Quentin Hardy of The New York Times recently wrote a story that positions Seattle as the next tech capital, highlighting a trend that is changing the way people think about the Emerald City. For a city mostly known as the birthplace of Starbucks, the Seahawks and rain, a recent influx of Silicon Valley venture capital investments and big wigs like Facebook, Google, eBay and Twitter have finally placed Seattle as the emerging epicenter of cloud-computing, datacenters and innovation.

The topic of Seattle as a major technology center fueled a recent panel discussion at a luncheon hosted by Rotary Club of Seattle, moderated by Todd Bishop, co-founder of Geekwire. Panelists included Michael Schutzler, CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA); Sarah Bird, CEO of Moz; Julie Sandler, principal at Madrona Venture Group; and technology veteran Jeremy Jaech, co-founder of SNUPI Technologies.

Geekwire’s Todd Bishop began the tech-focused session by asking panelists to weigh in about what makes Seattle so different from Silicon Valley and how the tech scene has changed over the last several years.

“Seattle is rapidly embracing new technologies beyond innovations taking place at Microsoft and Amazon as the industry matures with more thoughtful ‘bets’ and increased competition,” said SNUPI Technologies’ Jeremy Jaech.

“Competition has also increased, as it is easier than ever to reach people from all over the world with accessible cloud computing applications,” added Moz’s Sarah Bird.

“Keep in mind that compared to Silicon Valley, Seattle is 10-20 years behind the power curve where the entire local industry was just Microsoft 20 years ago,” added Michael Schutzler from the WTIA. “Now we are home to a viable and growing VC marketplace. It’s not that we haven’t been swinging for the fences, we just haven’t had as many times at bat as a city.”

Bird added that she believes it’s now much easier for companies to get started in Seattle with the rise of local accelerator programs and tech conferences like TechStars and Geekwire. However, finding top talent continues to be a challenge, given increased competition in the region. The growing number of cloud-based and mobile app startups has made the fight for engineers even more difficult in recent months.

Julie Sandler offered another perspective from her work at the Seattle-based venture capital firm Madrona. “Having worked in Silicon Valley, when other people talk about Seattle, they often say the tech community just seems so nice. This bugs me because Seattle is very aggressive and yet collaborative,” she said. “It’s not uncommon to see two founders of different companies meeting regularly. It’s not uncommon to see an established CEO meet with a start-up founder. This tension between collaboration and aggression makes Seattle so successful and is putting our city on the map.”

Bishop then asked the panelists to name the most promising Seattle-based startups that no one has heard of yet. The responses included online course developer Skilljar; emerging biotech company Acucela that treats macular degeneration; Glympse, a mobile app that lets you share your location with others for a specific timeframe; and Canary, the maker of personal air quality sensors.

Over the last five years, the proliferation of venture capital firms in the Seattle region including Madrona, Vulcan, Cascadia Capital, Ignition Partners, Voyager Capital and Benaroya Capital has helped stimulate tech-sector growth while providing more job opportunities. As The New York Times reports, Madrona alone has participated in 15 cloud deals since March 2012, raising $68 million of $304 million total venture capital for cloud companies in the Seattle area, while the rest came from 20 other investors, mostly in the valley. Those companies are still private and are valued at around $2.3 billion.

For decades, Microsoft and Amazon were the lone tech giants in the region, but now the Pacific Northwest is home to myriad newcomers like EMC, Tableau, Apptio and Smartsheet.

As John Cook of Geekwire reported, the City of Seattle and real estate company Kidder Matthews have recently unveiled plans to begin marketing a 4.41-acre parcel just southeast of downtown Seattle to potentially lure Bay Area companies to set up shop.

But the question remains – is Seattle ready to take on the Valley?

You bet.