Barbara Bessy was featured in an article today about the Willamette Valley Bioscience Industry Consortium. She told them all about the great stuff that was happening to help coordinate and promote bioscience. Way to go Barbara!
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Added by Bill Ford on November 7, 2009 at 6:31pm —
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Larry Plotkin a member of the WVBIC, CEO and Founder of Precision Plant Systems, Inc. did a master-full job yesterday at the Bend Venture conference. The competition was stiff and yet he was able to convince the judges that his CropIQ system and business was worth supporting to the tune of the $120,000 cash prize. A lot of hard work went into the presentation and the entire Precision Plant Team is to be congratulated. Precision Plant Systems, Inc. is a resident client of the regional business ac…
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Added by Bill Ford on October 17, 2009 at 12:30pm —
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The Oregon Way...the governor has attempted to provide a system and process to achieve accountability and transparency over all the ARRA money coming to Oregon. A lot of great information is on the web site but the first energy deadline is tomorrow April 15th. It is a shame that those submitting, at least us, were unable to have our form sent through the web site as required. Our IT folks assured us that the error was NOT on our end. We ended up using snail mail to get the submission post marked…
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Added by Bill Ford on April 14, 2009 at 8:30pm —
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Is it possible that Linn and Benton County can work together along with OSU, a local non profit, a couple of cities and a couple of private start up companies to create a novel and innovative solution for a renewable energy source? Stay tuned because it seems a possibility if the State of Oregon and Department of Energy are really serious about job creation and novel renewable energy solutions. The feedstock would be algae. The two private companies would be Bioalgene and OrAgrow. Both companies…
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Added by Bill Ford on March 23, 2009 at 7:42pm —
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Today, the big 3 of Vermiculture in Mid Willamette Valley, met to discuss the possibility of having a commercial reactor solving some of the problems that the populace of Marion County may be facing. This is a problem that the knowledgeable are seeking solutions for and yet most folks don't read about it, hear about it, understand it, care about it or even suspect that their precious tax dollars are going to be under utilized trying to solve it. The problem of wet waste going to the burner and e…
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Added by Bill Ford on March 9, 2009 at 9:42pm —
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On my way back from the gun show at the Linn County Expo Center yesterday I stopped in at Garland's nursery to see if they had anything new and worth buying. This was a strange stop for me as I had heard on the news that it was supposed to snow today! Why did I stop. Well, I wanted to make sure that they had stocked up on a new product from Oregon Soil Corporation, their pure organic worm castings. I have read all the technical reports and this is an outstanding product according to the research…
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Added by Bill Ford on March 8, 2009 at 8:28am —
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Tomorrow will be the first day over at OSU for me looking for talent to assist the Professional Partners Project with the city of corvallis. The BEC and a couple of its affiliates want to work with the city to see if we can help them solve some of their pollution problems at the waste water treatment plant. Stan Barnes the CEO of BioAlgene is proposing an algae project and Dan Holcombe of Oregon Soil Corporation is willing to take a look at using his "red wigglers" to use the left over biomass a…
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Added by Bill Ford on March 1, 2009 at 4:57pm —
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From 1pm to 4pm about 17 or 18 folks gathered in the board room of the BEC out at theCorvallis Municipal Airport Industrial Park for a meeting with Stan Barnes the CEO of BioAlgene one of the newest BEC affiliate clients. Stan joins us from Mercer Island, Wa. and brings a wealth of information about the commercialization of algae to the Willamette Valley. Martin Desmond, a member of this site and Katleen Hutchenson the new Executive Director of the BEC invited experts from OSU (5), representativ…
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Added by Bill Ford on February 12, 2009 at 7:39pm —
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Once again, I am confused. At 65, I guess I rate a few more days of confusion then you younger folks but it just seems to me that it is becoming more and more difficult to keep up with all the meetings and cancellations then it used to be. For example, the WVBIC had a bio fuels meeting set for Feb 12th from 10am to 12pm at one point in the planning year. I found the announcement that Barbara Bessey had put out only after Bob Warren our regional economic development coordinator mentioned that he…
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Added by Bill Ford on February 9, 2009 at 8:00pm —
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Jim Miller who I am sure will post on here off and on left Oregon for parts unknown. Believed to be in Flordia or Kentucky or some other state that could embrace his ideas more readily. Jim blew into town (Corvallis) in a whirlwind filled with ideas and hopes for a more sustainable life and lifestyle only to find a deaf ear. In fact, Jim may have found a lot of deaf ears. He attempted to educate, correct, pontificate, encourage and create his own perfect solutions for everyone. When they would n…
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Added by Bill Ford on February 3, 2009 at 9:10pm —
