StudioTulsa

Tulsa Innovation Labs: Working to Make Our Community a 21st-Century Tech Hub

Public Radio Tulsa | By Rich Fisher

Published July 22, 2020 at 12:27 PM CDT

Aired on Wednesday, July 22nd.

On this edition of ST, we learn about Tulsa Innovation Labs, or TIL, which, per its website, "was founded to develop a city-wide strategy that positions Tulsa as a tech hub and leader in the future of work. Through a diverse coalition of public and private partners, led by George Kaiser Family Foundation, TIL is creating economic development programs that seek to make Tulsa the nation's most inclusive tech community." Our guest is Nicholas Lalla, the co-founder and managing director of TIL, who explains how his organization is carefully focused on three "tech clusters" (virtual health, energy tech, and drones) as well as two "cross-industry enablers" (cyber and analytics).

Rich Fisher

Rich Fisher passed through KWGS about thirty years ago, and just never left. Today, he is the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and the host of KWGS’s public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in August 2012 . As host of StudioTulsa, Rich has conducted roughly four thousand long-form interviews with local, national, and international figures in the arts, humanities, sciences, and government. Very few interviews have gone smoothly. Despite this, he has been honored for his work by several organizations including the Governor's Arts Award for Media by the State Arts Council, a Harwelden Award from the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, and was named one of the “99 Great Things About Oklahoma” in 2000 by Oklahoma Today magazine.

See stories by Rich Fisher