A pocket protector and Yoda pajamas are no longer enough to secure a job in information technology, employers said.

More than 50 businesses sent their chief information officers to the Spark 2008 IT Leadership Invitational at the Tempe campus’ Memorial Union on Tuesday.

The businessmen and businesswomen gave speeches and provided networking opportunities for students, stressing the importance of communication skills.

Nearly 2,000 young people, ranging from high school to master’s students, attended the event that included speeches with titles like “Not Just About IT Skills Anymore” and “Shift Happens: What Does it Mean to be Literate in the 21st Century?”

Julie Smith David, director of the Center for Advancing Business through IT in the W.P. Carey School of Business, which organized the event, said the goal of the program was to let students know there are still good IT jobs and that Valley businesses are looking for people to fill them.

“Students think that all the IT jobs are offshore or are isolated to a lonely desk,” Smith David said. “That’s not the case. There are plenty of jobs in IT, and there are enough people retiring in the next several years that businesses are going to need even more.”

Smith David said one of the goals of the center is to become more visible in the business community.

She said she hopes to create at least 50 new internship opportunities for ASU students and the IT invitational showed the success they are having.

“Over 50 regional CIOs took a full day to come to the event and let students see the path by which their careers progressed,” Smith David said. “That’s a big commitment to ASU.”

Susan Silberisen, chief information officer for the Arizona Department of Revenue, spoke about her career, which included work with moguls Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

“[Gates and Jobs] were technology geeks. Bill wore a corduroy jacket in Texas in the middle of summer,” Silberisen said. “But they had something that nobody gives them credit for — soft skills.”

She said soft skills are not just critical thinking or active listening skills, but the well-tuned art of teamwork and the ability to appear confident.

The theme of soft skills was echoed by several businesses like Intel and Sun Microsystems. Business management sophomore Cynthia Nguyen said it was nice to get to see the things she learned in class applied to the real world.

“I remember thinking, ‘When am I ever going to need to know this?’” Nguyen said. “It was nice to see the real-world application.”

Nguyen said she enjoyed speaking with employers.

“I got to speak with Susan Silberisen about being a woman in an industry dominated by men, which was nice because she has actually lived it,” she said.

Reach the reporter at jaking5@asu.edu.