The NC TECH Association hosted its annual Outlook for Tech conference on Wednesday, and one thing was clear — The future of the industry in North Carolina is bright.
The event, typically held in Charlotte, was virtual this year and focused on what industry leaders and experts throughout the state had to say about technology trends and future innovations, NC TECH Association CEO Brooks Raiford said.
Throughout the morning, 350 people tuned in to tech talks from Tom Snyder, executive director of RIoT, and Nicole Raimundo, CIO for the town of Cary; an innovations briefing by Jake Brody, managing director, south market unit interactive lead at Accenture; the State of Tech Industry Report briefing by Ted Abernathy, managing partner at Economic Leadership; the keynote address from Carl Deal, managing vice president of Gartner Executive Programs; and a 2021 preview of NC TECH's year ahead by Mark Dirks, president and CEO of Beacon Technologies.
Raiford said the organization aims to reach as many people in as many industries as possible with the event.
"It's not just a conference for techies," he said. "It has a lot of content for people who are consumers of technology, people who are leaders in a non-tech industry but who use tech to do what they do. We present a lot of insight and practical examples."
One key component of the event was Abernathy's presentation of the North Carolina Technology 2021 Industry Report. The report is commissioned by the NC TECH Association and released each year during the conference.
Raiford said some key takeaways from the report include North Carolina being ranked seventh in the country in overall tech industry employment growth; second in the country for women in the tech industry — 35.4% of the state's tech workforce are women; and seventh in the country for startups created out of a university system. Employment in the tech industry also grew 1.3% over the past year.
"I was disappointed that we slipped one notch in the women in tech category, but Maine just happened to tick up enough to claim that top spot," he said. "It's extremely reassuring, though, that women working in tech is a real trend. In all seven years we've been doing this report, that has been consistent."
The most surprising statistics, Raiford said, were related to the number of startups in North Carolina born out of a university program, as well as the average wage for a tech worker in the state. According to the report, the average salary in the industry is $120,500 per year.
"We rank quite high, and people are often surprised by that," he said.
Charlotte has long contributed to the tech industry's continued growth, Raiford said. Mecklenburg County, alongside Wake and Durham counties, account for 57% of the state's tech industry. In the last 10 years, the city has had to prepare its infrastructure for two major political events — The Democratic National Convention in 2012 and the Republican National Convention in 2020, which ended up being predominately virtual.
"One thing people tend to lose track of is when there are major civic events ... there is a great amount of preparation that goes into that, including building tech infrastructure," he said. "It accelerates Charlotte's strength as a smart city and gives a boost to the region."
"These types of events position the city to be a center of growth moving forward because you already have all that infrastructure in place," Raiford added.
