Nashville Technology Council

IQT plans Nashville tech-services center, could bring 900 jobs

IQT Inc., a business process outsourcing firm, plans to open a technical-services center in downtown Nashville that would generate up to 900 new jobs, according to sources and media reports.

The initial release of the 2010 Census is out.  It is only top level numbers now, but over the next 6-9 months, they will be releasing detailed data about the face of our country.  For now, here are a few highlights:

• 50% of the US population lives in 9 states. Wow!
• Tennessee now has 6,346,105 population.
• More people live in MusicCity (Nashville/Davidson County) than in 5 states (Wyoming, DC, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska).
• Tennessee is the 17th largest state.
• The uninsured in this country roughly equates to the population of 23 states.

Are you excited about the new convention center like we are?  Well, now you can watch the progress 24/7 from the comfort of your own computer or phone.  Bell Construction has placed a live web camera high above the city.

Music City Center Web Camera

OxBlue, an Atlanta based company, is the construction camera service providing this technology.

Music City Center Website

Our own Bell & Associates, headquartered in Brentwood, Tenn., is the general contractor that provides construction management, design-build and preconstruction services for clients throughout the Southeast. Bell is known for its construction of Nashville landmark projects, including the Cumberland River Pedestrian Bridge, the AT&T Building and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Current Bell projects include a contract to renovate Nashville International Airport’s terminal and concourses and the Corporate Centre Office Park in Cool Springs. The majority of Bell projects are located in Tennessee.

Nashville Tech Story (4/6/10)

Calling all innovators…to connect, collaborate and create. The Tennessee Technology Development Corporation is hosting its annual Tennessee Innovation Conference and Venture Showcase, May 10-11, at Loews Vanderbilt Hotel in Nashville. The Tennessee Innovation Conference is designed to provide practical, useful information to innovators and entrepreneurs with the goal of creating and supporting more high-growth enterprises in Tennessee. Furthermore, the Venture Showcase will provide a glimpse into the Volunteer State’s economic future by showcasing interactions between investors, entrepreneurs, researchers and professional service providers. A special reception sponsored by the Nashville Health Care Council and the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce will be held Monday, May 10.

If you are interested in learning more about innovation in Tennessee and the fundamentals of building high-growth companies, this event is for you. Join us May 10-11 for a unique learning and networking experience.

Who Should Attend:
Venture Capitalists
Angel Investors
High-potential Entrepreneurs
Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Scientists/Researchers
Inventors
Service Providers to High-growth Firms
Government Officials

Technology Transfer Professionals

Hotel Information:

Hotel reservations can be made by calling Loews Vanderbilt Hotel at 1-800-336-3335. Please specify that you are part of the Tennessee Technology Development Corporation block to receive the special group rate of $119/night. The reservation deadline is April 17.

This strategic event to strengthen Tennessee’s economy is being underwritten by TTDC and partner organizations. As such, there is no registration fee to attend the conference, and the dress is business casual.
Tennessee Innovation Conference & Venture Showcase Agenda

For more information, and to register, click here.

Nashville Tech Story (1/5/10)

In the 90’s it was Y2K and how would we respond to this potentially crippling exercise.  Where would we find thousands of Cobalt programmers to fix antiquated programs?  Companies spent the necessary resources to get the problem corrected; others ditched old programs and upgraded their systems and software.  Now we are faced with a new, larger challenge – Technology Workforce Development for the next decade.

This problem of having a sufficient talent pool in technology is nationwide, but is exacerbated in Tennessee due to a lower tech graduation rate.  In fact, it is 8% lower than the national average.

Are we prepared for 2010?  No, we aren’t.  Nashville’s economy is growing at an annual clip of 2 to 2.5% per year.  According to Census.gov, the Nashville CBSA is estimated to be 1,585,000.  We have added over 250,000 new residents in the past 10 years.  In 1980, we only had a population of 912,000.  My, how the city has changed.  By the time the next decade rolls in, we will be over two million.

So as we prepare for 2010, we should introduce a new concept Y2KXY.  Look strange?  Y2K + X + Y.  Year 2010 is Y2KX and Y for the Y Generation or Millennials.  It is time that we take the same effort of fixing the Y2KXY problem as we did for Y2K.  We have a shortage of professional technology talent and it will hurt us in our recruiting efforts, innovation, and overall productivity if we don’t solve it quickly.

Other industries like engineering, nursing, and accounting have already experienced this issue, so we need to look to other industries and see what has worked for them.

