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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 6, 2005)
Bend becomes active hotbed for technology BY CHRISTIAN TREJBAL THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BEND — When Chris Reese came to Bend a dozen years ago, the city was just getting over the economic downturn of the 1980s. Back then, a computer program mer working for a video game company in Bend was unusual, a far cry from the loggers of previous years. Today, Reese, co-director of Sony Computer Entertainment America’s Bend studio, is one of many high-tech workers making their homes here. The Sony studio alone has about 60 employees, and oth er technology-oriented com panies such as IdaTech, Bend Research and Chemica Tech nologies to name a few are growing rapidly. The conventional wisdom is that Bend is a great place to retire, but increasingly it is a great place for young, Student Special!!! School’s out for summer!-1 Futon-frame cover combo! • Student discounts! • $10 curbside delivery! • Hands down, the best prices in town! L. 521 Main St. • Springfield, Or 97477 (541) 744-3343 -www.michaelsfutons.com J technically savvy people to live and work. Bend officials envision an industrial park and universi ty campus at the north end of town. The so-called Juniper Ridge project could become the cornerstone of an invigor ated regional economy based on science, engineering and innovation. If those companies materi alize as planned, they will bring even more skilled workers to the region, work ers like Marshall Simmonds, Morgan O’Neal and Reese. All three pointed to the character of Bend and out door recreation as drawing and keeping them here. That foundation, they said, makes the region ripe for new tech nology companies that will need to attract talented young workers. 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Sofa by day / Bed by night Renelle DENMAN $199 Double Frame and Mattress, Cover not included Renelle GIBSON $179 Double Frame and Mattress, Cover not included 022203 $69 TWIN SET ^ $49 > TWIN MATTS Delivery© Setup AMERICAN MATTRESS MANUFACTURING Buy Factory Direct & Save 4075 W. 11th *343-2690 Open Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.- 8 p.m., Sat, 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Centr'e Coaf to S P' i&2 ; bedroom apt. homes fej • All fully ^ applianced g • Patio to Seasonal • pool & sun deck C/) ■ ha look Inside! , kn . ' toW f 3 •' 111-* 741-4726 *1111! ^ w-: l-—-J Sorry, no pets Q 019472 K lifestyle and the recreational activities. Simmonds, 33, telecom mutes from Bend in his new position as vice president of Enterprise Search Marketing for The New York Times Co. Simmonds first came to Bend in 1990 from Boise on a scholarship to run for the Central Oregon Community College track team. Two years later, he headed to Portland State University to complete his degree in psychology. After a stint selling com puters in the Willamette Val ley, he landed a job with a marketing company as a search-engine optimizer, and that job brought him to Bend. A search-engine optimizer helps companies set up their Web pages so they will ap pear high on the list of results in Web searches. In 1999, he went to work for About.com, an online information portal. He stayed in Bend, though, telecom muting and traveling as needed. The New York Times Co. purchased About.com for $410 million from Primedia Inc. in February, and now Simmonds works for the media giant. Technology will allow Sim monds to remain in Bend. He will continue working with Web developers at About.com, but also with The Times’ many other Internet portals, traveling as needed. “When you come back from New York City,” he said, “it’s a big collective sigh as you get back to this lifestyle, this pace.” O’Neal, a 2001 Redmond High School graduate, was born and raised in Cen tral Oregon. For the last two-and-a-half years, the 22-year-old has been working as a software developer at Alpine Internet Solutions, a Web hosting and content management compa ny. There, he has worked on several local Web sites in cluding Brooks Resources, Bend neighborhood associa tions and the Bend Visitor and Convention Bureau. O’Neal is a throwback to some of the early entrepre neurs of computing and the Internet. He has little formal training in technology. “All the knowledge I use at Alpine is self-taught,” he said. Self-taught or not, O’Neal could easily land a job out side of Central Oregon if he wanted. Instead, he chooses to remain here. “I have been offered jobs in other places for more mon ey,” he said. “But there’s a lot to do here. Plus it’s home. I’ve got everything that I need.” O’Neal spends a lot of his spare time mountain biking and playing video games. While the biking community gets a lot more attention, he said, both have passionate followings in the region. “The gaming community here is cool,” he said. “There’s a hard-core group in Central Oregon.” O’Neal sees the technology community growing if Bend can keep the cost of living under control. “You’d probably get more young technology workers if the rent were cheaper,” he said. “If it’s inexpensive and there’s jobs, a lot of people will move here. Bend has so much to offer.” Still, even if the rent seems a little high, O’Neal said it beats the cost of living in oth er technology centers such as Silicon Valley or San Francisco. Reese, 35, is the technical director for Sony Computers Entertainment of America’s Bend Studio. In the compa ny’s offices in the Old Mill District, he oversees pro gramming, design elements and game engines for video games that the studio devel ops for Sony. The studio’s most recent game, “Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain,” came out about a year ago for the PlayStation 2. Reese came to Bend about 12 years ago. “I was looking at jobs all over the place at the time,” he said. “I’d never stayed in Bend before that, only passed through.” When he and his wife, Josie, first visited Bend, he liked it immediately, though it took his wife a little longer to adjust. “I like the small-town as pect of it,” he said. “Even though we’ve seen a lot of growth, Bend still has the small-town feel.” He said that Bend’s envi ronment helps him attract new talent to the studio. “Typically I look for people straight out of college for our entry-level positions,” he said. “The majority of people who have come here are looking for the community feel that Bend has. Most of our people are really into out door activities. It’s a good family environment and the cost of living is good. We’ve brought people from all over. ” Trends so far paint a rosy future for the city. According to the U.S. Bu reau of Economic Analysis, in 2002 there were 1,705 people working in information in dustries in Deschutes County. Together, they had $76 mil lion in personal income. During the 1990s, young people, age 18 to 34, did not come to Deschutes County as quickly as people of other ages did, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The county’s population grew 54 percent, but 18- to 34-year olds only grew 40 percent. That has changed in the new century. From 2000 to 2003, the younger population grew slightly faster than the popu lation as a whole, 15 percent to 13 percent. Eighteen to 34 year olds now account for about one-fifth of all people living here.
