Technology based news from around the state - and the world!

In a SoLoMo world, Internet display ads are just plain old-fashioned. SoLoMo - which describes the collision of social features, local business promotions (e.g., coupons) and mobile applications - is driving marketing trends and changing the way businesses build and monitor their brands.

The average Wisconsin citizen probably believes state government is paralyzed by partisanship.

Recall elections, perpetual campaign fundraising and party-line votes on major proposals, such as last week's Assembly vote on the mining bill, offer little reason for Joe and Jane Badger to think otherwise.

A countdown of the top ten reasons to enter the Governor's Business Plan Contest.

Zach Brandon of the Wisconsin Technology Council paints a dramatic story of what Wisconsin’s pathetic track record on venture capital has meant to the job base. His numbers on venture investing say that if Wisconsin had kept pace with the national average, it would have almost no unemployment.

The message is clear. If the Badger state is serious about job creation, it needs to pick up the pace on venture capital formation. Minnesota has pulled in $6.5 billion in venture money over the last 40 years; Wisconsin $1.2 billion. Read the full post here.

A Middleton start-up aiming to make medical isotopes said Tuesday that it will build a new manufacturing plant in Janesville. Shine Medical Technologies said it hopes to complete the plant, which would have more than 100 permanent employees, in 2015.

Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch encourages Wisconsin entrepreneurs to enter the ninth annual Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Contest in a two-minute video describing the contest and its results over time. The deadline for the 2012 contest is 5 p.m. Jan. 31 at http://www.govsbizplancontest.com/

The Wisconsin Angel Network has been working with a group of Oshkosh business leaders to launch Northeast Wisconsin's first angel group. "Angels on the Water" plans to raise $2.5 million to finance entrepreneurs and start-up businesses in the region.

Brandon sat down with WUWM’s Erin Toner to discuss a stated priority for both parties in the new legislative session starting Tuesday. The yet-to-be unveiled legislation would establish a state-leveraged venture capital fund. Listen to the full interview here. 

A meeting of the Wisconsin Innovation Network in Milwaukee on the prospects for passage of a venture capital bill drew broad news coverage. Guests were Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and Sen. Tim Cullen, D-Janesville. Click here to read a story in WisBusiness.com, and here to see the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel coverage.

A recent story in the Los Angeles Times on the December uptick in the nation's economic and employment pictures quotes Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, on the role of small business creation.

Calumet Venture Fund, a firm dedicated to investing in early-stage technology companies in the Midwest, recently secured next-round financing for two of its portfolio companies. A $3.6 million Series B financing for OptiMine Software, led by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, closed on Oct. 21, 2011. Series C financing for Montage Talent Inc., led by Baird Venture Partners closed Dec. 12, 2011, with $3 million raised.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced final rules on the definition of accredited investor. The rules are available on the SEC Web site at www.sec.gov/rules/final/2011/33-9287.pdf.

Eso-Technologies is going back into clinical trials in January with a redesigned heart monitor. The Middleton company is developing a monitor that goes down the throat into the esophagus, which is less invasive than the current standard that involves threading the monitor through blood vessels to the heart, CEO Bonnie Reinke says. It is meant for use during heart surgery.

Click here to read a story in NewGeography.com, a website tied to author and futurist Joel Kotkin, that ranks the Milwaukee area No. 2 nationally in manufacturing. Houston was No. 1 in the "heavy metal" rankings. Kotkin has spoken on the importance of cities in Madison and Milwaukee over time, as have principals of the Praxis Strategy Group, which examined the nation's 51 largest cities.

LA CROSSE -- Despite a challenging economy, the La Crosse businesses saw progress in 2011. But, growing that progress, according to an expert, requires technology.

Wisconsin Technology Council president Tom Still delivered the keynote speech at this year's meeting of the La Crosse Area Development Corporation. He says the La Crosse area has great potential and needs to utilize technology in developing businesses.

Montage Talent, a Delafield-based provider of video interviewing solutions, has closed a $3 million financing round led by Baird Venture Partners.

Founded in 2007, Montage is a pioneer in the development of video technology that optimizes the hiring process. Through a high-touch candidate engagement model, Montage connects potential job candidates with employers while driving faster decisions.

Baird Venture Partners is a venture capital fund of Baird Private Equity with offices in Milwaukee, Wis. Montage’s existing investors, including Wisconsin-based Calumet Venture Fund, also participated in the financing.

