Publisher's Note:Responding to The World is Flat

The TBED community owes a huge debt of gratitude to Thomas Friedman for his 2005 book, The World is Flat. Friedman has helped elevate the issue of innovation, competitiveness, and the U.S. standing therein to the New York Times bestseller list, the Sunday talk shows, and scads of press coverage. Friedman has helped convince pundits and policymakers that the world is flat and the challenges to the U.S. are more serious than ever and are only increasing.

While the pundits talk about the issue, the most pressing issue is what we're going to do about it. To protect our future we need to increase entrepreneurship, expand access to capital, fully integrate our universities into our economic system, improve our workforce through improved education, and better involve underrepresented peoples and regions. Friedman offers a variety of policy prescriptions, but virtually all rely on federal action. But it is incumbent on every city, region, and state to take its own future into its own hands and act.

As SSTI staff read and/or listened to Friedman's book, frankly, we grew depressed. The depression grew from a sense that the challenge is overwhelming, and a sudden feeling that this must have been the way England felt after World War II as it watched its dominant position slip away (our apologies to our U.K. readers). Our depression also revolved around trying to put together a conference agenda that reflected the reality of Friedman's flat world.

But then it dawned on us that SSTI's best way of helping the U.S. deal with a flat world is to do what we do best: help practitioners and policymakers learn from each other, share best practices, and brainstorm together to come up with new solutions. We need to learn from each other as we do this. So as we designed the agenda for this year's conference, Investing in a Brighter Future: Building Tech-based Economies, it turned into an action agenda that states, regions, localities, and universities can take to cope with the flattening world.

If you want to increase entrepreneurship, you'll be interested in the entrepreneurship track that we're presenting in cooperation with conference platinum sponsor, the Kauffman Foundation. Our presenters know firsthand what it takes to implement a successful entrepreneurship strategy whether you're in a metro area of 100,000 or more than a million, and they're going to share what they've learned. Because they know we need to learn from each other.

If you want to expand access to capital, then you'll want to think broader than venture capital. We can't say it enough -- venture capital is important, but only a small number of companies will ever receive venture capital. You might be better off learning from Vic Russo of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central/Northern PA how they are targeting companies that may never excite the interest off venture capitalists, but will be solid performers creating plenty of quality, high-wage jobs. Or participate in an invigorating panel discussion on keeping angel investor groups active and interested. (And if you want a full indepth day on angel investor groups, be sure to sign up for the October 19 pre-conference workshop led by Sue Preston, one of the smartest people we know on angel investing.)

If you're trying to integrate your university into the economic system, then go to our session on developing successful university-industry partnerships led by two of the brightest and most experienced hands in the field, Wayne Hodges and Martha Connolly. Or learn from the experience of Georgia Tech, MIT, and others on how they're moving technology into the marketplace. Or get the inside look at what may very well be the best program in the country for building a state's research capacity, the Georgia Research Alliance. (And if you want a really close examination of how Georgia Tech is transforming their community, sign up for the Tech Square preconference workshop on October 19.)

If you believe that we need to improve our workforce, then you'll want to go two sessions on the latest developments with the workforce system and developing real partnerships with workforce boards. These sessions are led by three people who have an exceptional understanding of the nation's workforce system.

To better involve underrepresented peoples and regions, you'll want to check out the session focused on encouraging women entrepreneurship (be sure to read the below article to see the work we still have to do in that area with only 37 percent of sole proprietorships being led by females). Or participate in the roundtable discussion on how to better encourage regional cooperation. You can also learn more about the impact the Hope Scholarship program is having in transforming Georgia.

And I haven't even mentioned the sessions on broadband policy, developing global partnerships, or what promises to be a lively roundtable discussion on how we keep TBED relevant in the constantly changing environment.

You can find descriptions of each of the sessions and short bios on each of the speakers at http://www.ssti.org/conference05.htm.