Tech Coast Ready to Make Name for Itself
After a year of behind-the-scenes preparation, the Tech Coast Alliance is set to begin its uphill campaign to make “Tech Coast” as much a household name as “Silicon Valley.”
This week, the Costa Mesa-based group--whose goal is to boost the profile of high-tech companies from Santa Barbara to San Diego--will launch a marketing campaign to recruit corporate and individual members. Representatives from the Tech Coast Alliance will also step up their list of speaking engagements and appearances at events like the Software Council of Southern California’s VentureNet ’98 venture capital conference, Wednesday and Thursday in Costa Mesa.
Tech Coast Alliance Chairman Chip Parker said the group hopes to strengthen ties between Southern California companies in seven industry clusters: aerospace and defense, computers and electronics, entertainment and multimedia, biotechnology and medical devices, software and information technology, telecommunications and Internet services, and clean energy and the environment.
To do that, the organization will publish a quarterly magazine, sponsor a variety of industry-specific symposiums, commission an annual economic study of the region, and use its Web site (https://www.techcoast.com) to coordinate a master calendar of technology events throughout the region, Parker said. The group’s activities will culminate each year with a three-day Tech Coast Expo, the first of which is planned for the spring of 1999.
Parker said these initiatives took shape in conversations with 450 high-tech CEOs throughout Southern California. With the help of corporate sponsors, the group has invested $300,000 in its efforts so far.
