Sam’s Club Will Be Here On Friday!

Sam’s Club will be available Friday, September 30, 2011 onsite to explain the benefits of a Business Membership. Let us help you save money and time for your business.

Learn more about:

· Receive a $10 -$25 gift card Friday just for joining!

· Learn about our Fax/Click n Pull free service

· Office Supplies are 30%-50% off retail

· Over 26,000 office supply items available on samsclub.com

· Early shopping hours

· First Data Merchant Credit Card processing Discount (free plus membership)

· SBA Loans

· Earn up to 2% cash back on Sam’s Club Discover

TComm Event on October 13th

The TCOMM Event is a fast-paced, interactive conference designed for small businesses and innovators who want to create and commercialize new technologies. Breakout sessions include:

• Early-Stage Funding for Energy-Related Startup Companies
• Managing Intellectual Property
• Strategies for Beta Testing & Corporate Partnering

• SBIR-STTR Discussion panel with Federal & State Agencies:                                                                                                          
        Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency (MDA)
        Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
        National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL)
        Department of Agriculture (USDA)
        PA Innovation Partnership
• Tales From the Trenches: How to Successfully Commercialize Your Clean Technology Product
• Get Connected: Regional Alternative Financing Programs
• The Investor-Ready Entrepreneur: Getting a “Yes” from Investors
• Go Global: Taking Your Technology Abroad
• That’s a Great Idea, But Will It Sell?

The TCOMM EVENT will be on October 13th at the Holiday Inn, Pittsburgh @ University Center (Oakland)

During lunch, keynote speaker Lalit Chordia, Ph.D. details his path to success—from the creation of a new idea to commercialization to winning SBA Exporter of the Year.
Dr. Chordia is president and founder of Thar Technologies, which specializes in commercial applications for high-pressure carbon dioxide process technologies.

For more information please visit: http://www.sbdc.duq.edu/tcomm.asp

RCI Creates Virtual Community Platform For Tenants, Clients and Constituents

We are excited to announce the creation of our new Virtual Community Platform based off the VillageNode project.  Over the Summer, RCI Staff worked with one of its certified minority-owned start-ups, Acuta Digital, Inc., to design, create and implement an interactive platform that enables Riverside Center for Innovation and its stakeholders i.e. tenant; clients and constituents to easily and effectively manage information between one another.

This Virtual Community Platform offers mass email newsletter distribution and real-time information sharing capabilities with our stakeholders.  In our  strategic re-visioning process, our Board of Director's have asked the staff to create some sort of forum where our stakeholders can make announcement of activities such as any discounted services, events and more importantly the services of our start -up and existing companies have to offer. 

Please follow the steps below to access the Virtual Community Platform:

1) Go to RCI’s website (http://www.riversidecenterforinnovation.com) and click the RCI’s Village Node –Virtual Community Platform link located on the left navigation bar, then click the Create new account tab and create a new account.

2) Once your account is approved, you will receive an email with login info.   You must login to your account to activate it.

If you have difficulty logging into the Virtual Community Platform, please contact Carla(cj@riversidecenterforinnovation.com) or Juan(jg@riversidecenterforinnovation.com) or call at 412-322-3523.

If you have any other suggestions or ideas, please let us know.

RCI Receives $3.4 Million In EPA Community-wide Brownfield Assessment Grants.

RCI receives $3.4 million in EPA Community-wide Brownfield Assessment Grants.

The EPA estimates 450,000 brownfields--abandoned gas stations, derelict mines, shuttered factories--litter the country. Contamination at such sites from trash, oil, or industrial activity won't make the Superfund list but does deter redevelopment and lowers property values even in otherwise desirable locations.

Pennsylvania has invested over $518 million to help 1,200 sites and retain over 87,000 jobs. The PA Department of Environmental Protection is collaborating with the Team PA Foundation to inventory brownfields and their characteristics to facilitate companies' finding sites that suit their needs. Nationally, EPA's brownfields program since its inception in 1995 has disbursed almost $900 million to reclaim 25,000 acres and assess another 16,000 sites.

Some brownfields, such as the former Bethlehem Steel mill, can stretch for miles. Others may cover only the corner of a block. By focusing on smaller sites in western Pennsylvania, the non-profit North Side Industrial Development Company strives to maximize its impact.

Assessment is Critical

According to its executive director Emily Buka, NSIDC has received $3.4 million in EPA community-wide brownfield assessment grants. (NSIDC does business under the name the Riverside Center for Innovation.) The latest $1 million came in June, when NSIDC led a coalition of 20 municipalities along the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers to get funding to assess 52 acres of the former Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad maintenance facility in McKees Rocks. The DEP, working with the Department of Community and Economic Development, also awarded money to redevelop the site, which is expected eventually to bring in $13 million in tax revenue.
Kevin Sunday, a spokesman for DEP, says that revenue is especially important where the per capita income is only about $13,000. "In this case, you're looking at a site that has a direct skyline view of Pittsburgh. Most former industrial centers are near urban areas and have the potential to revitalize a community. The brownfields program is a winning proposition both economically and environmentally."
Even if relatively small, the P&LE site is the largest NSIDC has tackled. Its previous work included a half-acre gas station and 6-acre Henry Miller spring plant. Those sites, however, taught Buka that "the combination of riverfront properties, multiple municipalities, and economic development combined with brownfield redevelopment appealed to the EPA, so we took that model and recreated it. Ironically," Buka adds, "the perception is that the riverfronts in Pittsburgh, PA, must be contaminated. There are some problems, but none of them are Love Canals." Contamination at most sites can be cleaned or controlled relatively easily, improving NSIDC's bang for the buck.

 

Read more of Emily’s interview: http://www.keystoneedge.com/features/pennsylvaniabrownfields0901.aspx