The proceeds will be used to expand the company’s client engagement activities, continue technology development and for working capital.

WisconsinEye recently filmed WIN-Madison's forum on "Thriving or Just Surviving? Report on the Region’s Economy. Click here to watch the full program online at wiseye.org.

Boxes are stacking up in Murfie.com's airy offices on the eighth floor of the U.S. Bank building on Capitol Square. But that's a good thing.

Firms from the Upper Midwest won awards and funding in a national clean tech business competition Wednesday night.

Click here to read Tom Still's latest column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in which he analyses the mix of up, down and sideways economic news in Wisconsin and what it might mean for the future.

A report that concluded the Madison area is at “a critical turning point” and its economic success can no longer be taken for granted will be discussed at the Tuesday, Nov. 22, meeting of the Wisconsin Innovation Network in Madison.

Two recent contracts won by ZBB Energy Corp. will help the Menomonee Falls company demonstrate that its energy storage system can be used for charging electric vehicles.

ZBB Energy, which develops energy storage systems and power electronics, also said Monday that it narrowed its fiscal first quarter loss.

One company, TrustEgg, wants to help you save money for your children; another, Brainsy, wants to help you figure out what clothes to wear. 

The two Madison companies tied for first place in the Elevator Pitch Olympics on Thursday, one of the highlights of the two-day Early Stage Symposium at Monona Terrace.

Click here to see a slide presentation by Rich Bendis, president of Innovation America, delivered during his keynote speech at the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium in Madison.

Read about the diverse line-up of companies that will present at the 2011 Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium, Wednesday and Thursday at Madison's Monona Terrace Convention Center, in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

About 40 early stage companies will present to potential investors at the 2011 Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium, to be held Nov. 2-3 at Madison’s Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center.

Click here to read a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story about a report from the Public Policy Forum, a Milwaukee-based group that has recommended enhanced technology transfer efforts by southeast Wisconsin's academic research institutions. In 2004 and 2009, the Tech Council published related reports on "The Economic Value of Academic R&D in Wisconsin," which can be found at www.wisconsintechnologycouncil.com/publications

Investors from Wisconsin, the Midwest and beyond will share their expertise with entrepreneurs and others at the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium, to be held Nov. 2-3 at Madison’s Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center. Register at http://www.wisearlystage.com/

Allyn Ziegenhagen, a member of the Wisconsin Innovation Network and a leader in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni club in Wisconsin, has been named a 2011 recipient of MIT's Harold Lobdell Distinguished Service Award. Ziegenhagen has been active in the annual MIT CLub of Wisconsin Achievement Awards, the EAA Fly-In and MIT's science, engineering, technology and math programs in Wisconsin. Click here to learn more about Ziegenhagen and the award.

Click here to read a Janesville Gazette story on Bill Dougan, a UW-Whitewater professor who has helped stimulate entrepreneurial activity on and around campus. Dougan is also a long-time judge in the Governor's Business Plan Contest, produced by the Tech Council.

Cellular Dynamics International, the stem cell company founded by UW-Madison researcher James Thomson in 2004, has won the top prize in the Wall Street Journal's 2011 Technology Innovation Awards. Click here to read a Wisconsin State Journal story for more.

Wisconsin native Kay Koplovitz, chair of the venture capital firm Springboard Enterprises calls for state-leveraged venture capital deployment. Read the IB Madison "Take 5" interview here.

HarQen Inc. of Milwaukee, a firm that focuses on collaborative voice services, has raised $2.5 million in its current $4 million round of venture capital funding, the Milwaukee Business Journal reported.

Lucigen Corp., a Middleton biotech firm, said Monday it has been awarded $350,000 in grants from the National Institutes of Health to fund additional research and development. The two grants will be used to develop genetic sequencing tools, and to create an affordable tool to help researchers study data from genes and proteins within individual cells.

A plant-based jet fuel developed by Virent Energy Systems has passed a round of U.S. Air Force testing. The fuel, produced by Virent in conjunction with its partner, Shell, was tested at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

A Lodi contract manufacturer for the pharmaceutical industry said Monday it is breaking ground on a $3.5 million addition that is the first phase of a plan to increase revenue and add jobs. Anteco Pharma is building the 25,000-square-foot addition to bolster its pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing capacity, the company said. It expects to be operating by June.

