North Las Vegas’ pledge to make its largest asset, the sprawling Apex industrial park, work to its advantage is starting to show signs of moving beyond talk to action.

Science, technology, engineering and math.

They’re not exactly words that inspire raucous excitement, but with a shortage of qualified workers in Southern Nevada frustrating attempts to attract and grow high-tech businesses, many community leaders aren’t talking about much else.

This week it was UNLV’s turn with their annual STEM Summit. Around 250 people from the university and beyond gathered Monday and Tuesday to discuss this year’s question: “What does the valley need?”

In UNLV vice provost and summit organizer Carl Reiber's take, these were the issues panelists considered most important: