An event held last fall by Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. (LVEDC) to celebrate the past, present, and future of the Lehigh Valley’s technology sector won a Gold Award from the International Economic Development Council.

The award was one of four won by LVEDC in IEDC’s global competition.

About 200 people attended the Fall Signature Event, “Lehigh Valley’s Technology Sector: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.” Held at Lehigh University, it celebrated the Lehigh Valley’s legacy in developing critical technology and looked ahead to how the region is attempting to position itself as a national stalwart of innovation.

The centerpiece of the event was a panel discussion by industry leaders. The event included a display of technology, ranging from wafers and semiconductors that are currently produced to those that were produced in the past, and a video from 1953 explaining the production occurring here at the time.

Here’s what some of the judges in the IEDC awards competition said about the event:

“The title of the special event was so apropos to the project -- AWESOME! Other EDOs can replicate such an event if they conduct a thoughtful evaluation of their strategic target sectors, understand their region's unique economic history and legacy, and identify future opportunities that align with the region's priorities.”

“I liked that the community didn't just ‘decide’ to pursue semiconductors - they took the time to understand their own history and build upon the base that was already there. They also demonstrated a variety of actionable items that came out of the event, which takes the concept a step further. Well done.”

“The steps you all took to develop this event, from combining an old documentary with new content, utilizing the National Museum of Industrial History and efforts to display past and current technology was so truly innovative in helping revive this resurgence.”

The Lehigh Valley was the first location in the U.S. to mass produce transistors, the forerunner to semiconductors, at Western Electric in Allentown in 1951. Today, the Lehigh Valley’s technology industry features about 30 companies including Intel, Broadcom, Coherent, Infinera, and iDEAL Semiconductor. Collectively, they employ about 1,500 people and produce technology relied upon by brands such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, AWS, AT&T, Verizon, Netflix, and Nokia.

At the Fall Signature Event, Jill Bennett, Vice President, Xeon® & Networking Engineering Director, Network & Edge Group at Intel®, summarized the Lehigh Valley’s contributions in building the technology the world relies on today.

“It is amazing that so much innovation that surrounds us in our daily lives has been created here in Lehigh Valley,” she said.

“Developments like voice switches and T1 transport, which for decades managed nearly every phone call in the country, had their origins right here in the Lehigh Valley,” Bennett said. “Standards and products like USB that we plug into today. were developed here. Conductivity like firewire for Apple computers, Bluetooth, or Read Channel, which are state of the art for reading hard disk drives, were invented and designed here. Components in the first iPhone had their origin here. I worked on digital signal processors that went into the first digital cellular phones that were built by Nokia and Motorola. And lastly, the Intel® cellular network processors that manage your mobile calls, your texts, your applications, are engineered right here in Allentown.”

The International Economic Development Council is the largest economic development association in the world, with more than 4,500 members globally. LVEDC is one of only 73 organizations to meet the council’s rigorous accreditation standards.

Each year, IEDC recognizes organizations that demonstrate consistent, exemplary performance in the economic development profession through projects that have a significant impact on revitalizing communities and improving the practice of economic development.

The four awards won by LVEDC continue the string of recognition on the Lehigh Valley for its collaborative efforts to grow the economy and create good-paying jobs. 

LVEDC competed against the largest economic development organizations in the world (those in regions of at least 500,000 people), many of which have bigger budgets and more staff.

The Excellence in Economic Development Awards won by LVEDC were:

Gold Award, Special Event, for the Fall Signature Event last October, “Lehigh Valley’s Technology Sector: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.” 

Silver Award, Economic Development Organization of the Year.

Silver Award, Lehigh Valley Hot Careers Dashboard.

Silver Award, LVEDC Annual Report.