Stimulating Our Region's Technology Sector: What We Need and How Stimulus Funds Can Help April 9, 2009

Stimulating Our Region's Technology Sector:
What We Need and How Stimulus Funds Can Help

Join Technology Leaders in Discussing What We Need,
Advise Our Mayor and Our Rep to the Governor's Fed Stimulus Funds Allocation Advisory Panel,
Vote on Specific Proposals By Area Companies

Thursday, April 10th, 2009
5:30pm - 8:30pm

Location:

Iovino's Restaurant at Renaissance On The Riverfront
136 SW Washington Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333

RSVP TO: SAO by replying to this email or emailing sao-coordinator at sao.corvallis.or.us

$5 for SAO members or students, $15 non-members
Includes finger food and no-host bar

AGENDA:

* 5:30 - 6:00 Business Networking Time with finger food, no host bar
* 6:00 - 6:45 Stimulus Ignite (Specific Stimulus Proposals; Audience Ranks Them)
* 6:45 - 7:00 Networking Break
* 7:00 - 8:15 Program Panel Discussion With Audience Participation:
Stimulating Our Region's Technology Sector:
What We Need and How Stimulus Funds Can Help
* 8:15 - 8:30 Closing Statements by Catherine Mater and Mayor Tomlinson,
Announce Winner(s) of Audience Ranking of Stimulus Ignite Proposals

PROGRAM:
If you think the prospects for your company, your career, and our local tech-based economy may be boosted by the federal stimulus funds that will be spent in this region, then you won't want to miss the unique program our SAO chapter has put together for April 10.

Why? By April 17, Gov. Kulongoski's Oregon Way advisory panel is expected to recommend how Oregon's $2.4 billion of federal stimulus money should be allocated. The funds, provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), can be allocated for uses ranging form expanding broadband access, to renewable energy, to brownfield (polluted) restoration, among others (for an overview see www.oregon.gov/recovery/docs/arra_what_it_means_for_oregon.pdf). In addition, more funds may be awarded as competitive grants to Oregon companies, consortia, and public-private partnerships that meet criteria of the Act.

Things are moving quickly. In the past few days, Catherine Mater of Mater Engineering has been appointed as our region's representative to the governor's Oregon Way advisory panel. Freshly back from stimulation orientation in Washington, D.C., she wants to speak with the technology business community at this month's April SAO program. Mayor Charlie Tomlinson wants to get our feedback on how stimulus grant proposals rank against the ARRA grant criteria (attendees will be provided ranking criteria).

So this month's meeting will be important and unusual. We hope you will attend!

There will be less networking time than usual, so please come on time. At 6pm several companies will preview their stimulus grant proposals in an Ignite-style session of time-paced presentations; the attendees will rank them on forms provided. The program panel, which includes Catherine Mater, Mayor Tomlinson, and some technology leaders we have not heard from before, will dig into what economic infrastructure improvements the region needs, from the standpoint of growing our technology sector, and in what ways stimulus money can help us achieve these improvements.

We hope to see you there!

Official Website: http://www.sao.corvallis.or.us/drupal/node/139