Former Virginia governor Mark Warner visited the Lyric yesterday with Google CEO Eric Schmidt for a conversation on technology with the Blacksburg community.
Click here for a photo gallery from the event.
The event, promoted by the Virginia Tech Alumni Association, focused on how technology plays an important role in the global economy, and how America can better prepare itself for the global scene and contribute more in order to remain a great power.
The event was a familiar scene for both, as Schmidt grew up in Blacksburg, and Warner is a friend of the Tech community. Although neither are alumni, southwest Virginia and the Tech community are highly valued by each of the speakers.
"This was a great opportunity to feature Eric Schmidt, who has been very generous to Virginia Tech although he did not graduate from here," said Tom Tillar, vice president for Alumni Relations. "The pairing is quite unique, and we thought it would be very rewarding to both of them and folks of the community."
Warner and Schmidt intended to shy away from any political standpoints and focus more on the role that new technologies will play in the next four years as a new president is elected and a new administration takes over on technology policy. Both local- and national-level implications came into play.
"One of the things I was proudest of as governor was my statement that nobody should have to leave their home to find a world-class job," Warner said. "That's why I decided to take a plunge into politics in the first place."
Warner believes that this kind of innovation is necessary by everyone, not just politicians. Recently, many may have viewed technological issues into the future as liberal or conservative; left or right.
However, both believe that the debate should truly be future versus past, rather than Democrat versus Republican.
Warner and Schmidt touted competitiveness and energy as two of the most important factors in a global economy, no matter what the party affiliation. With the upcoming presidential election, Warner called for leadership and unification.
"This is clearly an area where we have to put all of the options out there and reach across party lines," Warner said.
Schmidt offered an opinion similar to that of Warner.
"This is a time for leadership," Schmidt said. "You want politicians who actually know how to run a business, create jobs and care about their citizens. We just need more political leaders who believe in science."
In order to be competitive in a global economy, Warner said plans would ideally include bringing technology to rural areas such as Montgomery County.
"When speaking toward technology and a global economy, you don't leave smaller, rural communities behind, and I thought what better place to take this than Blacksburg and Virginia Tech," Warner said. "(Technology) must withstand the boundaries of time, especially with the number of services available anywhere, any place."
Schmidt conveyed the same ideas that the ideal role of rural communities, collectively, would be to increase quality of life.
"You need to have the scale and leverage of a big city with high values in the global market," Schmidt said.
Warner repeatedly stressed linkage between four separate issues that would return America to the top of the global economy. These included an innovative workface, driving down health care costs, redefining infrastructure and remaining the innovational capital of the world. Blacksburg, Schmidt believes, could potentially pioneer this idea.
"Blacksburg is the number one most wired small city, but think about how different that could be," Schmidt said. "One of the great things about the Internet is that it continues to grow. The purpose of broadband and communications in rural areas of Virginia has given us the opportunity to play on a much broader stage. It allows you to have a learning center in an incredibly beautiful location."
Warner also considers the expansion of various avenues of technology, and their expansion while America tries to be more competitive from a global standpoint. Through several advancements on many different scales, Google has become increasingly popular over the past decade.
"Who would have thought that the idea of a search engine that Google has developed into these other services and tools like Google Maps ... would continue to recreate itself, as technology needs to," Warner said.
On the other hand, the view for America hasn't always been as positive as it may be for Google itself. One may note the last quarter results for Google, and contrast it with the economic crisis on the stock market, and the country's reliance on other countries for goods, services, and most importantly, oil.
"America has fallen to sixth in the world as far as foreign percentage of their GDP, and that's not good enough," Warner said. "We need a renewed focus on research and development with technology."
Schmidt touched on energy issues during yesterday's talk.
"Realistically, we have to ask ourselves, 'Is there a way we can get out gas prices down, strengthen jobs, build jobs in problem areas, and stop giving money to the people hate us through oil,'" Schmidt said.
Tech students need to be the leadership of the future, Warner and Schmidt said, while also preparing themselves for a more competitive worldwide scene.
"Students have got to be educated and they've got to understand that they live in a global economy, whether they like it or not. And they've got to be involved," Warner said. "The world is changing at a great speed and you've got to engage in the political process. Do things that actually get results."
Warner cautioned against the idea of the United States resting on its laurels.
"Just because America was the pre-eminent in the 20th century doesn't mean we still are. I think America can be the pre-eminent power in the 21st century, but we've got to earn it," Warner said. "And students must be ready for that, and they must demand leadership so that America can stay competitive."