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ICC expands markets
April 22, 2003
By: Shawntaye Hopkins, College Heights Herald
Sometimes people have a plan, but the weight of
failure is so heavy, it stops
them before they get started.
But there are places that can help those with
business ideas or inventions make
it beyond just a thought.
"They might think about it or talk about it for
five or ten years -an idea or
something - but they never start, and that's a
real shame," said Buddy Steen,
executive director of the Central Region
Innovation and Commercialization
Center.
The Central Region ICC works closely with
Western to help entrepreneurs create
or expand businesses in Kentucky and help them
obtain national or international
markets.
The ICC looks for technology companies with a
knowledge base and a strategy
to obtain national or international markets
after they are successful, Steen said.
The ICC wants to assist in creating the
businesses that will produce jobs to
prevent intellectual minds, like those in the
engineering program, from graduating
from Western then leaving the city, Steen said.
"Our mission is to facilitate the creation and
growth of emerging science and
technology companies in our area," he said.
Potential clients should come to the ICC with a
business plan and $500. The
center will help clients create a business plan
if they don't have one. Steen is
currently working with seven clients.
Steen said, since the program began in July
2002, he has met with 45 potential
clients, including Western professors, inventors
and other entrepreneurs.
Hitcents.com is working with the ICC at the
business plan assessment level.
Bowling Green freshmen Clinton and Chris Mills
founded Hitcents to help
companies advertise on the Internet in December
1999.
Chris Mills said Steen came to them and set up
an appointment for the brothers
to find out more about the ICC. Hitcents joined
because they felt the ICC could
help them develop a better business plan, he
said.
Unlike other ICC regions, the Central region ICC
searches for sources of
intellectual capital, Steen said. He said
intellectual capital can be in the form of a
person who has knowledge about a process or a
patent.
Steen said Chris Byrne, assistant professor of
mechanical engineering and an
expert on the carbonization of wood, has a
patent on a product he devised to aid<
in the carbonization process. The ICC is working
with Byrne to move his process
into the commercial world, he said.
The ICC also serves as a catalyst for innovation
and commercialization by linking
individuals with business problems to Western
professors who can help solve
them.
Steen has met with clients in various locations,
such as on campus and at
Barnes and Noble Booksellers. The permanent ICC
office will be located at
Western's Center for Research and Development on
2700 Nashville Road when
renovations are completed around the beginning
of May.
The ICC works with existing economic development
programs, such as the Small
Business Development Center located at the
Carroll Knicely Institute for
Economic Development, Steen said.
The SBDC counsels and trains individuals wanting
to create their own
businesses, but the SBDC does not focus on local
businesses. But Horn
sometimes refers clients to Steen.
Steen has personal reasons for wanting to help
build businesses in Kentucky. He
graduated from Western in 1990 and worked for
ten years in the engineering and
technology department as a technical support
specialist/staff engineer.
fter Steen left Western, he started a company
that moved to Nashville against his
will. He eventually left the company and took
his current position.
"If the ICC had been in existence when my
company started, in my opinion, we
wouldn't have moved to Nashville, and the
scenario would have been quite
different," he said. |