On Monday, Nov. 19 WTIA hosted 11 state lawmakers, including four newly elected state representatives, for a tour of several member company facilities.

The first stop was AT&T’s data center in Bothell, followed by AT&T’s Network Operations Center in Redmond.  Both of these facilities are staffed 24/7/365.  AT&T has a sizable footprint in Washington state and has invested $1.5 billion in the last few years upgrading its network and infrastructure.  Most of AT&T’s customer support for the iphone is in Washington, along with a great deal of the application data stored on servers in their data center.

Google hosted the group for lunch in their cafeteria.  We toured a couple of the buildings at Google’s Kirkland campus.  Google has grown employment in Washington to over 1000 employees in both Seattle and Kirkland.  The majority are engineers.  The demand for engineering talent at companies like Google goes unabated.  Google recruits heavily from UW’s Computer Science program, as do Amazon, Microsoft and many other tech firms.

Google’s Washington offices have made their mark within the company.  There are now many projects underway in Kirkland that were started in Kirkland.  Washington has become a major outpost for Google.

The last stop on the tour was at the labs of Intellectual Ventures.  IV is a very interesting and diverse company.  While they are known as having a sizable and valuable patent portfolio, the company is all about invention.  Their Bellevue labs are a high-tech tinkerer’s paradise.  From developing technology to stop malaria to understanding the chemistry of cooking, Intellectual Ventures is looking to put lots of brain power to solve the world’s big problems, such as potable water, infectious diseases and renewable energy.

State lawmakers appreciated and enjoyed the tour, learned quite a bit about what technology companies do and came away with a greater appreciation for the value of the state’s tech industry for the state and its citizens.

WTIA thanks AT&T, Google and Intellectual Ventures for opening up their offices and facilities to state lawmakers.

WTIA also wishes to thank the following elected officials for joining us:

Sen. Rodney Tom, http://www.leg.wa.gov/senate/senators/Pages/tom.aspx

Rep. Roger Goodman, http://www.leg.wa.gov/house/representatives/Pages/goodman.aspx

Rep. Zach Hudgins, http://www.leg.wa.gov/house/representatives/Pages/hudgins.aspx

Rep. Cindy Ryu, http://www.leg.wa.gov/house/representatives/Pages/ryu.aspx

Rep. Larry Springer, http://www.leg.wa.gov/house/representatives/Pages/springer.aspx

Rep. Derek Stanford, http://www.leg.wa.gov/house/representatives/Pages/stanford.aspx

Rep. J.T. Wilcox, http://www.leg.wa.gov/house/representatives/Pages/wilcox.aspx

The newly elected state representatives who joined us were:

Rep-elect Roger Freeman of Federal Way

Rep-elect Cyrus Habib of Bellevue

Rep-elect Linda Kochmar of Federal Way

Rep-elect Chad Magendanz of Issaquah

WTIA is committed to connecting our technology company members with policymakers to create a better understanding of the tech industry’s needs with regards to developing the talent necessary to fill the jobs of today and tomorrow.  State lawmakers are the “front line” of making the laws and budgets that determine Washington’s direction.  WTIA is proud to partner with our lawmakers to keep Washington a top technology state.