Psssst... Have You Heard What They're Saying?

CEOs and directors of some of the nation's most successful TBED organizations agree... SSTI's Excellence in TBED Award is great way to distinguish your initiative as a best practice and inform key stakeholders of your success. In today's economic climate, we know the importance of effectively communicating the value of your program, and having national recognition to back it up can give you a competitive edge. SSTI now is accepting applications for the 2010 Excellence in TBED Awards, and we want to hear your story. Deadline to apply is June 1. For more information, visit: www.ssti.org/Awards. Read what they're saying:

"Innovation Works has won two SSTI best practice awards. Having a respected third-party organization like SSTI recognize our programs as industry best-practices has been an invaluable tool in helping Innovation Works demonstrate the quality of our initiatives to key stakeholders. It has also proved helpful in our efforts to raise funds for our organization. I encourage other technology-based economic development organizations to consider applying to SSTI for a best practice award."

- Rich Lunak, President & CEO, Innovation Works — Winner of Improving Competitiveness of Existing Industries (2009) and Increasing Access to Capital Categories (2008)

"Each year our state legislature is tasked with creating a balanced budget. In the current economic climate tough choices have to be made. While we all hope our good work and worth are noticed, the reality is that equally laudable programs compete in a high stakes, zero sum game. Preparing an application for the Excellence in TBED awards helped us to focus our thinking on the value of the James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program to Florida's expanding research infrastructure. Being singled out by SSTI for recognition has helped us to effectively and credibly inform our state legislature at a juncture where it has never been more critical to articulate our scientific and economic worth."

- Chuck Wells, Assistant Director, Florida Department of Health — Winner of Expanding the Research Capacity Category (2009)

"Technology-based economic development is our core mission at SC Launch. The start-up companies in which we invest view SC Launch's funding as a "seal of approval" that further spurs their growth. SSTI provides the same benefit to SC Launch by providing even greater credibility to our program. Since our SSTI recognition, our results have continued to grow: as of mid-2010, we have now provided support and funding to more than 149 knowledge-based start-ups in South Carolina since our inception in 2006. There are more than 260 total entities in the SC Launch program, which has attracted over $100 million in add-on, private equity investment in these companies."

-Dave McNamara, SCRA Sr. Vice President and Executive Director of SC Launch — Winner of the Building Entrepreneurial Capacity Category (2008)