37signals CEO and founder Jason Fried, hacker and personal technology innovator Joshua Klein, tech writer and thinker Clay Shirky, and electronic drum pad and MIDI standard inventor Dave Kusek are among those ITDM storytellers participating the Business Innovation Factory’s BIF-4 Summit on October 15-16. Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh, Marc Ecko and Richard Saul Wurman will also be there, along with many others.

BIF is offering registered RI Nexus users 25% off regular priced registration at http://www.businessinnovationfactory.com/bif-4/nexusregistration.php You must use this special link to claim the RI-Nexus discount. The discounted rate will expire on August 15 when the regular registration rate of $1,200 goes into effect.

Co-hosted by BusinessWeek Assistant Managing Editor Bruce Nussbaum and “Mavericks at Work” author Bill Taylor, the BIF-4 Summit will feature more than two dozen innovators who have 15 minutes on stage to share a personal story about how they turned an idea into an innovation.

In 2007, the sold out BIF-3 Summit hosted participants from 174 organizations, 65 percent of whom were CEOs, presidents, founders or senior leaders within their organizations.

This year’s line-up of BIF-4 storytellers includes:

• John Abele, leader of the Grunion expedition and the founder of Boston Scientific Corporation
• Steve Bendt and Gary Koelling, founders of Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Nation
• Dave Berry, principal at Flagship Ventures and MIT Technology Review’s 2007 Innovator of the Year for his work developing renewable petroleum from microbes
• Ruby Bridges , educator and activist and first African American child to desegregate an elementary school
• Deborah Brooks, co-founder of the Michael J. Fox Foundation
• Joseph F. Coughlin, founder of the MIT AgeLab
• Marc Ecko , who heads a global lifestyle and entertainment empire
• Jason Fried, founder and CEO of 37signals
• Tony Hsieh, Zappos.com CEO
• Jeffrey Hollender, president and chief inspired protagonist of Seventh Generation
• Joshua Klein, technology principle at Frog Design
• Dave Kusek, MIDI standard inventor and electronic music master.
• Cat Laine, Deputy Director of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group helps developing countries get affordable access to energy, sanitation and clean water.
• Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of Acumen Fund, uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve problems of global poverty
• Lewis Gordon Pugh, explorer, environmentalist and first person to undertake a long distance swim at the North Pole
• Richard Satava, visionary surgeon who co-developed the first surgical robot
• Clay Shirky, writer on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies
• John Wolpert, former head of IBM’s Extreme Blue business innovation incubator
• Richard Saul Wurman, Author and information architect now is working on “19.20.21”--an attempt to standardize information about 19 cities that will reach 20 million inhabitants in the 21st century
• David R. Yaun, VP of Corporate Communications for IBM and director of IBM’s innovation and technology leadership programs

Held at Trinity Rep in Providence, R.I., BIF-4 is limited to 300 participants.
Get the full list of storytellers, more information on registration and details at www.businessinnovationfactory.com/bif-4. To receive the RI Nexus discount remember to register here: http://www.businessinnovationfactory.com/bif-4/nexusregistration.php.

Planning for the Business Innovation Factory's BIF-4 Collaborative Innovation Summit is heating up. BIF-4's storyteller lineup features a host of info-tech and digital media heavyweights including:

• Marc Ecko, Designer and Entrepreneur
• Jason Fried , Founder and CEO, 37signals
• Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com
• Clay Shirky, Author, Writer, Consultant and Teacher
• David Yaun, VP, Corporate Communications, IBM

Early registration discount expires soon. See full line-up and get more info at www.businessinnovationfactory.com/bif-4 or contact Melissa at mwithers@businessinnovationfactory.com.

The Rhode Island Science and Technology Council (STAC) has debuted a new statewide collaborative research website that creates a one-stop-shop where researchers, entrepreneurs and community leaders can learn about research and development in Rhode Island, register for events, apply for programs and access a searchable database of research equipment and shared facilities.

The web portal was created by the Rhode Island Research Alliance, a STAC-led program to promote collaboration across Rhode Island's research institutions, attract additional federal R&D investment into the state and accelerate Rhode Island's effort to create a knowledge-based innovation economy. Among other things, the Research Alliance oversees the Collaborative Research Grant Awards, which in 2008 included ITDM players like Bay Computer and Bionica.

Earlier this spring STAC presented its plans for expanding the Research Alliance and announced that Brown University and the University of Rhode Island both had contributed $25,000 to support the next phase of Research Alliance activity. Expansion of the Research Alliance and support for activities that promote greater collaboration across institutions was also designated as an economic development priority in the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation's 2008 Economic Growth Plan. The plan, a roadmap of economic development activities for repositioning Rhode Island's economy and creating more high wage jobs.