I got a call from my younger (and smarter) brother the other night that seemed a bit out of character. The relentlessly upbeat tone in his voice had given way to a hint of concern. "How's business in the heartland?" he asked. "I need a reality check, because it's stuck in neutral here."

Please watch the latest edition of “WisBusiness: The Show,” the twice-a-month online show covering state business news and issues. In this edition, Tom Still’s commentary examines the love-hate relationship with Google, and Liz Schrum delivers the WisBusiness stock report. Also, serial entrepreneur Ralph Kauten of Quintessence Biosciences talks about his company’s efforts to develop cancer-fighting drugs.

Click here to view the show produced by Tweedee Productions, as well as our archives of past shows. The show is sponsored by Grant Thornton, Madison Gas & Electric, Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C., and the UW-Milwaukee

The Wisconsin Technology Council has signed an informal agreement with Monument Capital Group LLC, Washington, D.C., that seeks to increase Wisconsin’s reach into international capital markets and to facilitate deal flow that will benefit Wisconsin firms.

A key portion of the Wisconsin Growth Capital Coalition’s recently released report on growing angel and venture capital in Wisconsin will be taken up by the Legislature in the next 45 days. The special session on jobs was announced Wednesday by Gov. Scott Walker.

A WisBusiness.com panel discussion on Wednesday Oct. 12 will examine the future of broadband in Wisconsin. The discussion comes in the wake of a major telecommunications regulation update signed into law earlier this year by Gov. Scott Walker, more federal grants to local telecommunications companies in Wisconsin for broadband, and the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger.

Soft-spoken Cliff King doesn't come across like a business executive who would threaten to move his company out of Wisconsin - unless he believed he might not have a choice. "We were born and raised here, we grew the company here and we have all kinds of ties here," said King, chief executive officer of Skyward, a Stevens Point information technology company that sells management software for schools. "But at some point, it becomes a business decision." Read full Journal Sentinel commentary here.

"Wisconsin Get Your Business Online" is a program sponsored by Google to help small businesses build a web site, secure a customized domain name for a year and learn more about online marketing -- all for free. The Wisconsin Technology Council is among the local partners for the program, which begins with workshops Oct. 3-4 in Milwaukee.

Some of the oldest buildings in Madison house some of the newest technology and innovations. Two business incubators that have opened in the past year, 94Labs and Sector67, are not the traditional offices or laboratories, and their methods are anything but standard; yet, they are helping entrepreneurs create products and start companies more rapidly than ever before — one, through an intensive program that focuses immediately on customers, and the other, by providing tools to turn pie-in-the-sky ideas into real things.

The latest research and development priorities at Google’s Madison office and a new Google program to help Wisconsin small businesses build and run websites will be discussed at the Tuesday, Sept. 27 meeting of the Wisconsin Innovation Network in Madison.

Click here to view the show produced by Tweedee Productions, as well as our archives of past shows.

Carlos Salazar, a leading technology scout for the National Security Agency, will be among the guest speakers representing key federal agencies at the fifth annual “Resource Rendezvous.”

Virent Energy Systems Inc. was awarded up to $4 million on Tuesday for a project to accelerate the development of drop-in biofuels as well as bio-based chemicals. Virent's was one of three small-scale projects awarded funding by the Department of Energy, the agency announced.

Please watch the latest edition of “WisBusiness: The Show,” the twice-a-month online show covering state business news and issues. In this edition, Tom Still’s commentary explains why one bad monthly jobs report isn’t the end of the world. In the WisBusiness.com stock report, ethanol subsidies are falling while the Medical College of Wisconsin shines. And the TEAM Companies’ Mike Wicker joins Liz Schrum to talk about the changing business of data centers.

If you buy packaged cereal with fruit in it, the fruit probably has been freeze dried. Coffee has been sold freeze dried for decades. Anteco Pharma of Lodi does freeze drying for other substances, such as bacteria and pharmaceutical ingredients.

Early stage companies in Wisconsin and beyond will learn how to increase their chance of receiving federal grant dollars or research agreements on Sept. 15 during the fifth annual “Resource Rendezvous.”

Please watch the latest edition of “WisBusiness: The Show” the twice-a-month Web show covering state business news and issues. In this edition, Tom Still talks about the post-recall election need to focus on economic growth and Eric Girard of Van Holten’s, a Waterloo firm, talks about the company’s global pickle-in-a-pouch business. Our “stock report” has the business highs and lows for mid-August.

Click here to view the show produced by Tweedee Productions, as well as our archives of past shows.

