Two reports on European Nanotech Planet conference

Two articles on the Small Times website describe presentations at the Nanotech Planet conference held in Munich, Germany on 17 & 18 June 2002.

• "Europe longs to play catch-up in nanotech commercialization", by Kyle James, 19 June 2002:
  The 50-odd scientists, engineers and venture capitalists at this European Nanotech Planet Conference gathered here to talk business and look at ways Europe might bridge the "disconnect," as some were calling it, between the research lab and the board room.
  The conference verdict was that Europe is very strong on the scientific side, but when it comes to getting its new findings to the market, Europe needs to play catch-up.
  "If you look at the number of articles in academic journals, Europe is on a par with the U.S.," said Meyya Meyyappan, director of NASA's Center for Nanotechnology at the Ames Research Center. But when it comes to the number of companies and new opportunities, he continued, Europe is bringing up the rear.
• "Gun-shy European VC firms want revenue plans, not hype", by Kyle James, 20 June 2002:
  "People don't buy technology, they buy products. So concentrate on the products." That was the gospel preached at Nanotech Planet in Munich, a two-day conference devoted to nanotechnology business in Europe. The engineers and venture capitalists hammering that message home seemed intent on converting scientists into businesspeople ñ or at least instilling in them the fact that any nanobusiness has to focus on the business part of the equation as much as on the science.