TechniCLE Speaking summit Wednesday will gather about 150 from the political class, civic class, investors and tech entrepreneurs in a room to discuss the major challenges those in the local tech scene face.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Tech entrepreneurs play an important role in regional economic growth, but those innovators say they could use more help and fewer roadblocks.
At least that's what Michael DeAloia, known as the Tech Czar, said he hears often from people in the local tech community. Debate and discussion between entrepreneurs and city officials has been missing from the regional tech scene, and the innovators want to talk about gaining talent, capital and ways to grow faster.
Wednesday, about 150 tech entrepreneurs, civic and political leaders and private investors are expected to gather for half a day at Jones Day in what's being dubbed as the TechniCLE Speaking summit.
"The tech industry has not done a great job with cementing relationships with government like some other industries," DeAloia said, who also writes a tech column for The Plain Dealer. "Tech companies don't think that way. But they complain loudly that things aren't going well for them."
Several local government leaders are expected to be in attendance. The summit is hosted by Jones Day, a Cleveland law firm that has worked with tech companies, entrepreneurs and venture-backed companies for many years.
The event will be a "series of short talks and panel discussions with light moderation and frequent audience interaction on issues directly related to Cleveland's emerging technology sector, including local capital raising; forging connections between government and established and emerging industries; and workforce development, both foreign and domestic," according to the Jones Day website announcement. "TechniCLE Speaking is intended to break down barriers and inform public policy."
"The idea is to get the political class, civic class, investors and tech entrepreneurs in a room together to discuss the major issues that the tech industry is facing," DeAloia said.
John Saada, a partner and co-chair of the law firm's fund services practice, said unfortunately there are some existing roadblocks in growing a technology company in the Cleveland area.
John Saada, a partner at Jones Day "We're going to focus on lack of capital and resources for early stage companies," he said. "It's tough to attract young technology professionals to Cleveland when we are competing against other cities that might be perceived to be sexier than Cleveland, like Boston and San Francisco."
TechniCLE Speaking is sponsored by the Cleveland City Council, with Councilman Joe Cimperman spearheading the event. Presenters include Armond Budish, Cuyahoga County executive; Lev Gonick, CEO of OneCommunity; Mark Kvamme, partner at Drive Capital; and Charles Stack, CEO of Flashstarts. Community partners include The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com.
Saada points out that, despite a perceived lack of capital, he's encouraged by a couple recent examples of technical companies (that his firm represented) growing in Cleveland and selling off to larger public companies.
Orthohelix, a medical device company that made implants for hands and feet, sold last year to a public company for more than $100 million. And Explorys, a 5-year-old healthcare intelligence cloud company that built one of the largest clinical data sets in the world, was sold to IBM just last month.
Saada said the main reason Jones Day is hosting the event, is because his firm wants to play a role in connecting people with resources and capital that could help their businesses.
"Ideally, if one of these start-ups is funded by one of the capital sources that attends the summit, we would consider the event to be a success."