Connecticut Technology Council

New Year's Message from Matthew Nemerson

I  just spent a week in Washington DC.  The majesty of the place and the excitement of the upcoming inaugural, was enough to make me forget the economic malais that we all find ourselves in.  Coming face-to-face with the documents, icons and memorials of earlier challenges –  the resolve to fight England for our freedom, the horrors of a civil war, the decade-long great depression, the forty years in the nuclear cross-hairs of the cold war – reminded me that our nation’s greatest advances and leaders surfaced when we were pushed to seek extraordinary solutions to overwhelming problems.

The current challenges to global capitalism, to our standard of living and to our governments’ ability to raise sufficient funds to keep the public sector viable may not rise to the level of past American crises, but they will test our leaders.

The Connecticut Technology Council, with our clear-headed ideas about growth and innovation, our unabiding focus on the future of Connecticut and our access to a broad-based membership and to a remarkable board of volunteer directors will be an important player as institutions and individuals struggle to provide leadership in the coming year.
 
As the group speaking for 2,500+ technology-oriented firms and another 600 early-stage hopefuls, the Council can, and should, approach 2009 with optimism.  Capital markets and looming state and town deficits may have us on edge, but still, the global appetite for innovation and making goods better and cheaper is unabated, especially as billions strive to raise their standard of living.  Connecticut firms will be in that mix no matter what happens to the state budget come this June.

Today, there are many formal and ad hoc groups looking at what Connecticut should do this year.  As your advocate, we are part of many of these efforts. We will be inviting you to contribute to the solutions and approaches that will be explored. Remember, every state will be searching for a unique set of answers to what will bring prosperity back quickly. There is no reason Connecticut cannot do the best job.

In 2009, we will use the web better to get you information and to rally your support while respecting your time and need to concentrate on your businesses.  We will be a constant presence in educating government leaders on how to use incentives and build the kind of infrastructure that will grow the economy and create jobs while objecting to actions that will do the opposite.  We will continue to celebrate innovation, success and talent where we find it across the state. And we will actively work to attract and help the new firms that have best chance of becoming big successes someday.

Before we stretch and flex in preparation for the 2009 challenges, let’s look back and thank everyone who helped us in 2008. 

The Connecticut Technology Council produced over 60 events, recognized hundreds of companies and individuals, advocated for our industry and assisted more than 500 entrepreneurs.  Congratulations are due to the exceptional honorees of the Tech Top 40, IPA Awards, and Women of Innovation program. Our partners included the State of Connecticut, and also hundreds of sponsors and members.

Leadership has been abundant from our Board of Directors, growing technology social networks. On behalf of our staff, we thank everyone for supporting the Council and for helping to create the strength that comes from the unique American form of leadership and idea creation that comes from trade associations and the public/private collaborations we produce.

Let not forget that strong, vocal and thoughtful business associations are vital during times of rapid and re-orienting economic change when policies are set by the public sector.  Jobs will be created with more early-stage capital and incentives for first round funding sources. Smaller, more productive state and local government bureaucracies will have to emerge from our budget cuts. Funding for world-class infrastructure investments will need to be found.

Together we can find ways to make 2009 a year in which the technology and innovation community’s voice is heard loudly and helps influence the direction of Connecticut. 

Matthew Nemerson
President & CEO
Connecticut Technology Council
www.ct.org

Energy Tax Would Help Region Regain Primacy -- Courant.com

Energy Tax Would Help Region Regain Primacy <http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/commentary/hc-plcnemerson1.artdec28,0,5622755.story>
Hartford Courant - United States
By MATTHEW NEMERSON If the economy wasn't reason enough to make us anxious this holiday season, Tom Friedman's latest opus dedicated to the systemic ...

full text:

Energy Tax Would Help Region Regain Primacy
By MATTHEW NEMERSON
December 28, 2008

If the economy wasn't reason enough to make us anxious this holiday season, Tom Friedman's latest opus dedicated to the systemic weakness of humanity, "Hot, Flat and Crowded," will surely do the trick. It got me to think about the kind of steps we could take to make New England the place to be by 2020 — a region that is cool, spiky and connected.

