Richard Bendis is participating as a plenary speaker in The Technopolicy Network Annual Conference "Building a World-Class Knowledge Region", Heidelberg, Germany, 29 September - 1 October.

Against the backdrop of Biotechnology Region Rhein Neckar (BioRN), Germany's award winning top-cluster, The Technopolicy Network is organizing its 7th Annual conference. The conference will focus on the aspects that are needed to create a knowledge region that is truly of world-class. To this extend the importance of international alliances will be stressed. Bendis is a globally-recognized expert in shaping innovation-based clusters and a front runner in strengthening ties of innovation intermediaries across the Atlantic. Bendis is chairman of The Technopolicy Network's Transatlantic Innovation initiative to strengthen ties between Europe and North America in the field of Innovation. This comes at a moment that globalization and growing competition increases the necessity of strategic alliances to preserve ones’ leading position in knowledge intensive innovation. The work group anticipates and promotes a more intensive collaboration between European and North-American countries in the innovation field. Outcome of last year’s Transatlantic Innovation event, which Bendis also participated in, includes the setting-up of transatlantic innovation intermediary networks, transatlantic  investment formats (for VC’s or business Angels) and connecting public funds for more intense transatlantic collaboration between universities and companies.

Download the complete program.

Silicon Solar Solutions is commercializing a technology to create large grain polysilicon that can reduce the cost of solar cells by 26%, or $0.42 per watt. The fully in-line process reduces the labor requirements significantly when compared to traditional processing which enables cost competitive local manufacturing. Closing the NASDAQ is part of winning the Stuart Clark Venture Challenge and will be broadcast onto the NASDAQ tower overlooking Times Square. All of the company’s employees will be in attendance in addition to representatives from the University of Arkansas, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, Innovate Arkansas, Green Valley Development, and private investors.

Steve Rust, president and CEO of Green Valley Development said, “We are proud to be associated with such forward thinkers for the Arkansas economy. Silicon Solar Solutions is an extraordinary local company that fits our mission to attract the world’s best sustainability innovators, grow local companies, recruit new companies and technologies and then coordinate just in time delivery of the capital, resources, and services needed for a Green Valley company to excel in the world market.”

We live in challenging times. Unemployment remains high, and the U.S. lead in technology and science is slipping as many foreign countries gain ground. But some U.S. cities, though slowed by the Great Recession, still thrive by lifting good old American innovation to new levels. And that will help put more Americans back to work and keep our international edge.

In Kiplinger's latest search for top cities, we focused on places that specialize in out-of-the-box thinking. "New ideas generate new businesses," says Kevin Stolarick, our numbers guru, who this year evaluated U.S. cities for growth and growth potential. Stolarick is research director at the Martin Prosperity Institute, a think tank that studies economic prosperity. "In the places where innovation works, it really works," he says.

German architect Rolf Disch built the home, called Heliotrope, to follow the sun throughout the day. The structure features triple panes of thermally insulated glass to strike a balance between letting light in and keeping the house cooler inside.

A giant 6.6-kilowatt-capacity rooftop solar panel called the Sun Sail slurps up the rays of energy, pumping them into the home and grid. Solar thermal collectors on balcony railings act as water heaters and radiators. On cloudy days, the house can be heated with wood chips and solar thermal heating.

You got your degree in architecture from Kansas State University in 1996. How did you get from there to Lego Certified Professional?

In a nutshell, I worked for a number of architecture firms, and then I had my own practice.  One day I had this idea of doing something a little different, being inspired by the events of 9/11 and realizing that a lot of people from the general public were intimidated by vertical architecture—skyscrapers. They weren’t really visiting the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower, because of what happened to the World Trade Center.

In large companies, the CEO has professional writers, a PR office, and lots of other skilled people on hand to help relay important messages to the right constituents. As a CEO of a start-up, you don't have this luxury. You are always the company's #1 Communicator.

Most important is to never underestimate this role. Silence isn't golden; it's dangerous. Even if there's no good news to share, say something! At first, employees and investors will fill your silence with their fondest hopes. But once you've missed a single deadline, or something hasn't gone according to plan, everyone will project their worst fears into the void.

Communication is even trickier now with social media. For example, one CEO stopped sending updates to investors, but chronicled his weeklong camping trips and conference excursions on Facebook, all while the company's cash reserves (paying his five-figure-a-month salary) dwindled. As you can imagine, his investors followed his adventures with, how shall I say it, avid interest.

“Not pink,” said Mrs. Wilzig, 40, an artist and a mother of two small children. “Alan, go to the turquoise.”

Her husband, Alan Wilzig, 45, a former banker who collects motorcycles and prides himself on the orange tanning bed in his basement, goes to the James Bond-like control panel in the kitchen, where a touch of a button turns the fish — which are specially bred to be colorless — a vivid blue.

The latest organization to spring fully formed from the brow of San Diego’s Life Sciences community was not Athena, but the San Diego Entrepreneurs Exchange, which Denise profiled in March when the SDEE was preparing to hold its first meeting.

I’d guess close to 140 people turned out earlier this week for the group’s second meeting, which was organized around a case study presentation and discussion among local biotech entrepreneurs who were successful in winning Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the National Institutes of Health. These are small grants. David Larocca, the founder, CEO, and principle scientist of Mandala Biosciences, says a Phase I SBIR “proof of principle” grant is usually limited to $150,000, while a Phase II “commercialization” grant is typically limited to $1.2 million.

The Global Innovation Index is a global index measuring the level of innovation of a country, produced jointly by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), and The Manufacturing Institute (MI), the NAM's nonpartisan research affiliate. NAM describes it as the "largest and most comprehensive global index of its kind".

The International Innovation Index is part of a large research study that looked at both the business outcomes of innovation and government's ability to encourage and support innovation through public policy. The study comprised a survey of more than 1,000 senior executives from NAM member companies across all industries; in-depth interviews with 30 of the executives; and a comparison of the "innovation friendliness" of 110 countries and all 50 U.S. states. The findings are published in the report, "The Innovation Imperative in Manufacturing: How the United States Can Restore Its Edge."

We’re nearly three years into the recession and our economy still shows few signs of life. The Department of Labor announced that the country shed 131,000 jobs in July. Unemployment now stands at 9.5 percent.

Democrats and Republicans agree that something must be done — soon — to stem the loss of jobs. Neither side, though, has offered a creative or comprehensive jobs strategy to turn the economy around. There is one strategy that could create jobs and generate support from both sides of the aisle: biotech innovation.

“Over the long run, few issues are as important to a nation’s long-term economic security and global standing as being a leader in moving life sciences forward,” says Lawrence Summers, director of the White House’s National Economic Council.