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Stillwater's High-tech Nucleus

Stillwater, another small town of approximately 37,000 people, is also making a name for itself. Located northeast of Oklahoma City, Stillwater's recent claim to fame has been its high-tech prosperity. The city is currently wrapping up work on the 160-acre (68.8-hectare) Oklahoma Technology and Research Park (www.oktechpark.com), which is a joint venture of Oklahoma State University (located in Stillwater), Meridian Technology Center and the Stillwater Chamber of Commerce.

"We're currently building our first facility for our first high-tech tenant," says Jim Mason, CEO of the Stillwater Chamber of Commerce. "The tenant is Nomadics, and they specialize in the miniaturization of testing equipment, and they have developed the technology that allows for land mine detection."

Nomadics will locate in a 20,000-sq.-ft. (1,858-sq.-ft.) building, where it will employ 80 workers. It plans to add another 40 to 50 jobs in Stillwater within the next two years.

Meridian Technology Business Center, the area's high-tech incubator, is also currently full of burgeoning high-tech companies. There are currently eight occupants in the incubator, including everything from itradefair.com, a virtual trade fairs company, to Frontier Engineering, which conducts radar and laser R&D, and Hypernet Solutions, an Internet-solutions provider for county governments. Last November, DVP, an Australia-based online learning and training and software company, also located to the incubator.

"Oklahoma is very similar to the state of Queensland where I'm from in terms of geography and existing industry," says Alex Smith, head of DVP. "In addition, Oklahoma is very cost-effective and has a wonderful vo-tech system. Those were major reasons for locating to Oklahoma."