Spokespeople for both iGo and Intuit Payroll Services, companies that have relocated to Reno within the past two years, say those factors contributed to their decisions to move operations to Northern Nevada. Tech Alliance has sponsored funding competitions where local entrepreneurs can present their business plans to a panel and the winner receives a substantial grant to put its plan into action. In addition, Thomas is excited about the Sibayan high-tech accelerator project slated for the South Meadows section of Reno. The project will foster as many as 200 new companies in its complex, providing them with resources in areas such as marketing and research and development. Hollingsworth also states that four venture capitalists have headquarters in Las Vegas and are funding local companies.
Challenges still exist.
We re not producing the technologically-skilled people we need locally, he said. Southern Nevada is not a hotbed for technology. It can be, and the university is working on that, but you can t expect a university to produce a lot of technology people overnight. Although Thomas also echoes concerns about developing a large pool of qualified workers, most of the companies interviewed for this article stated they have had relatively few problems. Larry King, vice-president and general manager of the Intuit Payroll Systems Group, says it recently received more than 700 applications for 125 job openings, and most of the people applying were very well qualified.