Technology ‘Super Bowl’ coming to Arlington

Robert Francis
November 06, 2009
Fort Worth Business Press

Everyone knows the Super Bowl is coming to North Texas in 2011, but area leaders need to spread the word about the technology ‘Super Bowl’ that comes to the area every year.

That was the message Wes Jurey, president and CEO of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, delivered Nov. 6 to the Heart of Texas Business Conference in Hurst.

“I want to commend every mayor in this region for the unbelievable way you’ve come together around the Super Bowl,” said Jurey. “But there is the ‘Super Bowl’ of venture funders that’s in your region every single year and has been since 2004 and I want to invite you to come.”

Jurey was referring to the World’s Best Technologies (WBT) event that has taken place in Arlington since 2004. The WBT is a conference that spotlights undiscovered companies and intellectual property emanating from top universities, labs and research institutions from across the country and around the world. The next event is March 16, 2010, in Arlington.

One key presenter this year will be the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), said Jurey. They will bring 500 patents and will be looking for companies to “license those patents, manufacture them and then sell them back to NASA,” he said.

Jurey spoke to the conference about North Texas competitiveness in the innovation economy.

For years, different cities and areas basically poached companies from one area to another.

“We did a lot of hunting companies to move from your cities to mine and we gave them abatements and we lower our tax base and we called it success,” he said.

“We’re beginning to understand that we need to guard what we have and we need to grow our own.”

What will define success in the future will be “attracting, developing and retaining knowledge workers,” he said. “The world is going to be driven by smart, bright, well-trained, well-educated and innovative individuals. If we have them, that’s the competitive advantage and if we don’t [that advantage] accrues to another region.”

The new economic model is about building the commercialization infrastructure and entrepreneurial ecosystems to drive innovation, he said.

Jurey said the area is moving in the right direction with the push for Tier One universities in the area.

Dallas Mayor Top Leppert, speaking later, agreed.

“We need to have a Tier One research institution,” he said. “It is almost criminal that this is the only major metropolitan area that does not have a Tier One research institution. I think once we do that … we’ll be in good shape.”

Jurey said one area where Texas is critically lacking is in the number venture capital companies.

“Since 1990, in the state of Texas, as great as we are, 97 percent of all patents granted to all Texas universities have been taken out of state and been successfully commercialized by venture firms on the east and west coasts,” he said. “Why? Because we don’t have a significant venture capital infrastructure.”

To attract those venture capitalists to the area, there must be deal flow, Jurey said.

“Then you can get serial entrepreneurs. To get those, the elements are research universities, management talent and integration of the markets,” he said.
State Rep. Bill Callegari, R- Katy, discussed the future of water in the state and State Comptroller Susan Combs discussed the state economic strengths and weaknesses.

Leppart and Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief were the keynote speakers at the conference discussing how the two cities – and the area – are now routinely cooperating for economic development.

Moncrief said he believed the area would be coming back from the recession faster and stronger than other parts of the nation, in part due to the Barnett Shale.

“We’re going to recover first in large part because of what you see right outside this parking lot and that’s a drilling rig,” he said. “And that has helped us with some insulation especially when gas prices were at $14 per MCF. Now, when they are no longer at $14 and now at $5 per MCF that insulation which used to be a fur coat is now a windbreaker and a fairly thin one at that. But it’s going to come back because the proved reserves are right below us. And those reserves are helping the entire region.”

rfrancis@bizpress.net

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