Banking on KC – Kara Lowe of the KC Tech Council
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Kelly Scanlon:
Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlan. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Kara Lowe, the president and CEO of the KC Tech Council. Welcome, Kara.
Kara Lowe:
Thanks, Kelly.
Kelly Scanlon:
First of all, congratulations. You are... In the last six months or so, you've been named the first CEO since the founding CEO Ryan left. So congratulations on that big step.
Kara Lowe:
Thanks so much. It's been a terrific ride.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, it's a big step for you and for the organization. You've been there almost since the beginning, haven't you? As the COO?
Kara Lowe:
That's right. I've been at the organization for about six and a half years, so I know it well, and I couldn't be more thrilled about where we are and where we're headed.
Kelly Scanlon:
Let's talk first about what the KC Tech Council does. It's the shared voice, I know you like to say that, of tech in Kansas City. And interestingly, unlike a lot of other organizations, your members are companies not individuals.
Kara Lowe:
That's right.
Kelly Scanlon:
So drill down for us on what you're really charged with doing.
Kara Lowe:
Right, the why do we exist question.
Kelly Scanlon:
Absolutely.
Kara Lowe:
Or conversely, what would happen if we didn't exist?
Kelly Scanlon:
Yes. Like Jimmy Stewart. It's A Wonderful life.
Kara Lowe:
That's right. Exactly.
Kelly Scanlon:
What would it be like?
Kara Lowe:
Well, every time a bell ring... Oh, just kidding. So we have, I think of this around kind of two tiers of why we exist. And the first is, I firmly believe Kansas City deserves to have a front doorstep for its tech industry. And the reason is we have a larger tech industry in Kansas City than some cities that out populate us such as St. Louis, Nashville, Indianapolis. And we may be kind of close in population with one of those, but we really have a huge commitment to technology in this region and in tech workers as well. So it's extremely important for this massive industry that is growing rapidly, by the way, to have that shared voice, to have that front doorstep. So that's kind of tier one. Tier two is we are, as you mentioned, a membership based organization and we exist to serve our members.
And we do that in what we call our three strategic pillars. We work in policy advocacy, so we work to make sure that the legislative environment in Kansas and Missouri, because we have the pleasure of serving a bi-state region, and federally and even municipally, supports the growth in long-term sustainability of tech companies and tech employers. And then an important distinction in the tech industry is that it's not a very old industry. And I don't mean the individuals, although I like to think we're all just young pups and spritely as ever. However, I think the companies that make up the industry haven't been around for decades and decades in most cases. So they may not have those well honed relationships that may be legacy industries, like I came from commercial real estate, for example, that they have. So we want to create that kind of connective tissue between those companies. We want to make opportunities for them to serve alongside one another, for them to learn from one another, and sure do business together, but that's not really the forefront of it, but it's a great byproduct as well.
And then I think the third area that is probably the most important because it probably keeps the most amount of our executives that we serve up at night, is workforce development. Making sure that we have a tech talent pipeline that can sustain and support the growth that we continue to see within this industry in Kansas City, and that we create multiple different means for folks to get into that pipeline.
Kelly Scanlon:
So you've got advocacy, you've got industry access, and you've got the workforce development. Those are your three pillars. When you talk about workforce development, that is a huge thing. But I read somewhere that one in 10 workers in Kansas City is in the tech industry. And you told me before we started talking here today that there's 6,000 jobs currently available in Kansas City in tech. And yet when you read the national headlines, you're seeing that all these major household tech names-
Kara Lowe:
Layoffs here, layoffs there.
Kelly Scanlon:
Are laying off, not just laying off, but they're massive layoffs. So where's the disconnect? Why is Kansas City fairing so well?
Kara Lowe:
Well, I mean, I think two things. One thing too is a lot of these companies that are laying off a lot, these numbers look really large, but really in most cases, they represent a pretty small percentage of that overall workforce. And those may not always be technology workers. In some cases it's sales and marketing and all the other kind of parts of the organization. Now, that's not entirely true across the board, but I think Kansas City benefits from its diversification within the tech industry. I mean that in terms of we are not all in on only one facet of the tech industry. We have FinTech represented. We have digital health, we have digital marketing, we have smart cities and infrastructure companies that work in technology. So it's a very diverse kind of industry. And then also we have what I would think of is a very diverse size of companies too.
