Utah tech industry is robust

Armed with a slew of statistics, the top officials at the Utah Technology Council make a case that the state's technology and life sciences sector is at the core of its white-hot economy.

Nonetheless, they also believe now is the time to strengthen it even more to steel Utah against possible tougher times.

A one-year, 10 percent jump in the number of tech companies, 3,000 new tech jobs and high rankings in various economic lists have Utah "riding high," according to Will West, UTC's chairman, who also serves as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Control4.

"We're at the top of the mountain, and one might argue that there's only one place to go," West said. "And if we're not paranoid about that, there will be only one place to go. If we get complacent, we'll go back to an ugly place quickly."

The mountaintop certainly has a beautiful view. West calls it "gigantic." UTC's president and chief executive officer, Richard Nelson, describes it as "astonishing" that the number of Utah tech and life sciences companies grew 10.4 percent — from 3,900 to 4,304 — from September 2005 to September 2006.

They're also pleased with the high rankings Utah has earned in several lists, including a Kauffman Foundation index showing Utah as tops for economic dynamism, second in investor patents, fourth in fastest-growing firms and fifth in venture capital.

"If you look down the Kaufmann list of what's important and what's driving our high rankings, the technology industry is pretty much what they're describing in those different things: dynamism or venture capital or whatever it is," West said. "The technology industry and the UTC play a gigantic role in that."

The industry in Utah is 62,000 employees strong, with an average pay that is 66 percent higher than the statewide average annual nonagriculture wage.

But it's all tenuous, officials say.

"If we're not scared, then we're blind. You generally cannot maintain the levels we're at right now. We have a huge risk of things getting worse because they can't get much better. It's unbelievably good. It would be so easy to look around and get comfortable. We ought to be paranoid and scared," West said.

"A year from now, certainly two years from now, we could find ourselves looking at a very different picture if we're not vigilant and continuing to try to drive things forward."

But how to be vigilant? One focus for UTC this year will be continuing to grow the Utah Fund of Funds program, which has shown success in attracting venture firms' interest in Utah investment despite its relative infancy. Nelson says it is "the most undertold success in the state's economic development story."