In view of the current tech economy in DFW area and in order to reach out and assist tech professionals to revitalize their career goals, the leaders of six grass-root high technology organizations along with University of Texas at Dallas came together in 2002 to form the Tech Alliance of Dallas (or "TAD"). The six founding organizations of TAD has agreed to join forces to do at least one event cooperatively each year, and subsequently recruited other supporting organizations with focus on both technology and entrepreneurship for TAD's membership. The founding organizations were: Chinese Institute of Engineers, Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers-CVT, Metro Chips, MIT Enterprise Forum, STARTech Foundation, The Indus Entrepreneurs, and the University of Texas at Dallas.

A working group was formed with representatives from all six organizations to facilitate the first event held January 11, 2003. The members of the working group were representatives of the founding organizations and they were Adil Adi, Ram Velidi, Elizabeth Frank, Bob Shapiro, Matt Blanton, Sejal Desai, David Van Winkle, TH Lin, Neil Kaden, Da Hsuan Feng, Beth Keithly, and Howard Chen. In 2003 the North Texas Technology Council (NTTC) was added to this team, as well as Swensen Communications.

The leaders of TAD have recognized that all of the key elements to accelerate the creation of new companies exists in Dallas. There are strong management teams, significant technical talent, and venture capital firms that are knowledgeable and interested in making investments in Dallas. What is needed are good programs to enhance the communications between the entrepreneur community and the venture community so that technical talents can move fast to realize their new pursuit in their career.

TAD Accomplishments

The first event of TAD was a half day program and designed to minimize the "gap" between the venture world and the talent world in the Dallas area. The event was held on January 11, 2003 using the venue of the UT-Dallas campus. See the program page for the event for the Sponsors, Supporting Orgs and program of this original event.

The 2004 TAD event, "Technology Day: Accelerating High-Tech Entrepreneurship" was held January 17, 2004 at UT-Dallas. Participants included 225 entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders. They came together to explore what technologies start-ups were exploring and what investors were funding. Details of the program can be found here.

The 2005 program focused on execution; development of products, customers and capital. The program featured panels and events designed to hone busines skills and achieve business success.

Who we are

The current members of the organizing committee are: Beth Keithly, Bob Shapiro, Cherie Sung, Da Hsuan Feng, David Van Winkle, David Washburn, Dinesh Pai, Elizabeth Frank-Jones, Grant Wickes, Howard Chen, Joe Jeng, Mary Swensen, Matthew Blanton, Neil Kaden, Rafael Martin, Ram Velidi, Richard Grady, Sejal Desai, Terry Traveland, and Worthy LaFollette.

Support TAD

What can you do to take advantage of TAD? Make sure you are a member of one of the many supporting organizations which make up the Tech Alliance of Dallas. TAD's business model is to work through it's member organization to reach an audience of thousands.