SSTI Digest

With the goal of creating new access to venture capital (VC) for area businesses, Arizona and Montana are investing up to $50 million into a “fund of funds” concept. Both states are undertaking this multi-management model with the hopes of luring high-tech start-up companies. Their efforts are described in further detail below.

The number of business establishments in the U.S. grew by 17.4 percent between 1998 and the end of 2003, although a slight net decline occurred in 2003 for the first time in six years, according to data recently released by infoUSA.

In its analysis, infoUSA tabulated the number of business establishments in the U.S. at the end of each calendar year, describing an "establishment" as any small, medium or large business, division, brand, organization, association or government office with an assigned telephone number and paid employees.

The Omaha-based company has been compiling and updating the database of business establishments in the U.S. for the past 30 years, and updates the data regularly through more than 20 million phone calls to businesses throughout the U.S. and Canada.

An advocate for small businesses in Washington known as “Mr. Small Business,” Milton Stewart died of pneumonia on Nov. 5 in Phoenix.

If you haven't purchased your 2005 wall calendar or updated your computer-based planner yet, you will need to soon, to schedule travel and update budget requests. At the top of many lists will be SSTI's 9th annual conference, Oct. 19-21, 2005 in Atlanta, but how do you conveniently find out about the many other high quality events happening throughout the year?

While many organizations and associations only post their own events, SSTI maintains an open calendar web page as a service to the larger TBED community. Each of the more than 100 current announcements includes a link or contact to obtain additional information. For example, here is one offering from each of the next four months from the calendar page:

The Oct. 25 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest previewed ballot issues in six states that would have implications for their respective state efforts to grow a knowledge-based economy. The unofficial results at press time for each are provided below:

While the presidential election has been dominating the news, voters across the country will be acting on an array of tech-based economic development issues on Election Day next week. The largest is an initiative in California that would provide up to $3 billion for embryonic stem cell research. If approved by California voters, Proposition 71 would have the potential of significantly changing the landscape of where stem cell research is carried out and have significant economic development implications.

Garza Fernandez, president of the Southern Arizona Industry and Aerospace Alliance, announced her resignation to devote more time to the Technology Development and Research Institute.

Scott Davis will be the new director for the University of Arizona Office of Economic Development.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, State of the State Address, Jan. 12, 2004 "The Governor's Council on Innovation and Technology recently released a blueprint for developing Arizona's tech industries, so that we can become pace setters in an increasingly competitive arena. [Note: See the Jan. 9 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest for details.]

In 2003, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano charged the Governor's Council on Innovation and Technology with developing specific recommendations to help diversify the state's economy. With recommendations including new and expanded tax credits, public-private venture capital, angel capital funds, workforce development and internship programs, and lobbying Washington for more funding, the governor now must find a way to finance the plan in a tight fiscal environment.

The draft recommendations from the group, released in December, were developed through five strategic themes: building on Arizona's core competencies; investment versus expenditure; collaboration and partnership – engagement; accountability – measurements, shared responsibility; and leadership and commitment, both public and private. While some of the recommendations are vague, others are very specific:

The University of Arizona Office of Economic Development (UA OED) has released its annual report card on economic growth and development in the Arizona-Sonora region. Funded by the Arizona-Mexico Commission and the Arizona Department of Commerce, Regional Economic Indicators: Arizona-Sonora 2003 monitors economic changes in the Arizona-Sonora region via 33 indicators across four broad areas:

Arizona Universities Partner to Create Joint Biomedical Campus