Gonick was one of four panelists at the Oct. 1 Amplify Speaker Series luncheon at Corporate College East. With much of the discussion dedicated to attracting and retaining talent in the technology sector, the panelists and facilitator Joy Roller presented their thoughts to approximately 80 attendees.<\/p>\n
Roller, the president of Global Cleveland, said there is one thing that all employers can do to attract talent. \u201cHire an international student for at least their first 12 months out of school. They can be employed during that time. If they\u2019re in a STEM program, they can stay for another 17 months. That\u2019s a whole 29 months,\u201d she said. \u201cIf that employee is someone you want to invest in, then go through the H-1B (visa) process. It costs not that much money \u2014 a couple thousand dollars \u2014 but these are the best and the brightest (students). We have over 7,000 international students that come to our colleges and universities, but federal law says they must leave unless they are sponsored by an employer. You can employ these kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not that Northeast Ohio\u2019s existing talent is lacking, according to Ashley Basile Oeken, the executive director of Engage! Cleveland. \u201cI\u2019m all for bringing immigrants here, but I have a list of young professionals that are trying to find positions that can\u2019t find them in this area,\u201d she said. \u201cBringing more business here, bringing more people here, bringing more jobs and creating more opportunities \u2014\u00a0everybody has to be all in it and be risk averse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kevin Goodman, the managing director and partner with BlueBridge Networks, praised the Northeast Ohio Regional Information Technology Engagement (NEO RITE) Board, a collaboration of senior IT executives who are committed to advancing the regional IT industry. Specifically, he lauded the organization\u2019s workforce development and training efforts. \u201cEducation is K through 12, it\u2019s higher ed. But with technology, it\u2019s so dynamic, it\u2019s so diverse. There is indeed a workforce development fervor that, quite frankly, is of gigantic proportions,\u201d he said. \u201cWe not only are bridging the skill gap, but we\u2019re also going into that pipeline of K through 12, going into all of those schools, saying this is how terrific (technology) is. It\u2019s an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gonick said the local community should take advantage of a \u201chuge opportunity\u201d to train women in coding. \u201cOne of the things that is happening on the coast right now that we would do well to follow before we fall too far behind is investing in young girls \u2014 on the way to becoming women \u2014\u00a0in coding,\u201d Gonick said. \u201cIt is the lingua franca of the next century \u2014\u00a0coding (and) actually knowing how to create app support. Left to nature, it will not happen. Women will not actually become coders. This will be one way at looking at the digital divide of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dan Young, the founder of DXY, said he is \u201coverly optimistic\u201d about Cleveland\u2019s place in technology, but there are still many challenges to address. \u201cWhile we\u2019re looking at immigrants, and we\u2019re looking at young professionals, and we\u2019re looking at tech people, we still have to be realistic about this and look at how can we advance our entire culture and our entire community,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause in the long run that will be the biggest benefit of all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WARRENSVILLE HTS. \u2014\u00a0What\u2019s the best way to attract technology talent to Cleveland? According to Lev Gonick, the CEO of OneCommunity, the city should take advantage of its \u201cgrittiness\u201d because \u201cone of the industries attracted to grittiness is tech.\u201d Gonick was one of four panelists at the Oct. 1 Amplify Speaker Series luncheon at Corporate College […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,9],"tags":[16,18,24,33],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-building-community","category-in-the-news","category-operational-excellence","tag-business","tag-cleveland","tag-entrepreneurism","tag-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kevinjgoodman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/CBC-Amplify-Series.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinjgoodman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinjgoodman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinjgoodman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinjgoodman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinjgoodman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kevinjgoodman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinjgoodman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinjgoodman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinjgoodman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinjgoodman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}