SPIE Executive Forum Webcast Highlights Entrepreneurial Trends and Opportunities in Defense and Security

BELLINGHAM, WA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- May 14, 2007 -- SPIE today announced a new streaming video that captures the executive forum "The Next Tech Boom: Innovation, Megatrends, and Money Flow" from April's SPIE Defense & Security Symposium. The video, featuring a keynote talk, panel discussion, and Q&A interaction, is available for free viewing at www.SPIE.org/x13088.xml.

"Every executive that watches the executive forum is sure to come away with new information that will aid their own entrepreneurial growth," said Rob Nehrbas, president and CEO of Lincoln Laser. The forum is aimed at business executives, entrepreneurs, and government personnel involved in development, funding, and deployment of technology for defense and security applications.

The keynote speaker is best-selling author, venture capitalist, and tech executive Mark Mills. Co-founder and chairman of the board at ICx Technologies Inc., Mills asserts that the term quantum technology, which includes the broad domain of technologies employing photons and quantum phenomena, has potential to be the next major technology buzz. Mills states, "Quantum technologies in fact have scale and scope that will exceed and overlap with the other domains around which a flock of new companies have been created, and much money made." He posits that the emerging security industry has only begun and the prospects are good for both better security and robust new opportunities for entrepreneurs large and small.

The keynote is followed by a panel discussion moderated by symposium chair John Carrano, vice president of research and development at Luminex Corp. Panelists are:

--  Major General Steve Reeves, Joint Program Executive Officer for
    Chemical and Biological Defense, U.S. Department of Defense. Reeves is
    responsible for the research, development, and acquisitions of all chemical
    and biological defense equipment and medical countermeasures for the entire
    U.S. Armed Services.
--  Lynne Zydowsky, president and managing principal, Zydowsky
    Consultants. Zydowsky works with emerging companies to develop strategies,
    establish partnerships, and obtain funding.
--  C. Kumar Patel, CEO, president, and chairman of the board of
    Pranalytica Inc., and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of
    California/Los Angeles. Patel is the inventor of the CO2, CO, and spin-flip
    Raman lasers.
--  Allen Northrup, founder, president, and CEO of MicroFluidic Systems
    Inc. Northrup has co-founded two companies that have produced successful
    pathogen detection products.
    

The panelists give their views on Mills's insights and predictions, talk about their experiences from a DoD, VC, small company start up, and academic perspective and field questions during active Q&A sessions.

The SPIE Defense & Security Symposium (DSS) is the largest, unclassified, international symposium covering imaging, sensors, displays, intelligent and unattended systems, signal processing, and communications and networking in defense and security. The next DSS will be held 16-20 March 2008 in Orlando, Florida, with over 5000 attendees and 400 exhibiting companies predicted.

SPIE is an international society advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light. SPIE organizes events including the Defense & Security Symposium, SPIE Advanced Lithography, Photonics West, Photomask, OptiFab, Optics & Photonics, Optics East, Photonics Europe, and many others. SPIE also publishes journals, books and conference proceedings, with over 235,000 technical papers available for download via the SPIE Digital Library. See SPIE.org for details.

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