Yes. So our bread and butter, we have a lot of mid-size tech companies that are growing really rapidly. We do have some enterprise large companies in Kansas, City as well, but we've got mid-size and little guys too. And I think because of that just mixed bag nature that we comprise ourselves of within the tech industry in Kansas City, we are a little bit insulated from some of these sweeping coastal layoffs that we may hear about in the news. And we've seen really no signs of that here. And we measure workforce, by the way, constantly. And we put out a monthly report that includes a link to it, a dashboard that we have on our website all the time where you can run numbers. That's where that 6,000 open jobs number comes from that we call our tech checkpoint. So we pay attention to these things and we've seen a pretty strong indicator that growth is still happening and happening quickly here.
Kelly Scanlon:
On the one hand, we're not seeing the layoffs that are occurring, but 6,000 jobs that can't be filled, that can also become problematic, especially if that number grows. And so I know organizations like KC Scholars are trying to tap into a pipeline of potential workers that maybe didn't have that opportunity before. And I think it's interesting that the community is getting very creative about how to fill that pipeline and how to train workers for these jobs. And so I'm sure you're involved in some of those.
Kara Lowe:
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think some of the work that we do that I'm most proud of is within our workforce development strategy. And we like to think of just like any problem your business is solving, a lot of times are more than one approach to resolve that problem. And certainly the deficit of tech talent, and Kansas City isn't alone, and tech talent is in a deficit nationally, not just in our region. There needs to be multiple approaches to really solve it because it's a significant issue. And we like to think of it as growth, unlock tech talent and attract tech talent. So grow. We do a lot in K through 12, and we love to partner with our friends at KC Scholars, yes. But also the KC STEM Alliance and Prep KC and all of these really wonderful K through 12 organizations that are doing the work to prepare our young students for the next step when they start thinking about what they may do in the workforce.
And we want computer science and technology to be on their radars. In terms of attraction, I think it's really important that that Kansas City remains a beacon and a destination for tech talent to relocate to. We do a good job of getting them back here. A lot of times we have folks who grew up in Kansas City, spent a few years in a coastal market, and then it comes time to have a family and they want to maybe move back to the Midwest. So we're good at that. But let's think beyond even just that kind of boomerang and how can we continue to be this beacon and tech talent folk follows good work and follows interesting work. So that's another means. And then unlock. And that's where I think we have a really huge potential opportunity. We run a really terrific apprenticeship program called Appren-T.
And what it does is it takes individuals who maybe would not have otherwise found their way into a tech career. It allows companies to seek those individuals out, put them through, it starts with the end in mind. So we work with companies as large as H&R Block, we work with midsize tech companies on our Appren-T program, and they say, "I want to hire cybersecurity analyst." And that's a huge growing sector.
So great. We've got more than 500 people in our Appren-T pipeline who have passed a pretty rigorous assessment to be in the pipeline at all. They select candidates just like you would hire anyone at your organization. And then they match them with terrific training program. We have local partners, national partners as well around our tech training. They go through an kind of a classroom training related technical instruction, and then immediately start a one-year on-the-job training apprenticeship in the company. And what's terrific about this, Kelly, is we've finished with our first cohort, we're onto the second, we have 100% placement rate.
Kelly Scanlon:
That is phenomenal. But that just speaks to the opportunity in this field.
Kara Lowe:
And the talent that's out there.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yes. And a lot of it is just creating that awareness and people who may not have considered this, whether they're younger, whether they're people looking to retrain in the workforce.
Kara Lowe:
That's an important point too.
Kelly Scanlon:
Create that awareness that these jobs are available, you know, have to be trained, but it's accessible.
