Research Triangle Region, N.C. -- The Research Triangle Regional Partnership (RTRP), the North Carolina Electronics and Information Technologies Association (NCEITA), and the North Carolina Department of Commerce today announced a strategic partnership to promote the technology industry in North Carolina.

The announcement coincided with the unveiling of the results of a North Carolina "perception audit" that was sponsored by RTRP with NCEITA member companies, the N.C. Department of Commerce, the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, MCNC, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, and the Piedmont Triad Regional Partnership.

"The primary goal of this partnership is to enhance North Carolina's image as a global technology destination," said NCEITA President Joan Myers. "Our main thrust is the brain trust - we must find ways to keep North Carolina's top talent as well as attract talent from around the globe to help build and grow North Carolina tech companies."

"A challenge for all North Carolina technology companies is identifying and hiring home grown North Carolina talent to grow our businesses," said Matthew Szulik, CEO of Red Hat Inc. and NCEITA chairman. "Our opportunity is to build on the knowledge gained from the perception audit and create sustainable relationships between government, education and the technology industry to make the state of North Carolina a leading technology center in the 21st century."

Future plans for the partnership, though not final, may include development of a Web presence that will contain resource information that can be utilized by economic development agencies across North Carolina to assist in their recruitment of companies and by persons interested in relocating to North Carolina. NCEITA, through its members, and the Department of Commerce will also work together to seek both private and public funding to help promote North Carolina's technology industry to key constituencies outside North Carolina. These key constituencies include individual tech workers and company decision makers who the state would like to attract. Finally, the partnership will focus on creating a technology brand for the state that can be used as the tag line and image of the state's technology industry.

"The continuing expansion of the technologies industry is vital to North Carolina's economic future," said North Carolina Department of Commerce Secretary Jim Fain. "We've built a great base, as more than 250,000 information technology and biotech workers at more than 4,000 companies will attest. Furthermore, the foundation we've built will assist our ongoing efforts to continue to attract knowledge workers and new technology companies to our state. The public-private partnership we're announcing today can be a valuable tool to achieve this growth and bolster our economy."

The first phase of the partnership was concluded earlier this summer with the completion of a North Carolina perception audit. The audit surveyed company leaders and young technology workers in three other major technology markets in the United States (Boston, Austin and Silicon Valley) and evaluated their impressions of North Carolina. The audit, conducted by the strategic market research and consulting firm Wirthlin Worldwide, used focus-group methodology to delve deeply into the opinions the respondents had of North Carolina. Overall, the results showed respondents had a generally positive impression of the State, citing its natural beauty and reputation as a vacation destination, but the respondents did not view the state as an optimum market in which to locate a technology company or seek to further a technology career.

"Several positive buzzwords characterized North Carolina in the minds of the respondents. These included: friendly, relaxed, diverse, comfortable, vibrant, innovative, intelligent, communal, moderate climate and passionate," said Bill Dalbec, a senior research executive with Wirthlin Worldwide. "While the state lacked a discernable technology image with respondents, North Carolina has a very positive image from which to launch increased promotion as a technology destination."

"The perception audit results show that we have some work to complete to enhance the image of North Carolina as a key player in the technology industry," said Dave Rizzo, chairman of Osprey Systems and vice-chairman of NCEITA. "The industry is looking forward to enhanced partnering with the State of North Carolina to bring more talent and more great technology companies to the State."

NCEITA is a not-for-profit membership-driven organization classified as a 501(c)6 trade association. NCEITA also has a 501(c)3 education foundation which operates and manages its educational programming. NCEITA is the primary voice of the Information Technologies industry in North Carolina dedicated to promoting and strengthening the electronics, telecommunications, software, Internet and related service industries through increased public awareness, and to provide a forum to learn, educate, communicate, promote, network and implement actions. For more information, visit www.nceita.org.