 Our country has always struggled to meet the demand for tech skills and recently has been only exacerbated by additional factors in the middle of this pandemic. US companies simply can't source enough tech talent and they need to look at different ways to create a supply of highly qualified tech professionals. We hear a lot about these days about coding because we're living in a technological era and to understand the world today, it means that you need to have some kind of understanding of the language and the world operates. That language is code and therefore everyone should be building their proficiency in technology. There is no product or service or experience that can be built, marketed or executed without the use of technology and that's because today every industry is a technology industry UPS, Walmart, Goldman Sachs all refer to themselves as tech companies. Domino's Pizza has been calling itself a company that sells pizza for years. So why is this tech company branding so important? Technology and science jobs have pretty much been outnumbered, qualified workers for roughly 3 million in 2016. Well, around 2019-2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were about 1.4 million technology jobs for which there were only 400 computer science graduates, leaving 1 million jobs unfilled. By 2025, the focus supply gap is about 50% for tech talent. By 2030, there will be a global shortage of more than 85 million tech workers that represent almost 8.5 trillion in lost animal revenue. These unfilled jobs have big implications for the economy as the US is competing with the world to develop people and products. And every city in our country right now is in a race to build these locally, as it is the source of jobs today and what fuels every business. And how can you grow a company or build up a product without the primary resource needed to do so? The only way to fill this gap is to be creative. To create more accessibility for IT jobs, work with public and private partnerships, strengthen our brand as a region, educate, train, hire locally, and develop a sustainable ecosystem of big startups and entrepreneurs. Otherwise, we're continually recycling talent for other companies and other markets because if demand far exceeds the supply, there's no quick fix. Time and money need to be invested and for our employees from building a sustainable ecosystem within every city, that sustainability starts with people, in particular developing tech talent. And every city needs solutions for the kinds of problems that only the people who live there can understand and appreciate. That's why today we have three important guests that will share their thoughts with us today. We have here Vice President of Camp Gemini, Joe Greer. Joe, hi. Hi. We have Kim Christ, she's a Cybersecurity Director of Technology for the South Carolina Competitive Council. Hi, Kim. Hi there. We have Todd Lewis, Chair of All Things Open. He puts the largest tech event in the Southeast region in open source technology. Hi, Todd. There's you. Well, Joe, can you please tell me a little bit about your company and what you do? Absolutely. So as you said, I'm the leader of our development center that we built in Columbia, but a little bit about the company in general. Camp Gemini, if you've never heard of it, is a professional services consulting firm. We're basically focused on technology consulting. We're about a 50-year-old firm. We're headquartered in Paris, France. We're roughly 280,000 people operating in about 50 countries right now. So we have global reach, very focused in Europe and North America. Our clients are typically, every people that you were just sitting here talking about, right? We work in all sectors. So we work for Fortune 500 firms that have their own technology transformation issues, right? And they're looking for help and ways to make that pivot. So we work in manufacturing and life sciences and aerospace, energy utilities, telecom, all of those sectors. We are focused and have teams work again. And the cool part about what we've done in Columbia is that we've got people right here in Bull Street that could be working in any one of those industries right now. The work kind of comes to them here in Columbia rather than them having to travel. And they get a chance to work on a variety of different technology projects, which is really pretty cool. So we're excited about it and we're having fun. We're growing. So that's good news, but you're exactly right. It's a war for talent out there to try and find the right skills. And that's been a big factor for us here in Columbia. Thank you, Joe. Thank you so much for joining us today. Keaton, can you tell us a little bit about what your job is, your title and your agency? Yes, sure. So I'm Kim McCriss. I'm the director of SC Tech under the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness. And we are a statewide agency. We manage market clusters. And obviously technology is the cluster that I focus on every day. Under technology, we also look at all of the different facets that go into a technology economy for our state. So you mentioned cybersecurity, and that's really important to us and workforce and education, actionable research, all sorts of things that we need to make sure that the tech economy in South Carolina is competitive nationally and internationally. So we're a statewide nonprofit and we bring together the leaders of technology companies in the state, along with governments, support agencies, and different initiatives that are all working to better the technology cluster of South Carolina. Thank you for being here with us today. Absolutely. And please tell us a little bit about what you do and all things of it. You're the chair. We work together with several initiatives in town doing tech events to create, to run our region as a technology area. Tell us a little bit about what you do. Yeah, so I've been in the tech industry now for 15 to 20 years. Hard didn't sound possible, but it's absolutely true. I've run companies, started companies, been involved at the nonprofit level. And with all things open, really what we do is I really say the focus of what we do is tech events, bringing people together. And we do that in the form of conferences, in the form of meetups and things along those lines. There are other aspects or elements to the business and to the organization, but that's really the outward facing, the external facing focus of what we do. So again, we bring people together on a very consistent basis from all over the world. That's changed a little bit, obviously with the onset of COVID. We've transitioned from primarily on-site in-person to more of a virtual environment, but we'll revert back, we will get back to in-person. But it really is putting a message out there and marketing an event. And that is