President’s Perspective: The Tech Garden - A Year of Triumphs

Darlene D. Kerr
President

As we approach the fifth anniversary of the opening of the Syracuse Technology Garden, it is clear that the entrepreneurship support program envisioned by the Chamber’s Entrepreneurial Council has far exceeded the original expectations. As the cover story for this issue illustrates, The Tech Garden, a program of the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, is now recognized as a statewide institution that is bringing entrepreneurs and those who work with them together across Upstate.

I would like to give our members a glimpse of just how fast the team is moving and the impact they are having on our region by recapping some of the highlights of the past year alone.

In summer of 2008, we received word that The Tech Garden had been awarded a Commercialization Assistance Program grant to help NYS-based small businesses that have received Department of Defense SBIR funds to conduct innovative research. The fall saw a major outreach program to over 100 small businesses, with 26 companies accepting the offer to participate in the program. Over the next nine months, The Tech Garden reached into its statewide network of technology and business experts to bring the best advice and guidance for its SBIR clients. This past September, The Tech Garden was able to turn Syracuse into the center of NY’s Defense Technology industry by hosting more than 300 people at the first statewide Defense Technology Showcase. Information about the companies participating in this program and the Showcase can be found at www.dodshowcase.com.

In December of 2008, The Tech Garden, in partnership with the MDA and the Syracuse Center of Excellence, won a four-year grant from NYSERDA to assist the growth of Clean and Renewable Energy companies. The Tech Garden was able to recruit Linda Hartsock to join its team in March 2009 and the Clean Tech Center was born. The CTC is a hub for cutting edge technologies and also the gateway to connecting entrepreneurs with sources of advice and investment capital. A recently launched blog is fast becoming the favorite of those interested in NY’s clean tech future across the region and around the world. The Tech Garden team has completed the first comprehensive statewide resource list of clean tech entrepreneurs and is already working with about half a dozen startups to get them to investment-ready status.

In April 2009, The Tech Garden learned that funding was once again available to bring back the Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program. Active from 2001 to 2008, SATOP was a nationwide program focused on providing free technical assistance to small businesses by connecting them to NASA scientists and/or engineers working with NASA contractors like Sensis, Lockheed Martin, etc. Over this period, the program assisted more than 2,000 small businesses with a net economic gain independently calculated at over $570 million. The resumption of this program enabled The Tech Garden to lure back its original founder Beth Bornick from her position at RPI in Albany. Beth and her new team will be officially launching the nationwide SATOP program once again this month, assisted by partners in Florida, New Mexico and Texas.

The Tech Garden’s success is a double gift for Syracuse. Our city has a world class facility that is serving as a magnet for the best and the brightest, and through its statewide and national technology assistance programs The Tech Garden is creating a reputation for Syracuse as a center of creative talent and opportunity.

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