IBM celebrated it’s 40th year in Austin yesterday. They invited local executives and members of the press to their campus for a technology show-and-tell session, and interviews with the top Austin executives. Did you know:

• IBM employes 6200 people in Austin
• The Austin site is granted more patents than any other site in IBM (and IBM is granted more patents than any other company)

Even though IBM is known for it’s manufacturing in Austin, the majority of the workforce is non-manufacturing. People here are working on Power chip architecture, Websphere (including Webify which IBM acquired recently), embedded systems, grid computing, and of course Tivoli software (and many others). It’s hard to believe it all started with the IBM Selectric typerwriter!

I had the opportunity to spend some time with Tony Befi, the vice president who is the site executive and community liason. Tony is more directly involved with the hardware projects than the software projects, and is definitely involved with the Austin community. They’re a major employer of graduates from UT, and conduct research in coordination with the university as well.

One of the things TOny and I discussed was the new breed of graduates coming out of college that are comfortable with Web 2.0 technologies, and pretty much expect high levels of collaboration and interaction. Tony said that when he spends time with people at IBM Austin to talk about what IBM could do better, the younger generation don’t complain about long hours or their pay. It’s that their boss didn’t challenge them enough, or they want to gain more responsibility quicker. Today’s college graduates are incredibly comfortable with today’s technology, according to Befi, and that is helping to propel them into success at IBM more rapidly.

A toast to another 40 in Austin!