Good PR gets Robert Scoble to break news for Cemaphore product. 22 Finalists named for the Utah Innovation Awards. Solera raises $5m from Canopy Group and the MWCN entrepreneur of the year for 2008 award goes to Amy Rees Anderson of Mediconnect Global, Inc.

Cydni Tetro and Colin Kelly talk about key events this week. Including the release of the Top 100 Venture Entrepreneurs from vSpring Capital. It is a peer nominated and peer selected group of individuals that the community predicts will be a CTO or CEO of a high tech company in the next 5 years. This is the 5th year of the program. In addition, the University of Utah was rated 2nd behind only MIT in the number of technology spin-offs based on university research. MIT had 23 and the University of Utah had 20.

Some quick highlights in this weeks Connectcast include reflections about James Levoy Sorenson’s legacy includes inventing disposal surgical masks and an entire legacy of medical innovations. A quick discussion around Venture Debt options and when they should be considered – Innoventures a new company, UVEF tackles social media for young entrepreneurs and Paul Allen’s World Vital Records We’re Related Facebook app takes off.

Guy Kawasaki came to Utah to speak to a group of over 500 business and technology leaders. With a packed room Guy, as always, motivated the crowd and created energy for the attendees. And in the M&A space WiLife, a privately held startup that developed home surveillance hardware and monitoring software was acquired by Logitech for about $25 Million.

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For this weeks ConnectCast we attended the inaugural event of the Women Tech Council “Women Advancing in Technology” event. Over 100 women attended and listen to Teri Sundh CEO of Podfitness.com and Carol Fineagan CIO of Energy Solutions. Teri eloquently stated “The technology field doesn’t have to be restricted to those with a development background; it needs individuals with a creative vision who can recognize where innovation is headed.”

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This is a special edition of ConnectCast and the v100 Show. We were at the vSpring Capital v100 luncheon for the top 100 venture entrepreneurs, where Kevin Rollins, former CEO of Dell, gave the keynote. We spoke with Kevin about the economic growth opportunities that Utah faces over the next 10 years. Utah is currently the 6th fastest-growing state and has the lowest unemployment rate. Jack Sunderlage, CEO ContentWatch, joins the conversation about ways to address the challenges and growth opportunities that lie ahead.

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In this special, combined ConnectCast and v100 Show, news from the vSpring Capital v100 luncheon for the top venture entrepreneurs. We spoke with Jack Brittain about his position as Innovations Czar at the University of Utah. The U of U is an economic engine for the State of Utah, and 2007 fiscal year-end results prove it. Seventeen companies were launched from technologies developed at U of U within the last year. The companies not only help move research forward through the licensing royalty revenue they bring in, but they provide jobs for the people of Utah and help to strengthen the state’s economy. The 17 companies are based on research in fields such as medicinal sciences, engineering and fine arts.

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Huntsman Corp agreed to be acquired by Hexion Corp for $10.6 Billion cash. John Huntsman, Sr. is donating the majority of his share, ~$1.6B, to various charities, including the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. Forbes Magazine named Utah the 2nd best State for Business and CNBC named Utah the 3rd best State for business. And for a number of months running Utah still has the highest job growth rate in the nation and the lowest unemployment rate. And finally, we share with you a great PR story from APX Alarm, a security and alarm “summer sales” company.

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Regional Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award winners were announced for this year, including our friend Thomas D. Dickson for K-TEC/Blendtec, you might remember him from the www.willitblend.com campaign, Amy Rees Lewis for her work with MediConnect Global, Inc and a number of others. These winners go on to compete in the National competition. In addition, the Small Business Index is still solid. Utah currently has the highest rate of job growth in the nation and one of the lowest unemployment rates at around 2.5 percent. And AtTask raised a $7M round from Boston-based OpenView Venture Partners.

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Footnote.com added 3 million Revolutionary War pension files, thanks to a deal with FamilySearch. Footnote.com currently adds about 2 million documents each month from the National Archives. Footnote.com let’s users annotate entries, tag them and create communities around historical topics. Overstock.com, this week, had a California appeals court uphold the ruling to allow them to proceed to trial against Gradient Analytics for intentionally trying to push the stock price down. And finally, Seth Godin stopped in www.utah.gov Utah for his marketing experiment tour for his new book “The Dip”, read about his Utah stop from Phil Windley.

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This week’s highlights include:

• Coherex closes on a $8.5M round of funding from vSpring Capital and Oxford Bioscience.
• Seth Godin is Coming to Utah May 24th, 2007. Register to attend at WordMob.com.
• UVEF Accepting Nomination for Top 25 Under 5 Awards.

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• Allegiance closes on a $5.7M round of funding
• Logoworks to be acquired by HP
• Arkona to be acquired by DealerTrack
• PricewaterhouseCoopers report shows low Q1 funding to Utah companies

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In other news, NextPage wins a 2007 CODIE Award finalist in the Best Document Management category for its document retention and compliance software.

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Symantec shareholders approve the $830M Altiris acquisition. Some see the acquisition as bittersweet — bitter because it means another company is moving its HQ out of state, sweet because a number of people will cash in and probably return proceeds to the local economy through reinvestment in entrepreneurial ventures.

Will Seth Godin make it to Utah? That depends on the number of pledges to to get him to set foot on Utah soil. Utah bloggers Phil Burns and Ash Buckles have donated their hair, committing Godin can shave their heads as part of a Utah event.

ConnectCast Weekly is hosted by Rocky Mountain Voices‘ own Cydni Tetro and Colin Kelly, executive editor, Connect Magazine.

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