On Wednesday, Feb.13, WTIA and several of our members visited Olympia to lobby state lawmakers on the key issues of importance to the state technololgy industry.  WTIA thanks Board Chair Janice Anderson,  Synapse Founder Scott Bright, Hidden Path Entertainment CEO Jeff Pobst, Vertafore Director of Communications Brad Meacham, Phil Herres, Microsoft Government Relations Manager Irene Plenefisch, Legicrawler Co-founders Beckie and Dennis Krantz, Technology Alliance President Susannah Malarkey and WTIA CEO Susan Sigl.

The day was packed with meetings with individual legislators, an hour long meeting with new state CIO Mike Cockrill (a tech industry veteran and serial entrepreneur) and a meeting with a group of “tech cities” from around the state to see where the tech industry and local governments can find common ground and cooperate on mutual interests, such as roads, transportation and broadband infrastructure.

WTIA also wishes to thank the various state Representatives and Senators with whom we met.  Senators Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Bruce Dammeier, Nathan Schlicher, Andy Hill (Chair of Senate Ways and Means) and David Frockt, along with Rep. Chris Reykdal all generously gave their time to hear our group’s discussion of the need for more computer scientists and engineers and for renewal of the R&D tax incentives.

This visit was the first of what we hope are at least annual forays to the state Capitol to advocate for the tech industry.  Showing up is the first step, followed by ongoing communications and relationship building with policymakers and the building up of a sizable political action committee to help those who support the tech industry.

This visit was done under the banner of WTIA’s new Information Technology Coalition, which now has its own page on the WTIA website.  Check it out and get familiar with the IT Coalition and what we are advocating for.  WTIA is recruiting more companies to join this coalition, which is raising the tech sector’s visibility with state lawmakers and the public.