Kara Lowe:
That's right. And I think oftentimes tech feels very, it's mystified. It's this kind of opaque, "oh, I don't know how to do that." And quite honestly, there are so many roles in this industry that really require a variety of different capabilities and a variety of different backgrounds. For instance, one of the more interesting things a chief information officer once told me is one of their most successful college majors that they can kind of retrain and create a tech worker out of is music majors.
Kelly Scanlon:
That doesn't surprise me.
Kara Lowe:
Right?
Kelly Scanlon:
No, it doesn't. I mean, they always say that mathematics and music are very intricately tied. So this doesn't surprise me.
Kara Lowe:
Process driven and folks who have, I think, a brain that understands how to read code.
Kelly Scanlon:
Absolutely.
Kara Lowe:
It's an interesting connectivity.
Kelly Scanlon:
It's a different language. Reading musical notes is completely different.
Kara Lowe:
Yeah, it's a code of its own.
Kelly Scanlon:
It sure is. One of the charges that you have that you mentioned earlier is that connectivity, that connective tissue. What are some of the ways that you connect your members to each other, to the community, all of those things? All the above.
Kara Lowe:
So we're a membership organization. We host a number of events, and we are big fans of not networking just for networking's sake, but also building in kind of a value add to that. So we host a lot of events that really focus on sharing best practices, on creating opportunities for peers to really get past that kind of initial surface level conversation and work to solve problems together. And we do that through... We have an executive round table series that focuses on... So far, we have three, and we'll build out more as we continue to grow it. But we have one around data analytics, cybersecurity, and then data centers and infrastructure. And we bring individuals who are pretty subject matter experts within those three respective realms to talk to one another and to have kind of a round table discussion around, "what are you seeing, what are you working on?"
And that is, I think, a really priceless opportunity as you grow in a career, as you serve your organization to learn from other really bright people, because there are a lot of really bright tech workers. And then I think the other piece of creating that connective tissue... Again, we do events. We have a terrific CEO retreat where we really work on connecting the executives from our members. But the most exciting thing that we've recently launched is our volunteer board of opportunities. We have a job board that is available to post paid positions, but we've also engaged with, and we work with so many great community organizations and are part of a thriving civic and nonprofit community in Kansas City, we want to help unlock the tech workers that we work with to deploy and serve their community as well.
So an organization maybe like KC STEM Alliance that's looking for mentors for different computer science teachers or for different computer science class, they could post those on our volunteer board. Maybe you serve on a nonprofit board and that you are going to have to have a major capital campaign to redo all of your database software. And oh my gosh, nobody on this board knows the first thing about database software. Put a tech worker on your board, put a tech executive, put somebody who has a really deep background in the stuff, because my gosh, there are so many willing and capable individuals from the companies that we serve who would be amazing assets to serve their community.
Kelly Scanlon:
In addition to all the community good that they're doing, I think that this kind of a board and the people, as you say that you deploy, also help to serve the tech community because so often tech is thought of as this amorphous thing that I can't touch, but you put people behind it, you know, put the people out in the community and tech has a face then and has a name besides tech.
Kara Lowe:
Yeah. We're not all just Alexas.
Kelly Scanlon:
That's right. Exactly. Another area you mentioned is advocacy, shaping the policy. What are some of the specific policy initiatives that you're focused on right now?
Kara Lowe:
Sure. So our policy work is guided by a committee made of our members, which I think is extremely important. Initiative wise, gosh, it runs the gamut. From a federal level, we've done a ton of work around data privacy regulation, anyone who works in compliance, and you don't have to be a tech worker to have to work in compliance around data storage, data privacy, care of customer data that your organization may have. What's challenging about that is states are coming up with their own different regulatory standards and it becomes this patchwork of laws, which is arduous for large companies to comply with. Imagine how arduous it is for small and mid-size.
On a state level. We do a lot of K through 12 computer science, education, advocacy. We have been really pleased to be parts of coalitions in both the Kansas and Missouri side to push forward computer science access in our high schools and to allow for those credits to count toward a graduation requirement and not just as an elective course. It's a really important, I think, change because it allows for maybe more high achieving students who are bypassing those courses because they really want to focus on loading up those credits to get into terrific schools, which that sounds great as a parent. Definitely do that, but allow for those computer science courses to count. So that's been a big piece.
