International University Startups Conference
December 2-4, 2009
Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC

The registration for this year's University Startups Conference '09 entitled "Creating Jobs and Powering Innovation with University Startups" has just opened.

The International University Startups Conference will take place December 2-4, 2009 at the Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC. with an opening reception at the British Embassy on December 2, 2009. The Conference is organized annually by the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2.org). This year's University Co-Hosts are the University of Maryland System and the University of Texas System. The Government Co-Hosts are the National Science Foundation (Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnership) and National Institutes of Health (Office of Tech Transfer). The Embassy Host is the British Embassy.

While we are still working on finalizing this year's agenda (see below), I wanted to give you a first glimpse of some of the highlights.

We are continuing our work with over 70 Washington embassies to include more foreign innovation into our conference series. We are again having our very successful Embassy Panel -- Global Innovation: Working With Other Countries To Build A Global University Startups Innovation Community, but with a new list of Washington embassies, including Japan, India, Ireland, Spain and Finland. With the help of the Washington embassies we have identified and are including in the agenda 12 foreign universities doing very innovative things in the creation and funding of university startups from the UK, India, France, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, and Finland. Again, with the help of the Washington embassies, we are bringing more of the Global 1000 companies to the conference this year with two Global 1000 Strategic Relationship Panels. Given that the Global 1000 are the largest companies interested in working on Open Innovation with universities around the world it makes perfect sense to increase their involvement in the conference. Finally on the foreign front, in conjunction with the embassies we are hosting a By Invitation "Strategic Investors in Global Innovation" Dinner for U.S./International VCs, Private Equity Firms, Global 1000 Corporations, Embassies and University Sponsors attending the conference, which should greatly increase attendance of these highly valued groups over and above the very large number of these attendees represented in prior years.

Another highlight this year is our new SBIR program. Given the heightened interest by universities in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, we are holding a Pre-Conference Workshop on SBIRs for University Technology Commercialization, which will include topics on * Understanding SBIR Programs For Maximum Benefit to University Commercialization Efforts, * Getting University Researchers Commercialization Funding, * Forging Tech Transfer Links Between Funded SBIR Companies And Universities For Optimal University Research Commercialization. There is a separate registration for this pre-conference event, but it promises to be a very helpful and valuable addition to the program.

As usual, there will be presentations from a large number of U.S. universities creating startups and a large number of VCs and angel investors interested in funding them. Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association as he has done the last 3 years (since the beginning of the conference series), will provide a keynote on the state of the VC industry and their increasing interest in working with universities.

There is much more about the conference at the conference website at http://ncet2.org/UpcomingEvents/UnivStartupConf09.

You can register for the conference by going to http://ncet2.org/UpcomingEvents/UnivStartupConf09/Register.

Sponsorship information for the conference is here: http://ncet2.org/Sponsors.

I look forward to seeing you at this year's University Startups Conference.

Best regards,

Tony Stanco
Executive Director
National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer