Understanding technology lobbying at the state level

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State level lobbying and why we care

I bring up the importance of regulation a lot on The Business on Tech, but we’ve only skimmed the surface of how associations might tangibly help IT leaders on that front. Ever wondered what tech associations actually do? If they’re worth your time? Whether you should join one?

As someone who’s actively working to build a community of tech folks, I see a lot of value in like-minded organizations banding together to weather the many changes in our fast-paced industry. Though client work is the obvious focus of what we do, the role of technology in a wider sense grows more important by the day – and as tech professionals, we’re a significant part of that evolution.

Yet before my interview with Larry Williams, I had never heard of his organization the Tech Association of Georgia, AKA the TAG. I was thrilled to dive head-first into something totally new (and extremely relevant), so this week, we’re unpacking our conversation on a bonus episode of The Business of Tech.

From policy to privacy, here’s what we covered:

The Roles and Responsibilities of TAG

If you’ve also never heard of the Tech Association of Georgia before, here’s Williams’ rundown on what they do: they’re a technical association for technologists and people interested in the innovation economy. With over 30,000 members, they create industry connections, develop peer-to-peer networks, track top innovation trends, help companies promote themselves, build out education infrastructures, and engage in lobbying. So, they do a bit of everything without drawing too much attention to it.

Williams also shared that the TAG is, understandably, a proud proponent of Georgian innovation. Even if you don’t think of the state as a driver of technology, folks in Georgia have been steadily contributing to the industry for years – he even shared the stat that 70% of all debit, credit, and reward card transactions are processed through the state.

The member organizations span far and wide; Williams described them as everything you think of that goes into building an innovation economy. Fortune 100 companies, tech-froward companies, and tech-enabled companies are all included. They range from Coca-Cola to Home Depot to medium-sized businesses to startups to tech vendors.

The Association Landscape

TAG likely isn’t the only tech association you’ve heard of. You’re all familiar with CompTIA, a national organization. As expected, TAG intersects with CompTIA and similar orgs on a few levels.

For example, TAG does a lot of lobbying, particularly in education with off-shoot organizations like the TAG Education Collaborative. Through that, they work with CompTIA and others like them to create cohesion between national and state opportunities.

Similarly, TAG works to build out professional development opportunities to advance people and prepare them for senior and exec positions (here, Williams referenced the ‘Silver Tsunami’ of retirees). To do so, they partner up with the CompTIAs of the world to help source apprenticeships and other national models.

On an even bigger scale, TAG is part of TECNA, a national organization bringing together state technology associations with a coalition model. In that partnership, TAG and its peers trade ideas, swap programs, and brainstorm best practices.

In fact, Williams himself is the President of another TAG creation that has since scaled beyond just Georgia: the National Technology Security Coalition (the NTSC). Here, he advocates for federal policy around key security issues like data breach notification laws and harmonization of privacy laws. Members of this org are companies that care about their own data protection, but are also concerned about national security. The NTSC’s governance is guided by 53 CISOs from around the country to provide a private sector voice around tech’s most timely topics. In his words:

“It really does get down to the person on the street. Cybersecurity, quite frankly, is everybody’s responsibility. And I know you hear it, change your passwords, do all those simple things. They matter, and they matter at all levels, and I don’t think people realize that as much as they could. So that’s what we’re doing at the NTSC and think it’s exciting and very important to all of us.”

Though we’re focusing on the TAG today, the takeaway here is that these associations are deeply interconnected and cluster around collective goals. And in many cases, these are the influences that drive policy.

The TAG and Public Policy

Wondering what kind of impact these associations and their members have? Well, from a policy perspective, there’s a lot at stake. Let’s run through a few policy areas Williams and his organization are involved in.

One of the TAG’s flagship policy issues is broadband. Williams noted that although we tend to think of this as a rural issue, there are plenty of urban areas in need of high-speed broadband as well. The TAG views this as a community issue and advocates on behalf of Georgians.

Another area of interest for the TAG is the state’s tax structure. Georgia famously attracts national businesses with friendly tax policies, earning the #1 ranking for the best state to do business for 8 years in a row. The TAG lobbies to uphold this coveted spot.

As mentioned earlier, the TAG is also invested in education policy. They’ve helped pass policies around computer programming courses in public high schools and keep an eye on opportunities to advance the workforce. They have a close relationship with the technical college system of Georgia, where they’re working to bring back apprenticeships to the technology community.

To support apprenticeship programs, they help create models to get qualified people into them, then develop methodologies for them to be successful. As it costs companies a lot of money to train and place apprentices, they’re very invested in this element of the TAG’s work.

Lastly, Williams listed defense as a policy point of interest. He mentioned that the TAG looks for things that enable innovation while squandering anything that might inhibit it.

I was curious about a couple of policy stances in particular: Right to Repair and data privacy regulation. They’re opposed to the former, and monitor the latter with a focus on national harmonization of privacy laws. He shared that these stances mainly come out of committee work and their ‘government relations task force.’

Leveraging Associations As IT Professional

To bring this convo back to the BoT community, I asked Williams what IT service companies can do to better engage organizations like the TAG. His answer was simple:

Engage
Know your objectives

Every tech company has its own MO in the wider technology scene, so he recommends engaging with your local association to either identify yours or start working toward them.

Are you feeling inspired to join the community and do your part to mold the future of the industry? Adding something else to your place may feel daunting, but membership in a tech association seems to have its own unique set of opportunities. There’s a benefit there, if you’re up for the engagement.

If you happen to live in Georgia or work for a company that has connections to the state, you can learn more about the TAG at TAGOnline.org. Be sure to check out the national organizations we talked about in our convo, and research similar associations in your area.

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