Springfield Tech Council is officially launched, and I’m proud to see years of work from MATA and AITP come together as one unified organization for the region’s technology community.
The Association of IT Professionals and the Mid-America Technology Alliance have served Springfield in different but connected ways. AITP has supported IT professionals through networking, skills development, and events. MATA has focused on economic development, workforce development, entrepreneurship, civic technology, and advocacy for the broader tech community.
In 2019, leadership from both organizations began talking seriously about what could happen if we stopped dividing that energy across separate groups and built one stronger voice. The opportunity was clear: pool the relationships, history, credibility, and volunteer work into an organization built for the next era of Springfield’s technology ecosystem.
Today’s launch and ribbon cutting at the Bluebird Underground data center marks that shift. Springfield Tech Council is here to be a voice for the industry, a hub for community, and a resource for people and companies building serious technology work in southwest Missouri.
I’m proud to be part of the founding board alongside Nick Lofaro, Sherry Coker, and Bob Graham, and proud of the work so many people put into making this real. This is not just a new name. It is a new structure for bringing founders, engineers, IT professionals, educators, employers, students, civic partners, and business leaders into the same room.
Springfield has needed this kind of center of gravity. STC gives us a way to make the region’s technology community more visible, more connected, and more capable of shaping workforce, innovation, and economic development in the years ahead.
