Connecticut Technology Council

CT Tech Grassroots in DC

CTC was in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 as we met with leaders from other technology councils from across the country. CT business leaders addressed some of the key issues facing the technology industry and met with Senator Lieberman and Representatives Rosa DeLauro and Chris Murphy.

The issues we brought to Washington:

STEM AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
The most lasting stimulus to the economy of the United States will be “stim-novation”—the investment our nation makes in shaping the emerging generation of innovators who will discover, invent, and commercialize new technologies that move our nation and the world into a better future. Recognizing
this, TECNA advocates for:

• Driving comprehensive STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education reforms and innovations from preschool through college via dedicated federal education and workforce development funding sources.
• Establishing a national training program for technology industry jobs to encourage the re-skilling
of incumbent workers and transition emerging workers into the innovation economy.
• Federal funding to support paid internship grants that provide America’s young people with firsthand experience working in and with the technology sector at a paid wage that benefits both the intern and the employer.
• Continue funding and support for rural competitiveness through the U.S. Department of Labor’s
WIRED (Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development) program.

HEALTHCARE IT
Advances in healthcare IT promise to increase the accessibility and affordability of quality healthcare, while also demonstrating innovations that will have worldwide applicability and generate new jobs. To support Healthcare IT development, TechNA advocates for:

• Working with the healthcare and IT industries to create guidelines and best practices for the rapid deployment of $19 billion in stimulus funding for adoption of electronic medical records (EMR).
• Targeted funding for the continued development of Health Information Exchange (HIE) networks at the state and regional levels. Without multi-party HIE partnerships, the benefits of EMR and e-prescribing will not be fully realized.

BROADBAND ACCESS
Universal access to high-bandwidth internet connectivity is an essential component in America’s present and future competitiveness. It is also a critical facet in the long-term success of healthcare IT, since more than 61 million Americans live in rural settings. Even in urban areas, the challenge will be to maintain and enhance bandwidth as the demand for internet applications grows exponentially. TECNA advocates for:

• Federal commitment to ensuring that high-speed internet access reaches all Americans in both
urban and rural areas, through continued funding for rural broadband.
• Funding to address the Exaflood (the exponential growth of the internet through the use of video
and other high-bandwidth applications) so that healthcare providers and other users can transmit
images, video, and other files quickly and easily from any location.

INNOVATION ECONOMICS
In order to encourage innovation, America needs to remain focused on establishing a culture that encourages bold, new thinking and the introduction of new technologies in the marketplace. Innovation economics are the engine for our nation’s future growth. As a result, TecNA advocates for:

• Encouraging innovation and remaining globally competitive. America needs a world-class patent
system. Patent reform should ensure a balanced playing field that fairly compensates all innovators. With much at stake, we encourage Information Technology (IT), Bio/life-sciences and competing interests to negotiate patent reform solutions and to achieve timely passage of patent reform.
• Maintaining our commitment to the recently re-approved Federal Research and Development (R&D) tax credit by making it a permanent fixture in America’s domestic economic policy. Half of all companies who use the R&D tax credit are small businesses who are developing emerging technologies and can generate new wealth for our nation through their efforts

Please comment with your thoughts about these issues here.

Early A.M. Innovation in Tolland, Connecticut

The March 12^th meeting of the Xcellr8 Innovation Cell featured Chris Fuselier presenting the Progeos go-to-market strategy and was followed by an engaging group discussion offering both suggestions and constructive criticism to improve the offering.  Chris has since engaged Eric Knight to help continue to develop the marketplace approach.

 

About Progeos, Inc. 
www.progeos.com

Chris Fuselier, CEO

Progeos is a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Management Information Systems (MIS) technology company that provides:

• Municipal governments with integrated and inexpensive methods for storing and processing critical geographic (e.g. property maps) and management information (e.g. property owner records).

• Web-based software for land management (GIS based), property management (property look up, abutters’ lists ...), permit management (creation and tracking of permits), code management (code tracking and enforcement) and request management (processing and executing service requests).

• All services are fully integrated and can be accessed from any web connected computer.

