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It won’t come to any surprise to Digest readers that there’s a connection between universities and economic prosperity. In addition to educating students and advancing science and technological innovation, the localized economic impact of institutions, alone, provides a buffer to economic swings for many mid-sized and smaller cities and college towns. How best to incorporate universities into regional tech-based economic development strategies without compromising core missions is an art not every community has mastered.

According to the latest stats on venture capital investments, half of all U.S. VC investment during the last quarter of 2006 supported companies in two small areas of the country: Silicon Valley and New England (primarily the Boston metro area). With the exception of only a handful of other large metro areas and, since the origin of the modern venture capital industry some 25 years ago, most other cities have struggled to attract the attention of venture capitalists.

It is the opening day of AUTM’s 2007 annual conference in San Francisco, the largest gathering ever of individuals from around the world interested in university technology transfer.

A gala held last weekend at Google headquarters in California officially kicked off a $50 million fundraising campaign for the X Prize Foundation, which provides funds for the development of new prizes. The prizes are designed to support breakthroughs for specific challenges in medicine, energy production and consumption, education, and transportation.

Eric Mittelstadt will become the new CEO of the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing. He replaces founder and current CEO, Leo Reddy.

Wisconsin commerce secretary Cory Nettles is resigning his position and will join his old law firm as a partner.

For all intents and purposes, the SSTI offices will be closed from Dec. 24 - Jan. 3 (although some of us retain the right to stop back into the office for respite when either the in-laws, urchins or eggnog get to be a little much). Next week, SSTI will be switching to a new webhost and, while we do not anticipate any problems, e-mail service may be temporarily interrupted or unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

This past fall, Vermont released what may be the nation's first statewide effort to lay out an economic development strategy based on the creative economy theories advanced most prominently by George Mason professor Richard Florida.

NBIA Releases Revised Business Incubation Guide

Virginia Bauer, former New Jersey commerce secretary, was sworn in as CEO and secretary of the New Jersey Commerce & Economic Growth Commission.

Virginia Bauer, former New Jersey commerce secretary, was sworn in as CEO and secretary of the New Jersey Commerce & Economic Growth Commission.

The Greater Phoenix Economic Council announced Barry Broome will become the new president & CEO beginning in February.

Michael DeAloia has been named tech czar for the City of Cleveland.

Marlo Jenkins will be the new managing director of TechTown, Wayne State University's research and technology park.

The Board of Directors of BioCrossroads, Indiana's life sciences initiative, announced David Johnson would succeed Charles Schalliol as CEO.

Real estate developer Robert Klein II was selected as chairman of California's stem cell oversight committee.

John Merrill will serve as executive director for the Greensboro Center for Innovative Development, a joint millennium campus and research park between University of North Carolina Greensboro and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

It is the nation’s first Entrepreneurship Week, with many events, workshops and contests taking place across the country to encourage more people to consider becoming entrepreneurs. A complete list of activities is available at www.entrepreneurshipweekusa.com. With this issue, SSTI honors America’s tech entrepreneurs – and the state and local TBED efforts designed to ensure more of these firms succeed!