About 300 CEOs, presidents and senior-level executives from the technology, business, government and academic communities were in attendance at the sixth annual
Summit in Tech Valley, held Wednesday, April 26 at The Desmond Hotel & Conference Center in Colonie. Hundreds more viewed a live webcast on techvalley.org
The keynote speech at the Summit - titled "Mastering the New Business Model" - was delivered by Larry Bossidy, retired CEO and chairman of the board of Honeywell International Inc., and chairman of the board of Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. He gave attendees a strong sense of the competitiveness of the business world and what needs to be done to stay on top.
Other featured speakers and topics at the event included
Howard Schmidt on cyber security,
Michael Jesanis on energy,
Dr. Glenn McGee on bioethics and
Colin Angle on robotics.
In addition, BullEx Digital Safety - which offers new products in the fire safety and security industry - was announced as the winner of the
$100,000 Business Plan Competition.
Dr. Walter Robb, management consultant and president of Vantage Management, received
The MIKE Award for contributions to the high-tech growth of the region. Dr. Robb has been a mentor, board member and angel investor for approximately 25 start-up companies since 1990 including Cyclics and X-Ray Optical Systems. His 42-year career at General Electric led to major advances in medical imaging.
Berkshire Bank, through its Greater Berkshire Foundation, served as the major sponsor of the Summit. Sponsors included FA Technology Ventures, National Grid, Times Union, Time Warner Cable and WNYT/NewsChannel 13. Red Herring was the media sponsor, Hiscock & Barclay LLP was the lunch sponsor and The Graduate College of Union University and BST Advisory Network LLC were the break sponsors. Chamber of Commerce sponsors included Bethlehem, Colonie, Fulton County, Guilderland, Orange County, Plattsburgh-North Country, Rensselaer County and Schenectady County. For the fourth consecutive year, the law firm of Nixon Peabody LLP served as the lead sponsor of the $100,000 Business Plan Competition. Major supporters were Albany Molecular Research Inc., New York Business Development Corporation and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; participating sponsors were Blue Slate Solutions LLC, Center for Economic Growth, Intermagnetics General Corporation, MapInfo Corp. and UHY Advisors NY Inc.