Greater Oklahoma City (EDO) - News and Events

General Electric is bringing its focus on energy to Oklahoma

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

General Electric is poised to take advantage of Oklahoma?s oil and natural gas heritage.

GE, a $240 billion company, announced Wednesday it will build a $110 million global research center in Oklahoma dedicated to driving innovation and technological advancements in the oil and natural gas sector.

?Our shingle is out today,? said Mark Little, GE?s chief technology officer. ?We?re hiring.?

Read more at NewsOK.com

i2E-managed funds step into venture capital void for Oklahoma startups

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The Oklahoman

There used to be a lot of discussion about the necessity and appropriateness of state-funded and directed venture capital programs.

That was before the burst of the dot.com bubble and the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis drove down investment in private sector venture capital funds.

Read more at NewsOK.com

Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation gets $7.8 million grant

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The Oklahoman

A new $7.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will help five Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientists jump-start new projects over the next five years, support institutional core facilities, and pay for renovations to an animal facility.

The funding will allow scientists to create an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Center of Biomedical Research Excellence at OMRF.

The IDeA program builds research capacities in states that historically have had low levels of NIH funding by supporting basic, clinical and translational research, faculty development, and infrastructure improvements.

Read more at NewsOK.com

Venue showcases Oklahoma entertainment industry at SXSW festival in Austin, Texas

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The Oklahoman

AUSTIN, Texas ? A giant cutout of the tribal war shield from the Oklahoma flag greets you as soon as you step inside the Buffalo Lounge in Austin.

It?s an odd site considering you?re in the heart of Texas, but once inside, you are greeted by even more reminders of the Sooner State and its talented and intrepid musicians, filmmakers and innovators.

After starting at the 2010 South By Southwest festival, the Buffalo Lounge has grown every year. This year, more than 40 bands will take to two stages inside The 512 bar on Sixth Street.

Ginger Roddick, a partner with the Oklahoma City-based creative firm The Idea Collective, said Buffalo Lounge has grown exponentially the past three years and that she thinks this year it will have the best gathering yet.

?We are really amazed at our turnout,? Roddick said. ?We are just happy so many people took advantage of being around some really Oklahoma bands, thinkers and moviemakers.?

Read more at NewsOK.com

Oklahoma City Entrepreneurs Develop Custom Radio App

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0600

The Oklahoman

Oklahoma City-based startup Buzzam started with a daydream that 30-year-old software developer Josh Wright had of being able to have a TV channel that only played movies from his personal collection of DVDs.

?The technology didn't really exist to do that, so we thought of radio,? Wright said.

Together with business partner Greg Starling, 33, Wright launched Buzzam late last year. The iPhone and iPad app allows users to combine music, weather, news and social media to create a personalized radio station that is unique to each listener.

Starling is Wright's boss at the local trophy and sculpture maker MTM Recognition. The two have worked together for six years and hope to make Buzzam into the preferred way for users to listen to music and get information. Read more at NewsOK.com

Oklahoma Ranks Sixth in wind power, Trade Association Says

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 07:00:00 -0600

The Oklahoman

Oklahoma now ranks sixth in the nation for wind-generation capacity after a torrid fourth quarter that saw developers scrambling to finish projects before a federal tax credit deadline.

The year-end ranking by the American Wind Energy Association put Oklahoma?s total capacity at more than 3,134 megawatts. That?s enough to power more than 750,000 homes. The state ranked eighth in 2011.

Oklahoma added 1,127 megawatts of wind capacity in 2012, including 734 megawatts in the last three months of 2012, the association said. That put the state in fourth place nationally for the quarter.

Innovators: i2E Inc. ? Showcasing Oklahoma entrepreneurs

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0600

OKLAHOMA CITY ? Business opportunities are growing for Oklahoma entrepreneurs at the upcoming annual South by Southwest Conferences and Festivals in Texas.

Josh O?Brien, i2E Inc. spokesman, said the deadline for entries in the first stage of an elevator pitch contest managed by the nonprofit business support agency is Feb. 6. Finalists will try to convince investors of the brilliant profitability of their ideas March 11 before a live audience at The 512 Bar in Austin for prizes worth $10,000. The event is sponsored by the Office of Entrepreneurial Development, a partnership between i2E and the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber.

?We?re excited about showcasing Oklahoma talent before a SXSW audience that wants to see innovative, new concepts,? said O?Brien, director of i2E?s entrepreneurial development office. ?The Buffalo Lounge Elevator Pitch competition will put Oklahoma entrepreneurs in front of an audience that otherwise might never be exposed to the best that our state has to offer.?