attractive to people that peaks their attention, gets their attention, and events that provide education and networking opportunities for professionals around the world. That's again, really what we do in a nutshell. Thank you, Todd. And by the way, again, to the audience, Todd puts the largest tech event in the Southeast and it's a very well-known person in technology from all over the world. Those companies are connected. We can actually try to put a lot of things like that in other cities and bring it to our area. Thank you, Todd. Sure. Well, that is exciting discussion right now. And Joe, year over year, we continue to see more growth and demand for information technology jobs across the board. And that is for most almost all in industries. Competition for skill and educated workers remains high. What are some innovative efforts using executed board eternal and external to your organization to help grow these pipeline? That's a great question. And you're exactly right. I mean, you have to find the right balance of trying to find skills out on the marketplace where you've got people that may have three to five years experience and you're looking for the right fit for your organization. But you've also got to have a really good way to create talent, right? And that has been a big shift for us where we've decided that our focus on development centers is really to kind of use them as talent factories, if you will. So we can bring young talent and surround them with people that have experience in the industry and grow their skills a lot faster, a lot more rapidly than they would occur organically. And so that has enabled us to grow in certain key high demand areas. And for us focus on things like cloud computing, things for digital customer experience, anything in that whole area where people are undergoing their digital transformation, huge demand for those resources. And it's a very competitive market. So it's a combination of being able to, to have the right environment to build talent and then creating the right climate where you can retain talent. So that people want to be there and they want to be part of your organization. And so it's really kind of getting that right balance of having a very desirable place that people want to work and interesting work that they want to do. And then an environment where they're happy when they're there and we're not just constantly churning people in and out. And so that's been our focus internally. And we've been on this path for a couple of years now and it seems to be working well. Thank you. King, what about in your world? You guys, do you have some kind of internal, external and your organization that you're trying to create this problem that's just going to your world as well? Yeah, well, we focus a lot on this. And so one of the things that Joe touched on there was our pipeline, right? So we know there's already a deficit. We don't have enough people to fill these jobs. And so one of the things that we're doing is focusing on that pipeline of emerging students. And so one of our current projects is mapping what the pathways that are available in South Carolina are. So what can a student or someone who's graduated already who's interested in a career in technology do to take on this as a new job or a new career for themselves? And so we're working to create that mapping and then to make recommendations for what isn't there? Where are we deficient? What can we do to ensure that as technology continues to increase to be the bedrock of all industry that we have this educated workforce that can take these jobs on? And just another thing Joe mentioned was creating those opportunities within his company. And I'm seeing that. I'm seeing companies in the Midlands around the state that are creating internal processes to train apprentices, take on internships and help be part of the solution for this great deficit that we have. This leads me to the next question. And we keep talking about supply and demand issues all over the United States, all over the world. We have the shortage of tech talents. And so most of these companies are now recruiting from a very limited pool of qualified people. So should we, how can we address that? Should we start with K through 12, hire a professional development and training? I know we're talking about internships, but what do you guys think about that? What can we do? It's interesting. I think you really gotta start in K through 12. I think you're exactly right. I think we've got to do something that drives interest in that type of industry. And it doesn't have to be a traditional computer science path that we put somebody on, but they've got to be interested enough in technology to where they could really navigate that way once they come out of high school, will it? And then you'll have some that are gonna do a traditional path to a university and a four-year degree and you have some that won't, right? I mean, we got to have some nontraditional ways of bringing tech talent in as well. We've all seen development of coding boot camps and things like that that people could find their way into at later stages or alternatives where they may just learn industrial industry 4.0, where they learn the tools and techniques and everything around that without going through a traditional four-year degree. I think we got to have a little bit of all of it to create that pipeline and create the draw, right? So, this is also a little bit of your world. You bring people together, you create all these incredible events of technology, and you bring people to the professional development and training. Tell me a little bit about what you think about that question as well. Well, so I think, going back to kind of what Joe and Kim said, I think you really need to, maybe the first step is education at a higher level, right? It's helping your local population and population in general understand the changing nature of work. That jobs today don't look like they did five, 10 years ago and the jobs of five to 10 years from now, the ones that people at K-12, students in K-12 are training for and being educated for are not gonna look like they do today. So I think what we're evolving into is more of a hybrid approach when it comes to jobs, right? It's, every type of job is gonna require some level of technological proficiency. So what does that look like? That's more of a hybrid model. Well, how does that translate into I wanna be this or this is my desired occupation, I wanna go into medical, I wanna go into manufacturing, maybe I wanna go into who knows what it might be, straight up technology and IT. So, or I wanna gravitate or I gravitate to a specific industry sector. This is what it looks like. There's no getting away from this. There's no running away. A lot of people will kind of throw up their hands and say, ah, I'm not