Check it out at www.stac.ri.gov

Melissa Withers is the Director of Communications and Market Development for the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation.

The Business Innovation Factory announced last week that it is partnering with the Tockwotton Home, Quality Partners of Rhode Island and the MIT AgeLab to create a real-world laboratory for developing and testing new solutions, products and models for improving elderly care.

Leveraging the BIF Experience Lab platform, the “Nursing Home of the Future” will create a platform for innovators and industry partners to transform current approaches to elderly care in assisted living and nursing care facilities. Outcomes will provide a roadmap for redesigning the next generation of elderly care solutions and help companies and care providers deliver better value to the burgeoning elderly population.

For this effort, the partnership team engages residents and staff at Tockwotton Home, a 30-bed assisted living center and 42-bed skilled nursing home located in Providence. The Tockwotton Home provides the partnership access to a working home where residents and partners can co-develop a real-world understanding of the elderly experience and a platform for developing and testing new solutions. Tockwotton Home also plans to open a new 150-bed facility in 2010 in which they will dedicate a patient unit and common living areas to the Nursing Home of the Future initiative.

Partners are now recruiting Phase 1 sponsors and mobilizing the initiative. Phase 1 activities will begin with a comprehensive analysis and mapping of the current experience of nursing home and assisted-living residents, an analysis of unmet needs in current care models, the identification and prioritization of an initial set of target opportunities, the architectural design of the patient unit in the new home, and ongoing stakeholder engagement and communication efforts.

Although it will be a few months before the team is in active experimentation mode I already predict that the biggest opportunities for improving the elder care experience will not be found in simply dropping new tools and gadgets into the environment. The big wins, I think, we’ll come from integrative solutions that recognize how information and activities need to be connected across the entire elder care experience. The BIF team is excited to have this project off the ground and looks forward to working with interest parties within our state’s info-tech and digital media community as the project progresses.

Check out a full description of the initiative here.

Melissa Withers is the Director of Communications and Market Development for the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation.

Congratulations to Bionica Corp., Lighthouse Security Group (a subsidiary of Lighthouse Computer Services), Ocean State Solutions (doing business as mPay USA), Providence Health Solutions, Public Display, Inc., and Tizra, Inc, each of which received pre-approval for the state's new Innovation Tax Credit program. The program offers investors up to a 50 percent credit on eligible investments, with a maximum credit of $100,000.

This program reminds us it's important, even during times of budgetary crisis, we must stay focused on programs that align with our economic development strategy and help promising companies grow. In the long haul, this is how we will increase state revenue.

I think Saul Kaplan, RIEDC executive director, got it right when he said that: "Many of our incentive programs are outdated and reflect old assumptions about the kind of economy we need to create greater prosperity for our citizens. The Innovation Tax Credit directs resources toward innovative companies that are poised to create new, higher wage jobs. This program is a strategic investment for Rhode Island and one that is in-line with our economic development strategy."

Proposed by the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC) and enacted into law in 2006, the Innovation Tax Credit is designed to attract and retain serial entrepreneurs and stimulate economic growth in high-wage, high-growth industries. The first round of applicants clearly reflect that mission.

To be eligible for the credit, an investor must invest in a Rhode Island business that produces traded goods or services and has annual gross revenues of less than $1 million in the prior two calendar years. Companies must be categorized as one of the following innovation industries: biotechnology and life sciences; communication and information technology; financial services; marine and defense manufacturing; professional, technical and educational services; industrial and consumer product manufacturing and design.

No surprise that the first round of applicants came from the info-tech & digital media sector (ITDM)—one of the state's most entrepreneurial and innovative sectors.

Recipients of the pre-approval underscored how these small but strategic investments can stimulate growth. Kipp Bradford, chief technology officer, Bionica Corporation said: "Early stage investment in burgeoning technology companies plays an extremely important role in new company creation. In our particular instance, we are company that grew out of the local scientific, industrial design and engineering communities, which saw great potential in developing new innovative technologies for the hearing impaired. It is our intention to leverage the innovation tax credit to attract more local investment in our company and see this as an integral part of our business growth strategy."

The companies/investors pre-approved for the credit have six months to make the investment and provide proof of investment back to the RIEDC board of directors. Upon completion of this process, the RIEDC will certify the investor's eligibility for the credit with the Rhode Island Division of Taxation. The RIEDC, which will review applications for the credit quarterly, may not approve more than $2 million in credit applications in any two-year calendar year period. The credit sunsets in 10 years.

All of the applicants were hopeful that they could grow jobs and expand revenues in the next 3-5 years, with all looking to make innovation central to that growth. We wish them good luck and quick progress!