Committee Steers Toward Texas Trip

More than the Razorbacks and Longhorns will meet Sept. 13 when the University of Arkansas football team visits the University of Texas.

Members of the Arkansas Venture Forum’s steering committee plan to visit Carol Thompson, president of The Thompson Group in Austin, Texas, that weekend to learn from Austin’s transformation into a high-tech hotbed. A networking facilitator, Thompson, spoke Nov. 7 at the AVF’s “Building Arkansas’ Knowledge-Based Industries” forum in Fayetteville.

She is a former board member of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, which during the late 1980s used a collaborative effort by public- and private-sector leaders to attract high-tech businesses to Austin. In 1987, that group traveled en masse to California to market Austin to universities and developing technology firms.

By 1992, 25 knowledge-based businesses had expanded in Austin and another 25 had relocated there. The AVF committee’s mission is to help build and accelerate the same kind of economic engines for Arkansas.

Tim McFarland, chairman of the AVF and managing member of MCG Financial Services in Harrison, said the steering committee plans to draft a blue print for accomplishing its goals by the fourth quarter.

The steering committee includes McFarland; John Lewis, chairman, president and CEO of the Bank of Fayetteville N.A.; Timothy O’Brien, director of Arkansas Bioventures at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; Jerry Adams, corporate leader of community relations at Acxiom Corp.; Sam Walls, chief operating officer of the Arkansas Capital Corp. Group; Elise Mitchell, president of Mitchell Communications Group Inc.; Uvalde Lindsey, president of Ozark International Consultants; Doyle Williams, dean of the UA’s Walton College of Business; Les Lane, vice president of the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority and at least one other executive.

McFarland emphasized that the committee intends to expand its membership to include statewide representation. It will also team up with other groups interested in creating knowledge-based jobs.

“What we’re trying to do is get the private sector move involved in this process,” McFarland said.

Another trip to visit Michael Cassidy, president and CEO of the nonprofit Georgia Research Alliance in Atlanta may be in the works. He spoke at the Nov. 7 forum in Fayetteville, too.

The alliance has helped that state attract $1 billion in federal funds to recruit top researchers, special equipment and other tools.

Venture Conference Approaches in March

On March 3-4, the 2003 Arkansas Venture Capital Conference will be held at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock. The second annual event, which kicks off with a 5 p.m. reception on March 3, will include five sessions designed to tackle everything from private firms seeking capital to good angel investing practices.

Registration information will be available after Feb. 4 by calling the Arkansas Capital Corp. Group at 1-800-216-7237. Registration is $110 per person.

NanoMech on Track to Commercialization

One local success story among developing high-tech firms continues to be NanoMech Inc. in Fayetteville. Ajay Malshe, NanoMech’s chief technology officer, said two Small Business Innovation Research program grants totaling $200,000 obtained in November have energized the company’s R&D of extremely hard, wear-resistant nanostructured coatings.

Nanostructured coatings are built up from from nanometer-scale particles (a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair). A self-lubricating nanostructured coating that eliminates the need for externally applied lubricants (such as oils) is one application.

Calvin Goforth, president of Virtual Incubation Corp. in Fayetteville which serves NanoMech, said additional SBIR grant proposals are in the works. They aim to develop a nanostructured coating for the die and mold industry that could be used to improve the lifetime of machine cutting tools.

Goforth said no other specifics are yet available because of intellectual property concerns.