By: Bruce Jackson, Business Development Manager, Life Sciences

On April 19, I made the cross-state trek to participate as a judge in WSU’s annual business plan competition.  I was impressed.  Annually the Harold Frank Entrepreneurship Institute at WSU teams up engineering and architecture students with business majors for the completion.  This isn’t just a local event.  Along with teams from WSU there were teams from China, Tanzania and Switzerland. With the top prize being $15,000 competition was intense.  The mixture of ideas was incredible.  The teams I judged included a mobile application for managing chicken ranches in Tanzania, a clever method for attaching a binding to a wake board for the prevention of knee injuries, a simple device for drying and pressing shirts in small apartments, and a complex project for efficiently housing students utilizing ship containers converted to apartments in Geneva, Switzerland.  The competition resulted in two of the teams receiving invitations to meet with me at the EDC for further discussions regarding the commercialization of their product ideas.

Congratulations to WSU’s Harold Frank Entrepreneurship Institute and WSU’s Business School for putting on this excellent event. (P.S. the team from Switzerland walked off with first prize-I don’t know how I would feel about living in a ship container!)

By Steve Gerritson, VP, EDC of Seattle and King County

I started going to baseball games when I was about eight years old. My father would take me, my best friend, and his father to “State of Maine” day at Fenway Park in Boston. One day, when we were sitting just beyond first base in short right field, I almost caught a foul ball. Ever since then, when I go to a game, I wonder what the chances are of catching a ball hit into the stands.

Well, now there’s an app for that. A Seattle company called IdealSeat has developed a program for smart phones that will tell you, based on a year’s worth of data, where to sit at Safeco Field to have the best chance of catching a foul ball or a home run. If your preferences run to other things, like afternoon sun or proximity to the beer stand, the app will tell you the best seats for getting a tan or having a cold one. You can also use the app to purchase tickets, and find out about restaurants and pubs around the ball park.

The company is largely self-funded, although they recently placed an investment opportunity with Indiegogo, and they have plans to expand to other stadiums in the coming year. Check out their blog too for some info about stadiums around the league, as well as some interesting commentary.

The Economic Development Council has provided technical assistance to the IdealSeat team, including a review of their business plan and advice concerning additional revenue streams.

The Environmental Industry Summit, an annual conference that focuses on environmental engineering firms and their markets, reported a healthy upturn in revenues for this industry last year and continued optimism for the future. The turnaround is due in part to additional work for the shale oil and gas drilling efforts in the United States, along with growing opportunities in Asia and the beginnings of a market in Africa.

The Environmental Business Journal, one of the sponsors of the conference, conducted a survey of attendees, and found that the respondents expect an average of 12.5% growth in shale-related work in 2013 and 2014.

The press release can be read at: http://ebionline.org/updates/1709-shale-gas-boom-creates-opportunity-for-environmental-firms

On January 28, I attended the WCTA’s Energy Policy Conference at which Assistant Secretary of Defense Sharon Burke described her division’s efforts to bring cleaner and more secure sources of energy to our armed forces. During the Q&A she was asked whether the Department of Defense had a means of finding companies with new technologies. Her answer suggested that it was incumbent upon the owners of the technology to come to them.

We began the Clean Energy and Technology program at the Economic Development Council of Seattle and King County (EDC) in 2005, and over the past seven years have seen the development of some remarkable technologies. One of the most rewarding parts of my job as Clean Tech program director has been the opportunity to match cutting-edge technology to potential clients or end-users. At the same time, one of the more frustrating aspects of my work has been that every instance of “match-making” seems to start from ground zero. While every now and then someone makes an attempt to publish a list of clean technology companies, there has never been a list of technologies – until now.

The EDC is pleased to announce the formation of the Clean Tech Registry, a central location where potential consumers can look for what they need, where entrepreneurs can find potential partners, and where interested citizens can learn about advances in the various fields of clean technology.

Some caveats: we will make every attempt to determine that the information posted is accurate and up to date, but we will not be certifying or otherwise guaranteeing technologies. We will not publish anything that is not public information, and we will not list anyone’s technology without permission.

If your company would like to be part of this registry, send a brief description (and if available, a website address) along with your contact information, to Steve Gerritson at sgerritson@edc-seaking.org.

