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Summit showcases tech belt
YOUNGSTOWN
Companies from the information-technology industry came out to provide the latest news on their technologies and solutions Thursday.
The third annual Tech Belt Technology Summit was at Youngstown State University’s Williamson College of Business Administration. Some attendees came to learn more about the technology and its implications.
“We’re interested to see how they integrate with business,” said Sasha Monroe, a systems administrator at wholesale-distributor Trumbull Industries.
“Really, it’s an overload of information,” said Chris Massey, director of product development at Youngstown-based Data Recovery Services LLC, which coordinated the event in partnership with the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.
The summit featured 20 vendors, along with panel discussions and speakers. This year’s summit included three presentation tracks geared toward a specific audience: chief information officers, owners/CEOs and technology professionals. Representatives from Cisco, EMC Corp and Hewlett-Packard also spoke at roundtable discussions during lunch.
“We enjoy the exposure as much as we can,” said Bill Hahn, an HP partner account executive.
Speakers included Vala Afshar, chief information officer of Extreme Networks Inc. based in San Jose, Calif., which has worked with more than 1,400 school districts nationwide. He talked about how schools and universities are learning to leverage technology in education.
“We’re highly mobile,” he said.
The Youngstown Business Incubator also announced its partnership with DRS LLC. YBI portfolio companies and referrals who choose DRS as their service provider will receive a discount on select services. The YBI will receive up to 12 percent of all monthly service fees paid by the participating companies.
DRS CEO Mike Meloy said the two organizations will be partnered at a deeper level than before.
About 150 people attended the event, Lauren McNally, a spokeswoman for DRS, said.