Plan to Attend the VTTA Tech Conference
Sign up now to attend the VTTA Tech Conference from March 2 – 4, a virtual tech conference featuring speakers, networking and a Career Fair.
The VTTA Tech Conference is a forum to hear technologists, experts and other thought leaders address key topics and trends important to Vermont’s tech community and beyond. It’s also an opportunity to explore tech job opportunities and network with Vermont’s tech community.
The event will feature a dozen speakers addressing topics via a virtual event platform under the broad themes of:
- Technology Innovation and Innovators
- Tech Skill Development and Education
- Accessibility and Social Justice in Tech
- Rural Tech
Some of the planned topics and speakers include:
People are not Datasets – Amanda Casari, Open-Source Scientist at Google
Building Your Creative Muscle - Using the Lockdown to Improve Your Innovative Imagination – David Weaver, Founder, AccessCMO, Creative Thinking Amplifier, Habit Hacker
LinkedIn Logic: For Career Seekers – Kari Mirabal, International keynote and TEDx speaker, author, and consultant
No Woman Left Behind - Planning for Intersectionality – Shailvi Wakhlu, Sr. Director of Data at Strava
The Future is Digital – Matt Dunne, Executive Director, Center on Rural Innovation
In May 2021, Google search rankings will start to include user experience – are your websites ready? –Dan York, Director of Web Strategy, Internet Society
Wednesday is dedicated to a virtual Career Fair, a chance to meet with representatives from businesses to discuss career opportunities, and each day closes with an opportunity to virtually network.
The entire conference is available for one affordable price with a reduced rate for VTTA members and students; it is free to attend the Job Fair.
If you’re a business interested in participating in the job fair and/or being featured as a sponsor, find more information here, or contact us here.
We look forward to seeing you at the VTTA Tech Conference
Jeff Couture
Executive Director
Vermont Technology Alliance
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Women and Leadership: Celebrating Voices in Tech
(February 26, 2021)
Black River Innovation Campus (BRIC) in Springfield, Vermont presents a “Women & Leadership” virtual event. With the theme of “Celebrating Voices in Tech,” the event features panel discussions divided into the three segments of Women in Tech, Women Founders, and Women in Gaming.
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VTTA Tech Conference
(March 2-4, 2021)
The VTTA Tech Conference is a virtual forum to hear a dozen leading speakers address a range of topics and trends of interest to Vermont’s tech community and beyond. It’s also an opportunity to explore tech job opportunities and network with Vermont’s tech community through the event platform.
Find more and register here.
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See Change Session on SNW
(March 24-25, 2021)
Hula presents a See Change Session focused on climate change through the lens of the winter mountain sports ecosystem. Tune-in from to discover with fresh content and connect with a network of founders, investors, scientists, artists, activists and climate-curious entrepreneurs.
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Featured Member – Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, Inc (VCET)
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Emerging companies may have terrific ideas, but not necessarily all of the skills, experience and resources in place to grow and prosper. In response, VCET’s programs and capital funds offer select early-stage firms substantive business mentoring along with traditional business incubator services and infrastructure.
Since 2005, the VCET team has worked with over 2,500 entrepreneurs helping to crystallize concepts, assemble teams, craft business models, secure resources and locate early customers. Some firms will develop rapidly in a matter of months for a software launch, while others might take years to complete medical trials. Either way, VCET programs, facilities and capital programs serve a select few firms by supporting the design, positioning and acceleration of a new product idea, a better service offering, or a truly breakthrough platform technology. Simply put and relentlessly pursued, our purpose is to help businesses create next generation jobs for this generation of Vermonters.
VCET’s long-term strategic partners include US Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the University of Vermont, the Vermont Technology Council, the State of Vermont, Consolidated Communications, Middlebury College, Norwich University and many other economic development organizations.
VCET is a 501 (c) 3 public benefit corporation serving all of Vermont and manages the Vermont Seed Capital Fund, which is a $5 million revolving early-stage venture capital fund.