Solutions

There are several solutions.  First, let’s start with recognition by the C-Suite.  Mr. CEO, we are going to have to pay more for Tech Talent in the future, including this year.  There is less talent to go around and we need to pay for more training.  The alternative is to get involved with organizations like the Nashville Technology Council to help grow the talent pool.  Technology should be a strategic advantage for the business.  If it is not a strategic advantage in your company, then ignore the rest of this post.  You should be fine crushing stones.

Second, we have to understand the needs of the next generation.  In their 2007 book, Junco and Mastrodicasa expanded on the work of Howe and Strauss to include research-based information about the personality profiles of Millennials, especially as it relates to higher education.  This generation is using more technology, but they aren’t pursuing technology degrees in Tennessee (source:  Wikipedia).  They have very different expectations than Gen X or the Baby Boomers.

Third, we need to continue to attract outside companies to the region.  Tennessee, Nashville in particular, has a very strategic advantage as it relates to quality of life, cost of living, and a diversified economy.  We need to leverage this advantage to attract younger technology workers in our key industry areas: healthcare IT, digital content, publishing, transactions, software development, and logistics.

Fourth, we need to transform our existing workforce.  This has two elements:  professional development and re-engineering.  The area of professional development is easier to tackle.  Unfortunately, a lot of the best training for advanced software occurs on the Coasts.  We are working to bring more of these trainers and highly specialized organizations to the Nashville region and allow our member companies to share the costs, thus lowering travel costs and improving the existing workforce.

The area of re-engineering is much tougher to address, but is every bit as critical.  With the Saturn plant closing, we have a flood of potential new technology workers.  They will require training, but they are eager and have a basic process engineering understanding.  There are other pools of employees that can be retrained, retooled to be the next generation of technologist in Middle Tennessee.

Fifth, we need to encourage students in high school and college to pursue technology degrees.  Our state is falling behind in this area, with Tennessee being 8% behind the national average in producing technology graduates.    The root of the problem is the lack of introductory technology programs and parental encouragement at the middle and high school levels.  Technology and healthcare are two of the fastest growing occupations and both pay very well.  We need help at all levels if we are going to reverse this trend and get back to average.

Conclusion

Y2KXY is here.  You may already be feeling the effects of this new paradigm shift.  As a community, we can mitigate these trends through three ways: 1. Attract more technology companies to the region from other states, 2. Transform our existing workforce into technology workers through professional development and re-engineering, and 3. Encourage students to pursue technology degrees.

Nashville Tech Story (12/2/09)

Are you an entrepreneur and would like to receive $500 cash in addition to a $2,000 professional marketing package, and statewide recognition?  You can do so, by entering the statewide Entrepreneur Video Competition, hosted by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.  

In continuation of Global Entrepreneur Week, which was held November 16-22, 2009, Tennessee wants to continue to celebrate the vital role entrepreneurs play in the state’s economy.  According to the Business Enterprise Resource Offices, during Global Entrepreneur Week, Tennessee hosted more than 60 events, leading all other states in the nation by 19 activities. Tennessee also ranks in the top ten for partners, with more than 50 organizations across the state joining in to make celebration a success.  For a full list of events hosted during Global Entrepreneur Week, click here.

Finalists in the Entrepreneur Video Competition will be chosen from five categories:
1.    Main Street/Downtown
2.    Home-based
3.    Agri-business
4.    Arts & Entertainment
5.    Innovation

The video, which must be no more than five minutes and length, should ultimately answer the question, “What makes you an Entrepreneur?” The video should describe the business using exterior, interior of business and highlight products, services or marketing strategies which make the business and entrepreneur successful.

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development will use the winning entries in a department-produced video and print piece intended to identify and promote innovative entrepreneurs in Tennessee communities and encourage others to join them as small business owners.  In addition, your business will be included in a statewide press release.

Entering the Contest is easy. Simply, click here to register online, then upload your YouTube Video.  

For more details on the contest visit: http://www.tnecd.gov/tnopenforbusiness/index.html.

In recognition of Global Entrepreneurship Week, Tennessee wants to celebrate its business owners who embrace the spirit and meaning of entrepreneurship.  

The Tennessee ECD’s Business Enterprise Resource Office and Tennessee Main Street Program are promoting entrepreneurship in Tennessee with a statewide video competition. Entrepreneurs are invited to prepare a short video that answers the question “What makes you an entrepreneur?”

