What the world saw in Austin

City buffed its image and did some business at the World Congress.

For five days last week, Austin wined, dined, entertained and otherwise treated about 2,100 guests to the best it has to offer in hopes of cementing its image as one of the world's best technology centers.

The city long has felt comfortable mentioning itself in the same breath as Silicon Valley and Seattle when talk turns to technology. The World Congress on Information Technology gave Austin a chance to get others to see the capital of Texas the same way.

"Everybody knows about Silicon Valley, but not about Austin," said Nizar Zakka, the World Information Technology and Services Alliance's vice chairman for the Middle East and North Africa. The World Congress is that group's biennial trade show.

Zakka spent five years at the University of Texas, so he knows plenty about the high-tech industry in Central Texas.

But back at his home in Lebanon — and in most places throughout the world — Austin's better known as the place where George W. Bush lived before he moved to the White House.

"By bringing the conference here, you are certifying Austin as a main destination for information technology," he said. "It deserves to have that reputation."

That could generate more interest in UT, perhaps attracting more international students to Austin, Zakka said. It could give local companies a chance to make inroads in nations that have been inaccessible to them. And it will put Austin on the world map of technology. Bringing some of the country's most powerful technology executives together to discuss ways to improve life across the globe can generate a lot of goodwill for the industry at a time when America's image is suffering in some parts of the world.

"You have to look at it from an international perspective," Zakka said. "It's the World Congress, not the U.S. Congress."

But there were some grumbles about the conference.

"I think there could have been more," said Robert Toker, head of the UK Trade & Investment's Houston office, about the turnout and the breadth of the agenda. "I was expecting a little more."

Cid Torquato, executive director of the Brazilian Chamber of e-Commerce, said he was expecting to see more people at his organization's booth at the exhibit hall, which he said cost $25,000.

Some first-time attendees said they weren't sure of the point of the conference, which featured CEOs of major tech companies and political leaders. The World Congress wasn't quite Davos, Switzerland: it was a trade show, but it wasn't a U.N. meeting.

Many out-of-towners complained about the logistics, such as the irregularity of hotel shuttle buses and the scarcity of direct flights to Austin.

But even those who found room for improvement say they benefited.

Brazilians met Dell Inc., which has had a plant in Brazil since 1999. They're planning trips to San Antonio and other parts of the state to try and persuade tech companies to invest in their country.

Representatives from the United Kingdom said they had persuaded at least two Texas companies to expand their British operations in the near future. Toker wouldn't name the companies but said one has about 1,000 Texas workers.

He stopped short of saying that meetings he set up with the companies in conjunction with the World Congress sealed the deals. But, he said, they certainly helped.

"This type of event is what makes these sorts of deals easier," Toker said.

Central Texas companies that helped sponsor the World Congress said the event was worth it.

"It's about marketing yourself. Austin's name gets on the list; people from Taiwan and India and other places come to understand it as a place with relatively low taxes and a strong high-tech industry," said Dean Harvey, a partner at the Dallas office of the law firm Vinson & Elkins LLP who attended the event.

"You can't say we got X dollars out of it, but it can really pay off in ways you can't directly measure."

Whether the World Congress produces any big economic development victories for Central Texas, such as new facilities by global tech companies, won't be known for months or possibly even years.

But there were plenty of small, individual business deals being discussed in meeting rooms at the Austin Convention Center, private off-site gatherings and social events.

Harvey said he held several impromptu meetings, including one with a company looking for assistance with technology transaction work.

"You never know whether it will turn into business, but it's always worthwhile to make these kinds of connections," he said. "Anytime you can get together business folks with similar interests, there's potential there."

David Altounian, co-founder of Austin-based tablet PC maker Motion Computing Inc., happened to sit down for breakfast beside a U.K. government official. They struck up a conversation, he said, and soon they were talking about Motion's business prospects in England.

"Normally, we wouldn't be in a position to see them," he said.

