ITCND held its seventh annual IT Awards program on Oct. 9 in conjunction with the Great Plains Technology Conference in Fargo. Receiving awards for their vital role in IT development were three private sector North Dakota IT leaders. Laducer and Associates, Inc. of Mandan received the Outstanding Achievement in Business award; Verety LLC of Fargo, Grand Forks and rural North Dakota received the Innovative Business User of Technology award and Kevin Leier, president and CEO of Tao Interactive, received the Entrepreneur Award.

The following public sector IT award winners will be recognized in February at the North Dakota Tech Expo in Minot: Jeffery Stamp, Ph.D., University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Education award; Maren Daley, Job Service North Dakota, Bismarck, will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Digital Government award and Sen. Randel Christmann, District 33, Hazen, will receive the Legislative award.

ITCND would like to congratulate all of the 2007-08 IT Award winners for their outstanding achievements.

Click here for a picture of the winners that were recognized on Oct. 9.

Kevin Leier, one of ITCND’s newest members and recipient of the 2007 ITCND Entrepreneur Award, was recognized for his demonstration of outstanding entrepreneurial success in the development of a technology-based commercial business. Leier founded Tao Interactive, located in Bismarck, to provide solution partners with web-enabled software, which allows its partners to expand offerings to include full-featured web services for their clients. By using this software, small companies are able to create sophisticated websites at a fraction of the cost. This tool opens doors for small companies to aggressively compete in new markets.

Through its services, Tao has enabled more than 15 North Dakota companies to expand services to include full-featured web services. The company has grown to include partners in regional, national and international markets, positioning the company for rapid growth through the use of its partner chain.

For more information about Tao Interactive and its services, visit www.taointeractive.com.

With three of North Dakota’s top five growing occupations within the IT industry, workforce recruitment and retention remains one of the main issues for the IT industry. With talent development as one of its primary goals, here is how ITCND is working to address these issues:

IT Career Awareness Program
ITCND is seeking private and public sector partnerships to establish a first-ever IT Career Awareness Program to inform students of IT career opportunities in North Dakota and develop a world-class IT workforce for the future.   

According to research conducted by two workforce-related state agencies, securing an educated and skilled IT workforce for the future and creating awareness of the state’s IT career opportunities are two significant IT workforce needs. Currently, there is no statewide program to address these issues. 

The IT Career Awareness Program will be approached in three phases: 1) Feasibility and Industry Support Study; 2) Program Development; 3) and Program Coordination and Implementation. ITCND will be the coordinating entity and the private sector connection.
 
If you are interested in learning more about the program or becoming a partner, email Deana Wiese, ITCND executive director, or call 701-355-4458.
 
Professional Development Conference Panel
ITCND members Bob Pope with Nexus Innovations, Bismarck, and Mark Momerak with National Information Systems Cooperative (NISC), Mandan, participated in an IT Professional panel at the Aug. 8 Professional Development Conference for high school teachers coordinated by North Dakota Career and Technical Education. The goal of the panel discussion was to inform teachers of IT career opportunities with the ultimate goal of encouraging students to pursue IT careers. 
 
Governor’s Workforce Summit
The 2007 Governor's Workforce Summit was held Oct. 11-12 in Bismarck. The summit showcased the best and most innovative ideas shaping North Dakota's workforce arena and provided business people an opportunity to influence the development of workforce-related policy.

ITCND worked with Summit coordinators to include an IT industry representative, Don Morton with Microsoft, on the Industry Panel. The panel included representatives from energy, health care, trucking, manufacturing and IT.  Morton provided information on the development of ITCND's IT Career Awareness Program to the more than 300 attendees.

The conference is a kick-off of a year-long effort to gather information and ideas to help shape strategic workforce policy during the next legislative session. A summary of the conference will be provided in the future.
 
Workforce Congress
Workforce Congress is an initiative that came out of the 60th Legislative Assembly to evaluate the state’s system for addressing workforce needs through research, active participation in focus groups across the state, analysis of the studies, and a final report that will lead to legislation that will help North Dakota meet its workforce needs. It will replace and be modeled after the Business Congress, which was conducted the past two interims and has resulted in dramatic economic growth for the state. 

Below are the dates of the focus group meetings that will give businesses the opportunity to voice their opinions about workforce-related issues affecting them. 

January 23, 2008 - Dickinson
January 24, 2008 - Minot
February 5, 2008 - To be selected
February 6, 2008 - To be selected
 
The focus groups will culminate at the Workforce Congress, which is expected to be held in early 2008. There businesses will remain involved as the reports from the focus groups are shared and further discussed. Following the Congress, the legislative committee will use the studies and reports for the 2008 council report.
 
For more information on how you can get involved, email Deana Wiese or call 701-355-4458.

Visit www.itcnd.org today to update your company or organization for the IT Business Resource Guide.

You should have received an email with details on taking advantage of the members only area. If you did not receive or misplaced the email, contact the ITCND office to receive your password.