While Central Oregon has the high-speed Internet infrastructure in place, experts and industry leaders say businesses need to understand how to unleash broadband’s potential to boost economic growth.

“Broadband is not just a service, but an economic-development asset,” said Craig Settles, the keynote speaker Friday at TechVision, Karnopp Petersen’s Business 20/20 Executive Breakfast. “If we’re just talking about broadband as a service, you put in some wires, some radio transmitters, you turn on service, you charge for it and that’s kind of it.”

When turned into an economic-development asset, he said, various community leaders work proactively at turning broadband into something that makes businesses grow, drives job creation, brings new businesses to the area, improves health care delivery, education and job training.

About 130 participants attended the event at the Tower Theatre to learn about the role telecommunications plays in Central Oregon and the steps that need to be taken to progress.

While acknowledging the digital divide — the separation between those who can access broadband and those who cannot — Settles said there’s also a knowledge divide that hinders business owners, particularly baby boomers, from taking advantage of the technology.

When people don’t understand technology, he said, they tend to under-utilize and over-hype it.

“People expect the technology to do everything from cure cancer to part the Red Sea … which leads to disappointment …. You can’t do magic with it,” he said. “Or, people don’t understand where they can go with it.”

Business leaders need to have a good understanding of what technology can and can’t do to encourage realistic uses that will benefit the region, he said.

Several regional technology leaders — Amy Tykeson, president and CEO of BendBroadband; Dennis Martin, technical service manager of St. Charles Health System; Jeffrey Anspach, CEO of Warm Springs Ventures, and Peter Ozolin, co-founder, CEO and chairman of Manzama, a legal software company — served as panel members, answering questions about Central Oregon’s current level of technology and where it could be in the future.

“All we’re really doing is employing infrastructure,” Anspach said. “How we utilize that infrastructure is the key piece.”

Ozolin mentioned one step that would help his company: developing a larger pool of skilled workers for emerging industries.

Tykeson said educational institutions will help the region grow additional talent.

Because of the trend toward cloud computing — moving business and personal data off-site instead of housing it at the office or home — Tykeson said some businesses that relocate want the area to have reliable data centers.

The infrastructure available now, she said, can be easily expanded to meet the needs of companies as they come along.

“Every business has ideas about what they can do,” she said. “How can we help those businesses come up with more ways to use technology, to leverage it and attract and keep businesses here so they can grow and contribute to the economy?”

Ozolin said his company spends about $100,000 on cloud computing every year, which could grow to be millions. He said he would like to put that money into Bend.

The infrastructure is here, Ozolin said. The region needs to continue to expand and market its technological strengths and offerings, like data centers, to attract entrepreneurs to the area, and not wait to build the infrastructure until after they arrive.