organizations so they can get the best value and service from the constellations of networks and groups out there.

We also want to make our talent focus more pronounced, refining and enhancing our offerings along those lines. We have a few informational resources and job fairs over the year in the Triangle, with one coming up on October 3. We have an opportunity to staff our activities around talent as we grow our data, publications and resources—we would like to see our programming around talent grow exponentially.

https://wraltechwire.com/event/come-tech-out-the-triangle-job-fair-fall-2018/