Strength in numbers: center gathers business nonprofits under one roof.

• Author: Metzger, John
• Position: Advanced Colorado Center

From beaver hats to oil shale, Colorado's economy has repeatedly cycled from boom to bust for nearly 150 years. Technology, however, finally broke the chain--or so we thought. The Computer Age was so diverse that every bust was cancelled by another boom, every lost job was recovered, every business bet was hedged. During the subsequent Internet Age, a business plan written on the back of a napkin was funded after just a few drinks with a venture capitalist. But in the end, the Internet's limitless illusion buried companies with truly productive technologies in the same grave with companies that sold dog food online.

In a maturing marketplace, Colorado's technology industries can more clearly see what's coming. And in response, as the state emerges from a technology depression, industries of the future like aerospace and biotech are aligning in Colorado for the technologies' next big growth phase.

Last year, Brian Vogt, director of the State Office of Economic Development & International Trade, saw a way for state government to help foster development of those tech industries. His idea was to incubate and integrate each key industry by bringing together nonprofit business organizations that had, until last year, struggled to support their industry segments in isolation. Vogt decided if the organizations could integrate their efforts and build a culture of cooperation and support, the capital and workforce opportunities that followed could grow Colorado's economy from within.

So last December, the OEDIT, in partnership with the University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences Center, opened the Advance Colorado Center in OEDIT's offices in the World Trade Center complex at 1625 Broadway in downtown Denver.

The mission: Provide a common headquarters and voice for nonprofit industry associations that support innovation and help entrepreneurs grow profitable, sustainable businesses. The leaders of the first organizations to move into the ACC are early adopters of an experiment that may redefine how states conduct economic development, and how businesses benefit from trade-association membership. Vogt's office plans to establish branch ACCs in other regions of Colorado.

THE ACC MENU

Trade groups that have already taken space in the new center include CTEK Venture Centers, an evolution of the old Boulder Technology Incubator, a launch pad for dozens of successful technology startups for more than a decade, and Colorado Venture Centers, a...