Yogi Berra was one of my heroes when I was a kid. He was in his prime as the perennial All-Star Catcher for the New York Yankees and I idolized him. But it wasn't until after he retired as a player and hit the banquet circuit did I really appreciate his genius.

His quotes have become apocryphal for their malapropisms and "huh?" factors. One of my favorites is, "This is like deja vu all over again." But the Yogi-ism that is applicable to the current SBIR reauthorization situation is, "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

The question is, which path at the fork do we take? Which way to go? Perhaps the path well traveled - follow the crowd. Sometimes it's the path someone pays you to take. Much of the time, it's the path of least resistance

Making good on the President’s pledge in Cairo

WASHINGTON—In his June “A New Beginning” speech in Cairo, President Obama announced that the U.S. will host a Summit on Entrepreneurship to identify how we can deepen ties between those focused on advancing entrepreneurship in Muslim communities around the world.

Today, the Commerce Department’s new Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship begins accepting nominations for delegates to the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship on its Web site, http://www.entrepreneurship.gov/summit.

Nearly 150 delegates focused on entrepreneurship in Muslim communities around the world, including minority communities in Muslim-majority countries, will be selected from nominations submitted to the Summit Web site, through our embassies and other sources. These delegates will represent their home countries, regions, sectors and communities at the Summit and help highlight successes, challenges and opportunities while working to identify personal, national and regional goals for entrepreneurship development.

The Department of Defense pre-released its 2010.1 SBIR Topics this morning. The solicitation will be open to proposal submission from December 10, 2009 at 6AM ET through January 13, 2010 6AM ET.

You may directly contact the Topic Manger (listed with the topic) to ask technical questions/clarification prior to December 10th. After this date, your questions and the responding answers will be made public on the website. The DOD is looking for specific solutions to their specific problems A clear understanding of the full problem, mission of the unit needing the solution, and the role of any prime contractors already involved in the solution can be critical information necessary for an effective proposal. Be sure to take advantage of this time to ask questions while you have a competitive advantage.

Now its third year, Otis College of Art andDesign’s report on the L.A. creative economy finds that the industry, excluding manufacturing segments, is projected to grow by an estimated 4,000 jobs, or 1.6 percent, by 2013.

The report, using 2008 statistics, was commissioned by Otis and prepared by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

There is no escaping China’s growing impact on clean technology investing. Even at Boston Cleantech Venture Day, held on Nov. 10 and focused on helping European come to the U.S. to raise capital and to penetrate American markets, China’s growing role was front and center.

“We’ve got to keep our eyes on China,” said Alexander “Hap” Ellis of Rockport Capital Partners, five of whose portfolio companies have Chinese manufacturing facilities. “China is becoming a leader in the deployment of clean technology and … will be superb in manufacturing and in stimulating demand.”

The venture capital market appears to be bottoming out after a long decline, according to a Fenwick & West survey of the venture capital market for the third quarter of 2009.

There are two significant data points worth pulling out. First, the number of investment rounds for higher valuations (i.e. “up rounds”) exceeded the number of investment rounds for lower valuations (i.e “down rounds”) for the first time this year. Up rounds exceeded down rounds 41% to 36%, according to the survey. In the second quarter, down rounds exceeded up rounds 46% to 32%.

This the equivalent of a rising valuations in the stock market, suggesting that VCs are getting more optimistic about the value of venture-backed startups.

Today’s press review clearly demonstrates the contrast that exists in the promotion of the creative economy from one region to another. Most countries in the world participate in a clearly defined creative economy and creative industry movement while the US promotes a do-it-yourself art/cultural economy model.

It’s broadly recognized that the concept of the creative economy started in 1994 in the UK when they expanded their definition of the art economy and the cultural industries to include the creative industries and the newly recognized creative economy. Since then many European and Asia-Pacific countries have followed their lead and now carry out targeted efforts to promote their creative industries locally, nationally and internationally.

SINGAPORE, Nov 14 (Bernama) -- Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the government would make Malaysia a better place to live and work in to bring back its citizens who are residing overseas as well as attract global talents to the country.

"We will create more opportunities, more excitement and more buzz in Malaysia to attract the Malaysian diaspora and expatriates to the country," Najib said on Friday night.

Speaking at a dinner he hosted for the Malaysian community here, the prime minister said that in the current challenging world, Malaysia needed the best talents and brains to develop and prosper the country.

"In the twenty-first century, our country once again needs to undergo comprehensive modernisation. This will be our first ever experience of modernisation based on democratic values and institutions. Instead of a primitive raw materials economy we will create a smart economy producing unique knowledge, new goods and technology of use to people."

-- PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV

Ontario is supporting a new commercialization centre that will help digital media entrepreneurs build new companies and create jobs.