The 10-day festival last year brought together an estimated 50,000 registered business professionals for music, film and interactive media presentations, in addition to at least that many unregistered visitors attracted to free concerts and other promotional materials.

So competition has grown for space at the event, and that means more preparatory competitions for each vendor or participating organization leading up to SXSW.

The festival has evolved into a venue for business developers and creative content makers to come together and discuss product synergies, O?Brien said. Successful participants stand to bring economic development back to Oklahoma.

The Buffalo Lounge portable stage and work environment was born in 2010 when the Oklahoma Film & Music Office, the Idea Collective and the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber collaborated on increasing the state?s presence at SXSW. Officials have since taken it on the road to events across the state.

?Once we started putting all the pieces together, we were surprised to realize just how many people from Oklahoma were going,? O?Brien said. ?By focusing our efforts, we?ve provided participants a base of operations to work off of.

?We?re always trying to think of ways for our young startups to find success and attract attention and investors,? he said. ?We?re optimistic that this will be another successful event for us.?

O?Brien said corporate sponsorships have been secured for the elevator pitch and promotion of SXSW, so it hasn?t depleted any of i2E?s other funds.

Applicants submitting video pitches will be ranked based on angel investor interest.

Criteria may include the quality of the pitch, business viability, market opportunity, competitive advantage and management. Finalists will be announced Feb. 8.

For more information about the Buffalo Lounge Elevator Pitch competition, Josh O?Brien can be reached at jobrien@i2E.org or (405) 813-2412.

Oklahoma entrepreneur enjoys sharing his vision with students

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Vision is the mantra of entrepreneurs.

Dr. Craig Shimasaki, president and CEO of Moleculera Labs Inc., serial entrepreneur and adviser to multiple teams in Oklahoma's collegiate business plan competition, the Governor's Cup, says vision begins with the way we look at the world.

?Everything we see that is man-made existed in the mind of someone before it ever came into being,? he said. ?The challenge is to encourage, teach and inspire young entrepreneurs to think differently about what they see in the world around them, seeing solutions that connect to a problem.?

Recently, Shimasaki advised two Governor's Cup teams from Oklahoma City University, including one that wrote a business plan around his company's concept. Moleculera Labs won first place in the Undergraduate Division; Precision HealthTech placed third in the Graduate Division.

?I like helping the students understand that they don't have to be expert at everything,? he said. ?They have initiative, motivation and drive. What they need are guidelines, insight, experience and a little help.?

Moleculera Labs recently received a syndicated investment of more than $500,000 to create a scalable lab test to predict a patient's likelihood of having Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococci (PANDAS), a form of autism spectrum disorder.

Moleculera Labs' vision is to make this test readily available to identify the origin of a child's disorder so the child can receive treatment that can reduce the symptoms, allowing the child to better function in society. He estimates Moleculera Labs will have a testing lab operational within the next six months.

?Without the stellar technology based on the research of our co-founder, Dr. Madeleine Cunningham at the University of Oklahoma, along with their willingness to transfer this technology, and the financial support of angels and other investors ? some of whom are parents of PANDAS children ? this wouldn't be happening,? he said. ?You can have all the ideas you want, but without support and technology, it's like a car without an engine.?

Oklahoma is fortunate to have entrepreneurs such as Shimasaki who are committed to sharing what they have learned with our state's up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

?All of us who have any success in leadership didn't get there by ourselves,? he said. ?We got there because other people spent time teaching and training us, giving us a break. It's an obligation to share that wisdom and knowledge to help create a better place for everyone else.?

Shimasaki and other serial entrepreneurs are a critical component of Oklahoma's entrepreneurial ecosystem and a sign of its continued growth.

Rex Smitherman is interim president and CEO of i2E Inc., a nonprofit corporation that mentors many of the state's technology-based startup companies. i2E receives state appropriations from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. Contact Smitherman at i2E_Comments@i2E.org.

Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation researcher gains lupus grant

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0500

The Lupus Foundation of America has funded a $110,000 grant for an Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist to study the role of a specific protein.

For 20 years, researcher Carol Webb has studied ARID3a, a protein important in the production and development of adult stem cells ? but her work had not led to lupus research until recently.

?You can't force science to go one way or the other,? said Webb. ?When you make a discovery, you have to follow where it leads.?

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system confuses healthy cells with foreign substances, like viruses and bacteria, and attacks the body's tissues and organs. The illness affects 2 million Americans, roughly 90 percent of whom are women.

When scientists at OMRF discovered a correlation between autoimmunity and the Epstein-Barr virus, it piqued Webb's interest. She knew the virus could induce the creation of the ARID3a protein in some cells and had seen that mice whose cells created too much of the protein made the same kinds of antibodies sometimes observed in lupus patients.

