Tag: TechConnectWV

Tech Leaders Discuss What's Next in The State

How to create jobs and grow industry in West Virginia — that was the topic of a forum held Wednesday at the Bridge Valley Community and Technical College’s Advance Technology Center in South Charleston.

West Virginia tech industry leaders gathered with representatives from both of the state’s major universities and INTUIT CEO Brad Smith to discuss “Growing Innovation in the Mountain State.” They talked about what the state has already done within the technology economy and strategies that could help the industry continue to grow in the state. Smith is a native of Kenova and said all the state’s sectors need to work together. 

“It’s our job as leaders to seize the opportunity in whatever capacity we have, policy, academia, private industry, investment and venture capital,” Smith said. “It’s all of us coming together in a public-private not-for-profit partnership to seize on the opportunity and create these opportunities for our kids.”

 Two panel discussions focused on identifying and fostering entrepreneurialism and putting the next generation to work through partnerships. Marshall University President Jerome Gilbert echoed Smith’s sentiments.

“I think that partnerships with businesses and partnerships with other institutions and I think we need to talk about partnerships with the families and the citizens of West Virginia as stewards of the resources that we’re given as universities in terms of using those resources to advance the state,” Gilbert said.

Provost Joyce McConnel also discussed the role WVU is playing in educating students and bettering the state’s tech economy. 

W.Va. Women in Tech Conference Features First Female Space Walker

The first woman to walk in space was the keynote speaker at the Women in Tech Conference. Dr. Kathryn Sullivan and several other speakers met at Oglebay Park in Ohio County to talk about empowerment and technology.

About 100 women from higher education institutions, the private sector, and some college students listened to speakers with a wide variety of professional backgrounds who either use technology effectively or work in technological fields.

West Virginia University’s Provost Joyce McConnell, for example, offered thoughts about how to find and hold onto empowerment. And she stressed the point that there are plenty of women who are already mastering and/or contributing to technological fields.

After receiving an award from the Small Business Administration, CEO of New South Media Nikki Bowman spoke about the obstacles she overcame to develop several West Virginia-centered magazines. She warned against apathy, challenged her audience to consider how their choices will impact their community, and exuded pride in her West Virginia heritage to great applause.

The conference’s keynote address was delivered by Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, Under-Secretary of Department of Commerce and Administrator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Sullivan’s expertise spans the frontiers of the sea to the frontiers of space. She’s an oceanographer and an astronaut.

#wvwomentech Tweets

This was the second Women in Tech conference organized by TechConnectWV. The organization’s Executive Director Ann Barth says the object is to give women in the state an opportunity to learn, be inspired, and network.

The conference was sponsored by the WV Department of Education and the Arts, Marshall University, West Virginia University, the WV Higher Education Policy Commission Division of Science & Research, the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium, BrickStreet Insurance, WesBanco, and American Electric Power.

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