THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 6, 1995 TAG: 9504060374
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Lei Lani didn't seem at all distracted by conversation as she worked a hand-held radio control, effortlessly sending a bright yellow-and-red rectangular contraption skittering around the carpet of the Holiday Inn Hampton Coliseum.
``People like anything that's mobile,'' she explained as exhibit-goers crowded around to watch the machine's radio-orchestrated waltz.
Lani, an engineering technician with Craft Engineering in Hampton, was putting her company's $30,000 ``omni-directional vehicle'' through its paces as part of Expotech '95, a high-tech trade show that opened Wednesday on the Peninsula.
Organizers hope that some of the fair's estimated 1,500 attendees will be interested enough in the technology they see to set up shop in Newport News or Hampton.
Officials contend that transfer and commercialization of local engineering and science savvy will lead directly to more and better jobs, while protecting the Peninsula against inevitable cutbacks in federal funding of high technology.
``We call this area the Camelot of the Commonwealth,'' said Julius A. ``Bud'' Denton, president of the Virginia Peninsula Economic Development Council. ``We have the people and the infrastructure. Today we are showing off the magnets that draw businesses here.''
Denton made his remarks during a sparsely attended afternoon seminar that featured testimonials and statistics on the Peninsula's suitability for technology firms. Denton asserted that within the past five years 7,000 jobs have appeared on the Peninsula, pouring more than $300 million into the local economy.
Ronald A. J. Wilson, a partner with the accounting firm Ernst & Young, described a growing trend in the high-tech community: strategic partnerships.
Wilson, a featured speaker at the trade fair, contended that such partnerships are essential because of the accelerating pace of technology development, the establishment of the global marketplace and the rise of instantaneous communications.
``All of this is driving companies into collaborations and partnerships,'' Wilson said. ``The incredible thing is the convergence of different industries into networks that are being established. This is another manifestation of the `virtual' company. Companies realize they have to do this in order to survive.''
By noon, several hundred had made their way to Expotech's Holiday Inn headquarters to pick up registration packets and to browse the more than 50 different exhibits.
Throughout the day, participants took shuttle buses to a second Expotech site, the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility in Newport News, where still more exhibits awaited.
Tomorrow, although the Holiday Inn exhibitions will continue, the Expotech focus shifts to NASA Langley Research Center, which will display 140 exhibits. MEMO: For more information, call Expotech's Holiday Inn headquarters at
838-0200, ext. 7220. Registration is required, but admission to all
three sites is free of charge.
by CNB