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In less than a week, about 300 professionals, stakeholders, policymakers, and others working to encourage economic prosperity through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship will gather in Columbus to hear and share the latest news, trends and advancements at the SSTI Annual Conference. It is fitting that the conference is being held in Columbus this year, as the city itself is being recognized for its activity and growth. Columbus recently was named by Money magazine as the Best in the Midwest in their Best Big Cities ranking. It also placed first in the Midwest for visitor satisfaction and in the top 10 overall, according to another recent survey.

John Lettieri, co-founder of Economic Innovation Group (EIG) and its senior director for Policy and Strategy, and Pamela Lewis, the director of the New Economy Initiative (NEI), have joined the speaker line-up of the SSTI Annual Conference, Innovation with Purpose: Shaping Future Opportunities, as part of the Bold Ideas for Innovation with Purpose opening plenary session.

Whether measuring the nature of the economy or determining the impact of economic development programs, finding the right indicators and metrics is critical. And a new set of questions is arising for economic development practitioners: Who gets credit for impact when multiple organizations provide services to the same company? When impacts may be long-term, what is the best way to gauge success in the short term? These and other questions will be explored during the conference session on Measuring Impacts: Where We Stand and Where We Need to Go at this year’s annual SSTI conference.

Practitioners in the technology-based economic development field often face questions about what they do, or what the field entails. The answer can be a challenge. Is it attracting high-quality jobs and businesses to an area, finding capital to finance science and tech startups, STEM education support, educating a new workforce, bringing research ideas to the marketplace, partnering with other organizations to achieve all those goals? It can be a mouthful, and it can be difficult to convey all those ideas in simple terms.

You talk about your program often, tout its successes (?) and share with stakeholders your program’s impact. Why not let the entire country in on your good work? The SSTI Excellence in TBED awards program can provide your organization with that national audience of your peers!

Last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that Columbus, home to SSTI’s 2016 Annual Conference, has won a $40 million grant from the agency, beating out five other cities in the Smart City Challenge.

The Senate Commerce Committee approved Wednesday the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act (AICA), a reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act. SSTI thanks Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) for his leadership in successfully offering an amendment to increase the authorization level for the Regional Innovation (RI) program to $30 million, which provides support for local innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth. SSTI also recognizes Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Sen.

Join an Exclusive Club of Outstanding Economic Development Organizations!

SSTI has released the online version of the 2016 SSTI Excellence in TBED Awards Program. Available at sstiawards.org, the online version of the awards brochure will highlight changes to the awards program including the categories for 2016:

SSTI’s 2016 Annual Conference is November 1-3 in Columbus, Ohio. The agenda will cover the entire innovation ecosystem, including accessing capital, supporting entrepreneurs, developing clusters and expanding R&D. We would appreciate your help identifying specific session topics. Provide your input by responding to this brief survey by May 18—and you will be entered to win a free registration for an SSTI webinar. Take the survey...

To mark the 10th anniversary of the SSTI Excellence in TBED awards program, we have made some exciting changes to the categories. Since last year, we have combined some categories with the intent of better reflecting the ever-evolving field of tech-based economic development and added a new category to reflect burgeoning activity in a new area.