Technology and Education
By Mike Marriott, executive vice president of IT Strategies International Corp.

November 23, 2000 - In today’s marketplace, information technology companies are a highly coveted commodity. Every state in the union wants to develop the next Silicon Valley. The reasons are obvious. Technology industries are clean, profitable and bring highly educated people into the community. Of course, there is also considerable prestige in being known as a high-tech center.

In looking at what contributed to the growth of tech centers in California and Massachusetts, several common factors emerge. Traditionally, tech centers need ready venture capital, an infrastructure capable of supporting technical innovations and an educational system to train talented technical people. Early tech centers also benefited from what is known as the military-industrial complex.

This powerful combination of resources, developed in the 1950’s to blunt Soviet Union space initiatives, resulted in a vast bank of technical knowledge that accelerated the growth of information technology. As military models were adapted to civilian applications, growth became exponential and resulted in the information-based economy that we know today.

This whole process is often called the “top-down” model of innovation. This simply means that large investments are made before the fact to encourage technological growth. Today, the way innovation occurs is changing. Because technology is so widespread and plays such a large part in all types of business activity, innovation can occur anywhere. In short, it has become democratized.

IT Strategies, a Las Vegas-based firm incorporated in Nevada in 1996, is a good example. The company started by identifying their market niche: companies wanting to get the most value from their computer systems. From these beginnings, IT Strategies has grown its business into multi-million dollar outfit with clients throughout Southern Nevada. Today, IT Strategies offers its customers a full range of information technology services from strategic planning through client-specific applications development.

However, the technology sector in Las Vegas is still in its infancy. Educational resources tend to remain focused on preparing students for careers in hospitality, which historically has been the most important piece of the local economy. Developing the education system, particularly the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to recruit technical faculty and students is a major task that will demand partnerships between the university and the private sector. Such partnerships are a necessary first step in the effort to create an environment that is friendly to technological innovation.

Las Vegas already offers a great climate, a wide variety of recreational opportunities, excellent transportation access and a high quality of life. As the city looks to diversify its economic base, it needs to attract cash-rich entrepreneurs who want to be a part of the next wave of the information technology revolution. By encouraging partnerships between such innovators and education, Southern Nevada can become fertile ground for high-tech enterprises.

When this occurs, the other factors that support technology are likely to accelerate as well. This includes the communications infrastructure of fiber optic cables and high speed Internet networks that information technology needs to function. The high-tech community is quick to discover environments that support innovation. In the electronic age, word gets around very efficiently.

This “bottom up” model is a more realistic one for a city like Las Vegas. Community leaders and business people need to get involved in efforts to build a strong technical educational system. The curriculum has to encourage Nevada young people to pursue information technology careers. Nevada schools must be funded at levels to attract top teachers and researchers.

Certainly, IT Systems is proof that a technically innovative and sophisticated company can find a home in Las Vegas. The explosive growth of the Internet, e-commerce and software applications for web-based businesses is proof that innovation is occurring everywhere. Putting these two trends together can create a bright new future for Las Vegas.

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