President's Message
2010 EDCUtah Golf for Grants Tournament Set for June 2
Come join us for one of the landmark benefit golf tournaments in Utah -- EDCUtah's Golf for Grants Tournament. This year's event takes place at Eaglewood Golf Course with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. Lunch will be provided.
We deeply appreciate our sponsors, who help make this event happen. CB Richard Ellis is once again our Platinum sponsor and SelectHealth is one of our Gold sponsors. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available. Please contact Arthur Franks, EDCUtah's membership director, for sponsorship and participation information: (801) 323-4242.
The proceeds from this tournament go to fund the EDCUtah Community Match Grants Program. Since the program's inception in 19
89, EDCUtah has awarded more than $651,560 to communities and organizations in all 29 of Utah's counties. We hope to see you there!
EDCUtah also congratulates the Utah Business 40 under 40 winners, especially our investors and Derek Miller from the Governor's Office of Economic Development. Here's a list of winners from among EDCUtah's investors:
- Derek B. Miller, managing director, Governor's Office of Economic Development
- Jennifer Smith, senior vice president and director of internal audit, Zions Bancorporation
- Scott R. Kaufmann, vice president, commercial development, Kennecott Land/Rio Tinto
- Ryan Evans, vice president of business and community relations, Salt Lake Chamber
- Nathan C. Anderson, executive vice president, chief operations officer, Mountain America Credit Union
- Spencer Shaffer, president, ConsultNet
- Ty McCutcheon, vice president of community development, Kennecott Land/Rio Tinto
They will be honored this Thursday at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. Register here: http://www.utahbusiness.com/events/2010/02/25
And finally, I would draw your attention to this week's feature story (below), about the upcoming Pushbutton Summit. This important event takes place on March 9. You won't want to miss out. Here's a link to the event's registration information: http://pushbuttonsummit.eventbrite.com/
Today's Economic Review also includes links to many of the ED-related news stories from the past week. As always, if you have comments, suggestions or topics you'd like to see in the Economic Review, please contact us by clicking the "Comments" link on the bottom of this page. Enjoy!
Jeff Edwards
President and CEO
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Platinum Sponsor
In the News
Northrop Grumman to expand Salt Lake City manufacturing facility
Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) Navigation Systems Division has recently broken ground on a facility expansion designed to increase factory output and better serve its commercial, defense and national security customers.
(CNNMoney.com) (Utah Business Magazine) (Salt Lake Tribune)
(Deseret News)
University of Utah, MIT lead nation in new companies founded
Much of the research being done at the University of Utah is spun out into newfound companies, resulting in ongoing revenue for the school. For the past two years, the U. has rivaled the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the number of start-ups it produces. This year, however, the Utes moved into a tie with the research giant, surpassing major players along the way.
(Deseret News)
Utahns in Vancouver to tout 2002 Olympic legacy
The topic of business luncheons Saturday and Sunday in Vancouver will be Olympic legacy -- not British Columbia's, but Utah's.
(Salt Lake Tribune)
Merit Medical needs more trained workers
Every year, hundreds of students graduate from Utah's high schools and colleges. And every year, hundreds of Utah manufacturers create jobs.
(Utah Pulse)
Olympics provide advertising opportunity for Utah
Have you noticed how often the 2002 games have been mentioned during NBC's Olympic coverage? That's music to the ears of Utah tourism officials, and it certainly will help the state economically in the future as well.
(KSL)
Blog: The Olympic Legacy
Whenever a destination makes the decision to host a sporting event—whether it's the Olympic Games or a lower-profile competition—there's usually discussion of the event's direct economic impact and oftentimes a discussion of the long-term legacy of having hosted the event.
(Schneider Publishing)
Early bird discount on Pushbutton tickets extended
Due to increased demand, Grow Utah Ventures announced today that the special early bird pricing for tickets to the upcoming Pushbutton 2010 Summit has been extended to Wednesday, February 24, 2010.
(Utah Pulse)
USU study: agriculture 14% of Utah economy
You might be surprised just how much agriculture contributes to Utah's economy. According to a new Utah State University study, that number surpasses $15 billion.
(ABC 4)
Freshmedx Announces Breakthrough Lung Cancer Diagnostic
In celebration of World Cancer Day and the Year of the Lung, Utah-based Freshmedx has entered into multiple discussions for the international license of its Bioconductance Scanning Platform (BSP). The BSP is a medical device that can dramatically improve the accuracy of pre-surgical lung cancer diagnosis in a simple and painless 12-minute scan.
