In March, I visited the (World Wide Technology) facility in Austin (Texas) during our Piedmont Triad Partnership mission to call on Dell suppliers. Their operations are impressive. As we learned there, WWT warehouses products from more than 50 other suppliers to get those items to Dell as needed.

The County of San Diego is already viewed as a technology leader. Through this partnership, we look forward to helping San Diego County introduce new and enhanced technologies to better serve its citizens.

TBTF is not an economic development organization. We are the technology department, if you will, of the Tampa Bay Partnership. As they are talking to companies about locating here or recruiting companies to come here and they're technology companies, they will engage us and we will meet with those people and share our knowledge with them.

Kazakhstan will also benefit from its partnership with CNPC, through improvements in oil and gas exploitation technology and supply to the local market.

It was phenomenal partnership with the naval base, but as the world changed after 9-11 so too did our event.

Sandy will bring an unparalleled level of professionalism to the High Point EDC.