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Over on SW Research Way in Corvallis Perpetua Power held an open house for their key champions and early investors. What an outstanding treat it was for the 40 to 50 folks gathered to see their progress. They showed their Power Puck. What an outstanding technological breakthrough and invention. Jon has done an incredible job along with Karen, Paul, Butch and a team of mostly former HP workers. Perpetua has a manufacturing space and is ready to introduce to the market in the first quarter of 2009…
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Added by Bill Ford on October 25, 2008 at 7:00pm —
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Larry Plotkin the President of Precision Plant Systems, Inc. (PPSI) outlined their business model and provided over 15 local economic development people an overview of their product. Based on IP from OSU and using a commercialization strategy they introduced the audience to the Ping meter. This is an electronic sensor that uses blue tooth technology and optics to take and read out instantly the about of nitrogen, water and chlorphyll in the plant. Essentially it allows the grower to access the h…
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Added by Bill Ford on October 21, 2008 at 7:32pm —
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People in high places, well at least higher then I am, let me know that the federal government is going to release some of the money to study and invest in biofuels and renewable energy. A fellow at Oregon State Dept. of Agriculture and an administrator/professor at OSU sent me a rather long email attachment concerning the rules for applying for the funds. I will attempt to download it from my mail and then attach it to a file here so everyone will know about it and most of you won't care and ot…
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Added by Bill Ford on October 14, 2008 at 9:30pm —
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Well folks if you are an angel investor or an entrepreneur looking for investment we are getting organized to put on a 7 county conference next May. Go to http://willametteangleconference.squarespace.com for additional details. We are also looking for sponsors for the event and all of those details are also listed on the web site. You could contact me at the BEC 541 758 4009 or call my cell at 541 829-9468. Get involved and see if we can promote not only bioscience but also economic development…
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Added by Bill Ford on October 11, 2008 at 9:55pm —
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I just wrote a nice blog piece about not getting either of the IMPLANS funded and then failed to get it posted. Maybe this time I will make it. I hosted a meeting at the BEC for Oregon Soil Corportation with staffer from the city of Corvallis and Benton County along with Dan Holcombe the president of Oregon Soil and Chris Klemm of OSU. It was a good overview meeting of the proposed vermiculture project. Staff will return to the file cabinets and see if they can find anything in the codes that wo…
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Added by Bill Ford on August 24, 2008 at 9:21pm —
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Well, I went into my web based email and downloaded the newsletter that Barbara Bessey sent me to my desktop and also the Survey she sent and I then edited my last blog post and uploaded them to that posting. I previewed the post a couple of times and it seemed to work so I published it. I hope some one who didn't already have it reads it and uses it for the purpose intended. I guess if they don't or it doesn't work for them my work or attempt was for not but at least, I learned a few things and…
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Added by Bill Ford on August 14, 2008 at 8:30pm —
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I had an opportunity to speak with Barbara Bessey this week and she was in the final stages of getting out the 1st newsletter to the mailing list and announcing the next meeting out at LBCC. I will see if I can post all the scoop on this site. Not sure of the reason it isn't already on here but I am just a prodder not a driver of the train. Not exactly sure how to upload, download and reload but it sure seems easier then the process and system currently being used. The newsletter is great. The p…
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Added by Bill Ford on August 13, 2008 at 5:30pm —
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I spoke with Barbara Bessey yesterday and she is hard at it and full on in spite of a strained back! She has made a trip to Salem to garner support for our efforts. She is almost ready to publish the 1st issue of the WVBIC newsletter which should bring everyone on the distribution list up to date. The next meeting of WVBIC is set for the 2nd week of September and she is assisting the establishment of several more BIC sites around the state. Progress is happening on the "real" web sites that will…
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Added by Bill Ford on August 7, 2008 at 7:18am —
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I am still waiting and the last time got in trouble for asking but I do wonder how long it takes to publish the minutes of meetings. Maybe this isn't the right place to publish them or maybe they are published and sent out but only to those who attended or maybe I just need more patience. How is the real web site for WVBIC coming? I heard that a free one year trial membership to the Oregon Bioscience Association was offered to all who attended the 2nd meeting. Could this possibly be correct. See…
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Added by Bill Ford on June 13, 2008 at 7:44pm —
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Lots of ideas but so little time and so little money. Sound familar. I started another forum discussion and we will see if anyone on the WVBIC.NING site has the interest to join the effort to push for a couple of IMPLANs to see what emerging cluster makes the most sense in our area. I have an affiliate client at the BEC now who is looking for funding to do a demonstration project at the Corvallis Municipal Airport Industrial Park. Oregon Soil, Inc. is the areas expert on vermiculture and is look…
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Added by Bill Ford on June 13, 2008 at 7:38pm —
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