The Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) is the membership and trade association for the technology community in Northern Virginia and is the largest technology council in the nation. NVTC has more than 1100 member companies representing about 160,000 employees. Its membership includes companies from all sectors of the technology industry including information technology, software/hardware, Internet, ISPs, telecommunications, biotechnology, bioinformatics, aerospace and nanotechnology, as well as the service providers that play an important role in supporting these companies. In addition, universities, foreign embassies, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies are members and take an active participation in meeting NVTC goals and objectives.