For most of this decade, New England has been adding great jobs and producing wealth for those at the very top end while stagnating and losing opportunity for most everyone else. Now, with the country — and maybe the world — losing its footing, what could we do to move us back to our rightful position as the leading region in America?

Can we use our small size yet dense population to reprise our role, established during the first Industrial Revolution, as the region of entrepreneurship, innovation, great schools and advanced infrastructure?

Consider a bitter pill that, taken now, will give us unique strength when things get really messy worldwide in 10 or 20 years. Instead of focusing on our financial problems of the next two years, we should aim at preparing for the coming systemic shocks from environmental challenges, global competition, and demographically driven pension and health care problems.

New England should become a cross between the gleaming infrastructure and free education of northern Europe with the state-supported research and business development systems of Singapore and South Korea.

So here is the deal (children close your ears): The six New England states — in a coordinated master plan — could create a set of new energy taxes many times higher than at present, creating a common floor, higher than the rest of the nation, for the cost of gasoline, home heating fuel, natural gas, and so on throughout the region.

If we can collect an extra dollar just on gas, we would create a revenue stream that could fund an authority with more than $6 billion in new annual dollars for regional education, better infrastructure, clean energy business R&D and investments in energy savings.

Think what we could do if we stopped being seen as the oldest part of the country and could re-engineer ourselves to be newest. First, we will raise enough money to address issues of true hardship for people and legacy businesses. Most important, we will have the funds to think strategically about our future instead of always reacting and settling for incremental fixes.

The new funds could create a superb New England-wide bus and rail systems, offer energy-saving investment loans for businesses and homes, reduce tuition in our community colleges and other schools for students who live here and want to take technology-related classes, and provide more risk capital for new businesses.

New England would have the money to build a clean energy cluster that could lead the nation. We would not only build better fuel cells better, we would be the living laboratory for the energy-scarce world that is coming. We are pretty sure that $4 gas and home heating fuel is coming back. Let's build a region that is battle-tested and ready for it.

I hate to think what is going to happen to New England if we spend 10 years cutting budgets and hoping that our energy costs and infrastructure needs take care of themselves.

Crazy and politically impossible? Maybe. But don't we want the world to beat a path to our door? Entrepreneurs, investment capital and the talented youth of the world will want to be here because we will be a good long-term bet for return on investment and career advancement. Let's make the New England brand about innovation and quality. We cannot ever be cheaper than China or Mexico, but we can be as good as Singapore or Denmark.

• Matthew Nemerson is president and CEO of the Connecticut Technology Council.

N.E. can be magnet for tech talent and infrastructure

If the economy wasn’t reason enough to make us anxious this holiday season, Tom Friedman’s latest opus dedicated to the systemic weakness of humanity, “Hot, Flat and Crowded,” will surely do the trick. So, it made me think about the  “out of the box” steps we could take to make New England the place to be by 2020. Read the full article as published by Mass High Tech

China is setting the bar we need to jump over

(a post written for the Connecticut Innovations Blog at www.ctinnovations.com) 

Special thanks to my friend Peter Longo for giving an outsider a chance to provide commentary on the Connecticut Innovations blog. As you may know, in my role as president and CEO of the Connecticut Technology Council (CTC), a business trade association speaking for the 3,000 technology oriented firms in the state, I have been a consistent supporter and fan of CI over the past five years. For more information about our organization and position please visit our website and my regular blog at www.ct.org.

CTC has long made the recapitalization of CI’s funds a major part of our annual legislative agenda. We have also encouraged CI leaders over the past few years to focus more of their funding on seed and early-stage investments. So, it is with satisfaction and admiration that we congratulate CI for securing new money from the state and for initiating a series of programs and efforts to invest more funds in startup firms.

I write this contribution to the Connecticut Innovations blog just a few days after returning from three weeks of touring in China. While you were wilting under the bad news of declining stock markets, ballooning state deficits and a presidential campaign that seems to involve partisans shouting back and forth about the costs of new wardrobes and who sat near whom on community not-for-profit boards, I was wandering through the gleaming towers and new gated communities of Beijing, Shanghai and Xi’an getting a ringside seat for the new China and its high-tech society. It is hard not to think that Connecticut, and all of America, even in tough times, should make a greater investment in technology and innovation-based growth as part of our national economic development strategies. Compare the hope we have of soon completing a dedicated bus-way from New Britain to Hartford with the Shanghai Maglev train cruising by at 275 miles per hour.

