China RoHS MII Delegation Under AeA Sponsorship Makes Unprecedented Visit to U.S. to Discuss Impending Chinese Environment Rules

On October 26, AeA hosted a half-day conference on China RoHS (regulations restricting the use of certain substances in the production of electronic information products) that drew a sold out crowd of over 250 people from across the country to Sun Microsystem's auditorium in Santa Clara, CA. Attendees came to hear presentations by the primary drafters and implementers of the regulation from the China Ministry of Information Industries (MII). With the impending effective date of March 1, 2007, companies were eagerly seeking more information and clarification of the requirements they will have to meet for their products to be compliant.

AeA, with the support of 12 sponsoring companies, organized a ten-day trip from October 17-27 for the delegation of eleven senior MII officials that included meetings in Washington, DC; Austin, TX; and San Jose, CA. For over two years the AeA China RoHS Coalition has been providing input to these officials on U.S. company views and concerns related to development and implementation of the China RoHS regulations, including several technical exchanges in Beijing. This was the first time that the MII group had met with companies in the U.S. on the China RoHS rules and the AeA program was the only public opportunity for non-sponsoring companies to hear first-hand the latest information on the implementing rules.

Tad Ferris of Holland and Knight law firm opened the conference with an overview of the China regulatory system and a summary of the key issues related to China RoHS. This was followed by a panel discussion with Joe Johnson (Cisco) and Linda Young (Intel) on how their companies are approaching compliance with RoHS requirements in Europe and globally. Finally, five different MII speakers explained the current China RoHS regulations and answered questions trying to clarify ongoing U.S. industry confusion and concerns.

The visit by the MII officials provided a valuable opportunity for AeA companies to ask many technical questions while raising the regulator�s awareness of some of the challenges confronting companies seeking to comply with the new rules. The AeA China RoHS Coalition will continue to lead U.S. high-tech industry dialogue with MII as the implementing rules are finalized over the coming year. For more information about AeA�s efforts and China RoHS, please visit www.aeanet.org/ChinaRoHs.

Rob Mulligan (bio)
Senior Vice President, International

The Chinese MII Delegation including WANG Bingke, Deputy Director General, Department of Economy and Economic Operations, MII; AeA Executives William T. Archey (President & CEO) & Rob Mulligan (Sr. VP International); and AeA Member Company Representatives at the AeA DC Headquarters on October 23.

For more information on the International Issues affecting your company, visit:

Board Meeting Update: New Chairman & Board Members, Medal of Achievement Awarded, and AeA Patent Reform Policy

I'd like to report to you the events of our most recent Board Meeting, held October 17-19, in San Jose, CA, and the 2006 Medal of Achievement Dinner where AeA honored John Warnock and Chuck Geschke, the Co-Founders and Chairmen of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Medal of Achievement Dinner
Thanks to all who helped to make our AeA 2006 Medal of Achievement Dinner a success, including our Platinum Sponsors � Adobe, United Healthcare, and Lionbridge and our Gold Sponsors � Applied Materials and Guckenheimer. This was the first time in 47 years that AeA honored luminaries from the software sector. The more than 300 attendees included the families of this year�s honorees Chuck Geschke and John Warnock, as well as Bruce Chizen, CEO, Adobe Systems Incorporated.

AeA was honored to host a number of foreign dignitaries and California political leaders, including:

Rita Bral, Consulate General of Belgium;
Soumen Bagchi, Consulate General of India;
Makoto Yamanaka, Consulate General of Japan;
Congresswoman, Anna G. Eshoo, 14th Congressional District;
California State Senate Candidate, Ellen Corbett, 10th District;
California State Senator Abel Maldonado;
California Assemblywoman, Sally Lieber, 22nd Assembly District;
California Assemblyman, Ira Ruskin, 21st Assembly District;
California Assemblyman, Alberto Torrico, 20th Assembly District;
Brandon Gesicki, California District Representative;
Jon Kessler, California District Director for Senator Alquist, California State Senate; and
Forrest Williams, Council Member, District 2, City of San Jose.

