Advanced Sessions, Women's Forum and Best Practices Roundtables Among Conference Innovations

The larger conference structure allows us to experiment with some of the sessions, adding elements to improve the event's value for most participants.

Ready to move up to the next skill level? Try our series of Advanced Sessions

If you've been in the field a while and have attended SSTI's annual conferences in the past, you may be excited to see we've designed eight breakout sessions to address advanced subject matter within the given topics. The presentations and discussions of those topics identified as Advanced in the descriptions will be tailored specifically to participants already comfortable with the terms and issues that tend to arise.

Please note all conference registrants are welcome to attend any of the 30 breakout sessions offered on Thursday and Friday.

Roundtable for Women in TBED

Juggling your travel schedule, the legislative session, your kid’s swim team practice and your aging parents? Have you ever wanted to talk about the challenges you face, but the details are too politically sensitive to share with your neighborhood friends? Do women in TBED have challenges our male colleagues don’t? If so, is there a role for SSTI, perhaps as an informal (or formal) support network of peers? Come share, visit and plan with other TBED women in this roundtable for Women in TBED.

The SSTI Best Practice Series: Three Special Sessions

The most effective long-term programs and policies adapt to changing times, changing needs, and changing challenges. Are your efforts at risk of unknowingly following a path others already have found leads nowhere?

It's hard to believe, but most states have had one sort of tech-based economic development strategy or another in place for 15-20 years. That also means the field now has a cadre of seasoned TBED professionals around the country who have watched, learned and led the evolution of programs and policies to improve their efficiency and impact.

To capture this collective memory of lessons learned, SSTI is preparing a series of guides on best practices for core elements of tech-based economic development — drawing from extensive interviews with more than 50 of the nation's leading practitioners. In three sessions, we'll present our preliminary finding and gather additional input on shaping these guides.