Tri-Cities Tech Business Update

June 2013 Issue

Tech News and Notes

America's Best Performing Cities

The Tri-Cities is among America's Best Performing Cities, ranking #16 among large metro areas. The annual report is put out by Milken Institute and represents an "outcomes-based" accounting of short and long-term changes in economic output, high-tech industry, jobs, and wages. The rankings cover the 200 largest metros with a separate index for the 179 smaller metros. Four of the top five metros are noted high-tech knowledge economy centers. The top 25 also include metros with robust energy economies, such as Houston and Tri-Cities, Washington.  Read more...

AlgebraChallenge.org

AlgebraChallenge.org is using gaming to inspire the next generation in STEM. From June 3-7 students in classrooms across Washington will work together on a statewide goal to solve 250,000 algebra equations in just one week using the learning game DragonBox. It is easy, it is fun, and students as young as five learn algebra concepts and older students make amazing gains in algebra skills just by playing the game. Join this challenge and receive sponsored access to the school-adapted, web-based version of DragonBox. In addition to game access, educators who sign up receive teacher tools and support resources and are eligible for over $10,000 worth of prizes. Registration closes June 2. Both in school and out of school classrooms are welcome. Read more...

Gesa Credit Union Open in the Research District

Gesa Credit Union has opened a North Richland branch at the corner of Stevens Drive and University Drive in the Tri-Cities Research District. The new high-tech branch is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., providing convenient access to PNNL staff, Hanford-area employees and WSU Tri-Cities students, faculty, and staff. Grand opening celebrations are June 17 - 21 and will include a chance to win prizes including Visa® gift cards, iPad® Minis, and $1,000 cash. Gesa will host a free lunch barbeque June 18 and 20 from 11:00 a.m - 2:00 p.m.

SSC North America Breaks Ground in Tri-Cities

A University of Washington graduate who grew up in the Tri-Cities region, Jerod Shelby founded SSC North America in 1999 with the goal of creating a world class automotive manufacturer. A major step in accomplishing the company goal was made on September 13, 2007 when SSC's Ultimate Aero became the World's Fastest Production Car as verified by Guinness World Records^TM. SSC is moving their production under one roof, while expanding manufacturing capacity as well as opening a show room, in a new facility that recently broke ground in West Richland at the corner of Keene Road and Belmont Boulevard City. Read more...

Washington Ranked #1 in Software Publishing Jobs, #3 in Tech Wages

According to the annual Cyberstates report from the TechAmerica Foundation, tech workers in Washington earned an average annual wage of $110,200, placing Washington in third place in terms of tech wages. In addition to high wages, Washington is also ranked 10th for tech employment, with 191,000 tech workers accounting for 8.2 percent of the workforce in 2012. The state also continues to boast the most software publishing jobs in the country at 51,700 workers. Driving these numbers are companies such as Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Tableau, as well as the arrival of engineering offices of such companies as eBay and Splunk. Read more...

Tech Opportunities and Resources

Free Exhibitor Space at Smartmap Expo

The Smartmap Expo 2013 will be presenting the first ever "Inventors Pavilion", a free-of-charge opportunity for inventors to display their inventions, meet manufacturers that can manufacture their products, and investors that can fund their start-ups. Only inventors that have a manufactured product that has not been commercialized will qualify. PNNL is the Strategic Partner for the Inventors Pavilion and will have a booth of technologies available for licensing. Smartmap Expo is September 25 & 26 at the TRAC Center in Pasco. Read more...

Startup Weekend Coming to Tri-Cities, Seeking Sponsors

For entrepreneurs, a little help can go a long way to jump starting innovation. Mark your calendars because help is on the way! Startup Weekend, an event that gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to take their ideas and turn them into action, is coming to the Tri-Cities September 20 -22, 2013. Sponsorship opportunities are available for the weekend-long, hands-on event where aspiring entrepreneurs can find out if their startup ideas are viable. Tier 1 Sponsorships are available for as little as $100, which will go a long way in supporting local entrepreneurs motivated to launch the next great idea. Read more...

Leads Exchange And Referral Network (LEARN)

The Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce has launched a new program, Leads Exchange And Referral Network (LEARN) Groups that is intended to be a tool for professionals to cultivate and grow their businesses. LEARN Groups allow professionals to meet once per week in a networking environment to exchange leads and business referrals. Each LEARN Group will include 10-20 Regional Chamber members from different industries. Participation in LEARN Groups is a benefit to Regional Chamber members at the Business Level or above. Read more...

You Can Kill an Idea, You Can't Kill an Opportunity

NewEdge is a growth, strategy, and design firm that delivers on new opportunities for start-ups through to Fortune 500s. Company President Pam Henderson was on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University and later worked with PNNL and WSU to commercialize technologies. She publishes widely on market insight, innovation strategy, and design, and has a new book out - Killing Ideas - that PepsiCo's senior vice president describes as representing "a novel way of expanding how we think about growth through new ways of seeking opportunity." Read more...

