PBN: Tell us about the discussion forum you’re creating for tech companies through the Tech Collective?
O’Dea: It’s one of the newest things we’re doing. We’re constantly looking at how does Tech Collective serve the technology community and how does it serve the broader entity in which it exists: Rhode Island. Our thinking is if we get together the best and brightest technology companies as well as the most upstart and innovative, why shouldn’t we have some forum that gets that best thinking together? We can then take it to the economic development community in the state to help inform them about what’s happening and where we should be going in the future.
PBN: How will the forum work?
O’Dea: The forum will probably be ongoing and go in cycles as we watch how conditions and capabilities change in the state. So in a six-month period we might come up with ideas and think of things that need to be shared with other communities and with economic development folks. There will be this ongoing dialogue that will happen on a periodic basis and be facilitated using an innovative process to get us thinking about conditions and what’s the core value-add that we want to add here in the state around technology.
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PBN: How’s the Collective working to build the state’s tech sector?
O’Dea: That’s a primary part of our mission – never missing the opportunity for innovation. Our main objective is to build a community for those technology sectors, and one of the best ways to do that is to help bring more companies into the state.
PBN: How do you recruit the people to staff these companies?
O’Dea: We’re more in the business of building the community and creating networks and opportunities; in some cases, through the networking, companies find talented people who come to those sessions. It’s not one of our primary functions to find people jobs, but we do have a job opportunities section and we make individual connections. On the other hand, we have some companies ask us if we know of anyone who’s out there.
PBN: Where are these employees coming from?
O’Dea: A variety of places. We have excellent colleges and universities in this state that bring in some tremendous talent. I’m happy to say a lot of them come here and see how great the state is and decide to stay. In other cases, we work with groups like the Economic Policy Council and the Department of Education and Higher Education to build programs in middle school through high school and in colleges and universities to prepare people for technology jobs.
PBN: Route 128 near Boston is kind of a hub for technology. Is there something like that starting in Rhode Island?
O’Dea: Given the size of Rhode Island and the diversity of industry sectors here, it’s unlikely we’ll see a ‘Route 128’ emerge. Yet, at the same time, we have strong clusters of technology that fit into the technology corridor that is Boston to New York City. We’re kind of a node in that megalopolis of technology. We have some unique things, and one of those is not being 128, it’s being a creative city like Providence that has its attraction for technology workers and providing opportunities for marine technology. If anything, that might be one that would pop up over time, if we focused on marine technology.
PBN: Do you see the state’s small businesses training their workers to use technology?
O’Dea: I think so. We help them with a grant that brought $5 million into the state to train people – incumbent workers, unemployed and underemployed workers in technology – primarily information technology, but now we’re repeating that on the biotech side and preparing workers. I think we have two kinds of companies in this state – the larger firms like CVS, Amgen and Raytheon and a few of them are primarily tech companies. Like CVS, which has a huge tech department and they’re a retail company, but their operations are run by technology, and they invest heavily in ensuring people are knowledgeable. Our manufacturing companies are too – many of them are upgrading their enterprise management systems.
PBN: Where should a small business be, technologically speaking?
O’Dea: Depends on what kind of business they are. If they’re producing any sort of product, they should be looking at integrating all their functions and something that’s known as an enterprise resource management system. Small companies can do it with homegrown, customized software. Restaurant, food, travel industries have all kinds of software that are designed to manage that process. All companies need customer resource management software so you can individualize who all your customers are and what their buying patterns are – helps you know how to better market toward them.
PBN: What are the roadblocks keeping venture capital out of the state?
O’Dea: The biggest thing keeping investment out of Rhode Island is there are so few venture firms located here. I can only think of two, plus the state-funded venture firms. We really need a way to attract investors to the state and create networks of investors that could become venture firms or angel networks so there is more investment here. We do see good investment, but more limited than it is in the Boston area.
