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BACKGROUND The original purpose of the i-GATE Innovation Hub was to leverage the emerging partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories and Sandia National Laboratories to foster technology development and support the growth of innovative businesses across the region. In 2011, i-GATE opened a facility in close proximity to both labs to act as a business incubator in support of companies that were licensing technology from the labs, conducting research correlated to lab activities, or leveraging the labs' capabilities in other ways. Over the past two years, i-GATE staff and stakeholders have come to recognize the difficulty of aligning startup activity with lab capabilities, and as a result have focused i-GATE efforts on supporting innovative technology startups irrespective of any potential association with LLNL and SNL. Such realigned activities have included industry sector focused events held in the Tri-Valley cities such as 'New Trends in Life Sciences' hosted by Life Technologies in Pleasanton and 'Start Up Weekend' in Dublin; collaboration with The Corporation for Manufacturing Excellence (MANEX) and California Network for Manufacturing Innovation (CNMI) on advanced manufacturing forums, development of a Venture Advisory Board to foster startup companies, and using the i-GATE facility as a makerspace for Robot Garden. Even with this redirection, i-GATE staff remains interested and prepared to facilitate collaborations between the startup community and the two labs as this reflects i-GATE's original value proposition. In addition, the i-GATE facility is currently housing six resident and two non-resident startup partners, of which one is collaborating with the labs through technology licensing. DISCUSSION i-GATE is a regional organization that gains substantial advantage from its partnerships with cities across the Tri-Valley. The City of Pleasanton has supported the development of i-GATE since its inception in 2010, and is currently involved as a Municipal Partner, along with the Tri-Valley cities of Danville, Dublin and Livermore. For the City's support at the $25,000 Municipal Partner level, the City has a seat on the i-GATE governing board which gives the City a voting position in setting direction for the organization. In 2012, i-GATE staff conducted visits with each of its partner cities to determine level of satisfaction with i-GATE's strategy, operations, and communication. Two key conclusions emerged during the meetings: 1) Staff from each of the partner cities would welcome the opportunity to engage more with the emerging community of startups residing at the i-GATE facility; and 2) a virtual, non-resident support offering needs to be developed for startups that wish to stay in their home cities instead of locating at i-GATE. i-GATE staff has begun working toward these outcomes, keeping mayors and staff apprised of activity via quarterly update meetings. Page 2 of 3