Making Summer Travel Plans? Check Out SSTI's Calendar of TBED Events

It's probably the case that not all of your travel over the next few months will be for personal vacation. Conference excursions can stimulate new ideas, add to your professional growth, and establish or strengthen opportunities for collaboration. In addition to reserving Oct. 31-Nov. 2 for SSTI's 10th Annual Conference in Oklahoma City, we encourage you to check out our web calendar of events to scan more than 140 additional opportunities for professional development.

While most national technology-based economic development (TBED) organizations, unfortunately, limit announcements to their own events or those of members, SSTI attempts on its web calendar to include activities spanning most issues related to growing a knowledge economy. Examples of three upcoming events include:

June 4-6

The Southern Innovation Summit, to be held at the New Orleans Marriott, will focus on the creation, accumulation and application of knowledge for the South's businesses, universities, citizens and governments, and develop strategies for increasing innovation as part of the South's economic growth policies. The conference will feature the release of the 2006 Report on the Future of the South, with keynotes and panel discussions featuring Louisiana Governor and Southern Growth Chairman Kathleen Blanco; Georgia Governor and Southern Technology Chairman Sonny Perdue; Missouri Governor Matt Blunt; Tennessee Representative Zach Wamp, champion of the East Tennessee Technology Corridor; Ping Fu, Inc. Magazine's 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year and Geomagic chairman and CEO; Dr. Walter Massey, president of Morehouse College and former director of the National Science Foundation; and key researchers and strategists from universities and innovation centers from across the country. To register online, visit www.southern.org/conf.asp.

June 12-14

The Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit, organized by Innovation Philadelphia, will be held at the Park Hyatt Philadelphia. The event will provide regional, national and international creative, technology, and business professionals the opportunity to learn best practices for encouraging creativity around five major themes: Creativity 101; Creative Cityscapes; Funding Creative Ideas and Industries; Creative Technologies for Reaching New Audiences; and, Creative Human Capital. Featured keynote presentations include artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, creators of The Gates, and Daniel Pink, author of the best-selling books, A Whole New Mind and Free Agent Nation. More information, including registration details, is available at www.ipphila.com/creativeeconomy/GCECS.

June 18-20

DRUID, the Danish Research Unit for Industrial Dynamics, will hold its summer conference in Copenhagen, presenting nearly 250 papers and poster sessions from most of world's leading and rising academic researchers on TBED and innovation issues. This year's theme is Knowledge, Innovation and Competitiveness: Dynamics of Firms, Networks, Regions and Institutions. Scanning the titles of the papers selected for presentation alone demonstrates the importance of this annual event for advancing TBED policy and understanding: www2.druid.dk/conferences/papers.php?first_letter=all&cf=8 More information is available at: www.druid.dk/conferences/summer2006/Welcome.htm

SSTI's calendar of events is available at: http://www.ssti.org/calendar.htm