SSTI Digest

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.

SSTI annual conferences don't come in a box. We don't publish proceedings or post conference materials. Each year's event is designed as an intensive learning experience; it's about the question and answer, the give and take, the push and pull, the dialogue as much as the individual presentations. You have to be present to win, if learning and growing is winning. We think it is.

We're happy to say we know of multimillion-dollar state science & tech initiatives that have been launched as a direct result of the ideas, the enthusiasm, and the energy that past conferees took home after attending SSTI annual conferences. The key was the dynamic nature of the experience.

Need yet another reason why this conference fits your training needs? SSTI’s 8th Annual Conference is recognized by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) as a professional development event that counts toward the recertification of Certified Economic Developers (CEcDs).

CEcDs greatly enhance their skills and marketability by attending the nation’s most comprehensive and intensive learning opportunity for building tech-based economies — SSTI's annual conference!

Seattle 2003 Sold Out. Register Early to Ensure a Seat in Philadelphia

We heard from some of you last year about your disappointment and disbelief that you couldn't attend our annual conference in Seattle because it was sold out. It happens with SSTI conferences because our first concern is the quality of the event for our participants.

We feel it's tough to have productive discussions continue and build from breakout session to session or to count on running into the same new friends when you are one of a 1,000 or even 500 registrants. So we limit attendance.

One word sums up today's efforts to build tech-based economies: challenging. A restructuring manufacturing base, revolutionary scientific breakthroughs, China and Inda heralding a truly global economy, and tight budgets have left many states and communities simply reacting to change or waiting for better times.

Building Tech-based Economies: Preparing for Tomorrow's Challenges, SSTI's 8th Annual Conference, is designed to help policymakers and practitioners meet these challenges head on. On October 14-15 and with pre-conference workshops on October 13, the nation's most widely respected forum for policymakers and practitioners to work and learn together will convene in Philadelphia. This year's conference promises to be even better than ever for the tech-based economic development (TBED) community. Here are a few examples of why:

In the coming weeks, many Digest readers will receive the 24-page full color brochure in the mail. If you can't wait until then or want to make sure you get a copy, a PDF version is available for download on our conference website: http://www.ssti.org/conference04.htm [expired]

Feel free to pass the link, PDF or brochure along to all in your state, region or university, that you think may be interested in attending.

Frank Horrigan is leaving Innovation Works in Pittsburgh to become director of the Governors Action Team SW Regional Office.

Pete Tartline has resigned his position as president and CEO of the Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania.

Financial success for any start-up tech firm more often depends on adequate financing and proper management than the specific technology, experts say. Two tech-based economic development organizations in Pittsburgh have formed a new alliance to offer entrepreneurial life science firms with an eye toward greater sustainability and profitability.

The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG), a partnership to put the region's life sciences industry on a fast track for growth, and Idea Foundry, a nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs transform their ideas into sustainable businesses, entered into a joint funding agreement for early stage medical device companies.

A study released last week by the Economic Development Administration (EDA) and Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Economic Development finds that, within a region, universities are best able to affect the growth of young, emerging clusters. The study, Universities and the Development of Industry Clusters, concludes a "university must have a large base of research and development in order to significantly impact a cluster..."

For a university to have the maximum benefit for local cluster development, the institution must align services and community involvement with regional interests and industry clusters across a broad spectrum, not just in terms of technical knowledge and R&D. In other words, the university needs to actively address business, workforce and community issues in addition to developing an exceptional research capacity.

Jill Felix, chief executive officer of the University City Science Center in Philadelphia, has announced she is stepping down.

The Allegheny Conference on Community Development announced the following three staff appointments: Leigh McIntosh was named special projects director, Katherine Needham is a new senior vice president, and Roger Cranville will serve as senior vice president of business investment for the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance.