Not Just Any Port in a Storm

Portland, Maine, has a rich history as a bustling colonial seaport where shipping and trading companies thrived before and after the American Revolution. Today, the 230,000 people living within the greater Portland area have come to know their community as a port of a different sort: a Webport, in which a growing number of software and Web-development companies are dropping anchor. Webport, an informational Web site, evolved out of a public-private partnership between the city's Economic Development Center (EDC) and a group of local entrepreneurs seeking to establish Portland as a hub for Web-development businesses.

"We saw a need to coalesce a feeling of entrepreneurial spirit to encourage and nurture new high-tech business start-ups, but with a slant toward Internet ventures," said Will Kreth, a local software developer and executive director of the nonprofit Webport Foundation. "It was time to create a regional hub akin to Silicon Valley in San Jose, or Silicon Hills in Austin. Portland, Maine, has evolved into Webport."

A Port for Web-based Businesses

Kreth, working closely with other members of the software-development community and the city's EDC, created the Web site , that serves as a touchstone for businesses and professionals interested in the area's growing high-tech base.

The site includes a wealth of information for new start-up businesses or existing firms that may be looking to relocate. Web pages include links to venture-capital firms specializing in new software-development companies, detailed information on federal and state tax credits available to high-technology businesses, office-space inventory with current rents, and workforce statistics. A business map shows the locations of more than 50 companies in the greater Portland area, with links to company Web sites.

There are also links to business support organizations and government agencies, such as the city's EDC, which provides assistance and information to large and small businesses on market analysis, site location, financing, and federal and state funding programs for high-tech skills training.

"Our goal is to be a portal, in the true sense of passing you on to a membership organization, a local economic development commission, the state development foundation, or any of a number of different entities already established to disseminate information and encourage high-tech business networking," Kreth said.

While the creation of Webport has evolved away from City Hall to become a fully nonprofit private venture, Portland city officials nevertheless welcome the project and its success in helping greater Portland build an identity as the Web-development capital of the United States.

A "Success Stories" page highlights five start-up companies that have made Portland their home. Each profile includes a company history, vital statistics and an interview with the CEO. Since Webport's central business thrust depends on reliable, high-speed connectivity, a page of the site is devoted to technology infrastructure, and includes links to Maine Internet service providers and local telecommunications companies.

Visitors to the Webport site can also obtain information on industry events, such as the recent NetDemo Northeast, a trade show staged by Portland-area companies, at which visitors viewed cutting-edge Web technology demonstrations and participated in panel discussions on new Web software and user interfaces, corporate Web-site development, and electronic commerce.

Port of Call for High-Tech Jobs

The Webport site was developed mainly to attract new businesses, but Kreth said it is being hit daily by individuals interested in the Portland-area job market.

"We've had a tremendous response from people around the country, from competing areas like Seattle and Silicon Valley, wanting to know more about the software-development scene here," said Kreth, himself a Silicon Valley transplant. "It's become somewhat of a human resource tool."

An "Educational Infrastructure" page contains an overview of the higher education outlook throughout the state and includes links to a half-dozen local colleges and universities, as well as "little Ivy League" institutions elsewhere in Maine. Many of the universities listed, including the University of Maine, offer high-tech curricula that fit the needs of local companies, helping Webport sustain a viable job market for new graduates.

Webport boosters are pleased with how the site has helped promote the region's high-tech identity, and plans call for future enhancements. Kreth said the business map, by Portland-based DeLORME, will be expanded to include more descriptors for each company. The foundation plans to expand the quality-of-life page to include profiles of the area's cultural highlights and recreational activities.

"Our move to become a nonprofit foundation has brought us a board of directors of concerned CEOs from local companies who want to help encourage a high-tech climate and cross-pollination of business to build a workforce in the greater Portland area," Kreth said.

For more information, contact Will Kreth, Webport executive director, at 207/772-0978.

Tom Byerly is a Sacramento, Calif.-based writer.

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