A move to restructure the operations at TechAmerica, the nonprofit technology trade association, has prompted its longtime San Diego representative, Kevin Carroll, to jump to Connect, the San Diego nonprofit focused on innovation and entrepreneurship.
As an executive vice president at Connect, Carroll is now responsible for building a new program intended to help small-to-medium companies adopt best business practices, accelerate growth, and lower costs. A business mentoring roundtable that was a core part of the services TechAmerica provided in the San Diego region also will be integrated into Carroll’s endeavor, called SME Connect (as in small-to-medium enterprise).
“At one point we thought about standing up our own organization,” Carroll said, but it made more sense to combine TechAmerica’s regional activities with Connect. “Everyone wanted to make it happen,” Caroll said.
San Diego was one of at least eight regional offices that TechAmerica has shuttered in recent weeks. The Washington, D.C.-based industry group announced its reorganization in mid-June, saying the changes are intended to focus its operations on lobbying and on business networking and intelligence.
In response to a query about the closure of TechAmerica’s regional offices, spokeswoman Stephanie Craig says in an email: “We still have a very strong presence in California including Silicon Valley as one of our three main offices (Washington, D.C. and Brussels being the other two)… While we have closed some physical offices, we still are