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Vermont’s Broadband Puzzle: 60,000 Households Aren’t in the Picture
(February 15, 2021 – VTDigger)
On some days, Steven John leaves his home in Marlboro to drive into town where he parks in front of the elementary school, opens his laptop and gets to work. His connection at home is so weak that he and his wife take turns going into town, where they can connect to public internet.
Marlboro is just one of the towns in Windham County with big gaps in internet connectivity that have left many in rural Vermont behind. Lawmakers estimate that 60,000 addresses in the state have no access to decent internet.
That isn’t a new problem, but it’s become acute during the pandemic, when remote work, online education, and telehealth have become essential. They all rely on an internet connection.
Last May, Marlboro joined five other towns in forming the Deerfield Valley Communication Union District, also called the DV CUD. John is the vice chair. The district’s goal is to provide access to internet to all district residents, “regardless of economic means,” John said.
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Beta Technologies: Flying Clean, Maybe Saving Lives
(February 15, 2021 – Vermont Business Magazine)
In a hangar at Burlington International Airport, and in a factory in Williston, Beta Technologies is going full speed ahead with design work and manufacturing that could provide an alternative – albeit a limited one – to petroleum-powered air travel.
Beta's engineering team is striving to win a race to develop an electrically powered zero-emissions aircraft.
In a recent interview with VBM, founder and CEO Kyle Clark said that the first applications of Beta's electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft will be the transportation of natural and manufactured organs for transplant patients, and a US Air Force cargo and logistics mission.
More tantalizingly, perhaps, the technology will also see some application in passenger transportation.
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Economic Survey Shows Vermont Small Business Pandemic Pessimism
(February 15, 2021 – Davis & Hodgdon)
More than 150 Vermont businesses from diverse industries and several counties completed the latest annual economic survey in January regarding the outlook of Vermont’s small- to medium-sized businesses. Of the business owners who responded, 86% have fewer than 25 employees.
The survey, presented by Davis and Hodgdon Associates and the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, revealed that there is dramatic negative change in business owners’ attitudes about the Vermont and U.S. economies. Based on the information gleaned from the entire survey, this pessimism is most likely a result of the effects of the pandemic.
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New Satellite Technology Providing High-Speed Internet to Vermonters
(February 11, 2021 – WCAX-TV)
The pandemic has shed a light on what happens when Vermonters don’t have access to reliable internet. Students learning remotely can’t do their classes easily and parents working from home struggle to get their jobs done. While the state has taken a number of steps to address the problem, one possible solution is Starlink, the brainchild of Elon Musk and his company SpaceX. WCAX looked at some Vermonters are already testing it.
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State’s Pricey Portfolio of IT Projects Totals $1 Billion Over the Next Five Years
(February 10, 2021 – VTDigger)
State plans for information technology projects add up to $1 billion over the next five years, according to calculations by the Agency of Digital Services. Accomplishing all those projects will be “problematic” unless the state figures out a new and modern way of generating revenue to cover that cost, says John Quinn, secretary of that agency. That’s a problem that the state Legislature is trying to solve.
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DealerPolicy Raises $30 million in Series B Funding
(February 10, 2021- DealerPolicy)
DealerPolicy, the leading insurance marketplace for automotive retail, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by 3L Capital and Hudson Structured Capital Management Ltd.
The company will use the funding to accelerate the development of its market-leading insurance platform for the auto industry and to expand its team, including the appointment of two new executives, Wayne Pastore as President and Chief Operating Officer and Tara Kasica as Senior Vice President of Sales.
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Superior Technical Ceramics acquires IJ Research
(February 3, 2021 – Superior Technical Ceramics)
Superior Technical Ceramics, one of the country's most experienced technical ceramics manufacturers and based in St Albans, has announced the acquisition of IJ Research, a manufacturer specializing in sapphire-to-metal brazed hermetic assemblies based in Santa Ana, California.