Finalists will be selected from five business categories: Main Street/downtown; home-based; agri-business; arts and entertainment; and innovation.

Entrants must submit an original video no more than five minutes in length describing the business using exterior, interior of business and highlight products, services or marketing strategies which make the business and entrepreneur successful. The video should ultimately answer the question “What makes you an Entrepreneur?” The video may not contain any work (in whole or in part) which is the subject of a copyright or infringes the intellectual property rights of any third party. Video must be the original work of the entrant.

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development will use the winning entries in a department-produced video and print piece intended to identify and promote innovative entrepreneurs in Tennessee communities and encourage others to join them as small business owners. The statewide winner will receive $500 cash award plus a professional marketing package valued at $2,000.
The deadline to apply is December 15. Complete contest details can be found at the official website: http://www.tnecd.gov/tnopenforbusiness or for more information, contact BERO at 1-800-871-7201.

Grand Prize:
$500 cash plus $2,000 professional marketing package; award, statewide recognition
Category Winners:
Award plus statewide recognition

How to Apply:
1.    Register Online
2.    Upload your You Tube Video

Deadline:
December 15, 2009 11:59CST

Entrepreneur Categories:
1.    Main Street/Downtown
2.    Home-based
3.    Agri-business
4.    Arts & Entertainment
5.    Innovation

Contest Rules & Regulations

Nashville Tech Story (11/17/09)

A Cray supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has regained the title of the world’s most powerful supercomputer, overtaking the installation that was ranked at the top in June, while China entered the Top 10 with a hybrid Intel-AMD system.

The upgraded Jaguar supercomputer at Oak Ridge, in Tennessee, now boasts a speed of 1.759 petaflops per second from its 224,162 cores, while the IBM Roadrunner system at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico slowed slightly to 1.042 petaflops per second after it was repartitioned. A petaflop is one thousand trillion calculations per second.

The list of the Top 500 supercomputers, set to be released on Monday during the SC09 supercomputing conference in Portland, Oregon, is compiled twice a year and is now in its 34th installment. The total capacity of the systems on the new list is 27.6 petaflops, up from 22.6 petaflops on the previous list in June.
Jaguar has been upgraded since June with new processors and surged ahead to take the lead. It is based on the Cray XT5 Linux supercomputer platform, which uses Advanced Micro Devices Opteron (AMD) processors. Its total peak capability is 2.3 petaflops per second.

The No. 3 system is Kraken, at the National Institute for Computational Sciences at the University of Tennessee, which performs at 832 teraflops per second. This Cray XT5 supercomputer was ranked No. 6 in June, when it was rated at just 463 teraflops per second.

Intel processors power 402 of the systems on the list, or 80.4 percent, up slightly from 399 in June. The IBM Power architecture is the second most commonly used, with 52 systems, down from 55. AMD’s Opteron family appears in 42 of the systems.

Most of the Top 500 supercomputers — 426 systems — now use quad-core processors. Only 59 use dual-core chips, and just four systems are based on single-core architectures. There were six systems on the latest list using IBM’s nine-core Cell Broadband Engine processor, also used in the PlayStation 3. Gigabit Ethernet is the internal interconnect technology in 259 installations, compared with 181 using InfiniBand.

Hewlett-Packard led in the number of systems on the list, with 210 supercomputers or 42 percent, compared with 185 for IBM. However, the IBM systems accounted for the most computing power, with 34.8 percent of total performance, down from 39.8 percent. HP held 22.8 percent.

The Top 500 list is compiled by Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim in Germany, Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

Click here to Read More

PureSafety Continues Aggressive Growth Strategy
Taps Avondale Partners to identify acquisition opportunities

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Nov. 10, 2009 — PureSafety, a leading provider of results-driven software and information solutions for workforce safety and health, is ramping up its acquisition strategy and has engaged Avondale Partners, a full-service investment banking firm, to assist in identifying potential opportunities.

PureSafety’s scale, market leadership and momentum make it well positioned for additional growth and a prime candidate to further consolidate the industry.  The company is seeking highly capable and committed teams as well as complementary software solutions and service partners within the workforce safety, health, environmental and risk management sectors.

This heightened focus on acquisition growth is in support of PureSafety’s vision to create the industry’s most comprehensive suite of web-based software and information solutions to address compliance, risk management, governance and culture needs.

“Our ability to help our customers protect their most important assets and drive meaningful business results has never been stronger,” said PureSafety President and CEO Bill Grana. “We are looking for like-minded people and companies that share this vision.”