The Future of Aerospace Innovation in Washington

The Joint Center for Aerospace Research Technology Innovation (JCATI) will hold its inaugural symposium on June 24 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Seattle on the campus of University of Washington. The symposium will include an industry panel discussing the grand challenges in aerospace and the role of innovation. Moderated by Roger Myers of Aerojet, the panel will include industry leaders representing the commercial airplanes, space, UAV, and NextGen/big data sectors of the industry. A university panel will host deans from the University of Washington and Washington State University as well as Earll Murman, the MIT Ford Professor of Engineering Emeritus. Read more...

Tech Dates and Deadlines

Anatomy of an Angel Deal

June 5: Have you ever wondered how an angel deal really works? How you find your first investor? How you negotiate terms? Attend this session and hear the entrepreneur, attorney, and investor perspectives on how an angel deal really happens. Advanced registration is required for this free event, which will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Seattle. Lunch will be served. Read more...

How to Create an Investor-Ready Business Plan

June 10: The business plan for your startup - which can be expressed in an Executive Summary, an Investor Pitch, or a detailed Business Plan - is a foundational requirement when you're raising angel funding. Investors need to understand your business, and the burden of clear communication is squarely on your shoulders. In this session, hosted by SURF Incubator, the main elements of a business plan (including financial projections) and how to present them in each format will be discussed, along with how to use these documents to connect with angels, deliver your investor pitch, and close the deal. The free event is from 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. in Seattle. No registration required. Read more...

How to Get Angel Investors to Finance your Business

June 20: The Step-by-Step Guide: How to Get Angel Investors to Finance Your Business workshop will help you avoid costly pitfalls, blind spots, and common mistakes so you can increase your chances of getting funded and get your company funded sooner. The day-long workshop will be held at the downtown Seattle office of the law firm Foster Pepper PLLC. Read more...

Meet the Buyer: Alternative Public Works Contracting

June 25: For select construction projects, public agencies in the Tri-Cities have begun using a process called General Contractor/Construction Manager (GC/CM). This process is an alternative public works contracting method that allows the contractor to be selected based on qualifications and price, not just low bid. The class is designed to educate the local contracting community to better compete in the public works arena. Cost is free; RSVP required. Read more...

Life Science Innovation Northwest Meeting

July 10 - 11: The Pacific Northwest is home to an expanding and collaborative consortium of biotechnology and biomedical firms, healthcare services, world-class research, innovative startups and established industry leaders. Life Science Innovation Northwest (LSINW) brings together nearly 1,000 attendees from public and private companies, research institutions and the global health community. Public and private investors, investment bankers and business development executives find LSINW one of the most productive conferences they attend. Read more...

Developing Your Capability Statement

July 16: A capability statement is like a resume, only you use it for Government contracting. It provides potential clients with a concise overview of your company's qualifications and experience. After attending this session you will be invited to return at a later date with your rough draft capability statement to receive valuable feedback from experts in the federal government marketplace. Cost is free; RSVP required. Read more...

Startup Weekend Tri-Cities

September 20 - 22: Startup Weekend is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas; it's a 54-hour event where developers, designers, marketers, investors, product managers, and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products and launch startups. Startup Weekend will be coming to the Tri-Cities September 20 - 22, giving entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to find out if their startup ideas are viable. Read more...

PNNL This Month

PNNL Workers Assisting in Oklahoma

The two-mile wide path of the tornado through Moore, Okla., looked like a garbage disposal had been at work, grinding up houses, said Jim Spracklen of PNNL, in a phone call from near the disaster area. He's one of four PNNL and Hanford Mission Support Alliance workers providing emergency support to the disaster area as part of the Department of Energy's energy response team. Read more...

PNNL Farmers Market

Today, June 3, is the first PNNL Farmers Market of the new season. The Farmers Market will be hosted Mondays, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m., at the Battelle Picnic Grounds on Einstein St., and feature a variety of locally grown produce and specialty foods. The PNNL Farmers Market will be every Monday through September. 

PNNL Staff Recognized

PNNL honored more than 165 staff for their creation, development, and commercialization of intellectual property at its annual Intellectual Property Commercialization Recognition & Rewards Program banquet. Materials scientist Jun Liu was named Inventor of the Year for his work developing battery materials that can store large amounts of energy, ease impacts to the electrical grid, and reduce the time it takes to charge cell phones, electric vehicles and other battery-powered devices. Read more...

PNNL Engineer Picked to Head Nuclear Society

Michaele Brady Raap of PNNL was selected to head the American Nuclear Society. At the organization's June meeting in Atlanta, Ga., she will become vice president and president-elect of the professional organization of 11,000 engineers and scientists devoted to the peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology. Read more...

9 States Poised to Dominate the Drone Economy

Though headquartered in Chicago, Boeing's major manufacturing operation is based in Washington along with subsidiary Insitu, which specializes in unmanned aircraft. It's also home to Pacific Northwest National Lab, a federally funded lab under the Department of Energy whose partial mission is to develop counterterrorism technologies through enhanced information gathering and information analysis - activities for which unmanned air systems are well-suited. A consortium including PNNL is currently lobbying the FAA to place a test site in central Washington, which would solidify its place as a UAS industry center of gravity. Read more...

Got News?

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 and photos 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 DOE-Richland's vision for the future of the Hanford Site and surrounding area through the creation of research opportunities, new industries, and new business clusters