SSTI Digest

Rosellen Kraus has announced she will be leaving the Central Florida Technology Partnership at the end of the summer.

The Virginia Institute for Defense and Homeland Security has named Hugh Montgomery, Jr. as the consortium's first director, effective July 1.

Neil Shpritz, executive director of the BWI Business Partnership in Maryland, is retiring in October.

Fred Tompkins, professor and interim dean of the University of Tennessee (UT) College of Engineering, has been named interim executive director of the UT Research Foundation.

With preparations for SSTI's 7th Annual Conference on October 20-22 well underway, we have received many questions from local, regional and state organizations wanting to host the premier event for the tech-based economic development profession in 2004. Because of the increased interest, SSTI has bumped up its schedule for selecting the 2004 site. We are accepting nominations of host organizations and locations for SSTI's 8th Annual Conference until July 11, 2003.

Held in late September or October each year, SSTI’s annual two-and-a-half day event attracts approximately 300 participants from more than 40 states and several countries. The conference is especially designed for those engaged in tech-based economic development on the local, regional, state or national level.

SSTI is declaring its independence from publishing an issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest on July 4. The Digest will resume on July 11.

With the state's current fiscal year winding down and a $1 billion deficit looming for the next one, Ohio has re-emphasized its commitment to building a stronger economic future through research and technology with a series of multi-million grant announcement over the past three weeks.

Part of Governor Bob Taft's Third Frontier Project, the state has competitively awarded nearly $20 million to each of the first three Wright Centers of Innovation. The centers program represents a $500 million, 10-year capital fund to support the construction and furbishing of an unspecified number of research and commercialization facilities associated with the state's academic research community.

The Washington Technology Center (WTC) has created a new program that will make obtaining access to early-stage seed capital easier for companies outside the Puget Sound. WTC is Washington's statewide science and technology organization.

Under a $250,000 award from the federal Economic Development Administration that was matched by WTC, investors and companies in communities such as Yakima, Spokane, Tri-Cities, Bellingham, Port Angeles, Wenatchee and Vancouver will benefit from the two-year program.

For Texas, the appropriate role for the state to serve in fostering economic development continues to evolve. With the passage of Senate Bill 275 earlier this month, the third organization in seven years will take the lead to encourage economic growth — this time with a strong focus on clusters and technology-based economic development.

The act abolishes the Texas Department of Economic Development (TDED) and creates an Economic Development and Tourism Office within the Governor's Office. Accompanying the transfer of duties will be just over 100 of the 127 TDED employees.

Citing inadequate information available to those who oversee technology incubators, yet emphasizing the incubators' significant and measurable impact on communities, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Administration has released a study that highlights 17 of the nation's top incubators. A National Benchmarking Analysis of Technology Business Incubator Performance and Practices details the role business incubators have in technology development strategies.

Working with the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA), Commerce's Office of Technology Policy (OTP) sought to identify factors that contribute to business incubator performance. OTP collaborated with NBIA and the Southern Technology Application Center at the University of Florida to produce the study, ultimately to allow economic development officials to gauge their efforts and increase the return on investment in business incubation.