With 26 percent more of its workforce involved in information technology (IT) than the national average and with IT-producing industries growing faster in the state than the national average, Connecticut has possibly felt the pinch of the IT worker shortage more than other parts of the country. Add to that the fact that the number of IT-related graduates from the state’s universities and community colleges declined during the late 1990s.

Successful companies are forced to change business strategies as market realities shift. It happens all of the time. Browse the business section of your local bookstore and you'll see dozens of titles preaching the need for companies to adopt, adapt and innovate. The continuing restructuring of the U.S. durable manufacturing sector, as alluded to in the Useful Stats piece below, is a vivid example of the importance of abandoning old mindsets for industry: change or die.

The Role of Technology in the Connecticut Economy, a new report produced by the Connecticut Technology Council (CTC), provides a comprehensive analysis of the role of technology in the state's economy. Overall, the report reveals both a strong technology contribution to the Connecticut economy, as well as the state's dependence on technology for achieving its economic potential.

After seven months on the job, Connecticut Innovations President and CEO Chandler Howard is leaving to pursue an opportunity to establish a community bank in New Haven.

South Carolina Governor David Beasley has appointed a 17-member Technology Advisory Council. The Council is to examine how South Carolina can attract technology-intensive companies, find strategies to promote high technology jobs and identify specific technologies that are important for other industries.

The South Carolina Technology Alliance has released South Carolina Technology Initiative 2000, a science and technology strategic plan outlining six specific recommendations for strengthening the state’s position in a knowledge-based economy.

Cincinnati and St. Louis are partnering to hold a three-day symposium to examine best practices in biotechnology-based economic development. Growing the Life Science Industry will be held March 1-3 at the Kingsgate Conference Center on the University of Cincinnati Medical Campus. Speakers from a dozen states will share their regions' approaches for life science economic development.

After only ten years of investments, Connecticut Innovations, Inc. achieved a net income of $21.4 million in 1999, according to Connecticut Innovations’ latest annual report. The corporation reversed a deficit of over $20 million in retained earnings accumulated through 1995 to a positive $24.7 million by June 30, 1999. The corporation's record provides one of the strongest examples of successful state-funded, technology-based seed and venture capital investment to date.

Dennis Cheek is vice president of education with the Kauffman Foundation.

This year’s second attempt to pass legislation establishing a state-funded seed capital program in Missouri was successful during the waning hours of the 1999 session of the Missouri General Assembly. SB 518, the Missouri New Enterprise Creation Act, authorizes the creation of up to four seed capital funds at the state’s innovation centers to support new technology-based companies in the state.

The 2000 session of the Connecticut legislature proved to be an active and favorable one for the state’s technology community and Connecticut Innovations, Inc. The Connecticut Technology Council summarized the session this way, “For the first time in recent memory, the debate at the Capitol was not over whether legislation affecting tech companies would pass, but which legislation affecting tech companies would pass.”

In a recently issued Executive Order, Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan officially named the life sciences industry as one of the state’s lead industries for promoting economic development. The order requires all executive branch departments to review their programs and evaluate each program’s impact on the life sciences industry for purposes of economic growth. The Department of Economic Development must prepare a report based upon these reviews that is due to the Governor by May 1, 2000.

At the end of June, Governor Bob Holden signed an executive order committing $21.5 million of the state’s tobacco settlement funds for biotech research during fiscal year 2002. Governor Holden made his announcement prior to signing Senate Bill 500, which expands the state’s job training program to prepare Missouri’s work force for new careers in life sciences.

Marianne Hudson is leaving her position as Vice President - Marketing & Communications with the Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center to become a program manager at the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.