Maximize Your Professional Development Dollars with Pre-conference Options

On October 13, SSTI will offer four exciting options as pre-conference activities: three day-long sessions on topics that will help you prepare for tomorrow's challenges and a tour of one of the world's foremost science parks. The sessions are:

Marketing Success: Telling the TBED Story

Successful tech-based economic development organizations (TBED) have three things in common: they do good work, they know they're doing good work through program evaluation and impact assessments, and they make people aware of the good work they’re doing.

This stimulating, day-long workshop goes in-depth into the best way to communicate your success. We’ll consider how to define your audiences, determine what your message is, and then tailor your message to clients, constituents and key decision makers.

Sharing their experiences and offering advice on what to do and pitfalls to avoid, our panels of national leaders have expertise in all aspects of tech-based economic development marketing, including developing a tech image for your community, building support for investing in science and technology in your legislature, and promoting your TBED program.

University City Science Center: An Insider's Tour

SSTI is pleased to offer a behind-the-scenes tour of the first and one of the largest urban science and technology parks in the world — Philadelphia's University City Science Center. In the 40 years since its founding, the Science Center has become an important engine of economic growth for the entire Greater Philadelphia Region and beyond, having helped build over 350 new technology and life science companies.

The half-day tour will allow you access to some of the most technologically-advanced office and lab space in the world, including fully-equipped wet labs and a technology incubator. You will learn best practices on developing a science and technology park as well as a technology incubator from some of the world's leading authorities. They will share their expertise on how to plan for and respond to the ever-changing demands of small and medium-sized technology companies in all industries, from life sciences to nanotechnology.

Don't miss this eye-opening journey into a world-renowned science and technology park that fuses talent, capital and opportunity, providing the environment needed to commercialize promising new technology and innovations.

Transportation will be provided to and from the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, site of SSTI's 8th annual conference.

Developing Angel Organizations: A Practical Guide

Access to capital sources is an essential element for building a tech-based economy and growing thriving businesses. Policymakers and practitioners in many regions worry about how their tech firms will finance growth.

In the meantime, angel investors quietly are providing significant financing of entrepreneurial companies. Experts estimate that, on a cumulative basis, angel investments have been double that of venture capital over the last 30 years. Further, angels are financing start-up and early-stage businesses, filling a void left by VCs. Angels recognize opportunity exists even in a risk-averse market and are putting up their money as proof.

Angels can be found or nurtured anywhere. Or can they? How does a tech start-up find a good angel? How does an angel find a good start-up? How do angels find each other for financing larger opportunities?

Increasingly savvy regions and states have been working with accredited investors to encourage the creation and success of angel investor organizations to help companies tap into angel investments. The number of angel organizations has tripled since 1995. These groups of angel investors are looking for deal flow and can make larger investments by combining their resources. Just as the weather varies across the country, so, too, do the philosophy, the motivations, and the depth of the pockets of its angels. What’s the best way to develop a strong angel investor community in your region?

Presented by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Angel Capital Association, this full-day workshop will focus on the development of angel organizations, including a step-by-step process for determining whether or not your community can support an angel organization and, if it can, the type and structure that is right for the involved investors and your community.

An Introduction to Tech-based Economic Development

Gaining a good understanding of tech-based economic development — the approaches, vital elements, effective strategies, successful programs, proven policies, and important lessons learned from failures — will make your efforts in the field more rewarding.

This full-day interactive workshop is tailored to those professionals new to tech-based economic development. Attendance is always limited to a small group to ensure each participant benefits from the personalized session — walking away afterward with a firm foundation for SSTI's full conference and for their tech-based economic development responsibilities back home.

Engaging, educational and enjoyable, you will discover proven programs and policies for creating technology companies, financing high-tech firms, commercializing technology, and developing productive university-industry partnerships. Attend the session to find out what your peers and colleagues in successful communities and states are doing to build tech-based economies.