?We were excited to find that nearly half of the cross-section of patients we examined also over-expressed this protein compared to healthy individuals,? she said. ?We don't yet know if they create too much of the protein because of the inflammatory responses that occur in lupus or if the overabundance of the protein somehow leads to the disease.?

Webb said her goal is to determine if the cells that create more of the protein are more likely to lead to auto-antibody-producing cells than the cells that express normal levels of this protein. That information could be useful in certain procedures in which doctors transplant adult stem cells to help patients create new immune cells.

Pipe project starts development of Will Rogers airport's east side

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Miles from Airport Road and the side of Will Rogers World Airport most travelers see, workers have begun laying pipe for a series of utility projects that will pave the way for future development on the airport's east side.

For more information about Will Rogers World Airport's development plan, visit www.flyokc.com.

After the utility work, crews will relocate Portland Avenue, which will ready the area for the presence of new businesses: aerospace, non-aerospace and retail. Airports Director

Mark Kranenburg said the development, which officials have been planning for three years, will focus on aviation.

?Oklahoma already has a very rich aerospace heritage and we wanted to build on that and try to get Will Rogers World Airport to be known as an aviation center,? he said. "What you see out there today is really the first step.?

Two water main projects along Portland Avenue ? from SW 104 to SW 74 and from SW 74 to SW 59 ? are being completed by the city of Oklahoma City utilities department at a cost of $8.7 million.

Construction of the new Portland Avenue is expected to be complete by the end of summer 2014. The new Portland Avenue will be four-lanes with a median, landscaping and esplanade lighting. Six million dollars from the city's 2007 bond package was earmarked to relocate Portland Avenue and the airport trust is funding the engineering and design.

When the infrastructure is complete, the airport will have 600 to 700 leasable acres.

Area designated for project

The airport owns more than 8,000 acres and designated 1,000 acres for development, portions of which were approved by the Federal Aviation Administration for nonaviation use. The current focus of development is between SW 89 and SW 54, bordered by Interstate 44 on the east and the airport's taxiways on the west.

Planners have divided the swath of land into a section abutting the interstate for retail, industrial and office space, a larger piece for direct aviation companies needing runway access and a middle section for indirect aviation business, such as freight transportation or other complimentary businesses, Kranenburg said.

Lariat Landing, the retail portion, could include restaurants, hotels, banking services, dry cleaners or other businesses that would appeal to airport employees and customers, Kranenburg said. The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber has begun marketing Lariat Landing to potential tenants.

Development of the area will be bound by certain restrictions set by the FAA, such as height requirements and leasing rates.

?Developing on airport dirt is quite different from developing on non-airport dirt,? Kranenburg explains.

He's confident there will be interest in the development because of its easy interstate access and location in south Oklahoma City, which is lacking in retail, he said.

Runway access

In preparation for future development on the airport's east side, crews have nearly completed a $5 million project to realign and strengthen with concrete the easternmost taxiway so it can handle larger aircraft. The airport also extended another taxiway to within 300 feet of the existing Portland Avenue and designed it to go across Portland and 100 feet on the other side to accommodate aviation businesses that need runway access.

Kranenburg credits the success of two businesses that currently have operations on the east side ? ARINC and Atlantic Aviation ? with generating interest in the project. ?Because on an airport, activity breeds activity,? he said.

ARINC, an aircraft modifications company based in Annapolis, Md., opened its first Oklahoma City hangar at Will Rogers in 2005. Last summer, the company added a second hangar, bringing its total hangar space to 145,000 square feet.

After securing two big Department of Defense contracts to upgrade KC-10s and KC-135s, the company is again in expansion mode.

Michael Young, vice president of ARINC Aerospace, the Oklahoma subsidiary of ARINC, said the operation just received approval to double the size of its ramp to accommodate the new production programs.

ARINC Aerospace is also adding workers and hopes to increase its staff by over 200 by early next year, Young said.

?If business continues to grow and expand, we would look to add a third hangar,? he said, adding that it would probably be two years or more.

Fixed-base operator Atlantic Aviation, based in Plano, Texas, opened its $6.5 million facility last summer, with a 29,000-square-foot hangar and 12,000-square-feet of office space.

Retail opportunities

Oklahoma City councilman David Greenwell, who represents Ward 5 in south Oklahoma City, said the development at the airport is an exciting opportunity to add more shopping choices for residents and reduce retail leakage to areas like Moore.

It complements the performing arts theater Oklahoma City Community College is building on the opposite side of Interstate 44, the new owners' plans for Crossroads Mall and retail opening up and down May Avenue, he added.

?It would be a destination point, more like a village than a strip center or mall,? he said.