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The Technology
Gateway Alliance works to strengthen and expand existing technology
companies and grow new ones.
It’s not common knowledge that the St. Louis metropolitan area is
home to more than 3,600 high-tech life sciences and information
technology businesses and employ more than 68,328 highly skilled
workers. It’s also not commonly known that Greater St. Louis is
a leading research and development center, with area employers annually
investing $2 billion in research and development—more than the acclaimed
“Research Triangle” in North Carolina. To capitalize on the wealth
of knowledge, research and innovation occurring in the St. Louis
region’s “backyard,” the RCGA, area high-tech entrepreneurs and
research universities formed the Technology Gateway Alliance, as
part of their efforts to position the metropolitan area as America’s
Center for Technology. Technology Gateway developed as a natural
outgrowth of the RCGA’s former Science and Engineering Council.
The RCGA recognized that the results from a 1997 study of the region’s
technology sector indicated a coordinated, industry-wide effort
was needed to enhance the technology industry. The Celeste & Sabety
Report concluded: the St. Louis region has a wealth of high-tech
industries, comparing well with the majority of larger communities;
the region’s academic commitment to the study and research of technology
also compares well from a national perspective; and St. Louis’ high-tech
sector had not been successful to date in leveraging these assets
into an industry-wide economic expansion.
Formally launched by the RCGA in May 1998, the mission of Technology
Gateway is to advance the region’s technology-based economy. The
Alliance’s vision involves empowering technology professionals with
efficient and effective tools to achieve growth and positive change,
thereby renewing the industry and the community. Technology Gateway’s
focus is to create a critical mass of ideas, people and capital
in and around technology-related business activities.
Technology Gateway Alliance, which is just 2 1/2 years old already
boasts many accomplishments. The most recent include:
- Planned
and organized TechFair 2000, which featured more than
100 experts who discussed technology breakthroughs, such
as genomics and broadband communications. Attendees ranged
from executives to scientists to high-school science-fair
winners.
- Created
opportunities for funding start-up companies through InvestMidwest
Venture Forum, which convened venture capital firms to
review the business plans of 20 start-ups. As an added
feature, established businesses mentored the fledgling
companies in their pursuit of funding.
- Partnered
with Vatterott College, the RCGA, and local area businesses
to provide WebEd 2000, a scholarship based summer
teacher’s training program that helped educate more than
100 area K-12 teachers on how to use the Internet in the
classroom.
- Launched
TechTour 2000, a traveling networking event that
will be held quarterly. Participants identify technology
resources, while making contacts and learning about facilities.
The first toured the Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise,
a new incubator on the Monsanto Campus. The second toured
Access US, an Internet Solutions Provider with a concentration
on the rural market and Six 12 LTC Group, a digital advertising
and marketing solutions design firm, both on Laclede’s
Landing. The third toured Metaphase Design Group, an ergonomic
design firm in Clayton.
- Sponsored
and participated in First Tuesday, a forum for
regional high-tech entrepreneurs to connect with venture
capitalists.
- Unveiled
the “Technology is the New Spirit of St. Louis”
mural
.
- Attracted
more than 350 member organizations and two
or three fold the volunteers to its ranks. In fact of
those companies on this year’s FAST 50 list, 33 are Technology
Gateway members and 44 are RCGA members
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Being a “sister
organization” within the RCGA allows Technology Gateway’s concerns,
agendas and programs to be heard throughout the business community
and provides access to various decision makers-civic leaders; local,
state and national political leaders; universities; and other technology-oriented
companies. This formal tie with the RCGA (which is further promoted
by the chair of Technology Gateway also serving as vice chair of
science and technology of the RCGA’s board of directors), along
with the momentum of the members, has created a technology alliance
rivaling alliances across the country that have been around for
10 or more years.
In a continuing effort to promote the emerging technology industry,
the RCGA established the Fast 50 awards banquet in 1996. Along with
co-host Deloitte & Touche, an outstanding event has been created,
which recognizes the fastest 50 growing technology companies in
the region that have been in business for five or more years. Other
sponsors include: A.G. Edwards, Armstrong Teasdale, KMOX, KSDK,
St. Louis Business Journal, St. Louis Commerce Magazine, St. Louis
Science Center and UMB Bank. Local winners then move on to the national
Technology 500 Awards, with numerous St. Louis-area companies ranking
as the fastest growing technology businesses in the nation. The
FAST 50 program seeks nominations each year in April, with awards
being presented in September. September 2001 will mark the sixth
annual St. Louis Regional Fast 50 Technology Awards program.
BioBelt and the Plant & Life Sciences Network
The Plant & Life
Sciences Network serves as a catalyst for the plant & life sciences
industry in the St. Louis region. A new initiative of the network
for 2001 is to support and promote the region as the BioBelt—a
world-class center for plant and life sciences research, investment
and business opportunity. It’s talented people pursuing breakthrough
innovations in health care, agriculture and nutrition; supported
by a community that nurtures new ideas and values individuals, families
and business enterprise. Together their work will change the world.
In a study commissioned by the RCGA, the Danforth Foundation and
Civic Progress, the Battelle Memorial Institute identified the St.
Louis area’s core competencies; benchmarked the region against other
high-tech regions in the U.S. and abroad; identified the region’s
strengths, weaknesses and opportunities; and developed a comprehensive
set of strategies and actions. Implementation of these strategies
can make St. Louis the leading international center in plant sciences
and a major center in the life sciences.
This set of strategies builds on the region’s assets—its comparative
advantages—by strengthening its research base, finding innovative
ways to turn science into technology, as well as commercializing
technology in both existing and new entrepreneurial-driven firms.
Five strategies are proposed that address image, entrepreneurial
culture, intellectual capital, business climate and workforce. Twenty
actions, along with resources, and timeframes are identified for
implementing these strategies.
Based on the results of the study, the RCGA and its business and
civic partners have begun implementing the first of the Battelle
study’s recommendations, establishing a national and international
image for St. Louis as the leading center in plant sciences and
a major center in life sciences. The BioBelt brand, logo and tagline,
“The Center of Plant and Life Sciences,” was developed by a regional
communications task force, including representatives from several
of the region’s leading institutions: Washington University, the
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Missouri Botanical Garden,
Missouri Technology Corporation, Monsanto Company, Nidus Center
for Scientific Enterprise, RCGA and three marketing services firms
supporting the branding effort.
“St. Louis no longer needs to be referred to as the ‘Silicon Valley
of the Midwest,’” according to Dr. Robert Calcaterra, president
and CEO of the Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise. “We have
our own identity now, and the BioBelt name more accurately describes
the St. Louis region’s 21st century industrial strengths.”
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