From a loosely knit group of friends in the fall of 2001, HIDDEN-TECH has grown to at least 220 tech and other professionals from the Rt. 91 Knowledge Corridor and beyond who receive information on programs and events sponsored by the Hidden TEC Affinity Group, which is part of the larger Technology Enterprise Council (TEC). Since the very successful kick-off event on May 7 at Avaquest in Amherst, HIDDEN-TECH has put on two other well attended programs. There was a networking session at the Calvin Theater in Northampton at the end of June and a September structured networking program held at Tortus Technologies in West Springfield at the end of September.

In general, HIDDEN-TECH members fall into the following broad market categories: PR/Marketing/Newsletters; Content; E-commerce services/Retailers; Hardware/Software Developers; Web Design/Hosting, and Management Consulting/IT Training. Everyone from jewerly designers to photographers, software developers to marketing specialists attend meetings. Their connection is that they are small, usually not incorporated and use technology to drive their business.

Jon Reed, Tom Warger, Rich Roth, Janus Ternullo and Bruce O'Leary have joined Hidden TEC founder Amy Zuckerman in developing a steering committee to promote additional events, develop a Web presence and generally help build the organization. Rich Roth serves as the representative to HIDDEN-TECH from the TEC board, and provides invaluable membership assistance and is also the driving force behind creation of the new HIDDEN-TECH Web site.

Still in our infancy, HIDDEN-TECH is searching for creative ways to serve the many home-based and office-based virtual companies that are the mainstay of our organization. We welcome input from anyone who wants to join us.

To post information to our list all you have to do is join, go to:

Our web site is at: http://www.hidden-tec.net