Sisters Tech celebrates grand opening

As of Tuesday night, Sisters has a "co-working space" with a strong high-tech focus. Dozens of folks toured the new Sisters Tech facility at 178 S. Elm St. Tuesday evening, November 18 (the former site of the RE/MAX office).

The several people who spoke at the grand-opening event were residents of the new space or sponsors of same, including local sponsor and Sisters Tech anchor resident Stephen King. King's company, Openmake Software, is headquartered upstairs in the two-story complex.

The office complex is envisioned to be a community center for those with home-based businesses, and the many local folks who work from home for a distant high-tech company.

The "co-working" space offers private offices, cubicles and "touch-down" open space for reasonable monthly rates. A membership plan is also being developed to allow folks to simply drop in to use the Wi-Fi, for the comradery, to brainstorm, or to just grab a coffee or beer.

Members of the Sisters Tech community will have access to shared high-speed Internet, copy facilities, a board room, reservable conference rooms, and, at some point, centralized clerical services.

"The goal in establishing this space is to leverage the professional community in Sisters," said King. "People might be shocked at how many successful professionals there are in Sisters who work from home. There is an appeal to working with other people."

Michael Corning, a senior data analyst for Microsoft, told the group, "I began working with Stephen and a group last summer to try to get 365-day jobs in Sisters. From that group came the kernel of the idea for this space. I firmly believe that the economic future of this town is based on education.

"I come from Microsoft, and right now we have serious, serious problems being able to hire people to do the kind of work that we need to get done right now," continued Corning. "It is really important that I reach out to high schools in this area and beyond (via SKYPE) to speak to the importance of STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). I receive daily requests from all over the country and the world to SKYPE to classrooms about the future of technology.

"The key thing I want to highlight about this space is the hang-out part, the mentorship part," concluded Corning. "I can come here and hang out with high school kids, and mentor them in a much more dynamic way than I can in 20 minutes on Skype in the classroom."

Hank Queen, a former Boeing senior executive, spoke of his love for the Sisters area and his desire to help bring jobs to Sisters. Queen has been consulting for the last 10 years.

He said of working from home, "You miss the connection with other people, and it is hard to establish good boundaries. The co-working space can grow jobs in a very benign and natural and environmentally supportive way."

Fred Meyer, senior R&D manager of Synopsys, a $2 billion global software company, said, "I've spent the last 20 years in Oregon, and for the last couple of years I've been commuting from Sisters. Starting July 1, I was able to arrange to work full-time from Sisters. The way I do my job has really changed over the last 30 years. Our company is global, and I manage global teams. I often have to conduct online meetings at any hour. I feel blessed to be able to work in this environment."

James Gentes, president of the Tech Alliance of Central Oregon and manager of the Bend Tech center for the past year, said, "This is the first co-working space outside of Bend, thanks to Stephen. What is amazing about a co-working space is you get to see people start at a desk, and work on an idea. Then to start growing that idea into a company with two and three and four employees, and then going out for Kickstarter money. You create this kind of camaraderie.

"We have had probably 75 companies come through our space," continued Gentes. "We have start-up weekend, we group meetings every couple of weeks. Our goal is to connect technology professionals in Central Oregon and create a world-class start-up community here.

"As you know, most jobs in this country come from new companies; start-ups and small businesses. I believe that the way to improve a local economy is to empower people to start their own company. That is the grass-roots effort that really powers our national economy," concluded Gentes.

King said, "Without this community this couldn't have happened; without the landlord that was willing the offer this space at a variable rent, without EDCO and Caprielle (Foote-Lewis, Sisters economic development manager), without the city that has been very supportive of this venture."

For more information contact Sisters Economic Development Manager Caprielle Foote-Lewis at 541-977-5683 or [email protected]