a very technical person. That's sorta not me. That's just not my thing. I would really rather gravitate to this or to that. We really need to explain to people that, this is the future. It's the future that we're staring at. And therefore, we have to prepare and prepare our kids in different ways. So really the first step is, again, the changing nature of work and what it means to work, what a job looks like. That's very high level education. We do the equivalent of that at our conferences and at our events on the technology side. We demonstrate and convey to our community and to technologists and people in the field, what is the changing nature of technology? What are the evolving technologies, the emerging technologies? What are they gonna need to know? What are companies beginning to adopt and what are they going to use? If AI and machine learning and neural networks and natural language processing is where we're going in the future, what technologies are used to engage in that or to enable that? Well, those are the ones that we wanna focus on at our events. So there is a focus on what's currently popular, what's currently being used, but there's also a look to the future. We kind of have to scan the horizon and keep our community educated and aware of what's coming two years down the road, five years down the road, 10 years down the road. So education is just extremely important. I wanna, I wanna... And I would say, oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Thank you. I was just gonna say, just to talk about that K-12 piece a little bit more. We've been very proactive in creating this computer science requirement for graduation for our high school students, but what we haven't been really great at is defining what that means for these schools that maybe don't have staff that have expertise in this area. And so we need to get better at helping our K-12 environment really envision what does preparedness look like? When do we prepare our students? Is one computer science class adequate? And we know the answer to that is absolutely not. And that K-12 has to be introducing computer science in K-5. We need to start introducing technology as young as kindergarten. And then by the time our students are in high school, they need to be technology literate. And not just technology, knowledgeable, but truly literate. And we have some things happening now in the Midlands that are really cool to help with those adult learners that maybe thought technology wasn't an avenue that they could take, but now they're seeing all these job opportunities. And the cool things like create opportunity that's partnering with the Midlands Tech and the investment that the Department of Commerce put into SE codes. So there's all sorts of different ways that we can meet the needs of, both our emerging workforce and our current workforce to try and help fill these voids that we have. Yeah, and that was kind of what, where you were going with that, Kim is, I mean, are we reaching an inflection point if we're trying to go into the K-12 system and it's becoming that ingrained in everything that we're doing, should information technology be a part of core curriculum, just like English and history and science classes are? I mean, are we nearing that, do you think? Yes, and as a matter of fact, I believe strongly that we put a focus on the literacy of computer science as a language. When we start talking about the language of business, that's gonna be coding, like Sergio mentioned in the intro. When we have students that aren't even in a technology career, but they need to market themselves or they need to be competitive in the marketplace, they're gonna have to know this. And so it is a core competency. And if we're not introducing this until they're an 11th or 12th grade student, then we've really missed the boat. I think as you look at curriculum in general, whether it's a science class or a math class or some other type of class, there are so many opportunities to inject technology literacy in those basic classes, right? So could be a project, could be something that just kinda sparks a fire and gets somebody where they at least understand some of the stuff. But that requires teachers that are literate enough that can do it. I think that's a hurdle that I've spent some time locally trying to figure out how we can get involved with mentoring programs and how we can help. There's a lot of different ways to do that, right? But some of it could be helping the school staff themselves so that they understand it and can help with the children and the classes. Yeah, and not to monopolize this topic or this question, but I wanted to throw in there as well when we're starting to talk about preparing students. There's a lot of new data around afterschool clubs and things that we can be introducing students to. We have robotics, but we need to be talking about drone engineering and racing and piloting and eSports clubs and the types of things that these kids that aren't participating in traditional extracurricular activities would be interested in participating and increasing those pathways, right? And for companies to get involved and sponsoring things like that within the K-12, it's a great introduction and collaboration between industry and education just to start endorsing and supporting these types of extracurricular activities for our students who are technically blinded. Yeah, I've heard once that every time that we have a computer science graduate that leaves Columbia or even the state, it's like a $2 million loss in our lifetime. So it's a big loss for our city, but for the entire region. And so what we're trying to do economically speaking is to create knowledge-based jobs and keep them here and build that. So those are high-paying jobs. That's how we sustain our economy here. Which leads me to the next question. Decision makers are reflective of the populations they represent. Technology serves everyone, but we continue to hear every day about the need for more diversity in the tech industry across both genders and businesses. How can we continue to influence the direction and the future workforce in IT at the local level? So our workforce is reflective to our community. And you and I have several discussions talking about that. Tell us a little bit more about that. Yeah, well, so one, I agree with the premise of the question, right? Diversity is extremely important. Everyone consumes technology in their lives or impacted and affected by it. So therefore I'm a firm believer that everyone needs to contribute, play a role, have a seat at the table, be involved in a lot of those decisions, if not all of the decisions that are being made, et cetera. So I'll address the, again, the very basis of the premise of that statement and of the question to start. But yeah, so again, a lot of this