Still, while it is easy to say how great China is and how complacent the United States has become, we are still several generations ahead in most areas. One can’t ignore that 600 million people still live in poverty in China.

And yet, when one steps out of the gleaming Beijing Airport and into what seems like a strange time machine that combines the late 1950s American “sky-is-the-limit” attitude and explosion of infrastructure with the space-age images and toys of the early 21st century that surround you, it’s hard not to wish that Shanghai were Cleveland and foreigners were gawking at our skylines again. Shanghai and Beijing both look like something out of Futurama, especially when the lights go out and the Asian penchant for neon is evident on all their buildings, signs and even ships.

I think about the hope and optimism of our official China tour guide as he talked about the plans he has for educating his two-year-old daughter to be a successful, English-speaking manager of some creative process. He spoke with nuanced knowledge of the coming opportunities and challenges that his child’s generation will have as China shifts to become a leader in higher value-added and service industries and leaves low-cost manufacturing behind. Are we ready for this shift?
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of China is its governmental structures, philosophies and core belief systems. We have been brought up around the premise that democratic pluralism combined with free markets is the only “modern” way to manage a fully evolved people. Even postcommunist China must be hiding authoritarian militarism behind its consumer veneer, right? But if there, it was not evident. The Chinese look at our seeming inability to plan for our future, political food fights in the place of policy discussions and the power of special interests and wonder how we are going to keep building a society strong enough to be a confident partner and a growing market for their products. They worry about us and they are praying for a strong dollar as much as we are.

True, China does not have a democracy, and its people firmly believe that some majority tyranny is a reasonable tradeoff to keep their society moving forward. But they are fiercely proud that their leaders are among the smartest people in their society. In their eyes you should graduate number one in civil engineering from Cal Tech before you even think about running for president.

We are different from the Chinese. The closing gap of youth, culture, cars, media and architecture notwithstanding, this will not change for many decades. Still, it behooves us to look at the role we expect to play in the world and think about how to tune our economic development systems – and the roles of groups like Connecticut Innovations and Connecticut Technology Council -- to make sure that America remains a worthy partner for the giant economic dragon across the Pacific.

New Year's Message

Dear Members of the Connecticut Technology Community,

It is our pleasure to wish all of you a happy and healthy New Year.  As a business organization it is appropriate that we join in wishing you a prosperous year.

In 2008, we will continue to support technology based businesses and economic growth.  We will continue to seek opportunities to bring you together to build and cement the sense of community through events that range from intimate lunches to gala dinners. We will act as an idea exchange where best practices for innovation and growth are advocated. Finally, we will work to identify, assist and celebrate entrepreneurs and their firms.

Our congratulations go out to our recent award winners at our Annual Meeting, Fast 50, the Innovation Pipeline Accelerator Awards and the recently announced 2008 Women of Innovation Award Finalists .

Our thanks go to the many CTC Sponsors who make our work possible, to all of our Members and to our Board of Directors, and to all of you who remain connected in some way to Connecticut’s technology future.

We will continue our work to solidify the state as one of the east coast’s entrepreneurial havens. Together with you, the State and other technology oriented organizations we hope to bring together the best techniques from traditional networking and web 2.0 software to maximize the opportunities to convert the region’s ideas, talent and money into fast growing and sustainable companies.

Thank you again for your encouragement, participation and support.  We hope to see you at a Connecticut Technology Council event and to communicate with you soon.

Best wishes,

David Reisner

Chairman

Connecticut Technology Council

CEO, Inframat Corp.

Matthew Nemerson

President&CEO

Connecticut Technology Council

N.E. technology groups need to think regionally

Friday, December 28, 2007, Mass High Tech

The technology agenda for 2008 should include a new emphasis on creating a regional approach to efforts to promote our key industries and competitive advantages. A range of issues from Amtrak funding to promoting technology transfer all will benefit from bringing the New England states together from an innovation policy standpoint. Meanwhile, in Connecticut, we are also looking at continued development of, and cooperation among, the many programs designed to help grow early stage companies.