Kelly Scanlon:
What should businesses be preparing for in terms of technology over the next several years in terms of trends, product systems, that kind of thing?
Kara Lowe:
That's a great question and something that I love to pick the brains of the chief information officers and chief technology officers that we work with because they're monitoring this and experiencing it firsthand, whereas I'm helping to advocate on their behalf. And I think what I hear from them is certainly the interesting, and this is all businesses, is the continued sort of delicate dance we're doing around remote and hybrid work and figuring out that right balance of in-person and remote workforce.
And that goes back, I think, to the employee experience. And we have a lot of our executives are very mindful of how you create culture in a hybrid environment and how you create employee experiences. And that may not be a technical system, but I think it's an interesting trend and there are a lot of kind of technical and technology tools that can help mitigate that challenge.
Another area is in the emerging technologies sector. So AI, I think the deployment of and artificial intelligence continues to get stronger and better and more accurate and more duplicative of a human experience. That's something that I know a lot of our high level executives are really monitoring and looking at. And even anyone at a tech organization, I'm sure, has kind of done some use case around what that may look like.
Kelly Scanlon:
As you take the helm of the tech council as this new president and CEO, what's your vision for the organization? What do you see as the pressing issues, the pressing changes that you'll be able to help companies tackle?
Kara Lowe:
In our first five, six years as an organization, we really were in a lot of ways a startup. We were growing quickly and working on who we are and what we're going to do. And now I think it's time to stand on the shoulders of that work and stretch to do the next thing for the tech industry. And I think that goes back to certainly the work we're doing with talent. I think it's extraordinary for any tech hub to exist, there must be a sustainable and significant base of talent to support it. And we're doing all right in that regard. But there's opportunity to do more, and there's opportunity to do more unlocking of talent from individuals in Kansas City who wouldn't see themselves in a tech career and have the opportunity to step into one because of apprenticeship, because of other opportunities. And our apprenticeship program is one of many terrific workforce development programs in this region.
And all of them kind of need to be successful to fill those gaps. So it's a not competitive, I think, environment, but it's an essential one. And then I think the opportunity that I sit in this chair and have the opportunity to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in the tech sector, that is something that we don't take lightly. And it's something that we think has a real opportunity to be meaningful, both certainly in a betterment of life and generational change case, but also from a business perspective. If we can open more doors to more talented individuals from a diverse set of backgrounds, women, people of color, veterans, to put them into a pathway toward a tech career, imagine how that leaves Kansas City and in such a better position than what it was.
Kelly Scanlon:
It absolutely does. And one of the things that has struck me through this entire conversation is that we're talking about tech, but I mean, in spite of the reputation that tech has sometimes about eliminating people or taking people out of the equation, it all comes back to people. It all comes back to people in the end. Kara, thank you so much for all the work that you're doing in this field. I know it's constantly changing and to be able to keep up on it has to be very challenging at times, but thank you for everything you're doing, you and your team. We appreciate it.
Kara Lowe:
Well, likewise. Thank you for having me. And it's always a terrific opportunity to tell our story and I'm real proud of it.
Brian Hoban:
This is Brian Hoban, Chief Commercial Banking Officer at Country Club Bank. Thank you to Kara Lowe for being our guest on this episode of Banking On KC. As the front doorstep to Kansas City's growing tech community, the KC Tech Council is in a unique position to be a connector between companies and the tech space, its members and the community and potential workers in open jobs. The latter workforce development, making sure we have a tech talent pipeline that can sustain and support economic growth is critical to the success not only of tech companies, but of all companies throughout the metro.
As Kara notes, the talent is out there, but to close the gap, multiple approaches are required to identify individuals who otherwise might not have found their way to a tech career. As Kara said, organizations must be willing to be creative and to embrace diversity in order to cultivate the best ideas and attract the brightest minds. Thanks for tuning in this week. We're banking on you Kansas City. Country Club Bank member FDIC.