Welcome – Terence Roberts, TATT Chairman
Sam Konduros, President and CEO, SCBIO
Guest Presentation – Sam Konduros, President and CEO, SCBIO (South Carolina Biotechnology Industry Organization)
- While other industries are down as a result of the pandemic, life sciences are up. From testing to face shields to respiratory drugs, the life science industry is an important part of the fight against COVID-19.
- Repatriation and onshoring of life science companies will put the U.S. on a more solid footing in the future in terms of drug and PPE production.
- Third party study was done to reveal the growth of the industry across the state
- 50,000 jobs, $14 billion annual impact
- What is life science? Drugs & pharmaceuticals, med tech, digital health/heath IT (software, apps, etc.), research/testing/medical labs, bioscience distribution, and bio/agriculture
- See his presentation here
- You can read Sam’s guest post on our Staying on Top blog here
TATT Updates
Dean Hybl, TATT Executive Director
- Next TATT Chat with Sean Dogan, August 27th—register here
- Networking time 20 minutes prior to the meeting on upcoming TATT Chats! Sign on early to network with friends and colleagues.
Justine Allen, Program and Event Coordinator:
- First Sneak Pique event on September 14th—virtual happy hour! Register here
Upstate Entrepreneur Ecosystem Workshop: Entrepreneur Resiliency on August 26th—register here
Ten at the Top Seniors Issues Group Workshop with AARP of SC on August 27th—register here
County Updates
Abbeville County (Shannon Sears, WCTEL):
- About 30% of students will be participating in online schooling
- CARES grants for fiber upgrades to underserved areas
Cherokee County (Drake Scott, Main Street Director, City of Gaffney):
- Despite COVID-19 challenges, good things happening at BGEN, Gaffney’s small business incubator
- 8 businesses housed in the incubator
- First graduate of the incubator: Zachary’s Coffee Shop is moving out to a building in downtown this weekend
- ARC grant to do renovations to the BGEN building to expand office space for more residents
Greenwood County (Art Bush, Greenwood Partnership Alliance):
- Transition in Greenwood County—county council voted to leave the partnership alliance and take industrial development with it
- Re-examining mission, will continue with activities that were going on: workforce development, public transportation, housing, city center development, and working with Greenwood Genetics Center, which just launched a
- Drone project with five industrial projects
Spartanburg County (Bea Smith, Spartanburg Community College Foundation):
- We are open for business! Never really stopped, transitioned to virtual classes in the spring and continued throughout the summer
- Dr. Henry Giles retired as president this summer after 50 years of service
- Welcomed new president, Dr. Michael Mikota
- SCC Foundation has worked to make students aware of emergency fund and book fund
- School starts Monday—virtual, hybrid, and face to face
Union County (Curtiss Hunter, Union County Tourism):
- Continuing to work on comprehensive plan, hope it will be adopted before the year’s end
- Formed a recreation/event task force to help citizens who are hosting events, to keep people in compliance and safe
- Private developer who created a western town as a tourist attraction on the Pacolet River called Wildwood Ranch—beautiful facility for events, working with him to get that up and running once the pandemic subsides