SSTI Digest

Colorado The Rocky Mountain Technology Alliance (RMTA) is a recently formed regional development organization for applied research and technology development whose membership includes universities, government organizations and private businesses. The goal of RMTA is to assist its member organizations by pursuing collaborative programs that will produce intellectual property for new products and businesses. Its mission also includes creating manufacturing solutions to support successful commercial growth and national security. The alliance will cater to a cluster of high tech companies, educational institutions, and government facilities located in the Rocky Mountain Technology Corridor, which stretches from Northern Colorado to Southern New Mexico.

Wisconsin manufacturers must adapt to a fast-changing world in order to grow and succeed in the 21st century. That is the thrust of a recent study of the state’s industrial economy recently released by the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership (WMEP).

In 2004, Wisconsin’s manufacturers generated more than $46 billion in gross product, employed 512,630 workers, produced $90,000 in gross product per employee, and exported $14 billion in manufactured goods, the Wisconsin Manufacturing Study shows. By 2008, the study projects the state's manufacturing gross product will be $54 billion.

There were recurring themes underlying the design and development of SSTI's 9th Annual Conference, Investing in a Brighter Future: Building Tech-based Economies, held Oct. 19-21 in Atlanta, Georgia: inevitability, irrelevance and inspiration.

Our two keynote addresses by Rob Atkinson and Duane Ackerman elucidated the inevitability of change and the opportunities presented by the challenges of globalization. Twenty spirited breakout sessions highlighted local and regional efforts to avoid economic irrelevance through strategic investments in science and technology. And, based on the feedback we've received, the discussions in the breakout sessions, and the spirited conversations overhead during the reception and networking breaks, SSTI believes many of the 354 conference participants came away inspired to improve their own efforts to strengthen their local, state or regional economy through technology-based economic development.

One comment we receive numerous times each year at SSTI's annual conference is that people wish more of the key decision makers and TBED practitioners in their regions had attended the event to make it easier to re invigorate their entire efforts to promote growth through science and technology. The easiest way to accomplish that is to host SSTI's 10th Annual Conference next fall!

SSTI has received many questions from local, regional and state organizations wanting to host the premier event for the tech-based economic development profession in 2006. Letters of intent from prospective nominees are due by Nov. 16, 2005. We will be accepting nominations of host organizations and locations for SSTI's 10th Annual Conference until Dec. 23, 2005.

To stimulate equity investment in America's small businesses and create jobs, the U.S. Senate introduced last week the Small Business Investment and Growth Act of 2005. The legislation creates a new venture capital program within the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA), according to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Examining the components that would most likely be attributed directly to Acting Gov. Richard Codey's proposed $380 million Stem Cell Research Initiative, a Rutgers University study finds that, potentially, the state stands to benefit from an estimated $1.4 billion in new economic activity, approximately 20,000 new jobs, and $71.9 million in new state revenue over the next 20 years.

The authors of the study identify six areas of economic benefits to the state, including the economic impact of public expenditures; savings in health care costs; work time and productivity savings; retention and expansion of the biotechnology industry; and royalty payments to the state. The analysis is dependent upon several variables and the largest uncertainty is whether the current promise of stem cell research will actually yield effective therapies, the authors note.

To improve the way students learn and teachers teach in the areas of science and mathematics, Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri's Blue Ribbon Panel on Mathematics and Science Education recommends 12 specific strategies in four key areas including governance and culture; teacher recruitment; teacher quality; and learning opportunities for students.

Gov. Carcieri launched the "Making the Grade" initiative in January with a panel composed of education and business leaders from around the state. The panel heard suggestions from students, teachers, parents, administrators, and business and community leaders.

The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, in concert with the Pennsylvania State University, are presenting the inaugural Creating Pennsylvania’s Future: A Higher Education, Economic and Community Development Summit, aimed at energizing institutions of higher education, business leaders, economic development organizations, investors, workforce development agencies, government officials, and community leaders to work collaboratively to create a future for Pennsylvania that leverages the Commonwealth’s college and university assets.

The summit will take place at the Penn Stater Conference Center in University Park on Dec. 5 and 6, 2005.

Service industries once again outpaced growth in the goods-producing industries across the country in 2004, according to gross state product (GSP) figures released Oct. 26 by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Private services-producing industries grew 5.1 percent above 2003 figures, while private goods-producing industries grew at a 3.1 percent rate.

Of nine geographic subregions for the country, only the Great Lakes area failed to exceed an average annual growth rate of 2 percent for the 1997-2004 period. While the percentage change for the Great Lakes was higher for 2003-2004, government's declining contribution to the percentage change in real GSP during the period actually pulled the 2.4 percent figure down by a quarter point.

Jim Aanstoos is the new economic development director for the city of San Marcos, Texas.

John Adams, director of the Laredo Development Foundation, will become the new director of Enterprise Florida.

Steve Biggers has been promoted to Deputy Director for the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science & Technology.

Warren Erdman, formerly vice president of corporate affairs at Kansas City Southern, is the newly selected chairman of the board of the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City.

Jim Aanstoos is the new economic development director for the city of San Marcos, Texas.

John Adams, director of the Laredo Development Foundation, will become the new director of Enterprise Florida.