A quick anecdote. Consider a map of Connecticut displayed on TV during the last snowstorm. Pretty-colored layers swept across the state like waves of white, purple and gray. But Massachusetts and Rhode Island were unmarked, green patches with crisp borders alongside Connecticut. There was no indication they were locations that were also hit by the storm.

Was it possible that no one watching lived north or east of our state? Are we now so insular that the weather itself does not extend from Enfield, Conn., to Longmeadow?

Topping the 2008 wish list is the need to increase the global competitiveness of each state by working from the vantage point of all New England and even the Mid-Atlantic states working together as a "mega-region."

Regardless of what the root causes of our relative decline, the slow-growing Northeast is certainly still one of the key sources of innovation and technology for the entire country. It is worth proposing that the organizations representing our key industries jointly reach out to the federal representatives from Maine to Delaware to encourage them to act on competitiveness issues as if they were a regional caucus. Each of our states is too small to go it alone.

We need to include regional efforts aimed at technology transfer, the attraction of experienced entrepreneurs, intra-regional and inter-regional commuter transportation links, retention of our young talent, graduate students and educated immigrants as well as simply increasing the flow of federal grants and research investments.

This effort needs to happen at governors' conferences, but we can try to push it along at a national meeting of technology councils in Washington, D.C., this spring, where the groups from various states around Connecticut are set to meet.

Focus on Connecticut

Looking specifically at Connecticut, 2008 will be the year for progress on the building of a cohesive network of programs and tools promoting innovation growth.

The good news is that the growth of startup concepts continues to be strong. Thanks to a grant from the state, the council is now tracking more than 300 early-stage efforts to see which ones have good potential to grow significantly. As part of our effort we are also affiliating with several angel groups and hoping to work more closely with other clusters such as manufacturing and insurance and financial services.

Outside of the council's efforts, government investment programs such as those managed by Connecticut Innovations and the state's private angel networks all report consistent interest in their funds and a growing pipeline of stronger startup firms.

We hope to capitalize on this momentum by pushing for adoption of an entrepreneur's tax credit program to provide a powerful incentive for new investments to be made in startups. The success of the Connecticut film tax credit program aimed at luring productions and plans for movie and video studios here ought to give us great ammunition to close the deal on a similar, though smaller, program for technology concepts.

The state's incubator strategy will get attention with a size-able grant to the nonprofit Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology to provide a statewide plan for incubators and the adoption of a standardized system for helping companies in these centers. We will be promoting the idea of new incubator facilities nearer New York, where they are needed.

Finally, new top leadership at our Department of Economic and Community Development and at Connecticut Innovations is poised to provide significant strategic direction and collaboration with key groups. Our DECD chief comes from a successful career in transportation and economic development in New York City and the CI president is that group's former investment director with a great knowledge of the Connecticut early-stage funding situation. With our governor's continuing popularity and an emerging pro-growth attitude in the Legislature, there is a sense that reigniting the state's tradition of innovation leadership is going to be strong agenda item going forward.

As always, we look forward to working with groups across New England to improve our region's ability to compete for and grow quality jobs and firms.

Matthew Nemerson is president and CEO of the Connecticut Technology Council. He can be reached at mnemerson@ct.org.

2007 Annual Meeting & Holiday Party

Over 150 CTC members and guests celebrated with the 2007 Innovation Excellence Award Winner, Open Solutions Inc., at the recent CTC Annual Meeting and Holiday Party on December 6, 2007.

2007 Innovation Excellence Award Winner, Open Solutions Inc.

A CTC tradition, the Innovation Excellence Award is given to the CTC member which has displayed technology leadership in its industry vertical, grabbed increasing market share, and been recognized for innovation by its peers or trade groups and industry analysts.   Open Solutions has been a leader in providing banks, credit unions and other financial services providers with the types of innovative software to better serve and relate to their customers as well as provide new opportunities to increase business. Read more...

2007 Public Policy Leadership Award Winner, Gary LeBeau

The crowd then cheered for Gary LeBeau, winner of the 2007 Public Policy Leadership Award. Mr. LeBeau, a Democrat from East Hartford, has consistently supported the Council’s technology economic development efforts. As co-chair of the Commerce Committee, he was behind last year’s efforts to get an angel investment tax credit bill passed. Read on...

2007 Volunteer of the Year, Tony Allen

CTC then recognized Tony Allen with the 2007 Volunteer of the Year Award.

