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On Wednesday, May 28, 2008, the East Bay EDA hosted the California Department of
Housing and Community Development (HCD) and its Director Lynn Jacobs in
conduction the Bay Area "Permanent Source" program meeting.
Many East Bay EDA members were in attendance and contributed to the discussion.
Following the meeting, HCD distributed
notes from the meeting.
Tradeshow
attracts over 25,000 visitors
This year, from June 17 – 20 in San Diego, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) will hold the industry’s most important international convention and trade show. This year 25,000 visitors, including business leaders, scientists, executives, investors and industry leaders along with a number of state governors and foreign ministers, are expected to attend. It’s estimated that 6,000 visitors from over 60 countries will be in attendance.
East Bay EDA will also be at BIO in the Team California booth representing the East Bay -- one of the largest and most mature life sciences clusters in the country. We often overlook the fact that the East Bay is home to over 200 bioscience companies and that our cluster is growing fast. Last year in a sample of five East Bay cities, it was discovered that the number of life sciences companies had doubled between 2002 and 2007. These companies range from startup R&D operations to major manufacturers of biotech drugs, medical devices, test kits, and other products. .
In 2007 the East Bay became the world leader in the search for sustainable, affordable biofuels when it beat Boston, San Diego and all the top biotech regions of the world to attract two biofuels R&D centers and $920 million of funding. Last year we also saw Bayer become the #2 biotech company in the Bay Area; Roche Molecular Systems continue to consolidate operations in Pleasanton; and Celera begin the planning to move its headquarters from Rockville Maryland to Alameda.
Besides exhibiting in San Diego, on the prior Thursday and Friday, East Bay EDA will co-sponsor a Bay Area bus tour for about 20 foreign company officials and site selectors. BayBIO organized the bus tour to give the visitors an in-person experience of the Bay Area and we will use the opportunity to market the region and establish personal contacts.
In June, the East Bay EDA Executive Committee received the preliminary recommendations of the East Bay Green Industry Cluster study sponsored by the Contra Costa Council and Contra Costa Economic Partnership. East Bay EDA has participated in the Council-lead effort to further understanding of the region’s green technology industry sector and support local government efforts to capitalize on the growth of this emerging industry.
The study, authored by the Craft Consulting Group, identified four industry clusters in the East Bay where the region has a competitive advantage. These included: Green Building, Environmental Solution Providers, Biofuels, and Solar Technology. The study recommends specific public and private sector actions to increase the growth of these industry clusters. East Bay EDA Executive Committee will appoint members to an oversight committee that will be charged with implementing the report’s recommendations. Copies of the report will be available in early July.
Have you shared your
opinions?
East Bay EDA is once again producing our popular East Bay Indicators report and
thanks to the great participation we received
with our event satisfaction survey which
followed our Economic Forecast meeting, we've
developed a very brief (5 question) survey regarding the content of the report. This report provides the baseline economic, social, environmental and other data used in business development and decision making - and is the only report of its kind to cover both Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. As members of East Bay EDA you represent the key business, government and nonprofit leaders of our region – and your opinions about the report are important to us.
If you have not responded already, please take a
moment to participate the brief survey we have
created. We will tabulate the survey
results next week. Take the survey
here.
As always, we thank you for helping us provide our members with the highest quality events, publications and services.
If you have any
other questions
or comments
regarding the
East Bay
Indicators, or
Quarterly and
monthly Economic
newsletters,
please
contact
Stephanie Brown, (510) 272-6843.
Only Bay Area Event of its kind to discuss
funding for affordable housing
Executive Director Bruce Kern spoke before 400 members the Association of Realtors including Alameda, BayEast, Berkeley, Contra Costa, Delta, Oakland and West Contra Costa on June 4th in Sacramento. The presentation featured the May release of the East Bay’s quarterly economic outlook and highlighted emerging areas of economic strength including international trade, venture investment and entrepreneurship.
We are happy to announce that we have interviewed and hired two exceptional interns to assist East Bay EDA over throughout this summer and next school year.
Kelley McKanna, who will be graduating from UC Berkeley with a double major: Environmental Economics & Policy and Biology; and Lorraine Puentespina, who will also be graduating from UC Berkeley with a Applied Mathematics Major. Both are seniors and will be graduating in May 2009.
Both
Lorraine
& Kelley
will
assist
with obtaining
and analyzing data
and assisting with East Bay EDA's website.
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