The Knoxville Technology Council, known as KTech, centered its annual summit on the theme “Collaborate to Innovate,” which grew directly out of the council’s first annual Technology State of the Union report. The report assessed the region’s tech workforce, talent systems, technology landscape and entrepreneurial ecosystem, and one finding stood out.
“A common thread that emerged was that collaboration, and especially cross-sector collaboration, is essential to develop our region’s potential as a nationally, and I’ll add globally, recognized hub for tech innovation,” said Matthew Kittrell, president of KTech and a director at CGI.
To turn that finding into action, KTech is launching the Collaborate to Innovate Directory, a resource for finding internships, mentorships, startup incubators, speaking opportunities and other ways to connect across the region.
We’re happy to support this effort.
“Teknovation will help be our eyes and ears to identify new programs and facilitate connections,” Kittrell explained. “They have a pulse on the people and the projects driving innovation in our region.”
The summit then spotlighted a few of those collaborations already happening today.
Collaboration in the classroom
Partners of Knox County Schools’ 865 Academies showed what this looks like in practice. Knoxville Utilities Board is formalizing its partnership with the academies through its internship program and job shadowing opportunities.
Contextual Security, which can’t easily host interns because of the confidential nature of its work, has instead been bringing hands-on cybersecurity demos to Farragut High School to demystify hacking and spark interest among students who could become future employees.
Lessons from ORNL
Shaun Gleason, director of partnerships at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, highlighted how partnerships power ORNL’s work in AI, supercomputing, nuclear energy, advanced manufacturing and quantum computing.
“We cannot do what we do on these AI-driven projects without industry partnerships,” Gleason said.
He invited companies to get involved through the Genesis Mission and ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility.
Tennessee’s quantum future
A closing panel with leaders from UT Knoxville, ORNL, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development and CGI made the case that Tennessee is becoming a quantum powerhouse, backed by a $43 million state investment in quantum infrastructure.
Panelists pointed to partnerships already underway, from CGI and UT’s work on agentic tools like Quantum Pathfinder, which help translate real-world problems into quantum-ready formats, to efforts focused on quantum talent pipelines and commercialization. They agreed organizations should appoint a “quantum champion” and partner with universities now to prepare for what’s next.
The conversations left attendees inspired to find even more ways to collaborate in order to innovate going forward.
Follow KTech on LinkedIn for Collaborate to Innovate Directory updates.
