Early registration is nearly over and the conference hotel is full, but you still have the opportunity to join representatives from 47 states and Canadian provinces at SSTI's 11th Annual Conference in Baltimore, Oct. 18-19, 2007 -- the nation's premier gathering for the tech-based economic development field.

Only a dozen seats remain available for new registrations to attend SSTI's 11th Annual Conference, which will be held Oct. 18-19 in Baltimore's fun-packed Inner Harbor. That's 12 seats, not a baker's dozen of 13. Given the two-week lead time before the event, SSTI strongly anticipates we will not be able to accommodate walk-in registrations the day of the conference. We encourage those of you making arrangements or planning to attend to register as soon as possible.

Socially-responsible entrepreneurs at the University of Maryland now have a new financial resource available to help them get new businesses off the ground. The university's Impact Pre-Seed Fund program will offer grants to students with business plans that could offer potential benefits to global society.

Complete descriptions of these opportunities and others are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

Southern Growth Policies Board is polling citizens on their attitudes and ideas about building a competitive Southern Workforce. Visit http://www.southern.org/surveyintro.shtml and share your ideas on how to build a competitive, entrepreneurial workforce to support the southern region's economic development initiatives in high-growth industries.

To transform the nation’s medical research capabilities and speed the movement of research discoveries from the bench to the bedside, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) laid out on Monday a series of initiatives collectively known as the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research.

The President wants $87 billion for the war in Iraq. Congress is looking at a month-long continuing resolution for the budget since final approval on most appropriation bills is at least that far in the future. Meanwhile, the persistence of the recession, the restructuring of U.S. manufacturing due in part to globalization, and the continued hemorrhaging of tax revenues has led several governors, state legislatures and community leaders to begin rethinking their economic development strategies.

Scott Doron has been promoted to director for the Southern Technology Council, the advisory council on innovation and technology policy issues for the Southern Growth Policies Board.

Robert McMahan has been named North Carolina's Science Advisor. In addition to advising the Governor on science and technology matters, McMahan will oversee the support staff for the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology. The advisor position will report to the secretary of the Department of Commerce.

Gaining an understanding of the real and potential economic impact of government investments in research and development (R&D) has suffered for decades from a lack of rigorous but broadly applicable methodologies for the assessment. To advance the field toward a more appropriate degree of uniformity, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently released a primer on economic impact analysis of government R&D programs.

Biotechnology is one of the few tech-sectors in which jobs still seem to be in strong demand despite the weak economy, according to local news reports from around the country. As a result, many states, communities and universities have directed a portion of their economic development efforts toward encouraging life sciences research and biotech commercialization.

Gwyn Riddick recently was named director of the new Piedmont Triad office of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.

North Carolina took another step toward improving technology-based economic opportunity for its citizens when Gov. Michael Easley signed into law House Bill 1194 earlier this month. The bill creates the e-NC Authority, which will continue the work of the existing Rural Internet Access Authority for three more years, beginning January 2004.

More workers in North Carolina will be trained for jobs in biotechnology, thanks to the Golden LEAF Foundation's recent $60 million commitment to the emerging industry. In all, $64.5 million is going toward a training initiative, with North Carolina's biotech industry expected to contribute $4.5 million.

After months of analyzing data and hundreds of interviews, organizers of western North Carolina's Future Forward economic development strategy only await the study's approval by local governments. Future Forward is aimed at improving economic development conditions for 12 counties in the Western Piedmont and Mountains of North Carolina located in the 10th and 11th Congressional Districts — Alexander, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Iredell, Lincoln, Rutherford, Avery, Mitchell, Watauga, Wilkes and McDowell counties.

Julie Coons is the new president of the Technology Council of Maryland. Coons most recently served as executive vice president of PCIA -- the Wireless Infrastructure Association.

Secretary Aris Melisssaratos of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development recently announced two new appointments. Leslie Sipes-Pachol will serve in the position of executive director for the Maryland Economic Development Commission, and Paul Mauritz has been promoted to become Assistant Secretary for Technology Strategy and Business Development.

Earlier this month, Gov. Ernie Fletcher announced Darrell Brock and Jim Host as new co-chairmen of ConnectKentucky. Brock, commissioner of the governor's Office for Local Development, and Commerce Cabinet Secretary Host joined existing chairman John Hall, retired chairman and CEO of Ashland Inc.

David Winwood is the new director of North Carolina State University's Centennial Campus.

Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich has appointed Robert Brennan to succeed Hans Mayer as executive director of the Maryland Economic Development Corporation. Mayer retired after holding the position for 17 years.

A new plan to grow North Carolina's biotech industry to 48,000 jobs by 2013 and 125,000 by 2023 was released earlier this month by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, a state-supported nonprofit organization. If implemented, the 108-page plan would cost up to $650 million over five years. That figure does not include the "to be determined" cost for 15 of the plan's 54 recommendations.

The 54 action steps span a variety of objectives:

Robert Geolas, director of the Centennial Campus at North Carolina State, is resigning to become director of the new International Center for Automotive Research at the Clemson University.

William Tew has resigned as director of the Office of Licensing and Technology Development for Johns Hopkins University.

Despite a sluggish national economy, North Carolina held its own over the last three years, according to a measure of 25 broad indicators of innovation, technology and economic growth released earlier this week. In all, Tracking Innovation: North Carolina Innovation Index 2003 considers more than 50 performance measures across five general categories, highlighting the state’s strengths and weaknesses.

Three I's neatly sum up the 22 recommendations recently released by Maryland Governor Robert Erlich's Commission on Development of Advanced Technology Business — Investment, Innovation, and Image. The year-long study looked at the state's existing physical, financial and intellectual infrastructures to support the state's research and technology sectors, making specific recommendations in three groupings to foster continued growth.