Tri-Cities Tech Business Update

September 2010 Issue

• Tri-Cities ranks first in lowest cost of living
  Of the state's top five metropolitan statistical areas, Seattle/Bellevue/Everett, Spokane, Tacoma, Yakima, and Kennewick/Pasco/Richland, the Tri-Cities remains for another year the least expensive place to live. more...
• Innovation Center design completed
  The schematic design for the $25-million first phase of the mixed-use Innovation Center at the Tri-Cities Research District was completed on July 9. more...
• Tri-Cities continues national lead in employment growth
  The Kennewick/Pasco/Richland area has experienced the highest average monthly year-over-year employment growth among the nation's 372 metropolitan areas. more...
• Amendment to WA air regulations benefits R&D activities
  A consortium of research institutions initiated and led an effort to obtain an exemption from the Washington state air regulations (WAC 173-400 and WAC 173-460) for R&D and teaching laboratory activities. more...
• PNNL EDO on Facebook
  The Economic Development Office at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is now on Facebook. The EDO page provides frequent updates and information about economic development activities and opportunities to help businesses start, grow, or revitalize. more...

• Call to entrepreneurs
  The ZINO Society will present the 5th annual ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum (ZZIF) on September 15, 2010 at the Bell Harbor Conference Center in Seattle. more...
• Resources online
  The column "Widely different 'elevator pitches' still vital," was published in the Tri-City Herald on August 15. more...

• 6th Annual Oregon Lab2Market Entrepreneurship Intensive
  September 15. Targeting innovators with early-stage ideas, the Oregon Lab2Market Entrepreneurship Intensive is an experiential workshop that assists in reaching the marketplace. more...
• Washington Future Energy Conference
  November 9-10. Presented by Washington state and the Northwest Environmental Business Council, this event offers a forum to connect those developing strategies for energy security and economic development with the businesses making it happen. more...
• Certified Enterprise Risk Manager Workshop
  Quality + Engineering is offering the Certified Enterprise Risk Manager® (CERM) certificate programs in Seattle. more...
• Tri-Cities Research District Speaker Series - Energy Storage: The current landscape for alternative energy storage technologies and what the future may hold for multi-scale storage applications
  September 22. The September TREN event speaker is David Lucero, Director of Alternative Energy Storage at EaglePicher Technologies, LLC. more...
• 8TH annual Gesa Smartmap Expo
  September 29-30. The Smartmap Expo is the state's premier manufacturing networking event that brings together many of the 3,500 manufacturing companies in eastern Washington for a two-day conference. more...
• Strategic investment conference
  October 13-15. The National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF) annual conference, to be held in Baltimore, MD, exchanges strategies and tools for building and managing strategic investment programs and institutions. more...
• WBBA's Governor's Life Sciences Summit
  October 22. The Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association (WBBA) is combining the Governor's Summit and its annual meeting for this year's Life Sciences Summit. more...

• Wax, soap clean up obstacles to better batteries
  Consumers use long-lasting rechargeable lithium ion batteries in everything from cell phones to the latest portable gadgets. more...
• PNNL named finalist for Washington's Best Places to Work
  More than 1,900 staff members cited innovation, teamwork, loyalty, job satisfaction, and development opportunities among the primary reasons they consider Pacific Northwest National Laboratory an outstanding employer. more...

We invite your contributions! We will consider items that fit the mission of this publication, including your tech-related news, awards, and notices of upcoming events. Please send text to Andrea McMakin or call (509) 372-6013.

Tri-Cities Tech Business Update is published by the Economic Development Office at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Each month, we send you an e-mail message, giving you the link of news, tips, awards, upcoming events, and other information about local technology-based businesses and organizations that support them. With business and community partners, our goal is to build and diversify the Tri-Cities economy—adding skilled jobs in primary-sector industries that bring in outside dollars. Currently, more than 1,100 tech-related businesses, investors, and economic development stakeholders subscribe to the newsletter, mostly in the Mid-Columbia area and the rest of the Pacific Northwest. This newsletter (RL-P00-009) supports PNSO's vision for the future of the Hanford Site and surrounding area through the creation of research opportunities, new industries, and new business clusters.