The Wisconsin State Journal recently featured an "Executive Q&A" profile of Mark Moody, the president of WEA Trust. Moody is a member of the Wisconsin Technology Council board of directors.

Mother's book teaches children how to manage food allergies
Amy Recob was eating dinner with her family one night when her 18-month-old daughter, Mollie, suddenly became violently ill. "She was eating dinner, then something happened where she began excessive vomiting and coughing," she said.

The U.S. Navy has awarded ZBB Energy Corp. a contract valued at $1.2 million for an energy storage system that will be used to help power a Naval facility on a Pacific island west of Los Angeles. The Menomonee Falls clean-tech company said it will supply an energy storage system that includes a power and energy control center as well as the company's zinc bromide flow batteries, which will be used in combination with wind turbines already installed at the San Nicolas Island Naval Facility.

Located in Milwaukee, Veteran Entrepreneurial Transfer (VETransfer) was launched in March 2011 and is the first ever Veteran-focused business incubator. Read blog post here.

For a company whose motto is "Stay strong. Move on," competition is second nature. Perfect Cross LLC, the Nashotah maker of RapidForce adhesive muscle support and pain relief products for athletes and fitness enthusiasts, most recently competed in the Governor's Business Plan Contest. The firm won in the category of advanced manufacturing.

MADISON – Please watch the latest edition of “WisBusiness: The Show” the twice-a-month Web show covering state business news and issues. In this edition, Tom Still talks about the long-term effects of federal spending cuts on academic research and Tom Primiano of NanoOncology Inc. discusses his company’s development of cancer-fighting drugs. Our “stock report” has the business highs and lows for early August.

Click here the show produced by Tweedee Productions, as well as our archives of past shows.

MILWAUKEE – The proposed creation of a state-leveraged venture capital fund will be the topic of a panel discussion at the Thursday Aug. 11 meeting of the WIN-Milwaukee chapter.

More than four decades ago, Hans Sollinger lost one of his closest relatives to diabetes, an experience that strengthened his resolve to find a more effective treatment for the disease. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness and amputation in the United States, and 1 million patients could potentially qualify for pancreatic and kidney transplants because of the disease. About 1,000 patients end up receiving transplants each year.

MADISON – Please watch the latest edition of “WisBusiness: The Show” the twice-a-month Web show covering state business news and issues. In this edition, Tom Still talks about GE Healthcare’s decision to move its X-ray headquarters from Waukesha to China and Scott VanderSanden, president of AT&T Wisconsin, discusses a proposed merger with T-Mobile and what that might mean for the state. Our “stock report” has the business highs and lows for late July.

Click here see the show produced by Tweedee Productions, as well as our archives of past shows.

WASHINGTON — A lawsuit that threatened to end federal funding of embryonic stem cell research was thrown out, allowing the U.S. to continue to support a search for cures to deadly diseases over protests the work relies on destroyed human embryos. Read the Wisconsin State Journal story here.

MILWAUKEE — RecipeBridge, a Milwaukee-based recipe search engine company, has been acquired for an undisclosed price by Gourmet Ads, an Australian food advertising network. Read Journal Sentinel story here.

WAUWATOSA, Wis. -- Capital Midwest Fund announced that it has raised $40 million for a second venture capital fund that will invest at least 30 percent of its assets in Wisconsin companies. The fund intends to collect as much as $100 million by the end of the year. Read the Journal Sentinel story here.

MEQUON, Wis. — Endece LLC, a biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing proprietary compounds for treating cancer, announced it has raised $1.2 million from private investors that it will use to further develop a compound it says could potentially turn off any kind of cancer cell.

The 5-year-old company has raised $15 million to date from its Wisconsin-based angel investors  plus an additional grant of $244,000 from the U.S. government’s Therapeutic Discovery Project and a $250,000 loan from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce Technology Venture Fund.

Designed to drive collaboration and co-investment between the two states, the Wisconsin Angel Network and the Minnesota Angel Network agreed today to designate a seat on their respective advisory boards for the other’s director.

Read Star Tribune blog here and Business Journal article here.

