Look for good things to happen in worldwide entrepreneurship, in part, because economic developers from all over the globe have invaded the Puget Sound. The reason? Professionals from 50 nations, 620 to be exact, traveled here this week to discuss ways of incubating new business startups.

That includes third world countries, such as Ghana.

Officially, the gathering is called the National Business Incubation Association 21^st International Conference on Business Incubation. So, the visitors are members and invitees of the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA). NBIA’s mission is to facilitate the growth of business startups.

And Washington state is home to some outstanding incubators. For example, the 20-year-old Tri-Cities Enterprise Association in Richland has three facilities and was the 1998 incubator of the year. Most recently, the William M. Factory Small Business Incubator was named the incubator of the year in 2005 by the NBIA.

Both incubators are member organizations in the Washington Association of Small business Incubators (WASBI), www.wasbi.org.

“We work with 19 incubation programs all across the state, said Colleen Hall Barta, assistant executive director of the William M. Factory Small Business Incubator in Tacoma. She added that the state’s newest incubator is The Wine Incubator at Walla Walla.

As expected, she’s proud of the WASBI’s accomplishments. Little wonder.

Here’s one of the best-practice goals for members of WASBI: “Achieving incubator company growth rates of an average of at least a 10 percent increase in commercial revenues and/or employment for client companies over the most recent two or three year period.”

So, who is responsible for the success of this week’s conference?

“Colleen and Lincoln Ferris deserve a great deal of credit for bringing over 600 incubation professionals from 50 countries to Seattle/Tacoma,” said Barta’s boss, Tim Strege, executive director of the William Factory incubator.

Ferris is WASBI’s executive director, who is a first-rate cheerleader for entrepreneurship, is happy with the progress of the Puget Sound Regional Council in creating 100,000 new jobs by 2010.  “They’re still developing metrics for development and it does look like they’re making progress toward that goal,” he said.

Ferris encourages ambitious goals and measurements of success, including “numbers-gathering in the creation of jobs, companies and sales receipts.”

But he says each incubator has different, individual objectives.

“It gets back to the mission of an incubator. Some are neighborhood incubators that target goals for specific neighborhoods,” Ferris said. One goal for the William Factory incubator was to use entrepreneurship to create employment – their measure was the number of the growth in jobs.”

What is the general view of NBIA’s membership regarding the management of intellectual property risks in China?

“NBIA continues to push the envelope and provide information and cultivate contacts with experts in this area,” said Barta. “The NBIA Soft Landings program also provides a safe haven for start-ups, including companies dealing with IP and International markets.”

What are the typical lessons entrepreneurs have learned when breaking into foreign markets?

“Opening the doors,” said Barta. “Most start-ups don't possess the resources needed to enter those large markets. Incubators provide such tools and the personal connections, through our NBIA membership, which are necessary to begin conversations with companies overseas.

“NBIA continues to be a world leader in business,” she added. “It is important to remember that our conference attracts a large variety of people involved in all aspects of business cultivation and incubation. The global picture is much more progressive than the domestic agenda for economic development. Even third world countries have recognized incubation as a very effective tool for creating jobs and a new revenue stream into their economies.”

Ferris says WASBI has worked closely with public officials to further international trade: “We worked with Community Trade and Economic Development,” he said regarding efforts with the state agency. “They have put on seminars in how to research a foreign market and other training programs.”

But he says his organization has other goals.

“There other things we’ve tried to do better,” added Ferris. “We believe we’ve been working better with the Lt. Governor and governor’s office for small business.”

He’s also complimentary of Washington’s universities: “Quite often, universities are good at helping us, and in putting staff and professors to help us.”

Ferris says world trade is important to aspiring entrepreneurs: “Increasingly, the people we’re incubating are marketing overseas and we’ve had to become more sophisticated to help them.”

However, Ferris has concerns about government policy in incubating businesses: “We are so far behind. So much more could be done if we emulate countries around the world – India and the its number of engineers, for example, they out do us by a factor of ten.”

He also cites another specific country in his public-policy advocacy: “New Zealand has made the point they would die if they didn’t export,” he said. “The government has tied onsite with research universities as part of government policy.”

From the Coach’s Corner: For more information on action strategies to promote Puget Sound job growth see: http://www.psrc.org/