Roundtable: tech.

• Author: Bicknell, Lindsay
• Position: COMCAST BUSINESS

This month, Utah Business partnered with Comcast to host a roundtable event featuring Utah's tech leaders speaking on tech trends, innovation in a pandemic, and coming back to the office. Moderated by Cydni Tetro, CEO of Brandless and founder and president of Women Tech Council, here are a few highlights from the event.

2020 was one of the most active years in tech in a very long time. What is driving that growth?

Wes Swenson | Founder & CEO I Novva Data Centers

For our business, the geographic boundaries have really changed for our clients--where they used to be very proximate customers to their own server locations, now they want to spread their servers out. But I think that also goes with Utah's business climate; it's a well-managed state economically, so it brings a lot of stability, and clients want to come here. The airport makes it easy; it's a nonstop flight for a lot of our clients and investors. What more could you ask for as far as ease of travel?

Wendy Rand | CHRO | InMoment

About two weeks before fhe pandemic hit, we closed an acquisition with a company that further globalized InMoment. So we had an opportunity to travel around to all the different parts of the world to our new offices and welcome people into InMoment--but then we went into lockdown. So we've had the unique challenge of becoming a combined company that increased significantly in size with the MaritzCX acquisition, and so our focus really was more so from a global perspective, integrating the two companies together and creating what that new combined company offering would be as well as the combined company culture, so I'd say it's been a broader focus than Utah specifically.

Carlee Brennan I Chief of Staff & Director of Administration | Blyncsy

When we've had a couple of positions open this year where we were able to hire, I noticed almost all of the applicants were coming from the Bay Area, or New York, and places like that, so some of that tech talent is really helping support and sustain that ecosystem that we have in the tech industry here in Utah.

What are sonic of the top technology trends that you think are going to impact either businesses or consumers through 2021?

Kim Wittman | VP of Talent, Acquisition, & HR I Vivint Smart Home

Al continues to be a really important focus across many tech industries and technologies, specifically for Vivint as we look at the home becoming even more prominent in our lives where we work. It's not just where we live and raise our families and grow, it's where we work and do so much within our communities. Having foresight as to what will happen for our customers and being able to predict those experiences continues to be really important, and that spans across many different technologies.

Carlos Johnson I Director of Sales Engineering, Mountain West Region | Comcast

Work-life integration is huge no matter what industry or career you're in. I was speaking with one of my peers yesterday whose entire family is huge...