Midwestern cities eclipsed many coastal competitors for top spots in America’s Best Cities For Young Professionals ranking. The list, compiled by Forbes, ranks Madison, Wis., third for young talent. Forbes touted Madison’s healthy job growth, low unemployment, large college-educated demographic and a cost of living that is at or below the national average. Madison topped regional neighbor, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., and the education and tech hubs of Austin, Texas and Boston, Mass. No West Coast cities made the cut. Four Fox Valley cities made Forbes' "small city' top 100 list. See the full list here.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Commerce today released a new report that profiles U.S. employment in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future offers an inside look at workers who are driving our nation’s innovation and competitiveness and helping America win the future with new ideas, new companies and new industries. A copy of the report can be found here.

MADISON — Governor Scott Walker announced that two companies, Asthmapolis and Door 6, Inc., both of Madison, have received the Qualified New Business Venture certification from the former Department of Commerce.

A Madison company, Echometrix, is getting some military-level attention. The U.S. Marines are testing the company's EchoSoft system - ultrasound technology that can find soft-tissue injuries such as a torn tendon or rotator cuff. After trudging through rigorous training hikes, carrying heavy backpacks through mountainous territory, 50 Marines are being assessed for possible tendon damage using EchoSoft.

Several Wisconsin business groups are lobbying the state Legislature to pass venture capital legislation, according to a news release issed Wednesday by the Wisconsin Technology Council, which is leading the effort. Click here to read the full story in The Milwaukee Business Journal.

With nearly three-dozen members from Wisconsin and around the country thus far, the Wisconsin Growth Capital Coalition has been reactivated through the Wisconsin Technology Council and its Wisconsin Angel Network to provide policymakers with non-partisan advice on proposed venture capital legislation.

STEVENS POINT — State Rep. Scott Krug said he hasn’t agreed with state Rep. Louis Molepske Jr. on much, but the two find themselves on common ground when it comes to the importance of broadband technology for central Wisconsin.

Molepske, D-Stevens Point, and Krug, R-Wisconsin Rapids, took part Monday morning in the panel discussion “The Future of Broadband Technology” on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

The purpose of the panel, hosted by the Stevens Point Association of Downtown Businesses, Centergy and Wired Wisconsin, was to discuss what increasing broadband and mobile technology would mean to the region.

Read the Wausau Daily Herald story here. 

Luminex Corporation Completes Acquisition of EraGen Biosciences, Inc.

AUSTIN, Texas — Luminex Corporation (NASDAQ: LMNX) announced the completion of its acquisition of privately-held EraGen Biosciences, Inc., a Madison, Wisconsin based innovator in molecular diagnostic testing technologies for infectious disease and genetic applications, for $34 million in cash.

Luminex expects the EraGen acquisition will add between $5 million and $7 million to 2011 consolidated revenue. Read orginal Wisconsin State Journal story here.

High-tech exports, including biotech products, continue to rise as share of total Wisconsin exports

WASHINGTON – High-tech exports in Wisconsin, including medical and scientific instruments and biotechnology products, are rising at a rate faster than five Midwestern state neighbors and the United States as a whole.

The figures were reported in a study commissioned for the Wisconsin Technology Council by NorthStar Economics Inc., a Madison-based firm that serves as the official economic adviser to the Tech Council. The figures were released during the 2011 BIO International Convention in Washington, D.C.

Wisconsin ranked 13th nationally in high-tech exports and 15th nationally in tech export concentration, the study concluded. Wisconsin experienced the largest increase among Midwest states in tech exports as a percentage of total exports from 2003 to 2009, with tech exports growing by 41.7 percent. That compared to Illinois (up 35.8 percent), Michigan (16.9 percent), Indiana (15 percent) and Iowa (2.4 percent) during the same period. Tech exports in the United States grew by 13 percent during the same period. Click here to read more.

Madison — Please watch the latest edition of “WisBusiness: The Show” the twice-a-month Web show covering state business news and issues. This edition features Don Noskowiak of Liveyearbook.com, the winner of the 2010 Governor’s Business Plan Contest, with news on the company’s progress. Tom Still, president of the Tech Council, talks about the June 27-30 BIO International Convention, and our stock report has the highs and lows for late June.

Click here to see the show produced by Tweedee Productions.

NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes LLC is planning to build a $194 million production plant in Beloit that could employ as many as 150 workers by 2016.

NorthStar Medical, which is based in Madison, was founded in 2004 to develop technologies for making isotopes for medical applications. The company will use linear accelerators to produce the isotopes at the 82,000-square-foot building, Isensee said.

Sen. Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point) and Rep. Sandy Pasch (D-Whitefish Bay) are proposing that the newly created Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation sell up to $100 million in bonds to form an investment fund that would help homegrown venture funds invest as much as $500 million in high-potential companies in the state.

