PACE News

Small Business Assistance -- Query at PACE Workshop
 
At the PACE Workshop presentations on Saturday morning (and again in the Issues Forum on Sunday morning) the question about assistance for small businesses and entrepreneurs came up, but was not answered.
 
There is an Association of Small Business Development Centers, with a web site at https://www.asbdc-us.org/about.html
 
The Federal government's Small Business Administration operates the Small Business Development Center Program, providing counseling and training to existing and prospective small business owners at some 1,000 locations around the country, as a cooperative effort of the private sector, the educational community, and government entities, from local to federal.
 
There is a web site at https://www.sba.gov/sbdc/
 
Today, I find an article about an initiative in that direction by the University of Central Florida:
 
 
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/nationworld/orl-cfbtech15041502apr15.story?coll=orl%2Dbusiness%2Dheadlines
 
TECHNOLOGY
 
Tech incubator heads downtown
By Christopher Boyd
Sentinel Staff Writer
 
April 15, 2002, 3:00 AM EDT
 
The University of Central Florida's Technology Incubator launched what it hopes will be a major move into downtown Orlando last week with the opening of the Downtown Center for Entrepreneurship in the UCF building on West Pine Street.
 
The new center, which at this point is an office, could begin growing as early as today. Technology Incubator Director Tom O'Neal said he may sign an agreement to rent 3,200 square feet on Pine Street near the UCF building, which would become office space for new businesses.
 
"The space we are looking at is within walking distance of the UCF building," O'Neal said. "Our hope is to get to the point where we have 20,000 square feet of incubator space filled with 15 to 20 client companies."
 
The Technology Incubator is a public/private partnership formed to encourage the launching of high-tech businesses. Until now, its focus has been the research park area near the UCF campus east of Orlando. But O'Neal said his group wants to begin aiding Orlando's effort to attract tech companies to the central business district.
 
"We want to attract more help from community associations and law firms in helping us nourish new businesses, and downtown is definitely the place for that," O'Neal said. "We expect that downtown could become a new center for innovative technologies companies."
 
<snip>
 
Christopher Boyd can be reached at cboyd@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5723.
 
Copyright © 2002, Orlando Sentinel
 
Contact information:
Name: Tom O'Neal
Title: Director
Department: Research, Office Of
E-mail: oneal@ucf.edu
Building: Orl Tech Ctr/RP
Office: 207
Zip: 32826
Office Phone: (407) 882-1120
 
 
 
George F. McClure
g.mcclure@ieee.org
Ph. 407-647-5092
Fax 407-644-4076
1730 Shiloh Lane
Winter Park, FL 32789
 

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Updated 04/30/02