The NH Tech Alliance will host listening tours across New Hampshire to gain feedback from the business community and help better support and serve the state’s growing and vibrant tech ecosystem. The first of seven planned events will occur on Thursday, October 10 from 8-9:30 am at BW2 Software, a construction technology company headquartered in Portsmouth with clients in all 50 states and worldwide. The discussion at the first event will focus on the startup ecosystem in New Hampshire.
“The Alliance designed this listening tour to tap into the knowledge, expertise and needs of the experts in the community,” said Julie Demers, executive director of the NH Tech Alliance. “Technology is a driver of so much of what we do in business today. We want to hear from members and nonmembers of the Alliance and the tech sector to ensure that the Alliance truly aligns the organization’s vision, programming and advocacy efforts with the needs of the business community we serve.”
The Alliance’s focus on the tech sector in New Hampshire has a great impact due to the number of people the sector employs and the influence the tech sector has in the Granite State. According to the recently released 2019 national Cyberstates report, New Hampshire’s tech sector employs 70,000 people (9.8% of the workforce), and, on average, these individuals have an 80% higher median wage than the median state wages. The tech sector is a great economic driver and has added 1,723 jobs in 2018 and accounted for 13.8% of the state’s GDP, which is a 1.2% increase from 2017.
“The tech ecosystem is a core element of the current and future economic success of New Hampshire,” said Demers. “We hope these tours will foster new ideas, connections and partnerships given how interconnected we all are in the Granite State.”
The Alliance chose locations for the listening tour events across the state so that people throughout New Hampshire can easily attend an event closest to them. For those unable to attend, the Alliance is also developing an online forum where individuals can join in and share their feedback. Information will be shared and reviewed by the Alliance Board of Directors to guide the organization’s strategy for building partnerships and shaping public policy.
The NH Tech Alliance listening tour schedule is as follows:
Listening session 1 – Tuesday, October 10 from 8:00 am – 9:30 am at B2W Software, 99 Bow Street, Portsmouth
Listening session 2 – Thursday, October 17 from 8:00 am – 9:30 am at Hypertherm, 71 Heater Road, Lebanon
Listening session 3 – Tuesday, October 29 from 8:00 am – 9:30 am at Waypoint Robotics, 248 Main Dunstable Road, Nashua
Listening session 4 – Wednesday, October 30 from 8:00 am – 9:30 am at Littleton Academic Center of White Mountains Community College, 646 Union Street, Littleton
Listening session 5 – Thursday, November 7 from 8:00 am – 9:30 am at Mainstay Technologies, 201 Daniel Webster Highway, Belmont
Listening session 6 – Tuesday, November 19 from 8:00 am – 9:30 am at Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship, 25 Roxbury Street, Keene
Listening session 7 – Tuesday, December 3 (snow date Thursday, December 12) from 8:00 am – 9:30 am at Geneia, 50 Commercial Street, 3rd Floor, Manchester
To learn more about NH Tech Alliance’s listening tours, contact Lee Ann Lewis at [email protected].