Regional Economic Development

the findings do shed light on key issues around small business exporting

"We’re a neutral third party holding the marketplace accountable through self-regulation, and that means both sides," she said. "We’re a business organization as much as we are a consumer organization."

"There are a lot of people in the Pacific Northwest that have talked about how to fund early stage technology, but Accelerator is doing it, with the most high-quality syndicate [of investors] you could imagine," Weissman said.

"What you find out is that there is a lot of differences in terms of how you do business, and to the extent that we can educate companies on doing business internationally, we think it is a very valuable service," Sunderlage said.

But, he said, "you can bring private industry into the lab in ways that don’t interfere with government work."

Oregon Training Network is developing classes to be offered in Oregon to information technology workers throughout the state.

Rural employers are demanding an increasing proportion of well-educated and skilled workers.

The Idaho governor hopes his yearlong work on long-term care paid off and that his fellow governors will include the issue in their state-of-the-state addresses next year.

"You don’t have to look very far down the road with regard to your budgets," Kempthorne said. "You’re going to be impacted one way or another. You better get ahead of the curve."

Economic development officials around the state are trying to get the word out that Idaho has a strong science- and technology-based economy.

Colleges and universities in major cities are becoming increasingly influential in urban development circles. The intellectual capital of universities, particularly in the sciences, has become a critical component in global economies driven by high-tech and biotechnology interests.