(Utah Business Magazine)
Stimulus brought 18K Utah jobs, $1.9B for projects
The White House said Wednesday that the 1-year-old federal stimulus law created or saved 18,000 jobs in Utah and made available $1.9 billion for projects ranging from renovating highways to replacing the Dinosaur National Monument visitor center and removing uranium tailings near Moab.
(Deseret News)
Work on Utah County convention center set for fall
As Utah County Commissioner Gary Anderson sees it, the county is riding a "perfect storm" with its proposed convention center. First, due to a down economy, the county was able to get a low interest rate on the bonds for the project, and bids for the work are coming in below engineers' estimates.
(Salt Lake Tribune)
Utah Lake bridge developer says project a go
A businessman says he's only months away from starting construction on a toll bridge across Utah Lake.
(Salt Lake Tribune)
Draper hoping for 2011 start for TRAX extension
Construction on a 3.8-mile extension of the north-south TRAX line from Sandy into Draper's historic center could begin by early next year.
(Salt Lake Tribune)
$10M earmark helps Draper light rail line
Plans for a light rail extension into Draper got a $10 million boost recently, thanks to the urging of Utah's senators.
(Salt Lake Tribune)
Merit Medical reports record sales and earnings
Merit Medical Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer and marketer of proprietary disposable devices used primarily in cardiology, radiology and gastroenterology, today announced record revenues of $257.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2009, an increase of 13 percent over revenues of $227.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2008.
(Utah Business Magazine)
Utah hotels looking to better year in 2010
The last time Utah hotels had a month with occupancy levels better than a year earlier was in April 2008. Although still not good, January's numbers came close to snapping that string of negativity at 21 months.
(Salt Lake Tribune)
Big convention hotel could bring in mega-bucks
It might hurt, but not for long. That's the prognosis for private hoteliers if Salt Lake County builds a 1,000-plus-room headquarters hotel near the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center.
(Salt Lake Tribune)
Big-D's Moore assumes helm of AGC Utah
Rob Moore, president and chief operating officer of Salt Lake City-based Big-D Construction, was installed Sunday as 2010 chairman of the Associated General Contractors of Utah (AGC).
(Salt Lake Tribune)
Committee says Utah's economy is on the mend
There's good news on the Utah economy: New numbers indicate an improvement in the job market. Some say that these are the first hints of a recovering economy.
(KSL)
Last rocket to be fired in Utah as final space shuttle launch nears
A historic era will come to an end later this week in Northern Utah. The people who've been building space shuttle rockets for more than a third of a century will conduct the last test firing in Utah.
(KSL) (Logan Herald-Journal)
Continental eliminating 600 call center jobs [some in Utah]
Continental Airlines is cutting about 600 jobs in its reservations centers, including some in Salt Lake City, because customers increasingly prefer to book flights online.
(Deseret News)
Calendar
March 9-10
pushbutton summit 2010, presented by Grow Utah Ventures. Utah's premiere Digital Media Summit for digital animation, gaming, mobile distribution, web development, movies and entertainment. Rose Wagner Theatre, Salt Lake City
March 18
EDCUtah Quarterly Investor Update
March 22
Governor's Economic Summit
May 3-6
BIO (Chicago, IL)
June 2
Save the Date! EDCUtah Match Grants Golf Tournament, 7:30 a.m. start (Eaglewood Golf Course) Title Sponsor: CB Richard Ellis
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Feature Story
Pushbutton Summit 2010: Positioning Utah
as the Center of the Digital Media Industry
Utah's booming digital media industry will take center stage in Salt Lake City March 9 and 10 during the "Pushbutton Summit 2010," an event designed to bring together world-class industry and technology leaders, entrepreneurs, students, higher education, and community executives to discuss the latest in what's pushing the creation and use of digital media.
"This is the premiere event for entrepreneurs and businesses involved in digital animation, gaming, mobile distribution, web development, movies and entertainment," says T. Craig Bott, president & CEO of Grow Utah Ventures. To be held at the Rose Wagner Theatre in Salt Lake City, the summit will recognize the success of Utah's digital media industry, increase understanding and promote the support needed to start and grow digital media businesses in Utah.
