Rich Bendis has been nominated as a "Top5 Speaker" for 2012 in the Innovation/Creativity category by Speakers Platform. Recognition is based on: expertise. professionalism, innovation within the topic area, testimonials and references, presentation skills and online votes. Rich has spoken over 30 times this year in many Countries, Provinces, States, Regions and Cities around the world on Building Innovative Economies and other Innovation topics. ALL VOTES MUST BE CAST BEFORE JANUARY 14TH, 2012.

Rich would appreciate your vote and asks that you please go to the voting page at: http://speaking.com/top5/ to cast your vote.

Thank You,

Rich Bendis

Interested in private equity & venture capital with time over Thanksgiving, then check out this guide.

According to Wikipedia, a “private equity fund is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity (and to a lesser extent debt) . . . . Private equity funds are typically limited partnerships with a fixed term of 10 years (often with annual extensions). . . . A private equity fund is raised and managed by investment professionals of a specific private equity firm (the general partner and investment advisor).”

“A venture capitalist is a person or investment firm that makes venture investments, and these venture capitalists are expected to bring managerial and technical expertise as well as capital to their investments. A venture capital fund refers to a pooled investment vehicle (often an LP or LLC) that primarily invests the financial capital of third-party investors in enterprises that are too risky for the standard capital markets or bank loans.”

BARRIE McKENNA - The Globe and Mail

Canada boasts a stable government, sound finances, boundless resources and an educated work force. But for all of those strengths, there’s a dirty little secret about our economy.

We are underperformers – not compared with our overindebted G7 compatriots but compared with our economic potential. Canada’s record on productivity is poor, and the country suffers from a chronic innovation gap. Outside of the mining and energy sectors, the list of Canadian companies making a meaningful impact on a global stage is exceedingly short. The most innovative one of all, Research In Motion Ltd. of Waterloo, Ont., has been put on the defensive by foreign competitors that have been stealing market share with products that are more cutting-edge than the BlackBerry.

When marketing executives Michael Migliozzi II and Brian Flatow decided they wanted to buy Pabst Blue Ribbon, a private beer company, they created BuyaBeerCompany.com to ask the public for financial help. The idea was quickly shot down by the SEC, prompting the recent discussion on where “crowdfunding” fits into the scheme of private businesses.

Crowdfunding, the practice of private companies soliciting the public for investments, has been made popular by websites such as Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, ProFounder and others. These are great for individuals and small groups looking for a leg up,  but when it comes to private businesses using these as an investment tactic in exchange for shares in the company, the SEC wants everything to be nice and documented. Thus, the commission created a crowdfunding bill to officially allow private companies legal access to crowdfunding.

Susan Hockfield, President of MIT, spoke to a sold out crowd at the November 9, 2011 Commonwealth Club meeting in Santa Clara, CA.  The topic discussed is very dear to this author:  “Revving Up America’s Innovation Engine.”

Ms. Hockfield is a noted neuroscientist whose research has focused on the development of the brain.  She is the first life scientist to lead MIT and holds a faculty appointment as professor of neuroscience in the institute’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

According to Hockfield, the U.S. rose as an economic power on the strength of its innovation system, especially after World War II. We pursued advanced scientific research, turned those discoveries into breakthrough innovations and manufactured them for markets around the world.  What was conceived and invented in the U.S. was also made here, unlike today’s world of outsourcing manufacturing and production.

Jerald Vogel believes his company’s research could prevent airplane crashes and save lives — if he can get his technology to market.

“It takes millions of dollars to develop software,” said the retired Iowa State University aerospace engineering professor. “If there were more availability of funds for high-tech companies, it would be tremendous.”

His company, VSI Aerospace, won $25,000 in the John Pappajohn Iowa Business Plan Competition last week. VSI beat out about 50 other businesses, and the top three winners were startups created by researchers at ISU or the University of Iowa.

During tough economic times, technology is often seen as the one bright spot. In the U.S. this past year technology jobs outpaced the overall rate of new employment nearly four times. But if you’re looking for a tech job, you may want to consider searching outside of Silicon Valley. Though the Valley may still be the big enchilada in terms of venture capital and innovation, it hasn’t consistently generated new tech employment.

Take, for example, Seattle. Out of the 51 largest metro areas in the U.S., the Valley’s longtime tech rival has emerged as our No. 1 region for high-tech growth, based on long- and short-term job numbers. Built on a base of such tech powerhouses as Microsoft, Amazon and Boeing, Seattle has enjoyed the steadiest and most sustained tech growth over the past decade. It is followed by Baltimore (No. 2), Columbus, Ohio (No. 3), Raleigh, N.C. (No. 4) and Salt Lake City, Utah (No. 5).

Almost three years ago, the Montgomery County Biosciences Task Force issued recommendations that included the formation of a public-private partnership to help take the local life sciences industry to another level.

This week, that nonprofit partnership, called BioHealth Innovation, formally incorporated and has raised more than $1 million from companies such as MedImmune of Gaithersburg and Human Genome Sciences of Rockville, along with medical system Adventist HealthCare of Rockville and Johns Hopkins University to start implementing its programs.

“Though we just incorporated this week, this is something that has been strategized for almost three years,” said Rich Bendis, the interim CEO of BioHealth. “There has been a lot of preliminary groundwork.”

(muffled sound of voice saying “Many people take their hearing for granted.”)

Sorry. (throat clearing) Many people take their hearing for granted. But a new report shows that as many as one in five Americans suffers from hearing loss severe enough to affect their daily life. The findings are in the Archives of Internal Medicine. (Frank Lin, John K. Niparko and Luigi Ferrucci, "Hearing Loss Prevalence in the United States")

Aging is the most common risk factor. But the 48 million people in the U.S. who have some hearing loss in at least one ear included kids as young as 12. So why are so many people affected?