Gov. Scott Walker announced June 13 that Zurex PharmAgra LLC, Madison, has received the Qualified New Business Venture certification from the Department of Commerce.

Virent Energy Systems has won a $13.4 million federal grant to continue its work on producing renewable jet fuel from non-food crops. Click here to read a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story.

MADISON – Please watch the latest edition of “WisBusiness: The Show” the twice-a-month Web show covering state business news and issues. In this edition taped at the 2011 Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference in Milwaukee, Tim Kane of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation talks about the importance of start-up companies to the national and state economies. Tom Still, president of the Tech Council, talks about the rising interest in entrepreneurism on Wisconsin’s college campuses. And our stock report has the highs and lows for early June.

Click here to see the show produced by Tweedee Productions.

ZBB Energy Corp. will receive tax credits of up to $700,000 from the Australian government as a result of battery technology research the firm is conducting at its office in Australia. ZBB Technologies Limited is a subsidiary of the Menomonee Falls firm that does core research in flow battery cells, including R&D linked to its new joint venture with the South Korean firm Honam Petrochemicals. Read full Journal Sentinel business blog here.

Middleton-based Shine Medical Technologies said Tuesday morning it has raised $11 million of venture capital funding. Knox LLC - the investment vehicle for Frederick J. Mancheski, former chairman and chief executive of automotive parts supplier Echlin - led the round and contributed $10 million of the funding. Read full Journal Sentinel story here.

When he started Direct Supply Inc., Bob Hillis had no idea it would be seven years before he collected a paycheck. Now he's not only pulling in a salary, his medical supply distribution business is so successful he's hoping to eventually bring in thousands of more employees. Read full Journal Sentinel story here.

JANESVILLE — We’re in the running. Janesville, Chippewa Falls and Stevens Point are being considered for a business that would create 100 jobs with the possibility of more in the future. Read full GazetteXtra article here.

MILWAUKEE – A Madison company aiming to help passengers in buses, trains and other vehicles connect to the Internet was the grand prize winner in the 2011 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest.

Bob Hillis, an entrepreneur and visionary leader who founded Direct Supply, which began as the nation’s first “virtual distributor” in 1985, will receive the eighth annual Ken Hendricks Memorial “Seize the Day” award at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference.

Former U.S. ambassadors Mark Green and Tom Loftus and veteran international development expert Anthony Carroll will discuss Wisconsin’s emerging role in addressing global health issues at a Monday, June 27, luncheon in Washington, D.C.

The proposed venture capital legislation in Wisconsin (SB-94/AB-129) was the topic of Tuesday's Wisconsin Innovation Network meeting in Madison. Click here to read a story from WisBusiness.com. Also, watch video coverage of the meeting from WisconsinEye.

In partnership with the WEA Trust and others, the Wisconsin Technology Council will launch a statewide business plan contest for students in middle and high school next fall. The Wisconsin Youth Entrepreneurs in Science contest, called Wisconsin YES!, will be open to all students in Wisconsin who are entering grades six through 12 for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Please watch the latest edition of “WisBusiness: The Show” the twice-a-month Web show covering state business news and issues. In this edition, Carmine Durham, president and CEO of Zurex Pharma, talks about their recent fundraising round and how pending legislation could help companies such as theirs obtain more venture capital. Tom Still, president of the Tech Council, talks about the upcoming Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference in Milwaukee. And our stock report has the highs and lows for late May.

Legislation that Gov. Scott Walker says will create jobs would provide hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to insurance companies, while giving control of a $250 million fund to out-of-state financial management companies that would not have to pay back the fund's principal and would keep up to 80% of its profits.

Mithridion Inc., a privately-owned clinical stage drug development company focusing on serious Central Nervous System, has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has awarded 'orphan drug designation for MCD-386CR, its lead drug candidate. The drug is used to treat Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.

Learn how entrepreneurs and companies can work with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and access its portfolios of technologies available for licensing at the Wednesday, May 18 meeting of the Wisconsin Innovation Network in Appleton.

Proposed legislation to bolster venture capital investments in Wisconsin companies will be the topic of a panel discussion at the Thursday, May 12 meeting of the Wisconsin Innovation Network’s Milwaukee-area chapter, and the Tuesday, May 24 meeting of the WIN-Madison chapter.