Nor would he run into Jamaludin Jarjis, the Malaysian minister of science, technology and innovation. Altounian and Jarjis met to talk about Motion's prospects with that country's government. Later, Altounian met with Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Those meetings don't mean much if Motion doesn't follow up on them, Altounian said. It probably will be three to six months before the company finds out how successful this conference has been, he said. "A lot of it is in our hands now."

When Vignette Corp. signed on as an exhibitor at the World Congress trade show, it was with fairly low expectations.

"We were hoping to make business contacts, but we weren't sure it would happen," said Larry Warnock, chief marketing officer at the Austin Web software company. "It's not an event that has a track record in Austin."

But the bites were there, and this week the follow-up begins.

"We got a number of specific business leads regarding how our software could by used by governments and businesses overseas," Warnock said.

In addition, several U.S. insurance companies, which had delegates at the conference, made serious inquiries, he said. "That was another pleasant surprise," Warnock said.

Austin startup nVision Software Technologies, which had a booth across the street at the Austin Hilton, says it connected with firms in Mexico, India and Brazil.

"We've got three solid leads, and we're very pleased with the results," CEO Johnny Anderson said, although he declined to name them. "These are companies we wouldn't have met otherwise."

The four-year-old company, which sells applications-management software, began networking before the event began. "We went through the list and sent targeted e-mails to folks who looked like a good fit in markets we wanted to be in," Anderson said. "It progressed from e-mails to phone calls to sit-down meetings. We'll see where it goes from here. I'm very optimistic."

The traffic and networking traveled both ways.

C.C. Puan, CEO of Green Packet— a small company in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that supplies networking software for PCs to Dell's China operations — came to the conference hoping to make additional Dell contacts and explore business partnerships with Central Texas companies.

"People in Malaysia know Austin because of two things: Dell and the University of Texas. It's bigger than I thought. I know Dallas and Houston, but this is my first time to Austin," said Puan, who graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1992. "There are more tech companies here than I thought."

The high-tech industry is exploding in Malaysia and across Asia, so there is no shortage of opportunities for his 300-person company back home.

"Most of our dealings with Dell are in China," he said. "But the key decisions are still made at (Dell's) headquarters here."

The Program

Tuesday, 2 May 2006

The Honorable Roger Williams, Chairman
Texas Secretary of State

Wade Adams, Houston
Chairman of the Board, Texas Nanotechnology Initiative
Director, The Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University

Oliver Bell, Austin
CEO, Global Labor & Employment Strategies, Inc.

Carlos Chacon, El Paso
Account Executive, Texas, Oklahoma & New Mexico for GTSI

Representative Phil King, Weatherford
Legislative Chairman with Science and Technology Jurisdiction
Texas House of Representatives

Steve Koebele, Austin
Attorney, Law Office of Stephen P. Koebele

Jennifer Martin, Ph.D., Denton
Dean, Texas Woman’s University Graduate School

Alisha Ring, Austin
Austin Technology Council

WCIT 2006 Program

Download the executive summary here

Download the latest World Congress Program Agenda here

WCIT 2006 Global Impact Topics

For the first time, the World Congress will focus on three key IT issues that impact the world. Delegates will cast votes real-time on policy proposals on these issues and those receiving a 'yes' vote will be published as the official recommendation of WCIT 2006 and WITSA. Delegates can then present these agreed-upon policy positions to IT industry and government groups in nations around the world.

 Privacy and Security

In the security-conscious world of the 21st century, how will we achieve the seemingly duplicitous goal of increasing the ease with which information is shared for positive purposes while protecting that same information from misuse?

Is any information private? Is It helping or hindering the struggle for personal privacy?

 Digital Access

As information technology becomes increasingly prevalent around the world, developed and developing countries need to prepare their citizens to become active players in the new digital economy.

What changes in trade, government, and industry policy need to be made to increase access in emerging, developing, and developed nations? How is economic development impacted by technological development?

 Healthcare in the 21st Century

Arguably, no other industry stands to benefit more from developments in IT than healthcare.