The province plans to invest more than $26 million in The Communitech Hub: Digital Media & Mobile Accelerator (“The Hub”), a new centre that will help emerging digital media companies grow and succeed in the global market. In particular, The Hub will look beyond the entertainment sector to focus on companies creating hardware and software for industries, including advanced manufacturing, healthcare and finance.

Africa College is a national and international partnership between like-minded individuals in academia and non-profit organizations involved in Research for Development. The project’s formal title is Human Health and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Through authoritative thinking anchored on the development needs of sub-Saharan Africa, Plant and Environmental Scientists working closely with colleagues in Medicine and Health seek to tackle hunger and poverty in Africa and so improve human health and enhance food security. A key aim is to develop agricultural solutions to fundamental problems and so improve livelihoods in Africa.

Biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical sectors of the economy have weathered the recession better than many other industries. Some large companies are beginning to show growth, and small companies and research centers of all sizes are reaping the benefits of government funding. This fall, President Barack Obama announced the release of $5 billion in stimulus funds for the National Institutes of Health. The funds are part of the $10.4 billion the NIH is slated to receive through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 5, 2009.)

The UK Innovation Investment Fund, a government-backed fund of funds set up to benefit private British companies, is ready to announce the manager selected to oversee the vehicle’s investments.

Whilst a fund of funds manager has already been chosen, the name will be revealed next month as the government plans to raise a £1bn (€1.1bn) pool of capital to aid UK innovation.

The Departments for Business Innovation & Skills, Energy and Climate Change and Health are cornerstone investors, committing £150m (€168.2m) alongside private sector investors on a pari-passu basis. The fund of funds, therefore, will have a minimum of £300m (€336.4m) to invest in underlying venture capital funds; however, the UK IIF is targeting £1bn.

A summary of the core argument of my recent keynote at the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (slides at http://slideshare.net/opencontent/).

Throughout the late 20th century, and into the early 21st, when we spoke about “innovation” we largely meant impressive technical feats. Think Jobs and Woz creating the Mac, or Larry and Sergey creating Google, or the kinds of things Tony Hirst and Jim Groom seem to pull off regularly. We made heroes of the two geeks working in their mom’s garage… We made heroes of the lone coder, working late at night armed only with Emacs and Mountain Dew. These legends engaged in mythical man-versus-nature battles, subduing the wild frontier of source code and bending the Internet to their wills. They’re just plain cool.

WASHINGTON—America’s small businesses, often called the driver of the U.S. economy, will finally get a break, if President Barack Obama has his way.

“American entrepreneurs and small businesses are the engines that create new jobs and develop the innovations that will keep our Nation strong,” Karen G. Mills, Small Business Administration (SBA) administrator, said during a Small Business White House ceremony, according to its Web site.

Obama promised to push through Congress a bill to increase small business loans from $2 million to $5 million, increasing “CDC-504” loans to $ 5.5 million, and SBA microloans from $35,000 to $55,000.

Monday was a good day for Accel Partners.

The venture capital firm looked set to share in a $1.15 billion payout, as two of its investments scored buyers. First up was Playfish, which Electronic Arts said it was snapping up for as much as $400 million in cash and stock. Then came the news that Google had inked a deal to buy the mobile advertising network Admob for $750 million.

While it’s unclear how much Accel actually made on the deals, VentureBeat noted that “with the exit price amounting to more than 10 times the venture capital invested ($21 million for Playfish, a little more than $47 million for AdMob), we can be pretty sure that the folks at Accel are pretty pleased.”

The Department of Energy has billions in loan guarantees to hand out to alternative energy firms and automakers. But the highly competitive process has been criticized as slow, unmoving even.

What is a government agency to do? Hire a venture capitalist, of course.

The DOE announced Wednesday the appointment of Jonathan Silver, a former managing general partner at Washington D.C.-based venture capitalist firm Core Capital Partners, to head its loan guarantee and green auto programs. Core Capital invests in alternative energy, software, telecommunications and advanced manufacturing technology.

Compiled by Alastair Goldfisher

SAN FRANCISCO (Private Equity Week) - More than a dozen startups in the United States and Canada raised early-stage funding last week, according to Thomson Reuters.

Among the startups to raise capital was On-Q-ity, a Waltham, Mass.-based company that raised $21 million in a Series A round to develop blood-based diagnostics used to monitor treatment of cancer patients.

Following is the first set of answers from Seth W. Pinsky, the president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. This week, he is answering readers’ questions about citywide entrepreneurship, including job training, competitions, investment funds and efforts to encourage industries like green technology, bioscience, fashion, media and technology, manufacturing and distribution, and the arts.

The "Manifesto for Creativity and Innovation in Europe" is one of the key outcomes of the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009. The document is the result of a collective work of the Ambassadors of the Year, who are leading European personalities from the fields of culture, science, business, education and design. With its 'Seven Commandments', the Manifesto will help shape the EU's strategy for promoting creativity and innovation for the next decade. The Ambassadors are handing the Manifesto over to Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso today at midday at a ceremony in the Commission's press room.