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Some people in Wisconsin assume the rest of the country knows all it needs to know about us.

That’s a faulty assumption, especially in an era when competing for talent knows no borders.

Cheese, beer, Northwoods lakes and big-time sports are iconic brands that represent one face of Wisconsin, but those familiar identities aren’t always reflective of the state’s economic future.

Wisconsin is also a state with a growing tech-based economy, something people outside its borders enthusiastically grasp once they see and touch it.

That was an unofficial outcome of the recent summer conference of the Technology Councils of North America, or TECNA, which drew about 125 association leaders from most of the 50 states and each Canadian province to the Madison area.

The gathering included sessions on topics such as workforce shortages, federal policy challenges and best practices from states and provinces, but it also gave tech leaders a glimpse at what is pushing Wisconsin’s economic evolution.