Print edition: 
Thanks to tax credits and a new venture for the company, Integrated Media Group in Old Town is growing.
"We're developing a new industry in Wichita," says CEO Jason Opat .
His media development company, which used to focus on doing graphics for films, is now concentrating on autonomous sales kiosks, which feature gesture technology.
The Wichita Eagle profiled the technology, which consists of controlling images and data with hand gestures rather than keyboards, in a Jan. 31 story.
"Nobody's figured out a way to commercialize it," Opat says. "I want Kansas to be first with it."
New investors are helping make that possible.
Opat had several individuals interested in investing, and some end-of-the-year state tax credits that allow about a 45 percent tax credit on investments got them on board.
"That triggered a whole series of events for us," Opat says.
IMG recently expanded its space at 143 N. Rock Island and may soon need a new building.
"We're contemplating the next growth," Opat says.
The company still does movie graphics, but that's no longer its main focus.
"We were always doing cool things, but they were always one-time products," Opat says.
He describes his new long-term business solution this way:
"We're finding technology and creating products that can go out there and change the way people utilize computers and systems."
Opat can show companies a new medium to create messages for customers, such as using a store window to apply the touchless technology to learn about products and services.
He says he can show them, "Here's what it would look like in your store."
You can check out more at www.img-interactive.tv.
Not surprisingly, Opat has already applied for — and received — more tax credits this year.
"It's just given us a little bit of freedom to go out and market more," Opat says. "It's allowing us to travel."
He's able to take the technology with him to places like trade shows thanks to the investors and the tax credits.
"It gives us the cash flow we need to go out and build the hardware part of it," Opat says.
That means he can show potential customers what they're getting instead of simply telling them about it.
"It's a visual product," Opat says. "Once we put it in front of the client, they're wowed."
Instead of a discussion about whether someone wants the technology, he says, "it's pretty much when."
"It's a different discussion. It's awesome."
Dressing up at Kohl's
It looks like the Kohl's store at 3561 N. Rock Road is going to undergo extensive remodeling.
Rio Grande Investment has filed a remodeling permit for $910,000 for that address.
No one with Kohl's is commenting at this point, but a spokeswoman says she'll tell us more when she can.
You don't say
"It's like without computers ... nobody knows how to do anything."
—Jim Stevens on a Friday night computer crash at one of his Applebee's restaurants, which left some young waiters puzzling over how to take orders and tally bills the old-fashioned way