Tony has brought his “process and operations” background to the CTC and has worked to refine the CTC Innovation Development strategy for the benefit of CTC Members. He has been the consummate contributor. Read more...

CTC Business

CTC business was also conducted with Chair, David Reisner calling the Annual Meeting to order and Board Secretary, Vinny Kiernan, announcing the slate of board members up for election.

The slate was unanimously approved by the membership, expanding the breath of expertise and reach of influence to the CTC board.

Congratulations to the New and Returning Board Members:

Tony Allen, Managing Partner, The Impact Group

Victor Budnick, Partner, Ironwood Capital (NEW)

Brian Charette, VP Information Services, Foxwoods Casino (NEW)

James Cioban, President & CEO, Cierant Corporation

Jennifer Good President & CEO, Penwest Pharmaceuticals (NEW)

Rick Heubner, President, Visual Technologies (NEW)

John Kreitler, Partner, Shipman & Goodwin, LLP

Peter Longo, President & CEO, Connecticut Innovations (NEW)

Joe Lubenstein, Industry Partnership Coordinator, Gr Htfd Acad. of Math & Science (NEW)

Kevin Morris, Engagement Manager, Microsoft (NEW)

Elaine Pullen, President, Innovation & Technology Strategies, LLC

Eric Rosow, CEO and Founder, Premise Development Corp. (NEW)

Al Subbloie, President & CEO, Tangoe, Inc.

Rick Suarez, VP Network Services, AT&T Connecticut (NEW)

President and CEO, Matthew Nemerson and the CTC community took a moment to thank Sponsors, Members and Staff for their committment to the CTC.

Click here to view the CTC Annual Meeting Slideshow

Rail Transportation Connects Tech Talent

Trains and Boats and Planes and More Trains

We spend a lot of time working to bring more money and support to start-up technology companies.  Still, when we look at the overall strategy of expanding our innovation “eco-system” for the state, the first steps often include some very un-innovation oriented dreams about finding ways to finance major improvements in better transportation connections to the world and improved movement of people within the northeast.

A change in the prospects for our infrastructure came last year with the Governor’s support for expanded transportation spending and the recent appointment of Joan McDonald - a transportation system expert - as the new Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD).

 

One of the most exciting meetings of the summer was an understated event that took place in late June with a few dozen people in Springfield Massachusetts’s City Hall.  The topic was intra-New England rail connections.  Before your eyes completely glaze over, remember the billions being spent in Europe and Asia on high speed passenger and even freight service in the name of improving the regional innovation infrastructure.

The point was made that the relatively small size of our region makes it plausible – if we had true high speed connections – to imagine skilled workers commuting between towns 100 miles or so apart.  Given the coming demographically driven shortages of technology talent and the clogged highways of the south and southwest United States, a network of fast trains could make our region extremely competitive for young people as well as foreign investment.

There were discussions of trains from Boston to Portland Maine, commuter trains from New Haven to Penn Station, and thoughts about an inland high speed Amtrak Acela from New Haven to Boston by way of Springfield, thus opening up thousands of square miles to development as opposed to the relatively untouchable confines of the present shoreline route.

Consider a world, made possible by a new New England and New York financing authority where Albany, Worcester and Hartford are all within daily computing distances of each other and are part of an integrated Boston, New Haven and New York rail network, where Torrington and Willimantic are as connected as cities on Long Island or Northern New Jersey.

 

A final positive thought – I was sharing the old Connecticut dream of a return to the 19th century east-west rail links from the Hudson Valley to Danbury and on to Hartford with Commissioner McDonald and she not only did not laugh but noted that she had already supported Metro-North looking into using that very rail line to connect the Harlem and Hudson lines to the New Haven system.  That would change people’s perception of Connecticut within the New York metro region overnight.  And that would be good for the expansion of the technology community.

I just came from a conference where regional innovation development was the major source of discussion and debate. It was the semi-annual conference for state and regional technology council executives, held this summer in Boston.  Between trips to MIT and great seafood restaurants, the big discussions among the sixty or so folks from across North America were in the main about two topics: how to encourage the teaching and learning of STEM skills (Science – Technology – Engineering – Math), and comparing methods to entice, assist and finance high potential entrepreneurs.  One interesting side adventure was a discussion of a Facebook-like Web 2.0 environment for people over 50 [www.eons.com].

