A Maturing Tech Council's Legacy

Long before I helped launch the MountainSouth World Trade Center, for northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia, and even before getting involved with the Kingsport Chamber’s economic development efforts (KOSBE and HBDC), I had the privilege to serve on the board of a regional organization that exemplifies a non-partisan way of engaging the region’s potential.

The Northeast Tennessee Technology Council (NETTC) offers regional leaders a chance to educate and advocate for technology advancements in Bristol, Greeneville, Kingsport and Johnson City.

In December 2003, l was asked to join the board. At 33 years of age, and as the youngest member of the NETTC Board of Directors, I felt a burden to bridge a gap between the two generations of technology leaders in the region: the older, more established leaders that don’t necessarily see technology as their primary focus - more a means to an end of parity and economic development - and the younger group of leaders - often directly involved with technology - that see technology as entrepreneurial, enabling and a modern version of the Great Equalizer.

When I was first elected to the board, there were no tools for the younger generation, such as GeekSouth, KNETIC and HYPE (the latter two being young professional groups that were established in Kingsport and Johnson City, respectively). In addition to work done with the NETTC Tech Council, then, I also provided feedback and encouragement to GeekSouth and KNETIC as they both got off the ground.

The maturing of the Tech Council from an ad-hoc group, the rise of these other groups and the level of emerging technologies gives both generations an opportunity to seize a stake in the broader technology discussion. After being re-elected in late December 2007 to another 3 year board position, I see potential that the older group can educate our public officials, advocating needs such as higher (meaningful) broadband penetration, while the younger can both show their generation how to use the tools that expanded broadband penetration enables and nudge the older generation toward use of tools that can most help drive advocacy (like podcasting, online surveys and social networking).

A symbiotic relationship? Absolutely.