I know we're not the sort to spend much time looking in the rear view mirror. However, the recognition of our community's success as one of the PBN's 2007 Stories of the Year provides a great opportunity to take stock, celebrate our individual and collective successes, appreciate one another, and thank all those who have helped us.

The PBN includes our story alongside such notables as downtown Providence's building boom, the proposed LifeSpan - Care New England Merger, and the deft moves by the state that kept FM Global in RI. Dave Ortiz's article, IT/digital media sector gains clout in 2007, provides an encapsulation of the year.

IT and digital media was not widely seen as a cohesive sector of the state’s economy in 2006, when a small handful of local industry insiders started Providence Geeks, a social networking group that brings together IT workers from a range of industries for monthly dinners at AS220 in downtown Providence.

But that small group of “geeks” became a growing force in 2007, bolstered by economic-development officials who saw in the meetings an opportunity to grow the highest paid sector in the state. Work to organize and grow the community was covered prominently by the news media throughout the year – as when a handful of technology companies were among the first to receive the state’s new innovation tax credit, designed to help startups in high-wage industries secure private venture capital.

Providence Geeks now attracts more than 100 people apiece to its monthly gatherings, and hundreds more have signed on to RI Nexus, an Internet portal launched by the R.I. Economic Development Corporation in September to support the IT and digital media sector.

Thanks to the PBN for the recognition and their excellent ongoing coverage of our sector, and kudos to all of you for making 2007 count. Here's to taking 2008 to the next level!