Redefining New England’s Technology and Innovation Image
December 29th, 2008 by Tony Sapienza
Boston Globe columnist Scott Kirsner has a knack for unearthing interesting issues, and he’s done it again this week with a Boston Sunday Globe piece focused on steps the New England region can take to better express its great technology and innovation story. Scott’s asking for some suggestions on how to best “express the essence of the new New England” — and he mentions an effort back in 2000 than some of us were involved in to rename the region…to come up with our local version of Silicon Valley (the result was Dot.Commonwealth, which faded away along with the dot-com boom). Scott tossed out a few ideas, and these got me thinking (I’m tempted to dust off my tagline suggestion from that effort 8 years ago — “Massachusetts, the Innovate State” — but I’m sure I can come up with something fresher). I’ve asked Topaz folks to give this some thought — and I’d ask others to do so as well, especially those who, like us, are proud members of this region’s technology heritage, and it’s future. I figure it’s a good way to work off that all that eggnog that’s clogging our brains. Share your ideas here and/or with Scott directly by posting comments to his column (I just checked it out — there are some interesting ideas being kicked around).
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December 30th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Great article by Kirsner! My Dad was part of the 128 America’s Technology Highway generation. His company, called Itek Optical Systems, was one of many defense contractors developing technologies and weapons systems for the military. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war definitely played a part in the demise of Itek and many other companies. (Ratheon and some others have survived.)
Many of the first wave of tech companies were also operated in the ‘old school’ fashion when everything was done in-house. Outsourcing left many of these companies behind and a new wave of companies and innovators have stepped in. You can see this in the very building where Itek was once located – on Maguire Road in Lexington, MA. Now there are hundreds of companies in that one complex, many of them technology companies.
Regarding a branding effort for the region, I really love the campaign that the University of Massachusetts has been running on television, featuring Bill Pullman and other UMass alums sharing their stories about where a UMass education has taken them. ( Disclosure: I’m biased as a UMass, Amherst alum.) You could do a campaign like this for New England/MA/Boston technology region – and add social media elements for people to share and interact.
Take a look at UMass’s “The Future I Imagined” campaign here: http://www.massachusetts.edu/future/index.html