Thanks to our partners and friends at Upstate Venture Connect, all BIA/NYS member incubators that have active websites — everywhere across NYS, not just upstate — are now identified with the tag bianys on CrunchBase, the directory wiki hosted by the widely read national blog TechCrunch. Every entry includes at least a placeholder description, and some of our members are in the process of expanding or editing their entries. The CrunchBase wiki is freely editable by anyone subject to moderation delays. These listings should dramatically improve the visibility of our member incubators to the communities nationwide that rely on TechCrunch for the latest news on entrepreneurship and innovation. We appreciate the helping hand from Upstate Venture Connect!

The Cornell Agriculture & Food Technology Park (The Technology Farm) has joined BIA/NYS as our newest member. Based in Geneva, just across the road from Cornell's historic New York Agricultural Experiment Station, the Technology Farm is currently anchored by a 20,000 square-foot "flextech" facility including incubation office suites and larger production facilities for several innovative food-products companies.

Flextech will be joined by a 59,000 square-foot Grape Genetics Research Center operated by the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At full buildout, the Technology Farm will comprise approximately 375,000 sq. ft. over 72 master-planned acres. We warmly welcome the Technology Farm to membership!

The business-incubation programs at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU (NYU-Poly) and SUNY Downstate Medical Center, both supporting members of our association, collaborated on hosting the 2010 annual members' meeting of our association. Several presentations and announcements are attached.

Building on a NYSERDA business-development program review we produced at NYU-Poly the previous day (those presentations will be posted in a few more days), our annual meeting was dedicated in part to exploring the question of how better to connect startup and early-stage companies statewide to the uniquely powerful financial and business resources of New York City.

A discussion panel of distinguished guests (see photo gallery) included:

• Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City;
• Steve Cohen, NYS deputy commissioner of economic development for economic empowerment and small business at Empire State Development;
• Brian McMahon, executive director of the New York State Economic Development Council; and
• Richard Honen, co-chair of the Capital and Innovation Group at Phillips Lytle LLP and managing director of the firm's Albany office.

More detail and presentations after the break. Read more

The Stardust Entrepreneurial Institute (SEI), based in Auburn, has joined BIA/NYS as a new member.

SEI is a not-for-profit organization founded in early 2009, with the goal of assisting regional entrepreneurs in getting access to the information and resources they need to get their businesses up and running. Through an extensive partnership network, SEI provides services such as business coaching and on-site business-plan assistance. SEI also hosts several ongoing educational and mentorship programs.

In the fall of 2010, SEI will officially launch its incubator program, starting with 700 square feet available in SEI's newly renovated building on State Street in downtown Auburn. For more information on the SEI and its incubator program, please email Operations Manager Kevin Casey McAvey, with additional contact information available at our membership directory here.

We warmly welcome the Stardust Entrepreneurial Institute and its incubator program to membership!

The Startup Company has signed on as a silver-level sponsor of our annual members meeting set for Friday, June 11th, at the campus of NYU-Poly in Brooklyn. The firm will be represented at our meeting by CEO David Madié and Partnerships Manager Ada Stein. We thank them for their support!

With U.S. operations headquartered in Brooklyn, The Startup Company offers incubator managers and other business counselors training and access to a highly structured, modular, graphics-based tool for leading entrepreneurs through the decisions necessary to start and grow a business. Please click the link or the StartupWheel logo for more information. 

Francis Cauffman Architects has signed on as a silver-level sponsor of our annual members meeting set for Friday, June 11th, at the campus of NYU-Poly in Brooklyn. The firm will be represented at our meeting by principal Jim Daly, AIA. We thank Jim and his colleagues for their support!

An award-winning architecture firm with offices in New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore, Francis Cauffman has supported its clients since 1954 with innovative architecture, planning, and interior design services. The practice is recognized for being on the leading edge of new investigations in healthcare, academic research & teaching, corporate research, and corporate & advanced technology planning and design.

BIA/NYS welcomes the newest sponsor of our website and email newsletter, Eastman Business Park. Now specifically targeting post-incubation-stage companies, Eastman Business Park offers tailored leasing arrangements for labs, clean rooms, offices and manufacturing space. Services available at this Kodak-owned facility include cost-advantaged utilities, rail/truck access, advanced analytical testing, pilot coating, prototyping, and packaging dynamics and materials characterization. For more information about the park, see this link or click the logo at left.

For the second time in a month, a state task force reporting to Gov. Paterson has highlighted the importance of business incubation to a robust economic future for New York State. This time it was the Governor's Task Force on Diversifying the NYS Economy Through Industry/Higher Education Partnerships, created under Executive Order 19. 

The final report:

• recommends that the state adopt business incubation as a central component of economic-development policy (one of our association's long-time policy recommendations);
• asks universities to align their practices to provide a range of commercialization support including incubators that are fully integrated with additional assets such as: business training for faculty and graduate students; entrepreneurs in residence; internal funds to launch new ventures; and alumni networks of potential executives, investors, and managers;
• identifies the percentage of university-incubated companies graduating to later rounds of investment funding as a key metric of success to be tracked by the state;
• notes our association's testimony and submitted white paper (available on request), and adopts clearly our own view that business incubation is about more than simply provision of shared space, and that value-added services such as business assistance and mentoring must be funded;
• highlights as a model of integrated commercialization services High Tech Rochester, whose Lennox Tech Enterprise Center is a valued member of our association;
• recommends additional state support — matched by private investment, and privately managed — for seed-stage investment (a topic on which the association is now on record).

The full task force report is available for download on the Governor's website, and the press conference video is here. The earlier report referred to above was of the Small Business Task Force, which also highlighted incubation.