Feature

EDCUtah Prepares Utah Pavilions for 2009 BIO

and SAMPE Conventions

Did you know that Utah is considered one of the premier locations for businesses involved in the advanced composites industry? Or that Utah is home to a growing cluster of biotechnology-related businesses?

Indeed, Utah is a leader in advanced composites -- those carbon fiber-based materials with high tensile strength, low weight and low thermal expansion, that are dramatically changing industries such as aerospace, civil engineering, military, motor sports, skiing, bicycling and even shoes and musical instruments. The state is also very active in the biotech and drug delivery sectors, offering a world-class effort in arterial and vascular access devices. Utah produces 70 percent of all such devices used worldwide.

2009 SAMPE and BIO

Consequently, teams from EDCUtah, along with a variety of Utah organizations and the Governor's Office of Economic Development (GOED) will be represented in Baltimore, MD and Atlanta, GA respectively, from May 18-21 for two international events with significant import for the state -- SAMPE '09 and the 2009 BIO International Convention.

SAMPE '09 is the crème de la crème of conventions for scientists, engineers, designers and academicians interested in the use and advancement of advanced composite materials, while the BIO convention is an event that draws some 20,000 senior level life science professionals together to explore partnerships and discuss financial and strategic practices to strengthen and expand their life sciences and biotechnology businesses.

Kim Lofgreen, vice president of marketing and communications for EDCUtah, says the Utah pavilions at SAMPE and BIO are important to the state for a number of reasons. First, the pavilions provide opportunities for participating Utah companies to promote their products, network with their peers, share best practices and find partners and financial resources, such as venture capital money. Second, the pavilions provide EDCUtah and GOED two exceptional opportunities to showcase Utah's growing advanced composites and biotechnology industry clusters.

"There is no substitute for face time," Lofgreen says, "and the opportunities for one-on-one interaction with business leaders and industry experts at these two conventions are significant for the participating Utah companies and equally important to EDCUtah's recruitment efforts."

Advanced Composites

Utah is actually home to the largest manufacturer of high performance carbon fiber in the U.S. and has one of the highest concentrations of advanced composites companies in the world. The Hexcel Corporation, which owns 105 acres in West Valley City, is the largest domestic manufacturer of carbon fibers and hot melt fabrics and unidirectional pre-impregnated materials, called prepregs, for aerospace, satellite and recreational applications. Hexcel's Utah plant also produces resins, epoxy resins, adhesive films and solvated fabrics used for core materials.

The Beehive State has been at the center of graphite composites development since the 1950s and offers a complete infrastructure supporting the advanced composites industry, including raw materials, engineering capability, manufacturing capability, sales experts, machine design, manufacturing support and general support.

"Any company that uses carbon fiber should be interested in Utah," says Lofgreen.

Utah businesses and higher educational institutions have always been highly innovative in their use and advancement of composites. In fact, tremendous breakthroughs in the advanced composites industry have and continue to occur here. For example, in 2007, Delta 7 Sports, headquartered in Payson, achieved a breakthrough in the design of bicycle frames using advanced composites IsoTruss technology developed by a professor at Brigham Young University. Delta 7 Sports and its parent company, Advanced Composite Solutions, will be exhibiting in the Utah Pavilion at SAMPE along with EDCUtah and the following other Utah institutions that are either sponsoring or exhibiting in the Utah pavilion:

• ATK
• Ogden/Weber Applied Technology Center
• Davis Applied Technology Center
• Composite Solutions
• Hill Air Force Base
• HyperComp
• Contour Composites
• Advanced Composites, Inc.
• Hexcel

Lofgreen notes that Utah's advanced composites industry is important to the state's aerospace industry sector, but significant cross-over also exist with many other industry segments.

Biotechnology

While Utah's competitive advantage in biotechnology isn't quite as strong as its advanced composites sector, the state still ranks first among the western states for life science businesses per capita and second for overall industry growth. Utah's biotechnology sector is unique in a variety of ways. The Utah Population Database has led to the discovery of the genes that cause breast, prostate and colon cancer, melanoma, cystic fibrosis, Huntington disease and many other diseases and illnesses.

USTAR (the Utah Science, Technology and Research Initiative) is successfully recruiting top national research teams and has established state-of-the-art research innovation centers throughout the state to further advancements in biotechnology. Utah also has three leading research universities involved in biotechnology and the only medical school in the Intermountain West. R&D efforts here bring in more than $400 million annually in research grants. What's more, Utah is known for developing the world's first functional prosthetic arm, the most successful artificial heart transplant to date and the first successful heart pump implant.

Utah companies and institutions joining EDCUtah in the Utah pavilion at BIO or helping to sponsor the pavilion include:

• Ballard Spahr
• Brigham Young University
• Cephalon
• Clinical Genetics Institute
• Daw Tech
• GOED
• Juneau Biosciences
• Q-Therapuetics
• Salt Lake Community College
• Tandem Labs
• Taueret Laboratories
• UNIConnect
• USTAR

Lofgreen says the BIO and SAMPE conventions provide Utah companies with excellent branding opportunities and the ability to create top-of-mind awareness among dynamic, international audiences. More room is currently available in Utah's BIO and SAMPE pavilions. Utah businesses interested in exhibiting in either pavilion should contact Lofgreen for more information: (801) 328-8856.