gets to messaging and a lot of this gets to education. This is, it's impacting everyone regardless of skin color or what your background is or who you are or your gender, it doesn't matter. It's impacting you directly. So the messaging needs to reflect that and messaging needs to be targeted to every group of people that comprise the population and that live within the midlands, et cetera, which is everyone. Certainly something that we do, our events reflect that. Speakers and our participants and the people presenting a lot of the technology are from very diverse backgrounds. And we firmly believe that that results in a richer experience for the attendee. It results in people looking at technologies or maybe a technology solution, an application of technology in a way that they maybe had never even considered. And it's extremely beneficial and the feedback that we've received over the years has been extremely, extremely positive. The end result is just a better event in our immediate case and the immediate example. But it also results in better technology, right? More innovation and we all benefit when that's the case. So again, more people contributing, more people getting involved, knowing how to contribute really benefits us all. We all have skin in the game. It's in all of our best interest to make sure that that happens. Do you think what you have by more representation at decision level? So, look, boy, that's an interesting question. Yes, I do. I don't know how many elected representatives have a technology background. I don't know what those numbers are, but I would love to know those numbers. How many technologists do we have in the state house, just at the state level? How many technologists do we have at the federal level? I can tell you those numbers at the federal level are extremely small, very low, almost no one has a true technology background. Some exposure to it, yes. You can define that in a variety of ways, but a true technology background, very, very few. So you take that down a level, now we're talking the state, now we're talking more of a local level. Do we have people with technology backgrounds running for office or influencing decisions or really having a seat at the decision-making table? I certainly hope so. If not, that obviously needs to change. We need more people to get involved, regardless of what stage they happen to be at in their career. Oftentimes people don't have time to contribute and get involved. They're busy in their careers, they're starting companies, they have families, et cetera, so they have a chance to do that later in life. So be it, but people with technology backgrounds, I think contributing or having input in and on decisions is just extremely important. And honestly, I don't really see it. It might exist and I'm just missing it, but I'm not seeing it maybe as much as it should be happening. And I also think that maybe we should create awareness in our community, because this is our future for our region, to have kids are gonna graduate, stay here, have a great job. So we need to be more supportive. Every company, we should, public and private parties should work together. Everybody should know that there is a need, an urgent need to work together. Cities around the United States are successful, like tech hubs, cities. Most of these, the engine of successful technology hubs revolve around ecosystems of innovators, startups, entrepreneurs, a skill workforce, and university talent and available resources, of course. And perhaps most important, all those networks that connect them, right? From those areas, where do you see Columbia region making the most progress? And what are the gaps that we need to feel? And what areas is your organization or company making an impact? Kim, would you share that with us? Sure. Well, one of the core pillars of SE tech is to connect the tech industry. I mean, that's really one of the things we're designed to do. So we're convening leaders in regions across the state, where it's appropriate to be talking about filling the gaps and making the programs that are necessary to support entrepreneurs and innovators and tech. So I think what we need to be doing too is talking about what we are doing well and really spotlighting those areas where we're excelling or exceeding expectations while we're working on the back end to really fill in what isn't happening or to support those things that need to be done. And so I think really it's also about asking those right questions, like what do we need to be doing to make this a stronger ecosystem? So, and just to kind of backfill a little bit, since I am the only female on this and we were talking about representation and that last question, I'd like to address that a bit too because representation is key, right? I started off my career as a network engineer and I was the lone female and there was not a lot of representation for me. And I think that when we're talking about making sure that there is a quality and access across the board in the technology world and we're talking about supporting innovators and these startup companies, we need to be talking about making sure that we're addressing the needs of our minority startup, our minority engineer-minded people and knowledge sector. And a lot of that really starts again, not to harp on K-12, but we lose women and black and brown people in the technology industry by middle school. And if we're not showing representation across the board to our students that this is possible for everyone, then we're not really helping to build that pipeline. It's going to continue to look the way it is. So I think that again, representation is key. Let's highlight these success stories and make sure that when we're doing that, we're equitable in who we're highlighting and talking about. That's well said, well said. I have different discussions with tech companies and tech startups here in town and they always tell me it's very hard to sometimes recruit here locally because we have to be very competitive with the salary. And we talked about these tech hubs around the United States and the cities and groups. What can we do to sustain that here? As far as tech startups trying to get talent to work for them? Some of that is kind of creating the right ecosystem for it, right? As you've already stated, I think I look at our situation and we've had some success hiring locally where we found talent here locally. But if we're in a situation where we're recruiting nationally and we wanna bring somebody to Columbia to work here in this development center, it's a lot easier to talk somebody and relocating and move in their family if they believe that there's a thriving technology ecosystem there, right? Because if they don't like my job, they wanna feel like they can go find another one without having to pick up their family