On April 26th, Innovate New Mexico® will open its front door to entrepreneurs, investors and companies interested in learning about technologies developed at the state’s leading technology-transfer organizations. The inaugural event will be held at the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. Invited entrepreneurs, investors and representatives from industry will hear technology pitches from researchers at the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, New Mexico Tech, Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Air Force Research Laboratory and Q&A comments from local “sharks.”
The day-long event will also include a luncheon panel, “New Mexico: Creating the State of Innovation,” with technology managers from the participating universities and labs, special remarks, “Funding Climate in New Mexico,” by Brian Birk from Sun Mountain Capital, exhibits from start-ups from all of the organizations, and lots of networking. The event is being funded and presented by the state of New Mexico’s Technology Research Collaborative and the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
The technology showcase will be followed by a reception sponsored by the Innovate ABQ® development team of Signet Development, Dekker Perich Sabatini, and Signet Development.
A companion event, the Innovate New Mexico Student Pitch Competition, hosted by STC and the UNM Innovation Academy, will be held on April 25th from 5:30-7:30 pm at the Bow & Arrow Brewing Co., and will feature technology and business ideas from university students around the state. The audience will view live 90-second pitches from and students and participate by voting for the winners.
Innovate New Mexico is a statewide network among STC.UNM, New Mexico State University’s Arrowhead Center, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Air Force Research Laboratory to create a “front door” through co-location to the technologies developed among these research partners. The network brings together the partners’ innovation assets to one source to provide easy access for entrepreneurs, investors, companies, industry partners, and others interested in commercializing new technologies developed in New Mexico. The program grew out of an initiative developed and spearheaded by STC in 2015 that brought together the research partners and economic development professional from the Technology Research Collaborative, the Mid-Region Council of Governments and the state’s congressional delegations.
The program works by allowing, for example, an entrepreneur, investor or company to visit the Innovate New Mexico office and website to find out about all of the water or energy technologies being developed at state’s research institutions. Additionally, as the program progresses, technologies could be combined and marketed in unique ways that would create more opportunities for the Innovate New Mexico partners. The mission of Innovate New Mexico is to accelerate technology commercialization, which will create new companies, new jobs and economic growth and fulfill the program’s vision to make New Mexico “The State of Innovation” by 2020.
Innovate New Mexico is currently physically located at STC in the UNM Science & Technology Park, but will move with STC to the Innovate ABQ Phase I building when construction is completed in 2017. To read more about the Innovate New Mexico Technology Showcase, see Kevin Robinson-Avila’s April 20, 2016 article, “Innovate NM will showcase tech from around the state“ from the Albuquerque Journal, reprinted below. http://www.abqjournal.com/760501/biz/biz-most-recent/innovate-nm-will-showcase-tech-from-around-the-state.html
To find out more about the Innovate New Mexico Technology Showcase, go to www.innovateNM.eventbrite.com or contact Cara Michaliszyn at cmichaliszyn@stc.unm.edu. For more information on the student pitch competition, go to https://stc.unm.edu/event/innovate-new-mexico-student-pitch-competition/.
Innovate NM will showcase tech from around the state
By Kevin Robinson-Avila / Journal Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 20th, 2016 at 3:38pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Cutting-edge innovation from across New Mexico will be on display at the first Innovate New Mexico Technology Showcase Tuesday at the Albuquerque International Balloon Museum.
The all-day event, which is free and open to the public, will include presentations by scientists and innovators from the state’s three research universities and the national laboratories about new technologies that those institutions are working to commercialize. Technology transfer professionals from all the organizations will also participate in a panel discussion about joint efforts to make New Mexico known nationally and beyond as the go-to “State of Innovation.”
The event marks the inauguration of Innovate New Mexico, which the institutions began organizing last fall to build on the momentum created by Innovate ABQ and the emerging Innovation District in Downtown Albuquerque, said Lisa Kuuttila, the University of New Mexico’s chief economic development officer and head of the Science and Technology Corp., UNM’s tech-transfer office.
“We have such rich science and technology assets in New Mexico and presenting them in a united way offers a much stronger tool to attract investors and entrepreneurs,” Kuuttila said. “This way, corporate representatives and investors can come for one day to New Mexico to meet with all the principal institutional representatives. That’s a much more valuable, efficient use of their time than spending two weeks here.”
Innovate New Mexico, which will be located at Innovate ABQ when it opens Downtown, will launch a new website during the showcase, offering visitors information about new technologies and licensing opportunities at all the participating institutions, with cross links to related innovations and access to scientists, innovators and tech-transfer professionals statewide.
The site will categorize state technologies by industry sector, offering a one-stop-shop to view groups of inventions from all the major research entities in things like water, energy or biotechnology, said Terry Lombard, director of property and technology transfer at New Mexico State University.
“If someone is looking to create a business, they can come see technologies available for licensing at NMSU while also connecting to all the others,” Lombard said.
A startup pitch competition for students from UNM, NMSU and the New Mexico Institute for Mining and Technology will take place Monday night. Participants will compete for at least $7,500 in cash prizes at the event, which runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Bow & Arrow Brewing Co. at 602 McKnight Ave. NW.
The state Economic Development Department and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership are sponsoring the showcase event, which runs from 8 to 4 p.m. For more information, visit www.InnovateNM.eventbrite.com.