SSTI's 2024 Annual Conference

The State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) sees the U.S. Treasury allocate funds to states primarily for small business loans and investments. During this session, agency officials will discuss recent trends, challenges, and concerns with the program. This session is great for SSBCI insiders to hear Treasury's current thinking, and for others to better understand how SSBCI might be better leveraged as a regional resource.

During this session, we will examine SSTI's influential series of tech-based economic development (TBED) polling -- the latest of which will be released at the conference -- and consider what the results tell us about how to talk about the field with elected officials, regional stakeholders, and even your friends and family. We will do this by taking a look at problematic jargon, discussing alternative approaches, and considering how this should inform our communications strategies.

* This session is supported by the TBED Community of Practice. See https://ssti.org/tbedcop for more information.

Many conference attendees will be interested in last year’s SBIC changes—either because they want to apply themselves, or because they are working with partners attempting to leverage the program. For this session, we propose an update from SBA that covers the agency’s experience from implementing the rule changes and then features a discussion with recent applicants/licensees.

How do centralized TTOs develop and implement strategies to manage intellectual property, licensing, and commercialization activities? What are the advantages of centralization, such as cost savings and improved service quality, versus potential drawbacks, like reduced flexibility and local autonomy? This session will offer some examples of successful centralized TTOs and the best practices they employ to achieve their goals. It will also provide valuable insights for policymakers, university administrators, and technology transfer professionals aiming to optimize the impact of their TTOs.

* This session is supported by the TBED Community of Practice. See https://ssti.org/tbedcop for more information.