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The 2017 SSTI Creating a Better Future Award provides the perfect opportunity to show other practitioners, as well as policymakers, the success you have achieved at creating a better future for your region through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. To be eligible, submit a brief application that highlights one of your organization’s most successful initiatives. Award categories encompass research; entrepreneurship and capital; competitive industries and economic opportunity; and, recognition for the most promising initiative. Check out the categories and more information at sstiawards.org.

The federal FY 2018 budget process is well underway, and SSTI members have participated in record numbers to ask Congress to prioritize funding for the Regional Innovation Strategies program. Member organizations, working with SSTI and The Sheridan Group, co-signed 60 appropriations requests to congressional offices and helped to secure 39 signatures on a “Dear Colleague” letter by Reps. David Cicilline (D-RI) and Randy Hultgren (R-IL).

The SSTI Excellence in TBED awards program is back! SSTI wants to provide you with a national platform to share your organization’s success stories and be recognized during this year’s 2017 Annual Conference as a leader in the economic development field. Tell your story by submitting an application in one of this year’s awards categories:

SSTI encourages its member organizations to sign onto a letter to Congress organized by NDD United, a broad coalition advocating for parity under sequestration for non-defense discretionary (NDD) funding and defense funding. The current leadership in Congress has made clear its priority to increase defense department spending at the expense of nondefense domestic spending, which includes programs under the EDA, SBA, NIST, NIH, NSF, the Department of Education, and more. Should this happen, many of the federal programs that TBED organizations rely on could be cut. NDD United is bringing together organizations from across the domestic funding space—from education to the sciences to transportation to housing—to ask Congress to protect non-defense domestic spending. SSTI encourages you to join us and hundreds of other organizations in signing on. View the full text of the letter here. To sign on, click here. The deadline to sign is January 27.

Columbus, OH – Celebrating the 10^th anniversary of its Excellence in Technology Based Economic Development awards, SSTI today announced four winners driving prosperity in their states and regions through innovative approaches to growing their economies and creating high-paying jobs.

In less than a week, about 300 professionals, stakeholders, policymakers, and others working to encourage economic prosperity through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship will gather in Columbus to hear and share the latest news, trends and advancements at the SSTI Annual Conference. It is fitting that the conference is being held in Columbus this year, as the city itself is being recognized for its activity and growth. Columbus recently was named by Money magazine as the Best in the Midwest in their Best Big Cities ranking. It also placed first in the Midwest for visitor satisfaction and in the top 10 overall, according to another recent survey.

John Lettieri, co-founder of Economic Innovation Group (EIG) and its senior director for Policy and Strategy, and Pamela Lewis, the director of the New Economy Initiative (NEI), have joined the speaker line-up of the SSTI Annual Conference, Innovation with Purpose: Shaping Future Opportunities, as part of the Bold Ideas for Innovation with Purpose opening plenary session. EIG brings together leading entrepreneurs, investors, economists, and policymakers from across the political spectrum to address America’s economic challenges. NEI is one of the nation’s largest philanthropic partnerships, funded by 12 national and regional foundations and managed by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. It is in its eighth year of innovative funding and the development of public/private partnerships that have helped create more than 17,000 jobs and 1,600 companies throughout southeast Michigan. There is still time to register for the conference, which is being held November 1-3 in Columbus, OH.

Whether measuring the nature of the economy or determining the impact of economic development programs, finding the right indicators and metrics is critical. And a new set of questions is arising for economic development practitioners: Who gets credit for impact when multiple organizations provide services to the same company? When impacts may be long-term, what is the best way to gauge success in the short term? These and other questions will be explored during the conference session on Measuring Impacts: Where We Stand and Where We Need to Go at this year’s annual SSTI conference. The session comes at a time when the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC) recently released a white paper on common metrics used by economic development programs and when the World Economic Forum is seeking input on the design of its Global Competitiveness Index.

Practitioners in the technology-based economic development field often face questions about what they do, or what the field entails. The answer can be a challenge. Is it attracting high-quality jobs and businesses to an area, finding capital to finance science and tech startups, STEM education support, educating a new workforce, bringing research ideas to the marketplace, partnering with other organizations to achieve all those goals? It can be a mouthful, and it can be difficult to convey all those ideas in simple terms. In an effort to give the community a framework to talk about their work with external stakeholders, the upcoming annual SSTI conference will feature a session designed to frame the message in an understandable and memorable way.

You talk about your program often, tout its successes (?) and share with stakeholders your program’s impact. Why not let the entire country in on your good work? The SSTI Excellence in TBED awards program can provide your organization with that national audience of your peers! All you have to do is send us a five-page narrative describing your most successful innovation-focused efforts and our expert panel of judges will select the initiatives that best exhibit the value of investing in science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship to create vibrant regional economies and improve our nation's competitiveness. Winners are announced during a special ceremony at SSTI’s Annual Conference in Columbus, November 1-3, and are provided a forum to showcase their initiative. Applications are due July 15 by 5:00 P.M. ET. Learn more and apply at: http://www.sstiawards.org/.