Arizona’s high technology industries add thousands of jobs via a balanced, knowledge-based economy that is especially necessary in today’s uncertain economic times. The Arizona Technology Council (ATC) wants to continue to foster that kind of growth and innovation and to do so has reached out to partner with Tucson techies.
The partnership comes as a result of a recent merger between Tucson’s AMIT — or Aerospace, Manufacturing, and Information Technology — cluster, and ATC, a nonprofit trade association founded to represent the state’s expanding technology industry.
"We’re agnostic about technology — aerospace, defense, semiconductor, electronics, life sciences, nano-tech, optics, IT — the entire gamut," says President and CEO Steven Zylstra. "We’re a member-based, member-driven association that believes in strength in unity and that more of a critical mass, a larger population of members, allows everyone involved to accomplish more."
  
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He should know. Zylstra, who has roots as far back as Arizona’s Innovation Network in the mid-1980s, was recently lured back from the Pittsburgh Tech Council that he had built into the largest such group in the country.
"We had 1,300 members out of a population base of less than 2½ million in Southwestern Pennsylvania," he said. "We already have 500 members out of Arizona’s 6.6 million population so there’s plenty of potential, plenty of opportunity to grow the group."
Consolidation of AMIT with ATC was "a significant development for the Southern Arizona technology community…(helping) shape Arizona’s future economic climate," according to AMIT Chair Bruce Wright — and a public first step in the direction of becoming a truly statewide organization with a very visible presence in Tucson.
That visible presence is in the form of Justin Williams who directs the Tucson regional office.
"We needed to take a quantum leap in our effectiveness and this partnership brings a beneficial impact to Tucson’s ability to grow as a high tech sector," he says. "ATC has been around nearly a decade but only 14 of their 500 members were outside Maricopa County. Now that there is a local presence, we’ve added about 20 Tucson companies a month including the University of Arizona, Tucson Metro Chamber of Commerce, TREO (Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities), and TUSD (Tucson Unified School District) with more ready to join. This is not another organization coming here to add Tucson as an ancillary part, but making Tucson central to the overall mission."
That mission being four-fold — "We provide public policy advocacy," says Zylstra. "We lobby and prepare legislation and in the last few years have been involved with 15 different pieces of legislation. Last session we enhanced the Research and Development tax credit, making it one of the best tax treatments in the nation for R&D companies. We try to improve the business climate in which technology and entrepreneurial companies operate."
ATC is also big on a variety of events, historically about 75 a year, now with Tucson in the picture, perhaps 100 annually. "They range from the Governor’s Celebration of Innovation to breakfast and evening networking, quarterly keynotes, CEO retreats and get-togethers like Lunch and Learn that are informational. We plan to carry forward Tucson’s Business Information Technology Conference in March and grow it significantly by involving the entire state in it."
With well over 120,000 high-paying, high-technology jobs in Arizona, keeping everyone informed becomes a priority. "We’re trying to create a sense of community via our quarterly Tech Connect magazine that chronicles what’s going on statewide. We promote a monthly events calendar and e-newsletter and have a very robust website [www.aztechcouncil.org]," Zylstra says.
"We use our critical mass and negotiating skills to get lower costs for members," he says. "Buy a computer from a member of the Tech Council, get a 5 percent discount. Fly in or out of Tucson or Phoenix via US Airways and get an additional member discount. We’re also working on relationships with insurance providers for a wide range of discounted coverage. Usually there’s a revenue share with us as well because we promote the heck out of these relationships."
Although both Zylstra and Williams are hard-charging forward-motion types, they’ve had to buck some headwinds recently.
"Up until about a month ago, economic downturn in Arizona was principally a result of the housing crisis and had not really affected the tech industry much," according to Zylstra. "In the last several weeks, what’s happened has affected everyone with purchasing slowed and people wary about the future. It’s bound to have an impact on our industry going forward, so we may have a rough patch ahead, but we’ll work through it."
The clear message, according to Williams, is that the tech council is local in Tucson and focused on successes in the local business community. "There is a cultural and social barrier between Tucson and Phoenix and we need to be aware and sensitive to that, but not limited by it. There are shared opportunities between the two regions and we need to be a catalyst in eliminating that perception."
"We’re trying to bridge the abyss and close the gap between the two cities," Zylstra says. "Phoenicians don’t have malice aforethought for Tucsonans. They’re just out-of-sight/out-of-mind and Tucson hasn’t been taken into account. One of my roles is to bring Tucson into the mix because we’re all in this high tech industry together."
Lee Allen is a Tucson-based freelance writer.
Arizona Technology Council
(520)829-3440
www.aztechcouncil.org
Tucson regional office: 9040 S. Rita Road, Building 9040 in the University of Arizona Science & Technology Park
The public is invited to celebrate the formal opening Arizona Technology Council’s Tucson regional office at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 28.
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