Tech leaders check pulse.

• Author: Schwab, Robert
• Position: Denver Metro Technology Industry - Brief Article

THE ENERGY WAS PALPABLE AS 500 PEOPLE FROM Colorado's high-tech industry gathered at the old El Jebel Temple, now called the 1770 Sherman St. Event Complex.

The food was good, a jazz band played, and despite the last 12 months of layoffs, drinks were poured, the mood was upbeat, and hopes of deals-to-be-made were in the air.

"Taking the Pulse of the Denver Metro Technology Industry," was on the bill for the evening. The event was an after-hours gathering of the Internet Chamber of Commerce.

Marc Holtzman, who you see on our cover of this issue holding a model rocket, felt the energy of the crowd and remarked on it.

Rick Patch, of Sequel Venture Partners, a financier of promising tech companies, was there to feel the pulse and take the temperature of an industry that for the past year has given up most of its promise.

Joe Snell, who had not yet announced his departure from the Metro Denver Network and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, was there, too, along with Victor Chayet, a senior manager at software maker J.D. Edwards.

After an hour of relaxation, those four and Rob Reuteman, business editor of the Rocky Mountain News, retired to a paneled meeting room to talk it all out before at least half of the gathered guests. The rest kept drinking.

And perhaps rightly so. For the foursome had some pretty bleak words to offer. The pulse of the industry is weak, they said, but at least the patient has survived.

Although Holtzman, secretary of technology for the state, seems hardly able to be anything less than optimistic, he admitted Colorado's economy is "in tumultuous transition right now"...