At our Economic Forecast Conference last week, EDC President Jeff Marcell mentioned a critical tool measure the successes and challenges we share in the business community. That tool is the Puget Sound’s annual Job Sector Survey (JSS). The EDC is a lead sponsor of the JSS and we encourage you to fill it out and include your thoughts.

The JSS project was established by regional economic development organizations committed to providing elected public officials and policy makers with an on-the-ground assessment of the challenges and aspirations of all types of local employers. A full list of JSS project sponsors is listed below.

The survey is now in its third year. Last year, the survey received nearly 1,700 responses from 15 industry sectors. The results were reported in major news outlets and personally shared with policymakers at all levels of government— from city and county councils to the Washington State Legislature and the U.S. Senate. By taking the survey, your business will be part of the next JSS report.

We know business leaders in our community, like you, are very busy, but we encourage you to complete the JSS and be part of a collective voice for business. After you’re done, feel free to pass it on to other employers. More participants provide for better results.

The survey link is: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/job_sector_survey2012. Please note that all personal contact information will be kept confidential.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact JSS Coordinator George Allen.

More about the JSS: The 2012 survey is open to employers within a four-county region including King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties. The JSS is made possible by support from the Prosperity Partnership, Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County, Economic Development Council of Seattle and King County, King County, Economic Alliance Snohomish County, Pierce County Economic Development Department, Kitsap Economic Development Alliance, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce,The Seattle Times and the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development.

Although natural gas is widely used as a vehicle fuel in Asia and parts of Europe, natural gas fueled vehicles account for less than 0.1% of the cars and trucks on the road in the United States. Almost all of these are in corporate fleets, such as UPS and Waste Management, which have their own refueling stations.

But that’s about to change. The high price of gasoline, the low price of natural gas, and the continuing push for cleaner vehicles are combining to make natural gas an attractive alternative to gasoline and diesel. Shell Oil Company recently announced a partnership with two companies that operate truck stops throughout the country to install compressed natural gas pumps at their facilities. In the Seattle area, there are several smaller companies promoting and selling some form of natural gas as a vehicle fuel.

Even though it seems logical, there are several barriers that will make this development difficult. Permitting is a major problem, as most local community development departments and fire districts have little to no experience with natural gas refueling stations. And though natural gas is about half the cost of gasoline (for an equivalent amount of driving), retrofitting a vehicle can be very expensive. Finally, market acceptance is, and will remain, an issue for most consumers who are used to the convenience of a refueling station on almost every corner.

entepriseSeattle is teaming with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and the Western Washington Clean Cities program to bring together a group of stakeholders to look at these and other issues regarding natural gas as a fuel, with the hope of making a set of recommendations for action that will result in greater access to, and acceptance of, one alternative to gasoline and diesel. Contact the EDC for more information.

The Economic Development Council of Seattle and King County (EDC) has earned its role as the leading economic development organization in the region through hard work, innovation, expertise, and collaboration. I have been involved with the organization for almost eight years and during that time, we have built the organization into an effective, successful business development engine that works on behalf of the King County area to grow our economy.

We have a pipeline of 200 businesses that are considering adding jobs in this region and we are working tirelessly to influence those decisions. We have a nationally recognized staff of industry cluster and economic development experts. We are currently developing business accelerators, guiding the performance of multiple Innovation Partnership Zones, and creating new economic development programs targeting emerging industries. All of these accomplishments have been made by using a modest amount of resources—provided by 100 public and private sector partners—as efficiently as possible.

It is now time to take this organization to the next level. That is why I have agreed to chair the 2012 the EDC Investor Campaign.

The EDC needs the involvement of much more than the 100 committed members that we have today if we are going to capitalize on the opportunities in front of us. Think what we could do to truly impact our local economy and add jobs if instead of 100 members we had 200, or 300 or even 500 members. I will be leading a committee in 2012 that will be reaching out to private sector leaders to engage them in what we are doing, to ask that they share their insights and networks to grow our regional economy, and to join us as we move this organization and our economy to the next level.

To facilitate this campaign, the EDC has hired The Harper Haines Group to help develop a fundraising strategy and assist in the execution of the campaign. Now that we’re past the initial “start-up” phase, you will be hearing from us soon. And if you’re interested in the important work the EDC does, and don’t want to wait for us to reach out to you, please contact Jeff Marcell our President and CEO.

It’s an exciting time for our region and for the EDC and we look forward to your partnership as we accelerate the growth of our economy.