We are please to have and would like to welcome the following representatives from the Federal Agencies to the WSSI conference! These representatives will fill participants in on what's new in their agency program as well as be available for one-on-one consultations!

• Department of Defense, DARPA - Connie Jacobs
  
• Department of Health and Human Services (NIH) - Jo Anne Goodnight
  
• Department of Transportation - Joe Henebury
  
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Paul Mexcur (& Walter Kim)
  
• National Science Foundation - Representative TBA

Formerly: Wyoming Governor 1995-2003 Currently: Director of Policy and Public Sector Strategies                   Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) We are privileged to have Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer as our Fourth Annual WSSI Conference honored guest and banquet speaker. It was through his advocacy in 1998 that the Wyoming Business Council was established and sponsorship of the WSSI and Phase 0 programs was initiated. His vision and leadership played a major role in bringing Wyoming's participation in the federal SBIR and STTR programs from well below the national average to 110% of the national average for the five years of the existence of the WSSI program His banquet presentation is titled "The Power of Place for Decision Makers." We are honored to have him as our guest speaker.

A native of Wyoming, reared on the family farm near Wheatland, Geringer received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and served as a space program project officer for both the Air Force and NASA during his 22 years of active and reserve service. From 1983 to 1994, he served in the Wyoming Legislature, including six years each in the House and the Senate. Jim was first elected as Wyoming's 30th governor in 1994 and completed his second term in January 2003. During his tenure he focused on improving education, modernizing economic planning and implemented strategic planning tied to performance based budgeting, providing Wyoming state government with a budget surplus when leaving office.

Geringer's active interests in innovative technology issues include chair of the National Governors Association Technology Task Force, membership on the GeoSpatial One Stop Board of Directors as well as the Mapping Sciences Committee of the National Academy of Sciences. His advocacy for technology has centered on the end result of how technology enhances services, emphasizing the benefits of integrated service delivery and enterprise-wide solutions. That advocacy led Jim to join ESRI in the summer of 2003 in his present position as Director of Policy and Public Sector Strategies.

ESRI is headquartered in Redlands, California and has 11 regional offices in the United States and more than 75 international distributors with users in more than 220 countries. On any given day, more than 1 million people around the world use ESRI's Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Software as the underlying technology for such things as weather maps, the GM OnStar system, navigation systems and site specific decisions for agricultural production.

FREE booth space for Wyoming SBIR Phase I or II Award Winners with a paid registration - contact Jill Kline.
See Section 3.

This year's agenda includes a Pre-conference Networking Reception at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center; federal agency representatives from DOD, DOT, NASA, NIH, & NSF; a session specifically for newcomers to the program, a full day phase I proposal preparation with SBIR experts Mark Henry and Randy Dipner from Personal Business Consultants (PBCinc) out of Denver, plus much more.