and move again. And so I think it's good for all of us if we have that good ecosystem and we can get it established. And yeah, there's some competitive aspect to that but that's up to the companies to manage. It's still healthier if you've got a thriving technology sector that people feel good about maybe moving from another part of the country because we have a really great quality of life and good economics. And it's just a better environment and I think we'll have a lot more success the more we build out that entire ecosystem. So in this list to the next question, it's a very interesting question. This pandemic here shifted the entire world into remote work overnight. And now we're seeing incredible talent migration, offload of people moving from city to city from really far away from other metro areas. Are we engaged in any, are you guys engaged in any programs or planning efforts to help recruits and attract remote IT talent? And how can we strengthen our brand as a region? And what ditch will we use to lead with to promote our local value proposition to have more people coming here? Since it's like, it changed anyone? I'll start and then we'll go from there. We've seen it, it's just magnitude coming out of the pandemic. But if you think about a consulting firm, most consulting firms have followed a model where they're either higher in big cities around big clients, so you're hiring Atlanta around a Coca-Cola or you're hiring Chicago around a McDonald's or we hire in hub cities and we put people on airplanes to get where they needed to be, right? They would fly to their clients and they were gone, you know, Monday through Friday and then get home. And we tried to convince ourselves that, you know, the clients really wanted that, that they wanted to see the people there on site and that they really, and in some cases they did, you know, because I've known clients that were that way and, but then COVID comes and all of a sudden nobody's going to anybody's offices, right? And I think companies now have figured out that they didn't need all that real estate that they thought they needed. So there's a whole real estate play that's going on with this, but basically what's happened is we're, we're shifting in a model now that where people will be shifting from being on client sites, we'll still have some there, but not nearly as many and we'll be letting people work remote and we'll try and hire them around our major hub cities and then we'll have people in development centers like Columbia, you know, and Houston and others. And so, you know, it changes everything for us. Now internally, what that does is it makes people a lot more open to going to, you know, one of our major cities because they can live and do whatever they want, right? They're not tied into the client model like they were before. But to your point, you know, we're recruiting like crazy every day and if we can find somebody that is tired of living in Chicago and they're tired of cold and they want, you know, they want to reload to a different part of the company, then that, that makes it easier for us. And so we're definitely recruiting in that model right now. I'm gonna say, Todd, any thoughts on that? Well, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, right? And it's been going on now for six to nine months. I think when the pandemic, with the onset of the pandemic last January, February, it was really March before people, I think, grasped the enormity of the situation or the seriousness of the situation. I began, I started to hear rumblings and rumors of something going on in China, January, February, we even hosted our last in-person event last March, the beginning of March. Even then we were taking precautions. It was in Columbia, it was here in the Midlands, but it really didn't, you know, it was shortly thereafter that we cut all in-person events and things just changed drastically and once it started, the speed of the change was tremendous, right? It was just like overnight the world had changed and we really haven't recovered. So, you know, and then I think once even beginning of March, it took people a little time to wrap their head around exactly what was going on. So I think you really started to see an outflow June, July, August, and then into September, October and into Q3 and Q4 of 2020. Again, once in a lifetime opportunity, I'm not sure that we'll ever see mass migration like this out of traditional tech centers ever again. Joe, what you said with, you know, it also opens up an opportunity for people to migrate or move from maybe some, you know, more rural areas to those urban areas too. So it sort of goes both ways, but I think the majority of what we're seeing is this outflow. So messaging is extremely important in your position in the marketplace and then leadership matters too. You know, who is conveying the message? Who is the message coming from? Is it coming from people, you know, that garner respect among other technologists or other technical people? You know, is it someone that they'll listen to because other municipalities and regions have caught onto this too, right? Everybody's aware of the situation. So now everyone's competing for that outflow and they're now competing for that talent. They're taking a look at incentives. They're taking a look at their incentive structures and what they could do through legislatures and local governments to heighten or increase or in some cases even create incentives. So really that all plays into and comprises the overall message that you're conveying to these people that are looking now for places to live. And they're basing those decisions on quality of life, you know, weather, climate is a huge motivating factor, especially for people coming from cold weather climates and, you know, education systems, Joe gets back to and Kim, what you all talked about that technology that ecosystem that ecosystem that you can sort of plug into, you know, education is a huge, huge thing. Arts and culture directly impacts someone's decision. Technologists and people in the tech field love arts and culture. They like those types of things to attend and go to. They like those opportunities for their kids. So, you know, any area serious about recruiting tech talent had really better be funding the arts and had better be funding things like that because those are, you know, those are big factors that people look at it, consider especially people in the technology field. So again, the messaging has to be spot on and a lot goes into structuring or constructing the actual message. Yep, absolutely. I agree with what these guys have said. And I would also just say, you know, that's one of the whole reasons why I see tech, you know, we're focused on all of these things like looking at what other states are doing and have been working well for