Thrive: Thrive and regional partners at the World Stem Cell Summit

Contact: Jennifer Smith (608) 443-1961 or jsmith@thrivehere.org

For more information on Thrive or our work in biotechnology in the region: http://www.thrivehere.org/biotechnology

Cities, Utilities and Thrive form coalition to promote the region’s bioscience sector to global audience

September 18, 2008 (Madison, WI) – Thrive, the not-for-profit economic development enterprise serving the eight-county Madison Region*, is once again joining with a broad coalition of regional partners to promote the region’s stem cell knowledge base as well as the breadth and depth of our bioscience industry to a global audience.

Joining Thrive in this coalition are the cities of Fitchburg, Madison and Middleton, as well as Alliant Energy and Madison Gas and Electric. The coalition will have a presence at both the Lab on the Lake (Sunday, September 21) and the World Stem Cell Summit (Monday and Tuesday, September 22-23).

“We are very pleased once again to be a partner in this broad collaboration to showcase the strength of our region’s biotechnology sector,” said Jennifer Alexander, President of Thrive. “As well as being an international leader in stem cell science, the Madison Region has 10% of all biotechnology companies in the U.S. — a major industry strength we are proud to showcase through strength of our regional collaborative efforts.”

This partnership closely follows our joint effort with the cities of Madison, Middleton and Fitchburg to promote the region at this summer’s BIO 2008 conference, the largest bioscience conference in the world. The focus of both events is promotion of the Madison Region as a place for life science professionals to pursue a career or expand company operations.

Madison was chosen to host this year’s 10 th anniversary of the World Stem Cell Summit in part because of breakthrough research done by Dr. James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau, as part of their Bring Your Meeting Home campaign, actively solicited and won the conference early in the year.

Governor Jim Doyle will be recognized at the Monday evening dinner reception as a “stem cell action honoree” for his work supporting this industry.

For more information on the World Stem Cell Summit or the Lab on the Lake, please see the World Stem Cell Summit site: http://www.worldstemcellsummit.com/