Southern Willamette Valley: Talent Match

TAO partnered with the City of Springfield, the City of Eugene, Lane County, and Lane Workforce Partnership to launch Talent Match: Tech Sector Edition - a showcase event that brought together the region's top talent with the growing tech sector in greater Eugene.

“While the tech sector in greater Eugene is increasingly visible, there are many talented job seekers who are still unaware of the more than 400 local tech companies and their available employment opportunities,” said Kristina Payne of Lane Workforce Partnership.

With the recent departure of one of Lane County’s largest tech employers from the region, a timely opportunity existed to help connect talent, with companies that are actively hiring. A number of local public agencies convened this summer “to develop a collective strategy to retain talent that was being released from Veritas” said Courtney Griesel, Economic Development Manager for the City of Springfield.

“This is our way of saying thank you to the former employees of one of the area’s first prominent software companies. We owe it to them,” said Jake Weatherly, CEO of SheerID.

We frequently hear that it’s challenging for job seekers to find the tech companies in the Eugene area. With Talent Match and TAO’s new company listing Greater Eugene Tech Companies we made our industry more accessible.

Dozens of local tech companies including RG Media Company, IDX, Concentric Sky, IRIS Educational Media, SheerID, Partnered Solutions IT, Lunar Logic and Palo Alto Software participated. “As the local tech sector continues to grow, events like Talent Match are increasingly important to connect local talent with employment opportunities,” said Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software.

Local personality Rick Dancer facilitated a fun ‘’speed dating’ activity for job seekers. Employers gave away a select number of “golden tickets” for stand out job seekers to the VIP reception and networking event hosted at the Downtown Athletic Club.

We believe this might be the first hiring/job fair in Eugene where the number of job seekers that found employment were counted.  The totals are being finalized now and we’re going to have some really exciting news to share very soon with the community.

Stay tuned!