Chapel Hill Technology Advisory Committee

[Brandon Perkins <bdperkin AT gmail.com>]

This is something that Steve showed me on Tuesday, and showed up in
the N&O today.  From:

http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/2800957p-9243923c.html

The News & Observer
        
Published: Sep 22, 2005
Modified: Sep 22, 2005 8:06 AM
Triangle tops for tech business
Silicon Valley takes last place

By DAVID RANII, Staff Writer

California's Silicon Valley has always been technology's hot spot, but
the Triangle is heating up.

Who says? None other than a business group in San Jose, the heart of
the Valley. Its research finds the Triangle the most hospitable place
to run a business among eight high-tech meccas -- ahead of Boston;
Seattle; San Diego; Austin, Texas; Portland, Ore.; and Fairfax County,
Va.

Silicon Valley? Dead last.

"We're obviously pleased with any accusations of excellence," said
Rick Weddle, president of the Research Triangle Foundation of North
Carolina. The foundation is the owner and developer of Research
Triangle Park.

The report, released Wednesday, was done by the Silicon Valley
Leadership Group, which represents 195 companies that account for
nearly one of five jobs in the Valley. It's meant to be a wake-up call
there.

"Just because Silicon Valley is the birthplace of high technology, it
is not a birthright," said Carl Guardino, chief executive of the
group. "It's something we have to earn every day."

Raleigh-Durham ranked first or second in six of the study's eight
critical performance measures. The categories were designed to measure
the cost of doing business, the cost of living and the quality of
life.

The Triangle was best in housing affordability and had the least
traffic congestion. It ranked second in unemployment rates, state tax
rates (both corporate and individual) and the performance by its
eighth-graders on math tests.

In the other two categories -- electricity costs and the percentage of
people with health insurance -- Raleigh-Durham was fifth.

The study can be a weapon for Triangle economic development leaders in
the corporate recruitment wars.

"We'll use this study to sell, to promote, to further gain recognition
as a tech region," Weddle said.

The Triangle has had some success recently in high-tech recruiting.
This year, Tekelec, a telecommunications gear maker, announced it was
moving its headquarters from Calabasas, Calif., to Morrisville, where
it already employed about 600 people. Last year, New York-based Credit
Suisse chose RTP for its $100 million technology development and
processing center.

Venture capital

The study shows that the Triangle also is a good place to start a tech
business, said Monica Doss, president of the Council for
Entrepreneurial Development, a nonprofit group that works with young
companies.

Still, Doss said, the Triangle lags in some areas that aren't in the
report. One is accessibility to venture capital, the financing that
new companies need to develop their technology and expand.

Indeed, the report makes a passing reference to Silicon Valley
remaining top dog with "the nation's largest concentration of
information and biotechnology companies" and "the largest pool of
venture capital."

"We still believe the Silicon Valley is the top technology region in
the world," Guardino said. "This report underscores that we aren't the
only technology region in the world."

Weddle said the Research Triangle Foundation has hired IBM's business
consulting division to do a similar study of the "best practices" of
research parks and research centers around the globe.

"Just because we're good today," he said, "doesn't mean we can enjoy
that position tomorrow."


Staff writer David Ranii can be reached at 829-4877 or 
davidr AT newsobserver.com.

(c) Copyright 2005, The News & Observer Publishing Company,
a subsidiary of The McClatchy CompanyMcClatchy Company