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Training opportunities available at ND ITC Conference

By Tracy Fugere

Fargo, ND – A wide range of technology training opportunities are available at this year's Information Technology Council of North Dakota's Education Conference in Fargo.

Outlook 2000, PowerPoint 2000, Palm Pilot Basics, E-business, and Network Cabling are just some of the comprehensive sessions being held at the conference.

Jeff Swank is the President of the ITCND Education Confernce. He says the biggest trend this year in technology is the continued change.

"Technology is moving out of the glass house and in the real world of business. One of the things that struck me at the Microsoft conference that I was at last week was a quote by the Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan--recognizing how technology is changing business and it's becoming a mainstay and so it's no longer reserved for the geeks but it's pretty much open to everybody."

Swank says from an ITC's perspective--one of the problems with technology in North Dakota is the declining population.

"And--the difficulty in rolling out the technology into areas that have a smaller population base. Fargo, Grand Forks, Bismarck, and Minot have the population base to support wireless, to support some of the higher technologies that people can make money with. When you look at Dickinson, Jamestown, Regeant, the smaller communities across the state--there are organizations that need the technology there but can't bring it in or it's not available to them because of the lack of population base."

Swank says one of the major challenges of the ITC is making sure those in rural North Dakota have the same benefits in metro areas of North Dakota and across the country.

He says anyone interested in the technology field is invited to attend the conference being held at the Ramada Plaza Suites in Fargo--which runs through today.