MILWAUKEE – Tim Kane, a senior scholar in research and policy at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, will lead off the ninth annual Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference in Milwaukee with a speech that will stress the job-creating role of start-up companies.

MADISON -- Legislation to bolster venture capital investments in Wisconsin companies was unveiled Thursday at a Capitol news conference held by the bill’s main sponsors, Sen. Randy Hopper, R-Fond du Lac, and Rep. Gary Tauchen, R-Bonduel.

A Madison company with a unique infection-fighting technology has raised $1 million in venture capital. Zurex Pharma Inc. raised the money from the Peak Ridge AgTech Fund, which is managed by Peak Ridge Capital, a Boston-based venture capital fund with offices in Madison.

Opponents of federally funded embryonic stem cell research have lost a key round in a U.S. Court of Appeals, news that encouraged Wisconsin researchers. Click here to read a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story.

MILWAUKEE – Built around the entrepreneurial themes of “Launch, grow, succeed: Creating tomorrow’s jobs today,” the 2011 Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference will be held June 7-8, 2011, in Milwaukee.

To register for the conference, to be held at The Pfister Hotel, 424 E. Wisconsin Ave., go to: http://www.wisconsintechnologycouncil.com/events/ent_conf/

Please watch the latest edition of “WisBusiness: The Show” the twice-a-month Web show covering state business news and issues. This edition features serial entrepreneur Greg Meier who talks about the Talent Lab, a new type of business incubator in Wisconsin. Tom Still, president of the Tech Council, talks about how Wisconsin can learn from Israel when it comes to building and financing young companies and our stock report has the highs and lows for late April.

Click here to see the show produced by Tweedee Productions.

Wisconsin workforce strategy: Advancing synergies to meet needs of Wisconsin entrepreneurs and emerging high tech sector

By Secretary Manny Perez

Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development

Looking to the future, the Wisconsin Technology Council makes a case for bold action to improve the business climate, provide entrepreneurs more access to capital, and ensure a skilled workforce to meet the needs of employers in a global market. As a member of Governor Walker’s Cabinet and Secretary of the Department of Workforce Development, I welcome your collaboration in advancing Governor Walker’s bold plans for economic growth and job creation.

Madison-based Asthmapolis, which builds tools to track, manage and research asthma, recently won the Twilio developer contest.  Asthmapolis uses Twilio to build an SMS service that lets people record and track their asthma symptoms, and was created by Greg Tracy, David Van Sickle, and Mark Gehring.  Read more here.

It's slightly smaller in size than New Jersey and slightly larger in population than Wisconsin, but the nation of Israel plays big on the international stage when it comes to entrepreneurialism and tech-based economic growth. What can Wisconsin learn from the Israeli experience? Uzi de Haan, who leads entrepreneurship efforts of Israel's Technion Center, talked about the strategies and tactics that have redefined his nation's economy during an April series of Madison and Milwaukee forums at the invitation of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Office of Corporate Relations. Read full Journal Sentinel commentary here.

In an editorial published Monday, the Wisconsin State Jouranl took note of the need for more venture capital in Wisconsin. "We can't afford not to invest in business growth, not only to create the jobs we need but also to bring in the tax revenue to support the government services we want," the newspaper's editorial noted. Read full Wisconsin State Journal editorial here. 

The Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting was awarded Monday to a team of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel journalists who chronicled the quest by doctors to save a boy by searching his DNA for clues to a mysterious illness. Through words, photos, graphics and videos, the team produced "One in a billion: A boy's life, a medical mystery." See full Journal Sentinel story here.

Please watch the latest edition of “WisBusiness: The Show,” the twice-a-month Internet show covering state business news and issues. This edition features Zach Brandon, who talks about his new job as director of the Wisconsin Angel Network. Tom Still, president of the Tech Council, talks about Wisconsin’s workforce advantages and our stock report has the highs and lows for early April.

Cellectar Inc., a Madison pharmaceutical company working on cancer-fighting drugs, has merged with a publicly traded Boston-area firm, Novelos Therapeutics Inc. The transaction essentially grafts Cellectar's research onto the upper management of Novelos. Read full Journal Sentinel story here.

In the venture capital arena, Wisconsin has long been a laggard. Despite some growth in its venture capital pool during the last 25 years, Wisconsin still ranked just 25th among all states in 2010, with $234 million under management, according to the National Venture Capital Association's Yearbook 2011.

