How do you get ahead of the state’s shortage of qualified STEM workers? Insiders say there are two key ingredients: marketing and better education.

Damien Patton has big plans for his Las Vegas operation.

The founder and CEO of Banjo, a company that develops social-media apps, opened an office here in 2013 to go with the Silicon Valley branch he launched in 2011. His goal: To build two locations with 80 to 90 workers each, with as many as 30 engineers in Las Vegas alone.

Every week, local musician Terry Lang packs up his acoustic guitar, a collection of jazz and classical sheet music, and heads for a medical office building off North Tenaya Way, in the shadow of MountainView Hospital.