Jim Roberts

As an old Richard Florida Creative Class follower, I remember that he likes to quote Jane Jacobs in saying, ”New ideas require old buildings.” Durham has old buildings in spades, and they have a plan to get more young companies downtown. The new American Underground@Main St. will offer another 22,000 square feet for rent to up-and-coming companies. Planners expect to rent to about 50 firms, or less than 450 square feet per company. Right now, you can only see the bones of the space as the drywall is not in place, but the potential for something very special is...

The Research Triangle Foundation brought new energy to a tired research park Tuesday night with its new entrepreneur and innovator event called 180° – referred to mostly by the Twitter hashtag #RTP180 – which showcased the people in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area as a diverse audience in T-shirts, sweaters and skinny jeans instead of older men in suits. I am not sure how all of these new startup organizations and entrepreneur and innovations are going to coexist when they start looking for community funding but for now they all seem to like each other. With RTP, CED, American Underground, HUB Raleigh,...

  Today I have seen posts on social media from my friends who are economic developers in Asheville and the Triangle who are in Austin, Texas for the best conference of the year. (Yes, I am very jealous!) The South by Southwest (SxSW) festival is actually three different events that overlap with a focus on the Interactive, Film and Music industries. (Think Hopscotch on muscle head steroids!) I have seen the impressive impact that this festival has on the Austin economy such as 18,000 attendees with a $24 million impact through hotel rooms, food and cold adult beverage sales,...

Something in North Carolina the envy of Massachusetts? Yes, indeed – our Community College system. On the first day of the Emerging Issues Forum, Eric Nakajima, assistant secretary for Innovation Policy as part of the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development for the State of Massachusetts, said his state envied the community college system of North Carolina. This is big news for a state that is looking up to Boston for the competition for top states in Biotechnology and information Technology. On Tuesday, the audience heard about the great assets of the North Carolina system from Scott Ralls,...

Who would have ever thought that someday North Carolina, a leader in manufacturing in the U.S. economy and home to traditional tobacco, textiles and furniture businesses might in the future be a center for human body parts manufacturing. As distasteful or bizarre as the idea might sound at first, regenerative medicine – the growing of replacement body parts among the potential – has taken root in North Carolina. But as advances make such body updates possible, the state also faces intense competition from others which want to be centers for what could be the next frontier of medicine. Dr....

North Carolina and our cities have been doing a great job adding infrastructure to help entrepreneurs. Most of our larger cities have entrepreneur councils and chamber of commerce programs to boost the chances of entrepreneurs to succeed. Most of our universities have started great programs for entrepreneurship. As a recent report concludes, our fine state is losing ground in the important infrastructure piece of venture capital. Sure this is a sign of the economic times, but there are things our state can do or can improve to boost these numbers to have a greater impact and may lead to...

Editor’s note: Jim Roberts is Founder and Chief Connections Officer of RedSpire Connections. RedSpire Connections is a new marketing, lead generation, business development and host of industry related events. Jim is a former executive with the Center of Innovation for NanoBiotechnology (COIN), a former employee of the NC Dept of Commerce and ran the Blue Ridge Angel Investor Network (BRAIN) in Asheville. RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – In April, the North Carolina Department of Commerce and other regional organizations hosted a jam packed conference of 300 nanotechnology sector professionals. During a panel called “How to Create 54 More Liquidias,”...

Editor’s note: Jim Roberts is the Director of Business Development for the Center of Innovation for NanoBiotechnology (“COIN”), an independent non-profit organization supported by the Centers of Innovation program at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.   DURHAM, N.C. – Starting Tuesday night with a speaker reception at the headquarters of the Center of Innovation for NanoBiotechnology (COIN), the fourth annual Nanotechnology Commercialization Conference will kick off with United States Congressman GK Butterfield in attendance. The event, in Durham this year, features local, national and international nanotech commercialization leaders who will discuss topics such as how to grow this sector...

Editor’s note: Jim Roberts is the director of Membership Services and Fundraising for the Center of Innovation for Nanobiotechnology, based in the Triangle region of North Carolina. RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – At one of my first CED Venture Conferences in 2002, I remember being impressed by the brilliant venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, who was actively investing in nanotechnology. He was so passionate about the topic that his mouth could not keep up with the speed of his thoughts. The nanotechnology field then moved out of the spotlight a bit as it was discovered to be much more of...