New Programs

To propel researchers and start-ups across the funding chasm we dramatically expanded CONNECT’s capital access programs this year.

Deal Network launched in December and we soon had a waiting list of companies clamoring for inclusion. Only the best of Springboard, Venture Roundtable and Most Innovative New Product Awards were asked to present at this private forum for high net-worth individuals. A quarter of the companies closed funding. In February we kicked off Connect with CONNECT Sport Innovators, a networking event designed to help the hard hit action and sport cluster in San Diego connect with capital sources, management and engineering talent, strategic partners and customers.

In April we launched the La Jolla Research & Innovation Summit to brand the region as a disruptive innovation pioneer on the national stage. Leading researchers previewed their ground breaking work in cleantech, biotech, IT and wireless to an audience of 80 venture capitalists (VCs) from across the country. CONNECT married the region’s research institutions with the key trade organizations including BIOCOM, CleanTECH San Diego, CommNexus, the San Diego Software Industry Council (SDSIC), the San Diego Venture Group (SDVG), and TechAmerica San Diego to put together this effort.

In May we rolled out our third Cleantech Venture Roundtable with CleanTECH San Diego. Teams of EIRs, industry experts, VCs and high net-worth investors previewed our region’s market-ready cleantech businesses from cool plasma gasification to automated cell phone recycling kiosks, to green rigid polyurethane foam.

I am Co-Founder of the international Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance and we launched our first local wireless health Learning Day in May in partnership with CONNECT. The event was added to our annual CEO Summit and Investor’s Meetings, held back-to-back in La Jolla. The Learning Day was targeted at the now fertile local wireless health community and brought together international players from the Summit with local leaders and service providers. Issues like reimbursement, regulatory challenges and consumer and provider adoption were tackled. Serial entrepreneurs like Jim Sweeney, founder of the first wireless health company and the first to go public, provided perspective from the trenches.

In June we held the inaugural La Jolla Conference on Innovation Support for National Security with the major support of Lockheed Martin and SAIC and leadership of Daniel Goldin. James Durham, Director, Joint Advanced Concepts, Acquisition and Technology, DoD and Lieutenant General Carroll Pollett, Commander, Joint Task Force Global Network Operations; Director, DISA headlined the event. Speakers outlined the twenty-first century challenges faced by our government and innovators presented their ground breaking research and solutions in high tech, security, command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, unmanned vehicles, wireless and IT.

This was followed in June by a second forum to assist the action and sports industry – our first Sport Innovator Capital Forum, held at the Hard Rock Hotel. Investors previewed a wide range of investment ready deals from surf apparel to the largest online network for action sports.

Our Technology Transfer Roundtable picked up steam at year end and gave a stamp of approval to a transformative new funding model for provisional patents and prototype development. The Roundtable includes tech transfer and business development representatives from San Diego’s leading research institutions and innovation companies.

We are grateful for the ever increasing financial and volunteer support that our members and the business community provide to us at CONNECT. Your contributions ensure our 26 programs and many new initiatives deliver measurable results to the innovation community.

 

Camille Sobrian Saltman

COO

CONNECT