The company’s successful acquisitions to date include the December 2008 acquisition of Unique Software Solutions, Inc. (USSI) and its Occupational Health Manager® (OHM) software suite and PerDatum’s Prognos® software application in November 2006.  

“We are excited to partner with PureSafety on this engagement, and already have multiple indications of interest outstanding to acquire complementary firms,” said Chris Calton, director, Investment Banking at Avondale Partners.

About PureSafety
Born out of a workplace tragedy in 1999, PureSafety empowers its customers to protect their organization’s most valuable assets: their people and profits. PureSafety provides comprehensive, web-based software and information solutions that support compliance requirements, overall risk management needs, and the enhancement of governance and company culture through improved programs, processes, awareness, understanding, visibility, and accountability within workforce safety and health.  The company’s growing team of 160 employees serves more than 2,000 companies operating in more than 20 major industries including manufacturing, construction, distribution, energy, and healthcare, and encompasses 34 percent of the Fortune 500. Headquartered in the Nashville-area, PureSafety has an additional location in Colorado Springs, Col. To learn more, visit www.puresafety.com or call 888.202.3016.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Amy Gray, APR                        
Gray Public Relations                        
615.497.1799                                    
agray@graypr.com     

PURESAFETY ANNOUNCES PERSONNEL CHANGES AND NEW CLIENT-FOCUSED GO TO MARKET STRATEGY

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Oct. 27, 2009 — Bill Grana, president and CEO of Franklin, Tenn.-based PureSafety, a leading provider of training, safety, occupational health and medical management software solutions, today announced the promotions of Marshall Martin and Mike Kroll and the addition of Allison Pullen to the PureSafety team. These changes come as a result of the company’s decision to adopt a new, more market and customer-focused go to market strategy.

“To better serve our clients, we aligned the business with our two primary client personas — occupational health professionals and safety professionals,” said Grana. “The new structure will allow for greater operational nimbleness and focus, while continuing our strong record of customer service and support. Most importantly, organizing our business and overall market strategy around the people using our solutions ensures a deeper understanding of their challenges and opportunities, which helps us to better meet their needs, both now and well into the future.”

Mike Kroll has been promoted to executive vice president, general manager, of PureSafety’s new Workforce Safety and Training Management Solutions business unit, which will focus on delivering innovative software and information solutions to today’s busy training, safety and risk management professionals. Kroll has more than 17 years of corporate training sales and management expertise. Prior to joining PureSafety in January 2003, Kroll served as the Senior Director of Sales for eLearning at Ninth House, Inc. and as a National Sales Director for Vcampus Corp.

Marshall Martin has been promoted to executive vice president, general manager, of PureSafety’s new Workforce and Occupational Health Management Solutions business unit, which will focus on delivering innovative software and information solutions to today’s busy occupational health and medical management professionals. Martin has more than 15 years of senior-level management experience in strategic planning, accounting, operations management and business process reengineering. Prior to joining PureSafety in July 2008, he spent three years as chief operating officer at Juris Inc.(now LexisNexis) and held senior leadership roles at US Xpress Enterprises, Olan Mills Portrait Studios and Harrison Direct.

Allison Pullen has been hired as senior marketing manager, Workforce and Occupational Health Management Solutions business unit. She brings more than 10 years of marketing, public relations and corporate communications experience in the technology, healthcare and occupational medicine sectors to the PureSafety marketing team. She has held marketing management and consulting roles with Fortune 100 companies as well as smaller entities, including Merck Pharmaceuticals and Intergraph Corporation. Most recently, Pullen served as marketing manager of Strategic Communications at Autodesk, a global 2D and 3D design software and services company.

About PureSafety
Born out of a workplace tragedy in 1999, PureSafety empowers its customers to protect their organization’s most valuable assets: their people and profits. PureSafety provides comprehensive, web-based software and information solutions that support compliance requirements, overall risk management needs, and the enhancement of governance and company culture through improved programs, processes, awareness, understanding, visibility, and accountability within workforce safety and health.  The company’s growing team of 160 employees serves more than 2,000 companies operating in more than 20 major industries including manufacturing, construction, distribution, energy, and healthcare, and encompasses 34 percent of the Fortune 500. Headquartered in Nashville-area Franklin, Tenn., PureSafety has an additional location in Colorado Springs, Colorado. To learn more, visit www.puresafety.com or call 888.202.3016.

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