Southwest Washington’s burgeoning tech community was on display September 19, during the first of what organizers hope will be an annual Tech Tour.
More than 80 individuals visited 18 tech companies, some of which had taken up residence in downtown breweries, restaurants, coffee shops and co-work locations to make it easier for participants to walk to all the locations and maybe catch a bite or brew for dinner.
The event highlighted some of Vancouver’s most promising and established tech companies:
- The Bridge Incubator
- Woobox
- Hubb
- Class Hero
- HP
- Home Depot Quote Center
- RealWear
- Shop
- SmartRG
- Silicon Forest Electronics
- Sigma Design
- Gravitate
- Edge Networks
- Barracuda
- NetRush
- nLight
- Interject Data Systems
- Perfect Company
The tour began at The Bridge Incubator, a local source for startup support and mentorship, and continued to nine brewery/restaurant host locations and two co-working spaces:
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- Jorge’s Tequila Factory
- Main Event Sports Grill
- Low Bar
- Pacific House
- Brewed Café & Pub
- Heathen Brewing – Feral Public House
- Tap Union Freehouse
- Trusty Brewing Company
- Old Ivy Brewery & Taproom
- Columbia Collective (co-work space) – hosted VanTechy afterparty
- CoLab (co-work space) – hosted four tech companies during the tour
The Tech Tour collaborators, Workforce Southwest Washington, VanTechy, The Bridge Incubator, Columbia River Economic Development Council and Technology Association of Oregon plan to make this an annual event.
To get involved, contact Cass Parker, Senior Industry Initiatives Manager at 360.567.1076 or cparker@workforcesw.org