 About the Connecticut Growth Network:
The Connecticut Growth Network is a discussion and action forum of statewide leaders, consisting of small peer-led, local networking groups or cells.
Learn more at:  http://ct.org/Growth_Network.asp

 

About The Xcellr8 Innovation Cell:  
Meeting monthly in Tolland, CT at Nerac.  Our mission is to stimulate collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurial activity between leaders and executives of the business and education communities. It’s an opportunity to participate and share thoughts and ideas on how we can best work together to stimulate growth, create innovation and spur economic activity. We feel it’s important to challenge the status quo, and construct a solid foundation for future growth by utilizing and developing talent that exists today in our region.

Act Concerning Technology and Economic Growth - Testimony by Matthew Nemerson

Testimony of Matthew Nemerson, President of the Connecticut Technology Council
Speaking on March 3, 2009 to the Commerce Committee
Raised Bill No. 1067

Distinguished Chairmen and Members of the Committee, I represent a statewide community of over 2,000 technology oriented firms employing over 200,000 individuals whose jobs are related in some way to innovation and technology.  We also work with another 500 smaller firms just starting and hoping to plant roots here in Connecticut.

This morning I wish to speak in favor of Raised Bill 1067, an Act Concerning Technology and Economic Growth. The next few years will be difficult ones for all of us and the economic slow down will put tremendous pressure on public leaders such as all of you to make very difficult budget decisions about what is the proper and required role of government.

It is my hope that you and your fellow legislators will support in some small but significant ways the critical responsibility to foster and accelerate the creation of new jobs for the state through high potential fast growing, start-up technology firms.

Bill 1067 would provide for $200,000 for activities that could be the continuation of a very successful program that has been funded through the Department of Community and Economic Development for the past three years through an allocation of Manufacturers Assistance Act funds as part of the larger “cluster programs” allocation.

Across the country states have been working with non-governmental organizations such as technology councils and innovation centers to create a process that can identify, analyze, assist and provide early stage angel investments for the very most promising high growth potential firms. 

While it is important to offer some assistance to any entrepreneur who wishes to start a new business, in these times of severe economic hardship it may be even more important to focus some special state resources on those very few firms, perhaps no more than 3 or 4 in one hundred which stand a chance of adding not one or two new jobs to the economy, but hundreds or thousands. These firms and start-ups are out there, any many states now have concerted plans to snag them for own economies.

It has been shown over many years of monitoring the best practices of economic development that high potential tech start-ups need a realistic expert yet outside perspective to be able to move forward for initial funding. They also profit from a rich and dense network of allies who can make connections that will eventually lead to major strategic investments in lieu of having to go through a rare and unlikely initial public offering.

Slow economies are a time when ideas and talented people are often set loose outside of the limitations of large corporations and academic institutions.  With more people trying to make their fortunes, the chances that great companies will be created are large. Last year the Council worked with over 250 would be start-ups – more than one a business day – and found $932,000 in matching cash and services to add to the $200,000 it received from the state specifically for the innovation pipeline program to provide services that no other group provides in Connecticut.

Groups like our and programs such as those described in 1067 use skilled mentors – we have about 70 of them working with our high tech start-ups. Most are unpaid, but most represent tremendous talent, that also needs to be engaged in Connecticut. Some are looking for new top jobs, others have been very successful and want to give back, others are in-between jobs.  Most important the companies in this program predict that they could create over 10,000 new jobs and create businesses bringing in ¾ of a billion dollars.
 
Having one place that knows about technology, the latest trends in the market place and has close connections to angel capital networks in the state is critical.  We cannot expect the public sector to offer these kinds of services and across the country almost no governments do.

New York City just announced a similar grouping of offerings worth well over many millions of   dollars.

Over 25 states have programs similar to what we are proposing.

Let me close by noting that Connecticut thrives on high value added jobs. We are a rich state, we have tremendous productivity, high education levels for our workforce and we want to maintain or increase the tax yield from people who are doing well and earning a lot.

And yet we have little or no population growth and we have created very few jobs through internal growth.  Attracting and helping top entrepreneurial ideas, even if they bring new top management into the state with them, must be a very high priority.

In Connecticut Technology Council’s case we stop receiving funding from the state last September, and yet we have continued to fund this program out of our own fund balance. We have not dared suggest to the hundreds of firms we work with that there is any problem or to infer that we all do not think that helping these high potential start-ups is not a top priority. 

Thank you for your time and attention on this matter.  I urge you to support SB 1067 and to send it on to Appropriations with a joint favorable.