Earlier in my PR career I was entirely focused on the technology sector.    I worked with all types of technology companies --  marketing their supercomputers, pushing their newest mobile handsets, rolling out new services and tools that were the pride and joy of small start-up entrepreneurs.   Down the hallway, some of my colleagues worked in completely different industries, like consumer packaged goods, healthcare or sports marketing.   In our small technology circle, in those early days we prided ourselves on being disciples of the "Regis Way," creating a pyramid of influence to support our clients' objectives.    While our non-technology colleagues were focused on courting journalists and gaining more publicity, we were reaching out to a broader group of stakeholders and trying to build a commuity of influence for our clients.    Industry analysts were a critical audience then -- far, far from being mainstream as they are today, they did research on new technologies and advised CIOs on what to buy.   Association management was critical, since their member-led special interest groups (SIGs) drove adoption.  Public officials were the gatekeepers to trade issues, and even government contracts.   Academia was doing real skunk works research, helping new companies come to life throught technology transfer.   If your client was a hardware manufacturer, you needed to brief software developers who would write the applications to give them life.   If the client was a software company, you briefed hardware firms on your vision to make sure the firmware would support it.