Event Audience
The event is especially suited for:
- Digital media entrepreneurs and investors
- Game, animation, and film studios
- Business and policy leaders
- Digital media technologists
- Students, gamers, and entertainment techies
Bott says Pushbutton Summit 2010 was the brainchild of Zions Bank President & CEO Scott Anderson, who has partnered with Grow Utah Ventures to organize and host the event. Summit sponsors include the State of Utah, the Governor's Office of Economic Development (GOED), the Utah System of Higher Education, and USTAR.
"Digital media has done so well in Utah, it is time to bring the attention to the industry that it deserves and to encourage its growth," Bott says. "Utah has made significant contributions to this industry in the past and it will be exciting to see what the current trends are, specifically how far the boundaries will be pushed in respect to the type of media and images currently underway and the means of viewing and interacting with these productions," he adds.
Keynote Speakers
The event's keynote speakers are:
- John E. Warnock, co-founder of Adobe Systems, Inc.
- Ian McKerlich, director of Mobile Web and Content Services for T-Mobile USA
In addition to the keynote presentations, Pushbutton 2010 will include panel discussions with experts from a number of key industry fields. The panelists will discuss:
- Emerging trends in media distribution
- Financing the digital media business
- Running the digital media business
- Securing and working strategic partners
- What's happening at Utah's universities
- Financial incentives
- The state of 3D animation and gaming
- Presentation from hot Utah companies
Some of the industry experts scheduled as panelists include:
- Andrew Braccia, Accel Partners
- Chris Berger, director of Integrated Production for Publicis
- Barry Weiss, former Sony vice president
- Peter D. Csathy, president and CEO Sorenson Media
Locating in Utah
One of the panel discussions will focus on digital media companies that have located to Utah and why they came here. That session will be moderated by EDCUtah President & CEO Jeff Edwards.
"Utah is the perfect location for the digital media summit and also the ideal location for digital media businesses to grow and flourish," says Edwards. "This industry, much like our advanced composites cluster, has a long, successful history in Utah. In fact, some of the early pioneers in animation, gaming and technology got their start here in Utah."
Among others, Edwards points to the founders of Atari, Adobe Systems, Silicon Graphics and Pixar, who all have strong ties to Utah or were educated here. Ivan Sutherland, creator of computer graphics and founder of the GUI (graphical user interface), was a University of Utah professor. He later co-founded Evans & Sutherland, the world's first computer graphics company and leader in advanced computer graphics technology for almost four decades. Dr. Ed Catmull, Academy Award winner and co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, was one of Sutherland's students at the U, along with John Warnock (co-founder of Adobe Systems), and James H. Clark (founder of Silicon Graphics).
Utah's digital media success story is not limited to the University of Utah, however. Brigham Young University digital media students have won nine student Emmys and four student Academy Awards during the past six years. Utah State University's digital media projects include a simulation that firefighters use in training to improve their safety. What's more, the creator of Poptropica (an online interactive, multi-player game and education site for kids that has some 30 million users) lives in Logan, Utah. Meanwhile, a digital media student from Utah Valley University won a top prize in the Utah Film Commission's 2009 "Spot On" Commercial Contest, for his commercial spot that promotes Utah as a filming destination. The commercial ran during the Sundance Film Festival.
According to EDCUtah research, Utah has the fourth highest concentration per capita of multi-media artists and animators in the nation. The Beehive State is home to thousands of skilled graphic designers and engineers in more than 5,200 technology companies, including over 60 digital media companies and film studios that employ over 1,500 people. Last year, Utah's digital media companies earned more than $200 million in annual sales. Many of these are small, innovative companies hoping to grow into Utah's next billion-dollar success story.
Honoring Digital Media Pioneers
During Pushbutton 2010, the summit organizers will recognize individuals who have made a pioneering contribution to Utah's digital media industry and will host the showing of two films courtesy of the Salt Lake Film Center and Sundance Institute.
Pushbutton 2010 will also introduce the first Digital Media "Concept to Company Contest," an innovation contest where finalists from a field of over 100 applicants are judged by a panel of industry experts. The top three entrants will present their innovations during the second day of the summit. Winners will receive a cash prize and mentoring support to help take the business to the next stage of development.
"This is a 'can't miss' event. It offers a unique blend of information from all sides: education, technology, art and investment," says Bott. "Furthermore, we hope to make Pushbutton an annual summit, to further position Utah as the center for digital media from both a national and global perspective."
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