 Ever heard the old phrase strike when the iron is hot? Well, it's never been hotter than now. All this month at Appalachian Wireless, you can get the Samsung GS6 or the GS6 Edge for just one penny when you send them for service. The Galaxy S6, normally 49.99, now just a penny. The Galaxy S6 Edge, normally 99.99, now just a penny. Strike now while supplies last. Better service, bigger savings. Serving you for the last 25 years at Appalachian Wireless. Community leaders from around the state and region arrived on the campus of Hazard Community and Technical College Friday for the Big Ideas Fest for Appalachia. The event featured several panels related to different efforts ongoing in the region, including art and education. Another panel focused on technology and how it is changing the face of Eastern Kentucky. First of all, technology is our future. It's prevalent everywhere. I mean, pull out your cell phone in your pocket. Almost everybody has one. Even all my kids in the classroom have them. Technology is everywhere. However, in Eastern Kentucky, we still have those broadband issues. We have Wi-Fi issues. We have satellites, cellular issues. But we want to fix that. We want to bring industries here. We want to build that skill set for our students right now so industry will come here. They'll build their corporations here and we'll have that talent pool. No longer will the days be where we're sending our talent out of the state, out of the country. We want them here. We want them here using that technology so we can build this economy up bigger and better than ever. Improving the Eastern Kentucky technology talent pool has been a primary focus. And through groups like Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative, the number of technology-based work-ready people is growing significantly. Through the work KVET has done this past couple of years, two years ago, we had one school in all of Eastern Kentucky offering computer science. But through the work with the Appalachian Technology Institute, we now offer it to 17 different school districts. So we went from 20 kids being into computer science. Last year we had over 500. And our numbers are most likely over 1,000. We're still waiting on those final numbers. But now we have 1,000 more students being introduced into computer science all through the work that KVET has been doing. For more information on KVET and other technology-based educational opportunities in Central Appalachia, visit their website at kentuckyvalley.org. Reporting from Hazard, for EKB News, I'm Jackson Ladda.