SSTI Selects Cleveland for 2008 Annual Conference: October 14-16, 2008

On the heels of our successful 2007 annual conference, held last week in Baltimore, SSTI is pleased to announce that Cleveland will be the location for our 12th annual conference. The nation’s premier event for sharing ideas on the best ways to encourage technology-based economic development and foster regional prosperity in a global economy will be held at the InterContinental Hotel in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16, 2008. 

 

Cleveland was selected after a national competitive bid process. Key to winning the bid was the efforts of NorTech in demonstrating regional commitments to technology research, development, innovation, commercialization, and entrepreneurship to spur economic growth in Northeast Ohio. NorTech, Northeast Ohio’s leading technology-based economic development organization, worked in partnership with the Ohio Department of Development, regional businesses, foundations, research institutions, and nonprofit community.



“We are thrilled that SSTI has selected Cleveland to host its next annual conference,” said Dorothy Baunach, president and chief executive officer of NorTech. “We look forward to sharing with attendees the practices that have made Northeast Ohio a model for sustainable technology-based economic development, as well as our public-private partnerships, which have contributed to the region’s successful transformation from an industrial center to an entrepreneurial, innovation-based economy.”



The annual SSTI conference draws more than 350 technology-based economic development practitioners and practitioners from across the country to learn from the nation’s leading thinkers and practitioners. Previous conference topics have addressed areas such as: university research commercialization; manufacturing excellence; angel and venture capital; university research parks and technology incubators; globalization’s impact on local economies; math and science education; and public-private collaboration for science, technology and engineering.



“Northeast Ohio provides an excellent backdrop for SSTI’s 12th annual conference,” said Dan Berglund, president and chief executive officer of SSTI. “The state, and especially the northeast region, has made science and technology a central focus for its economic development investments, so Cleveland is a perfect choice to showcase successful technology-based economic development practices and strategies before a national and international audience.”

 

Program topics at the 12th annual conference will draw on the experiences and needs of SSTI’s 38 state sponsors, and more than 100 affiliates and supporters from across the country. The agenda for the event will be set in early summer 2008. In 2007, 48 states, the District of Columbia, and several Canadian provinces and foreign countries were represented at SSTI's conference. Previous SSTI annual conference locations have included Baltimore, Oklahoma City, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Seattle and Chicago.

 

Watch the SSTI website, www.ssti.org, for more information on the conference in the coming months.