New Jersey needs centers of innovation, technology and venture capitalism to compete with other states, panelists at the Venture Funding in the New Jersey Economy event said Wednesday at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick.

The event was sponsored by the New Brunswick Development Corp., better known as Devco, which currently is developing The Hub in New Brunswick to serve as such a space.

Devco President Chris Paladino said it badly needed.

“Kendall Square (in Boston) is populated and I think New Jersey has this sort of inferiority complex,” he said. “MIT has been in the game buying properties since the ’80s.”

Paladino said some of the smartest people in the world go to Boston, possibly drawn by the esteemed educational institutions, but that they stay there because they enjoy the vibrancy of Kendall Square.