SSTI Digest

The U.S. venture and angel markets appear to have fully recovered from their slump earlier this decade. Pricewaterhouse Coopers' Moneytree Survey reports that as of the third quarter, 2007 is on track to become the most active year for venture investment since 2001. Three years after hitting a tech bust low of just under $20 billion in 2003, venture firms investment surpassed $26 billion last year. Venture fundraising has been even stronger, as funds recovered from a low of less than $5 billion in 2001 to more than $30 billion in 2006. Meanwhile, U.S. angel investment has posted some impressive gains, jumping from an estimated $15.7 billion in 2002 to $25.6 billion last year, according to the University of New Hampshire's Venture Research Center. Angel investment, which had been a distinctly secondary market in past years, has become as active a market as venture investment.

Southern Growth Policies Board recently announced the launch of two new, searchable web-based tools and the redesign of its website. The Southern.org website has been redesigned to provide users with improved navigational tools and greater access to Southern Growth's research, toolkits, best practices and publications. Southern Growth also added a scrolling regional calendar and two new, searchable online tools -- the Southern Compass News Portal and the Southern Growth Idea Bank.

Complete descriptions of these opportunities and others are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm. The Missouri Small Business Technology Development Center, which focuses on strengthening the technological competitiveness of Missouri's businesses, is seeking someone for the position of technology commercialization specialist/counselor. This person will serve as a statewide specialist to provide leadership, expertise and training to university faculty and staff and private sector clients, as well as guidance for commercialization of products and development of companies. A master's degree in engineering, business, science or a related area with appropriate coursework, along with five or more years of relevant experience, is required.

As part of SSTI's 11th Annual Conference, recipients of the first annual SSTI Excellence in TBED Awards were honored for their participation in a national competition showcasing best practices in approaches to building tech-based economies.   Designed to celebrate exceptional achievement in addressing the elements that have been found in successful technology-based economies, the awards program recognizes efforts to improve state and regional economies through science, technology and innovation.   “Successful tech-based economies have strong research infrastructure, ability to commercialize research, access to capital, a skilled workforce, and an entrepreneurial culture,” said SSTI President and CEO Dan Berglund. “They also encourage existing industries to become more competitive. These initiatives demonstrate the successful approaches that are being taken across the country.”   The 2007 Excellence in TBED Award winners include:

On the heels of our successful 2007 annual conference, held last week in Baltimore, SSTI is pleased to announce that Cleveland will be the location for our 12th annual conference. The nation’s premier event for sharing ideas on the best ways to encourage technology-based economic development and foster regional prosperity in a global economy will be held at the InterContinental Hotel in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16, 2008.    Cleveland was selected after a national competitive bid process. Key to winning the bid was the efforts of NorTech in demonstrating regional commitments to technology research, development, innovation, commercialization, and entrepreneurship to spur economic growth in Northeast Ohio. NorTech, Northeast Ohio’s leading technology-based economic development organization, worked in partnership with the Ohio Department of Development, regional businesses, foundations, research institutions, and nonprofit community.

Thank you! Interest in SSTI's 11th annual conference has been extremely high since the agenda was released during the summer, and, as we expected and warned, SSTI will not be able to accommodate walk-in registrations on the day of the event. We apologize for the inconvenience and the missed opportunity this creates for a number of Digest readers. The 375 TBED practitioners that will be in attendance next week are in for a great professional development experience. More than 240 different TBED-related organizations from across the continent are represented among the lucky participants - not unlike the six golden ticket winners for the tour of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory (the nice Willy Wonka from the 1970s, not the darker one in the more recent Tim Burton remake). The conference has its own cast of stars with more than 60 presenters, panelists and discussion leaders to lead the 19 breakout workshops and plenary sessions.

Washington State is attempting to replicate the success of North Carolina’s Research Triangle in promoting regionalism and industry clusters through a new Innovation Partnership Zones initiative.   Gov. Christine Gregoire announced last week the designation of 11 Innovation Partnership Zones throughout the state -- five of which were also awarded state grants totaling $4.3 million allocated in the fiscal year 2007-09 capital budget (see the April 30, 2007 issue of the Digest).  

The angel market may be showing the first signs of leveling off following four years of moderate sustained growth. Angel investment in U.S. companies fell 6 percent in the first two quarters of 2007, according to the University of New Hampshire's Center for Venture Research (CVR). The decline itself is modest but is also the first indication that the angel market, which is a valuable capital source for many early-stage companies, may not be able to continue its pattern of steady post-tech bust growth.   The CVR report also finds that the average deal size fell by 4 percent during the first half of the year, and the number of deals declined marginally at 2 percent. At the same time, however, the number of investors per deal increased by 10 percent, signaling the increasing importance of angel networks in the industry.

The National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices has selected seven states to participate in a year-long policy academy named State Strategies for Promoting Innovative Clusters and Regional Economies. Teams from the seven states – Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oregon and West Virginia – will collaborate with staff from the NGA to create action plans for improving each state’s competitiveness and economy through cluster development. Additionally, during the next year, the selected states will learn about research on clusters and best practices for cluster improvement, perform an analysis to gain insight on their existing state clusters, and plan strategies to orient state investments, workforce development, and education initiatives around potential clusters.  

Announced last week, Ivy Tech Community College will receive a $3.18 million grant for training individuals from a 14-county region in North Central Indiana in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. The grant, a component of the $15 million Indiana Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, will establish the New Pathways to STEM-based Careers program. The New Pathways program will be concentrated into three distinct areas:

Mark Allen was named the new senior vice provost for research and innovation at Georgia Tech. Allen replaces Charlie Liotta, who has returned to the school's faculty. Gov. Linda Lingle announced 18 appointments to the Hawaii Innovation Council, which will work with groups statewide to increase the economic impact of Hawaii's innovation resources. Co-chairmen include Mark Benioff, Ron Higgins and Jay Shidler. George Burrell resigned as president and CEO of Innovation Philadelphia. Kelly Lee, the organization's executive vice president, is running day-to-day operations until Burrell's successor is named.

Mark Allen was named the new senior vice provost for research and innovation at Georgia Tech. Allen replaces Charlie Liotta, who has returned to the school's faculty.