TechBurgher is back from a near week-long hiatus with the holidays. The Pittsburgh Technology Council closes the offices between Christmas and New Years. We’re ramping up for 2009 and with the past couple days off, I’ve been thinking a lot about 2008. It will probably go down as one of the roughest years ever. Thankfully, much of our local technology sector has been somewhat insulated compared to other regions, but we’ve dealt a number of challenges on numerous fronts.
The hardest pills to swallow over the past year were the announcements of companies folding up shop. The FORE Systems legacy came to a final resting place as Ericsson said it would close its facilities in Marshall Twp., bringing the slow decline of the once mighty tech company to its final resting spot. Seagate announced that it will close its R&D facility in the Strip. This didn’t come as a huge surprise as Dr. Mark Kryder retired a few years ago, leaving a bit of a vacuum. He was instrumental in getting Seagate to establish and maintain a Pittsburgh presence nearly a decade ago. Just before the holidays, Sony announced the closing of its television plant. This, too, wasn’t a complete surprise as the company has scaled back it operations over the previous year.
Wow, just writing this is getting me depressed. It’s so easy to focus on the negative. We shouldn’t forget that companies are hiring. Just look at Westinghouse. They’re trying to hire thousands of engineers locally. I just cruised over to the Council’s Career Center and did a little research. There are thousands of open technical positions. I counted more than 100 openings just under computer engineering.
What’s kept the region a bit insulated is our diversity of tech industries. We don’t have too many FORE Systems-sized tech companies, but we have a glut of smaller firms who are really kicking butt out there. Just look at outfits like Vivisimo, Songwhale, Cohera and Acusis. Crack open any issue of TEQ and you can read about a number of up and coming tech companies poised to make the big time.
I’ve got a lot of confidence in our industry moving toward 2009. It won’t be easy. It may not always be pretty, but the region can come out on top. So what do you think? Give us your “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of 2008.” I’ve got a couple more posts before the year is up recapping some of the really great stuff that happened in 2008 despite the wretched economy.
