Oregon SBIR Summit
Oregon Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Summit will be hosted by the Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition and the Portland State Business Accelerator. The SBIR courses will be taught this year by the Greenwood Consulting Group, a nationally recognized SBIR/STTR consultant.
Official Oregon SBIR Summit Website
When:
25-27 March, 2008
Where:
Portland State Business Accelerator, Mount Hood Conference Room
2828 SW Corbett Ave, Portland, OR 97201
Click here for detailed driving directions
To Register:
Register Now
Who Should Attend?
Small businesses that are interested in developing innovative new products and services, or improvements in existing products and services are the primary audience of the Phase 1 workshop. The Phase 2 workshop is primarily for winners of Phase 1 awards who want to prepare to apply for this second stage funding, which is not only larger than Phase 1 but also help move the project from the feasibility stage towards commercialization. The Cost proposal workshop is for both Phase 1 and Phase 2 applicants or awardees, because our experience tells us that most small businesses do not understand government accounting and cost proposals, and that misunderstanding usually results in small companies not getting as much funding as they request and may lead to problems later on with auditors. All three workshops are also valuable to service providers who assist SBIR/STTR companies, as well as anyone who wants a thorough understanding of these two important small business funding programs.
SBIR/STTR are not for conventional manufacturing, retail and service businesses that provide important goods and services that we all need. They are for small and start up companies trying to develop innovative new products and services where there is a technical risk (i.e.., the innovation might not work), and where funding is needed to develop and test prototypes.
WHY SBIR?
SBIR/STTR provide funding to small and start up companies that have innovative ideas that they want to prove, develop, and ultimately commercialize. The awards are made as grants or contracts, and do not have to be repaid and do not require the sacrifice of equity. The Federal government even allows the small business to retain the intellectual property rights to their innovations. For those interested in securing outside investors (angels, venture capitalists, others), SBIR/STTR provides early stage funding for the R&D risk of an innovative product which can be crucial in attracting outside investors to take the product to the marketplace (and will allow the small company to negotiate a better price for that outside investment because the R&D risk is eliminated by SBIR/STTR).
About the Instructors:
Gail and Jim Greenwood have been active in SBIR/STTR since the programs' inception, making firms aware of the opportunity, and teaching them how to write competitive technical and cost proposals for funding. They have now taught thousands of entrepreneurs in 48 states. An evaluation of the effectiveness of their training showed that over 90 percent of the workshop attendees indicated that the Greenwoods had improved their ability to compete for SBIR and STTR awards. The Green woods are also nationally recognized for their work in small business incubators. They helped develop and then managed for 11 years the Los Alamo Small Business Center, one of the first incubators in the southwestern United States. Jim served on the board of directors of the National Business Incubation Association, and has presented at every annual conference of the NBIA since 1989. Read More