them. What kind of recruiting efforts do they have? What kind of incentives do they have for companies that are hiring, companies that are moving here, companies that are starting up here. And so those are all things that we have to collectively come together and look at. We can't be siloed anymore. We can't just be region to region. We have to really collectively push forward as a state to be competitive. And so we're trying to take a really hard look at that. You know, we just did our first economic impact study for technology in the state, you know, which showed some really, really promising numbers. And it's with those types of tools and with that connectivity across the state that we'll be able to address these issues that will be better addressed as a whole instead of, you know, very siloed as we have been previously operating. I hope too, let me just add this. I hope that we know what our companies and what the people that hire, you know, are larger companies with more employees that are looking to hire, what they're evolving to. You know, are they post pandemic? What are their plans? Are they going to, you know, a post pandemic world where the majority of their employees can now work remote? Is it gonna be, again, more of a hybrid environment where people can work remote? But, you know, we also expect a certain number to be in the office, maybe a minimum number of days per week. What are hiring plans or what are, you know, workforce plans once we enter that post pandemic market because that really should have a huge impact on what our policies are and what the messaging is. And again, I'm sure we're doing that. But to me, it's really fascinating because we, I communicate with companies around the world every day. It's a huge topic of conversation. A lot of people are trying to figure it out. You know, there are pros and cons to having people offsite, on site. There are risks that a company assumes when asking people to come back on site, et cetera, et cetera. So it's really a deep conversation, but it is extremely important. And so we talk in other conversations as well of how other regions are running themselves as a future. Yeah, so, you know, again, people have called on to the game, right? I mean, you know, they've, they've, they now fully understand that we're in a very competitive environment and that technology, again, you have industry sectors running vertical, but what you have running horizontal through all those industry sectors is technology. It's really, you know, the common item that everyone really needs to focus on and it enables everything that, you know, everyone does regardless of sector or silo. So it's become a very competitive marketplace. So some people I've in regions have highlighted their superstars. You know, they've got, I'll give you a great example. You know, Raleigh and the RTP, that's just one example of a city or a tech hub that's not far from here. You know, in my world, open source is a big deal, right? So you've got Red Hat, that's Red Hat's world headquarters. So you've got Jim Whitehurst, who is now the president of IBM, but before the IBM acquisition of Red Hat was CEO of Red Hat, you know, Jim's voice within the tech field within the open source space was especially strong. It was very, he's a very influential person. He'll, in my opinion, will be CEO of IBM here within a relatively short period of time. And so he was used, he was used often to really be the messenger to other CEOs and other tech companies because he was very well respected. People, when Jim Whitehurst spoke, people listened. He got their attention. He was able to break through the noise. So some regions will highlight their superstars and really put their superstars if they're willing at the forefront of the messaging. And then other people, you know, really focus on the economic development kind of under the radar, you know, through economic incentives and things like that. So really it's through economic development officials. They'll have those conversations because every company is, you know, that I know of looking for incentives or looking to save money, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, conferences, events are used as part of that strategy as well. I don't mean to sound self-serving at all, but I can tell you that when a region hosts a well-known or a well-respected tech event and you bring those people really from around the world on site to your area and you have a chance to showcase your geographic region over a number of days or even if it's just a single day, that matters. It's very difficult to get the attention of these people, especially people at the, you know, at the level of making decisions. It's tough to break through the noise and conferences and events can certainly help. Those are just a few factors, a few things that I've seen done. We definitely need to strengthen our brand as a region and expose what we have here locally. We do want to have those people here. We want to invite everyone from the US to move here to our city, because that's exactly what we want. We want to bring knowledge based just to the area and bring those people with high-paid jobs that are coming all over the United States here to the area. If you had the ability to draw an event program or attraction incentive that would help take Colombia to the next level, what would you create? Anyway. Yeah, I think it's more than just creating an incentive. It's about creating an environment. So when we look at, you know, the state and then we pull that out and we look, you know, at the country, we see where the areas that are doing especially well at attracting companies and talent kind of have, you know, this ecosystem built, this cool factor, a lot of what Todd was talking about, right? They're known as a tech area. And right now, you know, Colombia doesn't have that unification yet, but I think we're working towards it. So I think that comes first. And then when we start talking about creating programs and incentives that help build that structure around what tech looks like for the Colombia area and as a Colombia action plan that you guys at the city of Colombia are partnering with SCRA and USC and, you know, Rich in Lansing counties, I think that's a really great start because we have to pinpoint where do we want to focus? Where do we want to build supports? Where, what is it that we need to do to draw in that culture? Because, you know, something Joe had mentioned several questions ago was when we're trying to recruit people to move to Colombia they need to, they want to feel like that there's an opportunity to stay here and raise their family. And if there's not a tech culture already built then they don't feel that this is somewhere that they're going to stay for the long haul. So we have to start there. And a lot of that is, you know things that we've already discussed a few times over, you know, with the marketing and highlighting and bringing in our leaders that can really act as, you know, that catalyst for attention for the, for the city and the middle of the area. Yeah, totally agree. Yeah, yeah, sure. Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to talk over anyone. Go ahead. No, no, no, you go. Yeah, I put a little thought into this. I'll give you a few things that I would do if I could wave the magic wand. And some of this is already being done and everyone's doing a tremendous job, right? We've got really good people in place and they're doing tremendous work. I would definitely, you know, have a think tank or a group of people looking really hard at the future of work. That's a phrase we hear a lot and, you know, now especially now post COVID, right? After the onset of COVID, but work is changing and I hate to get back and repeat what I said really at the beginning of this event but that high level messaging, there's some seismic shifts going on right now that are gonna impact the very definition of work going forward forever and ever. We've really better have a firm grasp on that. So when I say the future of work, you know, automation, you know, what is the role of automation? How is it likely to impact jobs, existing businesses, existing companies? Is it going to eliminate jobs? Well, if so, what jobs are likely to go away? And if they go away, are we gonna replace those? Well, okay, and if so, so if it's gonna eliminate jobs, are we gonna get on the universal basic income bandwagon, the UBI bandwagon? Is that in our future? Are, you know, are there, will there just not be as many jobs going, you know, we had really better understand that topic at a very deep level and its impact on our region. So having a group really study that at a very deep level, be aware of what's going on in the world. And again, I know that's already going on to a degree, but I would really focus on that. I would have, I'm sure everyone in this audience is aware of the Crossing the Chasm book, Jeffrey Moore's seminal book, one of my favorite books of all time. It really chronicles technology adoption and talks about really what the technology adoption evolution or the phases are. Well, in that book, he talks about, you know, how technology is adopted, right? The early, you know, the types of people that initially adopt are the ones not averse to risk. They're willing to try new stuff. And then you've got to cross the chasm, but you've got to get right to the early majority. And those are the people just look into for a solution, et cetera. How that relates to workforce development and talent retention. And so, you know, within every company, I think, you've got some jobs that might not require cutting edge skills. So those types of jobs might attract a certain type of person. And then you've got other areas in your business maybe on the edge or when you look out at the future, they're gonna attract maybe a certain type of person, you know, really someone out there that's skilled in the new thing or the new capability of this technology to analyze data and then, you know, produce intelligence, et cetera. So, you know, really, you know, creating an emerging tech center, I think would be a very good thing. Because, you know, what I've found, I've hired students out of the computer science program from local colleges. We've managed to attract the very best because we're working on cutting edge stuff. We're working on the coolest technology. So you need both types of people. You need, because those are the people that are gonna create the jobs and create the startups. And if they're working at an established company, they're the ones gonna spin out something. They're gonna spin out a new business and then end up hiring a bunch of people. They've got, just due to their nature, their personality, they're the ones that are gonna pursue funding, adventure capital investment, and they're gonna use it to grow. We really better do something to retain and attract those types of people while also, so again, retaining and attracting maybe some other types of, you know, those members of the early majority, again relating back to crossing the chasm. And if you haven't read that book, I would really strongly encourage you to do it. It is, it'll change your world view. And there's a reason that it's considered a classic. I'll only mention one more, but I've got many, many more. I would, and again, I know this has already happened, but I would really inventory what technologies companies are using and what technologies they intend to use. I know that we've done this, but understanding, you know, colleges and universities do this to a degree. They'll have groups come in that advise them on what their curriculum should focus on or what their curriculum should really reflect. Make sure that we're keeping up on that. So I would really heighten my sharpen, my focus on what are the needs of companies. I think when you got to the Deloitte study, right, I think it was called market orientation, understanding what are local companies and the people that are actually hiring and looking for talent, what they're using, what their needs are, what their demands are, et cetera. So I would really focus on that as well because I can tell you that other regions are doing that and, you know, they have conducted surveys and they're well aware of what the companies in their area are using and therefore how that translates into skills and the types of people that they need and that they need to be recruiting for years into the future. Those are just three, sorry to be so verbose there, but I've, again, I've put a lot of thought into this. Thank you, Todd. And then we come to, you know, again, it goes back to the awareness as well that we all need to work together, universities, colleges, teachers, public and private sector and do a better job to communicate what we need to do moving forward. We are opening the, you know, the chat box right now. If anyone has any questions right now, make sure if anyone has any questions. But this being a, what's that? But I think we've got a couple of questions teed up already in the box. If y'all want to, I can run through some of those real quick and we can kind of go lightning round on it. I know we're nearing the end of our hour. Our panelists are gracious with their time and that they have jobs to get back to as well. So do y'all want to hit these real quick? Sure, sure. Okay. And then we had a raised hand from, let's see it. Laura McIntosh was on, she may not, she may have dropped off anyway. First one, I don't know if there's a question here, maybe a bit of a comment. There's a major gap between actual skill sets of most local graduates in the entry level skill sets needed by companies that don't have the