Anyone who has studied Wisconsin's return on federal tax dollars over time might conclude the federal government shut down years ago, so far as the Badger State is concerned. Year after year, decade after decade, Wisconsin has ranked near the bottom of the 50 states in terms of getting a proportionate return on tax dollars sent to Washington, D.C., and returned in the form of federal aid, contracts, grants or other payments. Read full Milwaukee Journal Sentinel commentary by Tom Still here.

Zach Brandon, a former deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Commerce who previously launched angel-backed businesses in Ohio and Wisconsin, will begin work April 18 as director of the Wisconsin Angel Network.

In the wake of President Obama’s March 30 speech on national energy policy, researchers will gather in Madison in April for a one-day event that will highlight progress on “next-generation” biofuels.

Wisconsin technology executives who responded to the most recent WisBusiness.com Tech Leaders Survey expressed considerably more optimism about the state’s economy than those a year ago.

By Bill Ihlenfeldt, Ph.D., former president of the Chippewa Valley Technical College.

Please watch the latest edition of “WisBusiness: The Show” the twice-a-month Web show covering state business news and issues. This edition features Jim Haney, the outgoing president of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, who reflects on his time as the leader of Wisconsin’s largest business organization. Tom Still, president of the Tech Council, talks about federal support for science and how major budget cuts could disrupt the Wisconsin economy and our stock report has the highs and lows for late March.

Click here  to see the show produced by Tweedee Productions.

Just how entrepreneurial are people in Wisconsin? The answer depends on who's asked. The question usually arises this time of year when the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity is published by the Ewing Marion Kauffmann Foundation, a private foundation committed to building America's capacity to launch and grow start-up businesses. Read full Milwaukee Journal Sentinel commentary by Tom Still here.

Lucigen Corp. has been awarded a $226,401 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop improved genomic tools to identify potential antibiotic compounds in fungi.

Cellular Dynamics International says its two-year collaboration with Roche has turned into a full-fledged supply contract. Read a full Wisconsin State Journal article here.

Frayed tempers. Strained relationships. And the end of an era in Wisconsin public policy. That's a fair description of the struggle between Gov. Scott Walker and Wisconsin's public employee unions, but it also describes what's happening these days in the emerging fight over whether the University of Wisconsin-Madison should be granted the freedom to run its own affairs. Read full Milwaukee Journal Sentinel commentary here.

TomoTherapy, a Madison-based company that began in the laboratories of the UW-Madison and grew into a major producer of high-end radiation therapy equipment, will be purchased by Accuray for $277 million.

Forty-nine entries from about two-dozen communities have advanced to the semi-final round of the eighth annual Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest, contest producers announced Monday.

During his Tuesday night "fireside chat" about Wisconsin's budget woes and his plan to dramatically curb the influence of public-sector unions, Gov. Scott Walker aptly referred to public employees as the state's "partners in economic development."

Read full Journal Sentinel column here.

Judging in the first round of the eighth annual Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest will conclude this week, with 220 entries from 75 different communities across the state being reviewed by nearly 60 judges.

Qualified entries received by Jan. 31 were spread over four contest categories aimed at capturing Wisconsin’s best technology-based ideas: Advanced manufacturing (52); business services (63), information technology (74) and life sciences (31).

FluGen of Madison, has received $7.8 million in a financing round led by Knox, the Las Vegas investment vehicle of UW-Madison alumnus Frederick J. Mancheski.

Please watch the latest edition of “WisBusiness: The Show” the twice-a-month Web show covering state business news and issues. This edition features Zack Robbins of the Morgridge Institute for Research, who discusses a federal small business research grant conference to be held in Wisconsin. Tom Still, president of the Tech Council, talks about the importance of school reform to Wisconsin business, and our stock report has the highs and lows for mid-February.

As Wisconsin policy-makers ponder what it means to ensure the state is truly "open for business," their reading list should include a July 2010 report by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation that highlights the importance of homegrown start-up companies to the American economy.

Click here to read an Appleton Post Crescent story on the state of venture capital investing in northeast Wisconsin. The story features Charlie Goff and the NEW Capital Fund, a member of the Wisconsin Angel Network.

Click here to watch the latest episode of "WisBusiness: The Show," a twice-a-month Web show covering state business news and issues.

This episode features an interview with Joe Kremer, director of the Wisconsin Angel Network. It also has the Wisconsin stock report for late May and commentary on animal research from Wisconsin Technology Council President Tom Still.