Information technology is focus of KTEC trade group

Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp. is in the early stages of putting together a trade group for the state's information technology companies.

"It is such a huge part of the Kansas economy," KTEC chief executive Tracy Taylor said Thursday.

Taylor said the group will be similar to KansasBio, the trade group representing the state's bioscience companies that KTEC helped create in 2004.

KTEC, a private-public group whose mission is to foster technology-related economic development, has hired Miriam Ubben to oversee formation of the group.

Taylor said Ubben was previously head of a software trade group in Iowa.

"She's in the process of pulling things together," he said.

KTEC officials already have met with some companies that Taylor said support the idea.

"We've had good, positive conversations with a lot of people," he said.

In the conversations KTEC has had about forming the group, Taylor said there's a strong interest among top IT executives to have a forum where they can get together, share ideas and develop industrywide strategies on issues such as recruiting and retaining high-tech workers.

"This is also tied in a little bit to the Come Home to Kansas initiative, because all of them are interested in work force development," he said.

The Come Home initiative was launched last month and consists of a Web site equipped with software that is designed to match workers to a job opening in the bioscience or IT fields in Kansas.

Membership in the group won't be limited to companies that develop and manufacture software and hardware. It also will reach out to IT executives at companies that use a lot of technology, such as Wichita's aircraft manufacturers.

Taylor did not have a firm date for the launch of the group.

He expects KTEC officials to make a trip to Wichita next month to get the word out about the group as well as to gather information.

Reach Jerry Siebenmark at 316-268-6576 or jsiebenmark@wichitaeagle.com