Dallas Regional Chamber's Blog

Over 80 technology and life science entrepreneurs and capital sources gathered on February 25 for the first Capital Connections workshop of the year. The Capital Connections Workshop series is a program hosted by the Chamber and sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Supporting entrepreneurial development is an important piece of growing the technology economy in North Texas. This program encourages entrepreneurs to come together once a quarter to network and hopefully find partners to assist in their business’ growth or a connection to a capital source. Investors are also invited to attend so they can meet young growing companies, and hopefully find a new client to fund.

Additionally, the evening had a presentation of the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ MoneyTree report, which announces venture capital activity across the US. The study is a collaboration between PricwaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. The report covered on February 25th was an overview of the venture capital spending environment across the nation for 2009. It also highlighted data specific to the DFW region, such as the venture capital investment in 2009 for the region was $350 million and the top three industries invested in were Industrial/Energy, Software, and Business Product and Services.

For information about the Capital Connections Workshop series or to view more data from the PricewaterhouseCoopers MoneyTree report, please visit www.DallasTBC.org.

Sue Spradley, North America Region Head for Nokia Siemens Networks, and 2010 Technology Business Council Chair

The Dallas Regional Chamber’s Technology Business Council is proud to announce that Sue Spradley, Head of the North America Region for Nokia Siemens Networks, is the 2010 Technology Business Council Chair. Spradley has taken over this leadership position from John Dupree, Vice President Enterprise and Federal Government for Sprint, who served as Technology Business Council Chair from January 2008- December 2009. 

Spradley has more than 20 years of experience in services, operations, sales, customer service and global product line management in the telecommunications industry. She currently leads Nokia Siemens Networks’ North American region and its Customer and Market Operations. After joining the company in July 2007, she became a member of the Nokia Siemens Networks Executive Board on August 19th, 2009. 

Prior to joining Nokia Siemens Networks, Spradley was president of Nortel Global Services and Operations responsible for technical engineering, manufacturing and supply chain management. She also was a member of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NTSAC), which reported to the President of the United States. 

As Technology Business Council Chair, Spradley will oversee the Chamber’s activities in the high-tech and bio-tech space, along with supporting the overall mission of the Chamber by serving on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee. The TBC Chair works closely with the Chamber to plan out the year’s program of work, to actively involve TBC members and technology leaders in the DFW region in these initiatives, and to represent the TBC at various industry events. 

The Technology Business Council (TBC) is comprised of Dallas Regional Chamber member companies, stakeholders in the area’s technology and life science community, and financial investors of the TBC’s activities throughout the year. Through various leadership, networking and educational opportunities, the TBC maintains its mission to develop, promote and sustain the greater Dallas region as a global leader in technology talent, innovation, integration and manufacturing. The TBC has laid out its program of work for 2010, which can be viewed by clicking here. 

The Chamber would also like to thank John Dupree for his support and leadership over the past two years. 

If you have interest in finding out more about the Technology Business Council and how your company could become involved, please visit www.DallasTBC.org or contact Erica Flores at eflores@dallaschamber.org.

In today’s recovering economy, the role of the chief technology executive is evolving.

Many in the technology space are all too familiar with this.  And the point was driven home to a group of IT executives at the Chamber’s CIO Symposium on Oct. 1.

Two experts in technology consulting, Scott Stemberger, Principal at The Boston Consulting Group, and Jeff Wacker, HP Fellow and Futurist at HP Enterprise Services, discussed how as the world around us changes, so too should the role of the CIO.

Stemberger touched on the obstacles that come between an IT executive and a company’s ability to innovate.  These include long development times and risk-adverse culture. 

Wacker discussed some important questions CIOs should be concerned with, including how executives should incorporate the time to innovate with their everyday tasks.  Stemberger added that 80 to 85 percent of the day should be spent running the business with 10 to 15 percent allotted for innovation.

The Oct. 1 program was sponsored by Capstone, The IT Consulting and Executive Search Company and TeraStack Solution: The Green Data Storage Innovation by Hie Electronics.

The Chamber hosts the CIO Symposium event to bring together CIOs, CTOs and IT executives for a peer-to-peer networking reception and educational programs. For more information on this Symposium or the Chamber’s Technology Business Council, please visit www.DallasTBC.org