SSTI Digest

The Maine Department of Economic and Community Development is seeking a qualified, energetic, collaborative person to serve as director of its Office of Innovation. The Office of Innovation seeks to advance Maine's economic well-being and to expand employment opportunities by encouraging and coordinating the state's R&D activities and fostering collaboration among its higher educational and nonprofit research institutions and the business community. A four-year degree; experience in science, engineering, technology and/or business; and experience in the management of organizations that innovate, commercialize and deploy technology are among this position's minimum requirements. More information on this opportunity is available through the SSTI Job Corner at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

The Idaho Falls-based Partnership for Science and Technology selected M. Lane Allgood as its new executive director. Indiana Economic Development Corp. President Mickey Maurer will resign at the end of 2006, fulfilling his pledge to Gov. Mitch Daniels to serve two years. Michael Relyea has been named executive director of New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation, the public benefit authority that oversees the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR). Dr. Russell Bessette, executive director of NYSTAR, will serve as chief science advisor for the foundation and its board.

The Idaho Falls-based Partnership for Science and Technology selected M. Lane Allgood as its new executive director.

Indiana Economic Development Corp. President Mickey Maurer will resign at the end of 2006, fulfilling his pledge to Gov. Mitch Daniels to serve two years.

Michael Relyea has been named executive director of New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation, the public benefit authority that oversees the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR). Dr. Russell Bessette, executive director of NYSTAR, will serve as chief science advisor for the foundation and its board.

Dr. Raymond Taylor has joined the Southern Growth Policies Board leadership team as senior fellow and director of the organization's Council on the New Economy Workforce.

The Kansas Bioscience Authority named Thomas Thornton as its first president and CEO.

Dr. Janet Yancey-Wrona left her post as director of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development's Office of Innovation to join a new University of New England biotech start-up.

Incubators and accelerators. Angel, seed and venture capital. Research parks. University and industry research. Technology licensing and commercialization. Entrepreneurship assistance. R&D tax credits. Technology workforce development. Regional technology councils. Manufacturing extension. Science and technology advisers. While all have specific functions, collectively, when supported by public funds, these activities are working toward a single goal of transforming a regional economy to be more competitive in the knowledge-driven global market for innovation and growth.

Sometimes quality takes longer to achieve than we'd like, but your patience paid off as SSTI has assembled one of our finest slates of sessions yet to anchor the 10th annual conference, Nov. 1-2, in Oklahoma City. Providing the core of the conference, the 24 sessions are structured to allow ample discussion time among participants, something we're told sets SSTI's conferences apart from the rest of the field.

If there is ever an example of a city-region that can demonstrate the benefits of working as a team to transform its economy through all aspects of tech-based economic development, it would have to be the Oklahoma City area. And fortunately, the vibrant community is based in a state that both understands what is needed for transforming an economy from being natural resource-based to knowledge-driven and is matching talk with real money. Whether they realize it or not, several state and regional TBED programs around the country owe their structure and existence to the pioneering TBED work done in Oklahoma since the 1980s. Much of the portfolio of programs offered through OCAST, its private sector partner I2E, the Oklahoma Alliance for Excellence in Manufacturing, and the "Oklahoma model" for increasing equity capital availability has been replicated around the country.

On Oct. 31, SSTI will offer four exciting options as pre-conference activities. Registration is separate from the full conference fee. Seating for each will be limited. Turning Innovations into Enterprises: A Practitioner's Guide to Technology Commercialization A name and face familiar to many SSTI members, Dr. Randy Goldsmith, president of the Mississippi Technology Alliance, brings his internationally popular technology commercialization workshop to this years SSTI pre-conference in a half-day format especially designed for TBED professionals. The Goldsmith Technology Commercialization Model has been adopted by NASA and by economic development organizations in the United Kingdom, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky and elsewhere.