knowledge, tools or money necessary to create a training ecosystem for employees or mentees and interns. So I guess more of a kind of comment there regarding college graduate skills and then maybe smaller tech businesses who don't have the bandwidth to do the internal training. Yeah, and I'll say this is something that we're working on actively now. And that is part of that pathways that we're looking at and creating recommendations for expanded pathways. And one of the things that we're seeing is, other states are taking on apprenticeship models and really kind of embracing this problem as an internal problem and creating proprietary solutions. And so we're looking at what could be a proprietary solution here for us in South Carolina by utilizing small tech companies that maybe can't afford to hire full on staffs but would be willing to take on apprentices and willing to help with those pathway expansions. So I think this is something that's really important because Sergio, you had really highlighted in your opening the vast number of unfilled jobs that go every year, we know we can't rely solely on our two and four year institutions to fill that need. There simply isn't the capacity there. And so we need to be looking at what those other solutions are that are gonna meet the needs in our state. And so that's one of the areas that we know we're really focused on. Okay, okay. Second, Curtis, some of our GroCo folks attending today. So glad to have y'all on here, Colin Griffin as well. I see you. This is directed towards you, Cam. It appears though SC Tech's work to pull technology leaders together to assess where gaps are is a critical first step. What is a realistic timeline to go from assessment to implementing real change, whether it's in K through 12 or changes to higher ed computer science programs. So what's a realistic timeline from assessment to implementing change? And do you feel we're working at a pace fast enough not only to catch up from being behind but to take a lead position? Okay, well, there's a couple of things there. So I'll unpack it the best I can. A timeline is gonna be dependent on how collaborative we are. So we're on the ground running ready to do these things. And it's absolutely going to be about all the different players doing their part to pull us forward. Is it doable? Well, it really has to be doable. We don't have another option. We have to do this, right? We have to make our state competitive in technology. So we are already starting to do that, right? You mentioned Colin, hi Colin. Colin is on our Columbia Action Team along with Joe for talking about these things, right? The first thing we have to do is identify where to go and then put the things into place that need to be there to start making the changes. Our hope is that this is something that is done pretty quickly. We have this action plan in the Midlands with our leaders meeting very soon in the next month. And then we'll go from there but we hope to have like a strategic plan, something really solid in place. Hopefully pretty quickly. Awesome. Tulsa, how well would you like to practice? Is Columbia need a code school? Ryan, you faded out. Did you direct that to me? Sorry. Either you or Joe, since Kim's got the last two or y'all can vote. Is Columbia need a code school? Joe, I'll defer to you and I'll maybe since you're... I think it'd be great to be honest. I think, you know, I've seen other cities where they've kind of nurtured that. I've seen a different approaches to it. Some have formed nonprofits and used that as a way to kind of go to get into some underserved communities and open it up to find people that could migrate into the technology field. I've seen a couple of different models in different cities. I think it'd be a great thing because as Kim said, not everybody's gonna go to a two or four year school but they may have the ability and the aptitude and that's a way to bring them into the team, right? Yeah, I think it would be a good thing. I know we had one here for a while. So I think it's a very positive thing and it would be moving forward. What the format of that school is or what the structure is, as Joe stated, some of them are nonprofits, some of them are private sector, private companies, you know, that's to be debated and to be determined. But I think overall at a very high level, the concept or the idea of a code school is a very good thing. Awesome, and then I guess the last comment from Erin Curtis as well, the Midlands could use a calling card, IE fiber in Chattanooga, something that's been done at the local municipal level and an emphasis on merging sector industry and technology. And you know, I'll speak from the city's perspective what we wouldn't give to have municipally owned and operated broadband at this point. We're very thankful to have the state's largest water sewer utility system, but you know, information and the ability to transmit that quickly and correctly is just ever becoming a bigger currency in the world that we live in. And you know, it's very cost intensive to do a local level broadband, you know, maybe a project for some point down the road. Yeah. Yeah, Chattanooga, it's attracted many people because of their internet loss of innovators and entrepreneurs. So yeah, it would be great. Well, I think it shows an investment, right? I'm sorry, you know, we're all passionate about this. We could probably talk all day, or I could, but you know, I think what Erin is saying, they're really highlights the investment, right? A community is making and being technology forward and a calling card could be something as simple as what it is we're embracing. Todd mentioned emerging technologies. You know, like what is it we're gonna embrace as a city and then that can be our calling card. Yeah, one of the things that we've kind of bounced around here is, you know, the whole smart cities aspect. You know, there's a lot of different things you can do, but you know, that's one of those things that you could start small and it does show an investment that shows passion by the local community. So, and demonstrates some pretty cool technology as well. Brian, do you have any more questions there? I think that that's it that we have in the box. So we're about five minutes over, but thank you. Well, thank you everyone for joining us today to our audience. Now, by the end of this webinar, you probably don't understand how this big urgency to do something about it. Again, there's a high demand in IT jobs and there's a shortage. And so we need to all work together and create awareness in our region that we need to work together as a community, as a region. Again, thank you. This is Sergio Periccio. We have Brian Coleman to help me out. Joe Rear, thank you. Kairis, thank you. And Todd Lewis, thank you so much for all being here today. Have a great afternoon.