Arkansas Absent at IT Conference

Ron Goforth, general manager of the Fayetteville consulting and technology due diligence firm, Beta Rubicon LLC, was in Knoxville, Tenn., Oct. 30-31 for the 10th annual Great Midwest Venture Capital Conference.

The event gives 30 high-tech start-ups from, this year from a 12-state region, a chance to make their cases for funding in front of scores of venture capitalists. Nearly all seek second-stage venture capital investments of $3 million-$10 million, and they already have seed money of $300,000 to $2 million.

Oakridge National Labs and Tennesseed —Tennessee’s new venture capital outfit that has $50 million in taxpayer funding — sponsored the conference.

Goforth, a former Fulbright fellow and UA professor of computer systems, said he made a number of surprising discoveries while viewing the firms’ presentations. Not only did no Arkansas firm participate this year, but no high-tech company from the state has ever participated in the decade-old conference.

“I was also surprised that it was a much older group of entrepreneurs,” Goforth said. “The majority of the presenters were gray hairs. And I’d say 10 percent of the firms were women-owned.”

Each company does a mass audience presentation, but investors then have the chance for one-on-one sessions with companies that intrigue them.

Goforth said that practically every company outlined revenue projections, profits and how capital infusions would be spent. He said an average of 60 percent of their income was slated for marketing and sales.

One of the innovations Goforth said was presented involved an infrared detector that Sarcon MicroSystems Inc. of Knoxville, Tenn., has developed. Using Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, or MEMS, this tool used for night-vision goggles and smart bombs can be manufactured at one-fourth the cost of existing versions.

OptoSonics Inc. of Indianapolis has come up with a device to supplement X-ray mammography that uses thermal acoustic computed tomography, which is more differentiating than conventional mammography devices. It does not require breast compression and works in dense breasts where mammography does not.

Industrial Ceramic Solutions LLC of Oak Ridge, Tenn., introduced a method for removing black smoke from diesel engine emissions. It uses a ceramic fiber that’s heated by microwaves to burn filtered-out carbons into carbon dioxide.