OVERVIEW OF HIDDEN-TECH GROWTH  

From a loosely knit group of friends in the fall of 2001, HIDDEN-TECH has grown to at least 1900 tech and other professionals from the Rt. 91 “Knowledge Corridor” and beyond to share, teach, and learn business skills and information, expand their technology expertise, and provide information and education about our businesses to the public and decision maker.

See here:  The original Globe article

Since the very successful kick-off event on May 7, 2002 at Avaquest in Amherst, HIDDEN-TECH has put on many well attended programs events, ranging from new technology skills to how to market and manage a small business. There have been networking sessions, such as the one at Calvin Theater in Northampton at the end of June and the September structured networking program held at Tortus Technologies in West Springfield at the end of September. There have been public information and education events, involving Chambers of Commerce, planning agencies, and municipalities, to help planners and decision makers better understand the economic importance of very small businesses. A public education session about advanced media entrepreneurship and technologies is planned for October 2006. And there are events to address workforce issues, such an exhibit of our member companies held at and with Hampshire College, and one planned for October 2006 at the University of Massachusetts, to show students the range of possible internship and career opportunities.

In general, HIDDEN-TECH participants fall into the following broad market categories: PR/Marketing/Newsletters; Content; E-commerce services/Retailers; Hardware/Software Developers; Web Design/Hosting, and Management Consulting/IT Training. Everyone from jewerly designers to photographers, software developers to marketing specialists attend meetings. Their connection is that they are small, usually not incorporated and use technology to drive their business.

The first steering committee was comprised of Amy Zuckerman (founder), along with Jon Reed, Tom Warger, Rich Roth, Janus Ternullo, and Bruce O’Leary. Over the years they were joined by Claudia Gere, Silvana Gravini, Jeff Lander, Heather Row, Afranio Torres-Neto and Rick Feldman.
The steering committee, now the Hidden-Tech board, is the governing body of the organization, overseeing everything from membership to finances, educational and networking-related programming to Web development.

HIDDEN-TECH Web site.

Still in our infancy, HIDDEN-TECH is continues to develop creative ways to serve, educate, support, assist, and bring together the many home-based and office-based virtual companies that are the mainstay of our organization. The steering committee/board welcomes input from anyone who wants to join us.

Steering Committee Bios

To post information to our list all you have to do is join in our users area: here


The Steering Committee, March 2009