IJ Research, Inc is a manufacturing company specializing in applications that include electrical feedthroughs and opto-electronic windows, along with various sapphire-to-metal brazed hermetic assemblies. The firm provides a broad range of services for customers with demanding engineering requirements, including conceptual design, research and development, materials selection consulting, and prototyping through to manufacturing.
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Packetized Energy Awarded $2 Million California Energy Contract
(February 3, 2021 – Packetized Energy)
Packetized Energy, a leading developer of software systems and smart devices that help the electricity industry flexibly manage electricity demand, will receive $2 million in prime contractor funding from the California Energy Commission under their BRIDGE (Bringing Rapid Innovation Development to Green Energy) program. The award will fund deployment and connection of 7,000 new and existing smart energy devices to Packetized Energy’s Nimble platform, enabling a combined 4 megawatts (MW) of grid flexibility. The project will create one of the largest distributed energy resource aggregation networks from residential devices in California.
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Vermont Tech Firm THINKMD Spreads its COVID-19 Screening Tool Worldwide
(February 1, 2021 – Seven Days)
In 2014, University of Vermont pediatrician Dr. Barry Finette cofounded the tech startup THINKMD, with the goal of preventing millions of children in low- and middle-income countries from dying each year from treatable conditions such as pneumonia, malaria and dehydration. Working with tech entrepreneurs and software developers in Vermont, THINKMD spent more than two years designing, testing and distributing a diagnostic and treatment app, downloadable on virtually any laptop, tablet or smartphone.
Then, when the coronavirus first appeared in the United States in January 2020, the company immediately shifted its focus to developing a similar screening and education tool for COVID-19. Using its existing technology, as well as its partnerships with nongovernmental organizations and mobile network operators in Africa and Asia, the company took just eight weeks to get its new coronavirus product into the field, in 14 languages.
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Vermont Technology Alliance Membership Update
The Vermont Technology Alliance works on behalf of its members and is able to carry out its mission through the support of its membership.
Not a vtTA member yet? Then why not join now? Find more information here, or sign up at our new member registration page here. You can also contact us at admin@vtta.org.
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Useful Information & Links |
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Applications Are Open for LaunchVT
LaunchVT is an early-stage business accelerator that runs from mid-April to mid-June. Eight businesses will be selected to participate in the 2021 cohort. Each business will be coached by an industry expert and have access to over 200 people who can help them go faster. The cohort will work with advisors, domain experts, fellow founders and investors. The accelerator wraps up with Demo Night, our annual celebration of entrepreneurship, where the cohort will pitch their businesses for a shot at over $100K in cash and professional services.
Find more information here.
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Governor's Institutes of Vermont: Tech and Design Applications Now Open!
Know a student who loves technology? Are they an inventor or a dreamer? Then they belong at The Governor’s Institutes of Vermont’s virtual Technology & Design Immersion! This summer, students at GIV will participate in fast-paced design challenges to build and prototype solutions to real-world problems big and small, with opportunities to focus on programming, design thinking, microcontrollers, and graphic design. They’ll work remotely with media and technology professors and professionals, expand their technical skills and knowledge, and discover where design and technology can take them. Tuition is “pay-what-you-can,” and GIV’s support team is at the ready to help with any tech issues - so all Vermont families can apply without worrying about money or technology.
Find more and register here.
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vtTA Career Center
Vermont Technology Alliance member companies are hiring, and when you visit the Career Center on the Vermont Technology Alliance website you can browse and search for these job openings and subscribe to updates. The Career Center has 100+ tech and non-tech jobs with Vermont Technology Alliance member businesses and organizations. Jobs available from vtTA members are listed at no charge in the Career Center as a member benefit.
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Are you looking for business services, meet-up groups, government information or funding sources? Find this and more at vtTA’s Resources page, including services provided by vtTA member businesses.
Find the resources page here.
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The vtTA Thanks Its Member/Sponsors |
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