InnovateTexas is Attending the TechBA 2010 Expo, with Maps

At a time when many states are slashing budgets and cutting costs simply to stay alive, Texas' budget for FY2009 is operating on a comfortable $2B surplus. Combined with its $9.1B rainy day fund, Texas is positioned to weather what remains of this economic downturn with very little muss and fuss. Texas' sunny economic outlook is largely the result of Texas' strong tradition of fiscal responsibility and its many incentive programs that attract businesses from other places to Texas, especially during such hard times.

Texas has a wide array of very progressive incentive programs. Programs ranging from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, a $500M venture fund that invests in technology startups based in Texas, to the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, which reimburses anywhere from 5% to 15% of eligible Texas spending to film, television, commercial, video game, and post-production projects in Texas, and the Texas Enterprise Fund, which issues grants to large companies who expand or build their businesses in Texas. These programs have proven to be very effective at enticing companies to choose Texas as the place to build their businesses over everywhere else.

However, Texas' economic development programs are not limited simply to incentive programs and grants, nor is Texas only an attractive place to start your business. Texas also hosts international incubation and business development programs like Mexico's TechBA, which helps companies in Mexico expand their existing businesses abroad. This coming Thursday, July 8, TechBA-Austin, which is hosted by the IC2 Global Commercialization Group, will be hosting a group of 25 TechBA companies at the third annual TechBA Expo, where they'll present their products and plans for expanding their businesses into the US market.

Programs like TechBA and the Global Commercialization Group play a critical role in developing the Texas economy by easing the notoriously difficult transition for companies based in foreign markets into the United States. Expanding a business within one country is hard and risky enough; expanding a business into a different country with unfamiliar laws, processes, and cultures is even harder and riskier. TechBA provides critical services to their member companies ranging from incredibly simple things, like how to address an envelope in the United States, all the way up to providing office space, introductions, and connections.

InnovateTexas has created a map of the TechBA companies attending Thursday's TechBA Expo. Click on a company's name in the list above the map to plot that company’s office location(s) and to see a brief company description. This visual representation demonstrates that these businesses are established and poised for growth, and illustrates the international presence that TechBa brings to the Texas economy.