Connecticut Technology Council

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 [email protected].

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