SIRTI director works to draw tech investors- Patrick Tam plans a technology road show to Seattle

Patrick Tam is looking for a hand waving at the back of the room.

Business and community leaders can try to identify the industries that will be the foundation for future economic growth, he says, but it could be that unexpected query that triggers a re-examination of priorities — and a community breakthrough.

Bert Caldwell
The Spokesman-Review

Tam, executive director of the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute, http://www.sirti.org/ says it was an individual in the optics business who asked Phoenix leaders what their economic plan would do for him. The challenge alerted officials to his industry’s potential. The Arizona city is now a force in that industry.

Economic development, Tam says, cannot be a top-down phenomenon. "It has to be organic," he says, adding that communities must be ready to support the surprises he calls "disruptive technology."

Tam has been a little disruptive himself.

Since taking over at SIRTI last July, he has shaken up its staff, redefined its mission, and become its omnipresent missionary.

"Patrick’s been a wonderful ambassador," says SIRTI Chairman Stu Stiles. "He has set a torrid pace."

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California, Berkeley, graduate has embraced his role.

"You believe in what you’re doing. You charge ahead and do it," says Tam. "I want to drive the organization so that we give value to people."

For Spokane, he says, value comes from the support given to technology-based businesses, new or old. Important, too, is the government and private-sector money that can be attracted from outside the area.

Tam says he wants to create the kind of buzz around Eastern Washington’s tech community that excites investors in places like Michigan and Texas. To start, he plans a technology road show in Seattle this fall like the quarterly showcases SIRTI has sponsored in Spokane. An East Coast trip would be next.

If investors see value, the money will follow. "There’s always money for the right deal," Tam says, downplaying a frequent complaint from companies that they cannot get the capital they need.

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SIRTI

665 North Riverpoint Blvd.

Spokane, Washington 99202-1665

Telephone: (509) 358-2000 FAX: (509) 358-2092

http://www.sirti.org/

Patrick Tam- Executive Director [email protected]

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To help, SIRTI is rounding up funds for a Technology Growth Fund that can make short-term loans to finance orders for small companies that cannot find other financing.

Also, he says SIRTI can help assure local companies get the best possible deal whether they’re seeking equity investment or a loan.

For example, he says, Director of Financial Services David Wingate renegotiated a loan that removed an entrepreneur’s home as collateral.

"When we provide help, we provide it hands-on," Tam says.

Although he would like SIRTI to have as much in-house capability as possible, Tam says alliances with other resources like bankers, accountants and attorneys are critical, as are ties with the region’s universities, where he hopes SIRTI can cultivate a more entrepreneurial spirit.

Though pleased with the progress made so far, Tam says his honeymoon is about over. The community will want to see measurable results soon. Assistance like that provided the entrepreneur with his home on the line may not show up in the box score, he says. A home run would, and like others in Spokane, Tam sees a proposed wet lab as that big hit.

He says tenants for the facility, which would foster biological research, are already lining up.

But Tam is not relying on the wet lab alone, and neither should the community, he says, noting that agricultural and fuel cell-related technology are also on his list of potential economic powerhouses.

The trick is less to identify particular technologies, he says, than it is to recognize that solitary hand, and the technological revolution it might signal.

"I want SIRTI to continue to be very agile," Tam says. "We’ve got to be ready."

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=073103&ID=s1388810&cat=section.business