With each state having at least one Tech Council and some having several, the number of ideas and programs being swapped around was mind boggling. As you might expect, the Canadians – while competitive in a friendly way – all tend to benefit from considerable national and provincial government program dollars and are more likely to share best practices between regions of their country.  Lacking much in the way federal money and with no national priority to speak of, we are on our own.

But trends are emerging and I am happy to say that our programs at this Council are as varied and interesting as those of our sister organizations. One idea that came up was the need to concentrate on getting more of the 2,500 technology firms we work with in our Connecticut community to “opt in” to support our mission and become full fledged members.

So, as we head back into the fall and a full series of programs and events you can also expect a real push to enlarge our membership. It is the surest way to know that you all agree with our mission and methods.  We know technology firms are not joiners by nature –but busy growing ideas against long odds, and with little time to get involved in common business needs and networking. Still, in the months ahead we hope you will sign up to support our efforts that support your company by becoming a member of the Council.

Matthew Nemerson
President & CEO

Connecticut Technology Council
mnemerson@ct.org   

Accelerating Start-Ups - Some thoughts for the "dog days" of summer

I recently caught a show on network TV that merged an American Idol format to the topic of innovation. It is called “American Inventor.”  The winning idea, encouraged by a panel of “experts” but ultimately chosen by the viewers, was a fire sprinkler for Christmas trees. Putting aside any judgment about whether this is our nation’s best idea for a new company or product, the take-away here is that there are many ways to identify great ideas.  Not every company will get to go on national TV and win $1 million, but new models are emerging that may end the traditional multi-year quest for funding. It seems clear that entrepreneurs are going to be attracted to regions that have support systems in place to quickly analyze concepts, and if they pass some kind of muster, to offer them money, help, space and perhaps even a temporary management team. The good news is that Connecticut is awash in groups looking to create these sorts of operations, including the Connecticut Technology Council’s own Innovation Pipeline Accelerator which is cataloging and working with start-ups.  The new models emphasize investments of small levels of working capital – $50,000 to $250,000 – after just a few weeks of review, and usually without personal liability on the part of the management team. With the investment comes a commitment to smother the fledgling company with help, often hands-on management assistance and careful monitoring of performance levels. The goal is to package the idea for serious amounts of venture capital more quickly.  Take a look at this organization in California which does nothing but network ideas, money and talent.  It is another take on the model we would like to see here in this state. Around the country states and organizations are setting up funds to dole out these very early stage investments. Some come from investors who made millions and now want to build a new generation of local entrepreneurs. Some investments, called “sidecars” spring from established VC funds that partner with Angel groups (these tend not to be geographically focused) and match them 1 or 2 to 1 in new deals. This allows the Angels to get into more deals and have a built in exit strategy with the VCs more traditional funds. Many new funds are the result of state appropriations being used to goose the local economy working through incubators, tech councils, state innovation agencies and hybrids like our own CCAT. The challenges will be to first convince private money that geographical preference makes sense, because we do want these companies to remain in Connecticut. Some investors, however, will insist that you move to Silicon Valley if you want their help.  Second, there will be a lot of work and education needed to keep governors and legislators comfortable with the realities of government money going into lots of small, high risk early stage investments.  The old model of lots of due diligence and a few multi-million dollar investments a year guaranteed enough success to maintain support. Many small investments can work well, but we need to realize some years everyone could strike out. This new model requires a belief that even in failure you are building serial entrepreneurs and innovation teams to rely on next time around. Some groups, both for and not-for-profits, are getting control of multiple product concepts from universities or corporation and allowing a common management team to develop them, spinning off successful ideas to grow and can walk on their own.  A recent article from the Kauffman Foundation lays out the new paradigm nicely.  Positioned along the northeast innovation corridor not from Boston, New York or Philadelphia, but still small enough to give attention as needed, Connecticut could actually create a very attractive opportunity for high potential entrepreneurs and company founders to relocate here.  One thing we still lack in Connecticut is sufficient very early stage money. So, the Council will be rallying support for another go at creating the Connecticut Angel Investment Tax Credit in 2008. We will also be working with the new management team at Connecticut Innovations to help them continue to make their investments quicker and smaller and with funds to employ consultants and folks like us to help their early stage portfolio firms.

Matthew Nemerson President & CEO Connecticut Technology Council mnemerson@ct.org

The Well Funded Incubator

The first thing you notice when you step through the large glass doors from the grand plaza and into the central atrium is the sweeping six stories of glass walls and hanging balconies connecting the brick façade of the front walls to a warren of small offices with Venetian blinds alternating open and closed. 

Banks of escalators go up to the offices and down, taking the lunchtime throngs into a basement food court. Huge doors ahead open to a studio-like ballroom, with stages, chairs and wall mounted cameras poised for any possible configuration of events. The doors of offices to one side carry the names of major banks and the crests of numerous universities and hospitals.

Imagine the mating of the of Connecticut’s Convention Center with UConn’s on-campus incubator. That would describe this building. I am standing in the lobby of the three year old MaRS innovation center in downtown Toronto Ontario.

The $400 million first phase of what will soon be a $1.3 billion project is likely to result in the largest incubator/innovation investment in North America. This is truly major league.

I have long suggested that one needed to travel to Cambridge, England or perhaps Singapore to understand the scale of commitment that the race for innovation excellence in the global marketplace is driving regions to reach for. The good news is that Toronto is just an hour away from Bradley even in a small plane, so all development leaders can spend a day or two taking notes on what the future will look like.

The challenge for all of us (across the lower 48 and not just Connecticut) is to understand how greater Toronto, with fewer than six million people is able to find the political consensus to pour more than a billion dollars into three buildings and make a very grand and operationally significant statement about this region’s commitment to create a system to promote innovation and commercialization.

This experiment and the culture of opportunity rising in Toronto is fascinating from many points of view. Consider this: every university in Ontario is being invited to put part of their office of commercialization into the center and share a common team of experts to analyze their intellectual property. Strategic combinations of ideas and rapid presentation to people with money becomes a lot easier. Venture capitalists, tech councils and major banks are all being encouraged to move key offices to the center.

Best of all, the MaRS center provides about 100 incubator suites for a range of companies – from wet labs to offices for software companies. Everyone is linked with a digital video communications system and collaboration software designed to offer virtual connections with hundreds of companies and labs not in the center but connected through a variety of links and relationships.

Finally, one of the driving forces is the sharing of research space and facilities of three of Toronto’s largest hospitals and medical research operations. Bringing together researchers from the various institutions with staff from major pharmaceutical companies is expected to build collaborations that will lead to even more companies for the adjacent incubator center.

Between the University of Connecticut, CCSU, CCAT, CTC, Science Park, CURE and others, are we doing similar things here? Absolutely. In fact, it provides a strong vote of confidence to the idea behind the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology new shared office and innovation center about to open at 222 Pitkin St., East Hartford and in which the Technology Council plans to be a tenant.

Still, it is both breathtaking and inspiring to see some place not too much bigger than us put 100 times the resources into something – building the culture and institutions of innovation –that we all know is important. Something else a culture of innovation can bring a region: One million Chinese and Indians in the metro area – the largest concentrations of either in North America, and many are highly talented technology workers attracted by the commitment of the region to building an economy they can relate to. Because of reasonable immigration policies and the comfort of a critical mass that makes people feel at home far from home, America companies – IBM more recently – are putting R&D centers in the metro area to serve as a base to work with centers in China and India.

A recent feature in Forbes highlighted Connecticut’s slipping to 31st among states as a good place for business growth. But we all know this misses the point that we can still be a center for new businesses that do not need low cost labor or energy, Toronto is no cheap place to live, but like Connecticut, it works well, has a great quality of life, and most importantly, it wants to be a contender.

Connecticut is well positioned to use Toronto as a model for the global role we can play given our position near New York and our ability, as a small system where everyone knows everyone else, to encourage our institutions to work together for common goals. Coming on the heels of the groundbreaking trip of our corporate leadership to Amsterdam and Europe (direct from our own airport) earlier this month, let’s organize the next trip to the other international destination from Bradley and visit an exciting blueprint for innovation-based growth.

Matthew Nemerson
President & CEO
Connecticut Technology Council
mnemerson@ct.org