SSTI Digest

The full-color, full-conference brochure will hit the streets next week but we wanted to give Digest readers the first peek at what promises to be a very special event for the technology-based economic development (TBED) community. SSTI’s 12th Annual Conference will be held Oct. 14-16, 2008, at the Intercontinental Hotel Cleveland.

Last month, Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced legislative approval of two TBED priorities unveiled during her State of the State Address, a program supporting in-state entrepreneurs and continued investment in an initiative to train displaced workers. 

Despite ongoing concern about the lack of venture-backed initial public offerings (IPOs), venture investment held steady at $7.4 billion in the second quarter of 2008, according to the Moneytree Report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) based on data provided by Thompson Reuters. Though venture investment dropped slightly from $7.5 billion to $7.4 billion from the first to the second quarter of the year, venture activity remain on track to hit the same level of investment as 2007 by year’s end.

While the overall figures seem encouraging, a much higher percentage of investment is being targeted at late-stage, rather than early-stage, companies and to firms based in Silicon Valley and not the rest of the country. This trend could mean trouble for new capital-seeking companies outside of the Bay Area.

How should states determine the focus and location of significant investments into academic research? The process can easily become politicized when more than one research institution, sizable metropolitan area or major industry exist in the state. On occasion, geographic and political influences trump more rational factors, resulting in the “peanut butter effect” of dollars and activities being spread evenly across a state or across institutions at the possible detriment to having a meaningful impact.

Armed with professional advice from mentors in scientific fields and free access to sophisticated design and engineering software, teachers and students from Hawaii, Kansas, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Vermont and Virginia will participate in a national competition to solve a real-world engineering challenge defined by the aviation industry.
 
The idea behind the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Real World Design Challenge is to create a pipeline of highly qualified workers by preparing high school students for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields based on issues facing high-tech and defense industries.
 

Opportunities to secure jobs requiring specialized training and more educated workers - the same types of higher wage positions coveted by U.S. tech-based economic development practitioners - increasingly are appearing in other countries as companies look to enter new markets and reduce costs. As a result, offshoring and its effects on an ever-changing U.S. labor force are topics receiving a lot of play during this election cycle.

Offshoring is not being discussed only by politicians, however. What follows is a synthesis of four recent research reports shedding light on different angles or perspectives of the offshoring debate.

A complete description of this opportunity and others is available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

A consortium of Michigan’s 15 public universities recently announced a decade-long initiative to launch 200 new businesses in the state. The Michigan Initiative for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MIIE) plans to raise and distribute $75 million over the next seven years through grants for commercialization projects, university-industry partnerships and entrepreneurship education. Last week, the initiative made its first round of awards, which included 20 grants totaling $1.3 million. Another $2.2 million in matching funds is expected for this round of awardees from private businesses and universities.

California
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill authorizing community service districts to provide high-speed Internet services in areas in which no private company has done so. The districts, which provide basic infrastructure such as water, sewer and police services, will help extend broadband access into rural areas of the state that remain underserved. The bill reflects the recommendations of the California Broadband Task Force, which was created in 2006 by Gov. Schwarzenegger and presented its findings in January (see the Dec. 4, 2006 issue of the Digest).

Searching for good reasons to support localized college scholarship programs for urban residents? A recent working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York provides convincing evidence: a one point increase in the percentage of residents with a college degree is associated with a 2.3 percent increase in a metro area's gross domestic product (GDP) per person.

While not the subject of the paper, community and regional policymakers may expect if they couple this fact with the other benefits associated with having a more educated populace - such as lower crime rates, lower vacancy rates, higher property values, and more entrepreneurship - that subsidized higher education programs should "pay" for themselves through higher tax revenues and lower costs to the public.

Every year, the U.S. Census Bureau compiles data at the national and state levels describing the performance of the manufacturing sector within the U.S. While the data are usually included in the Census’ Annual Survey of Manufacturers, every five years the data can instead be found in the U.S. Economic Census. SSTI has prepared a table showing the state rankings for the percent change over the five-year period from 2002 to 2006 for the total value-added manufacturing, the value of shipments, and the value-added per employee for each state and the District of Columbia.

Being associated with the premiere professional development event of the year for the nation's technology-based economic development community can yield tremendous returns for your company, organization or program. Exposure and unrivaled networking opportunities are presented through SSTI's annual conference -- broadening the reach and deepening the impact of your marketing dollars. Last year’s sold-out conference included more than 350 representatives from 48 states and four countries. Sponsorship opportunities exist to let professional attendees know that your organization is actively involved in innovation and tech-based economic development.