About a month ago I received a call from my friend Pete. I met Pete 12 years ago in a referral group. Back then I worked for a company selling printer supplies and service. Pete gave me a ton of leads and really helped me grow my sales. I was never really able to return the favor. However, we built a relationship that remains today – even though he left the group for a while, and then, after 13 years, I left it.

When he called recently it was to ask me to facilitate a strategic planning meeting for an organization he’s involved with. They didn’t have funds to pay for this. I instantly agreed. This was my chance to pay him back. The added benefit is that I’ve acquired two clients so far from the engagement as well as future opportunities to work with the organization.

I want to make a dent in the universe” – Steve Jobs

Innovation is the key to business survival and success in the 21st century. The billion dollar“The phrase described what happened in 1960, for example, when an unknown company, Sony,Recently a book coauthored by Clay Christensen, Jeff Dyer, and Hal Gregersen entitled – The question is: can innovation be learned? Can business leaders find answers to important questionssuch as: How do I find innovators for my business? How can I become more innovative? Can wedistill and mimic the traits of leading “disruptive innovators” like Steve Jobs and Thomas Edison?

Digital strategy is often sidelined as the poor cousin of traditional planning and strategy. Even when it isn’t overlooked it still seems that many forget about why they are actually creating a digital strategy in the first place.

I want to highlight five of the top mistakes made when developing a digital strategy.

1. Not Clearly Understanding the Business Objectives

Seems pretty straight forward – you’d be surprised at how badly wrong this stage of the process can go. Clearly defining the business objectives is key in understanding how to plot the way forward with a digital strategy.

In my last entry, I cited value as one of those words in business that stands out among the rest in the minds and hearts of owners, entrepreneurs and managers. In our increasingly competitive and integrated global economy, innovation is another word that carries significant weight and meaning - but not just for the for-profit element of our society.

Policy makers, academic and research institutions, industry and trade associations, and think tanks -- across Canada and around the world -- are also investing considerable time and resources to better understand, develop, employ, or manage innovation in order to facilitate competitive advantage, productivity growth, and/or economic expansion either for themselves or their respective communities.

Are you an “independent worker?” Maybe you call yourself a freelancer, independent contractor, solopreneur or self-employed. Recently, MBO Partners surveyed workers from this growing group, which they define as people who work at least 15 hours per week in nontraditional, nonpermanent full- or part-time employment. The resulting report, Independent Workforce Index: The State of Independence in America, has some fascinating findings about who America’s independent workers are, why they decided to strike out on their own, and what their futures hold.

The timing is right to increase technology transfer from government labs to the private sector.

That was the assessment Wednesday of Karina Edmonds, technology transfer coordinator for the Department of Energy, who delivered the keynote address at the Entrepreneurial Imperative Conference being held at the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Knoxville. Appointed in 2010, Edmonds is the DOE's first coordinator for technology transfer.

The amount of attention focused on technology transfer by government leaders is cyclical, Edmonds said, noting that the current state of the economy has prompted strong interest in creating jobs through technology transfer.

Good news about small business financing is rare these days, but a new report on angel investing offers a bright spot in the clouds: Angel investment in small businesses is on the upswing, according to Q1 Q2 2011 Angel Market Trends. While angel investment slumped in the depths of the recession, the latest report on angel investing from the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire has good news.

“The angel market appears to have reached its nadir in 2009 and has since demonstrated a slow recovery,” says the report. Both the number and size of angel investments were up in 2011, as was the percentage of companies seeking angel capital that succeeded in getting it.

Total angel investments in the first half of 2011 reached $8.9 billion, an increase of 4.7 percent from the same period last year. Some 26,300 companies got angel financing, an improvement of 4.4 percent from last year.  The average amount that angels invested in each company was $338,400.

The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) 2012 Venture Pitch Competition is calling for finalists to present to a venture capital judging panel at the AUTM Annual Meeting (which will be held in Anaheim from March 14-17, 2012).

The competition is open to all disciplines this year. So whether your company is considered life science, software, engineering-focused or even a game-based technology, all are welcome to submit. Final presenters will all receive a $1,000 travel stipend and free registration to the AUTM Annual Meeting. The winner will still receive a $10,000 prize.

The National Sciences Foundation kicked off its first round of I-CORE awards this October, with an Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for 21 groups of university inventors.  The idea is to develop a new generation of researchers who better understand how to develop and market their inventions for industry: researchers who are also skilled entrepreneurs. It will be interesting to see how the quarterly award will reshape the tech transfer landscape in the US by increasing researchers’ entrepreneurial skills. But the biggest payoff, at least in my mind, will be in terms of a cultural shift among academics (University inventors don’t have a reputation for pitching to industry).

DURHAM, N.C. – The Triangle is getting a second chance to replicate the success of Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s “tech accelerator” with the forthcoming launch of “Groundwork Labs.”

Since the failure of LaunchBox Digital and even as Durham’s Chamber of Commerce wraps up the second round of its Durham Startup Stampede the Triangle has lacked the kind of support, funding and launch mechanism that an accelerator can provide.

The void will be filled next spring when Groundwork Labs launches in The American Underground at Durham’s American Tobacco Historic District. Selected companies will receive up to $20,000 in funding as well as mentoring and other services.

A nasty affliction sets into humans as they advance in years. The hair either disappears or thins into a fuzzy halo, the skin sags and bunches, while inside the brain, changes set in that slow our reaction times and cause our memories to fade. A steady, widespread thinning out of the brain’s cortex, the outermost layer of the brain, is thought to underlie some of this cognitive transformation.