During John and Chuck's acceptance speeches, they shared with our audience the imagination, innovation and risks it takes to start a high-tech company. They talked about their early beginnings and highlighted AeA's Classic Financial Conference as being the financial conference that provided them with plenty of exposure to the right investors as they were starting and growing Adobe Systems Incorporated. It was AeA's honor to present our 2006 Medal of Achievement Award to Chuck Geschke and John Warnock for their advancements and service to the high-tech industry and our community.

Board Meeting Recap
First, I would like to thank Tom Edman for his tireless work as the Chairman for the past year and announce that Tim Guertin, President & CEO, Varian Medical Systems, has been elected as the new Chairman of the Board. Mr. Guertin has been an active member of the Executive Committee of the Silicon Valley/Northern California Council and is a highly respected executive in the Valley and around the country.

Mr. Guertin has been with Varian Medical Systems since he joined Varian Associates in 1976 as an engineer. He has held a variety of positions, including general manager of customer support, general manager of the radiation division for Varian Associates, was named Vice President in 1992, and Chief Operating Officer and President of Varian Medical Systems in 2005. Mr. Guertin holds a BS in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California at Berkeley.

One of the first duties of the Chairman was to moderate the Board�s discussion on patent reform. AeA has thus come out with a position on certain aspects of the issue. In other instances we will remain neutral because the Board was too split, and in one issue we will be outright opposed. Stay tuned for more information as AeA will soon be releasing our Board recommended Patent Reform Policy Statement.

Each of the four policy committees of the Board also established the major priorities for 2007, as well as provided a recap of pending policy issues.

Lastly, I would like to welcome Peter J. Boni, President & CEO, Safeguard Scientifics, Inc; Paul Domorski, President & CEO, EMS Technologies, Inc; Jay McNamara, President & CEO, Endicott Interconnect Technologies, Inc; Sophie Vandebroek, Vice President & CTO, Xerox Corporation, and Jennifer B. Wuamett, Vice President Intellectual Property, Freescale Semiconductor, as our newest members to the Board.

The next meeting of the Board will be from January 29 - 31 in Hollywood, FL.

Sincerely,
William T. Archey (bio)
President and CEO, AeA

Congress: Lame Duck? Ruptured Duck.

As the end of the year approaches, AeA waits to see what the November Congressional elections will do to the current majorities in the House and Senate. What we know now is that Congress will hold a lame duck session that will begin on November 13 and could run for as few as five days or go into December.

What happens at the lame duck will be dependent on who wins the elections the previous week, non-the-less high tech has three priority issues for the session. Top on AeA�s agenda is extension of the R&D tax credit, which expired last year and has not yet been renewed. We hope that we can get at least a two year extension with some modifications as to how the credit is applied.

Next on the list is visa and green card reform. Despite widespread support for some needed changes in the numbers of visas and green cards, the decision by congressional leaders to tie this kind of reform to overall immigration reform has prevented any action at all because of passionate opposition in the House of Representatives to proposals affecting illegal immigrants. AeA hopes that after the election, Congress can take positive action to give some relief in this vital area.

The third priority for tech is increased funding for government-funded basic research. Although the House passed a bill to increase funding on this important element of President Bush�s American Competitive Initiative, the Senate failed to take action. AeA is lobbying hard to ensure that this key element of U.S. competitiveness is adequately funded for FY 2007.

For more insight on the effect of the elections on high tech, attend or dial into AeA�s Election Analysis on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at noon Eastern Time. To get details on the meeting or to register, click here: www.aeanet.org/elections2006.

John Palafoutas (bio)
Senior Vice President for Domestic Policy & Congressional Affairs

AeA State Government Affairs to Hold January SPAN Meeting in Santa Clara, CA

AeA State Government Affairs' (AeA/SGA) next State Policy Action Network (SPAN) meeting will be held at AeA's newly renovated Santa Clara, California, facility on January 9 and 10.

The Bay Area SPAN meeting is shaping up to be a great, value-filled event, with additional emphasis on:

legislative strategy;
professional development; and
case studies on best practices.

Additionally, AeA will be hosting a dinner event on January 9. If interested in attending, please visit www.aeanet.org/span2007 to sign up.

Marc-Anthony Signorino (bio)
Director, State Government Affairs

Download the AeA California End of Session Report
AeA Accomplishes Major Goals in California Legislature; New California End of Session Report Heralds Top Legislative Achievements

Download the End of Session Report || Read the Press Release

Attend AeA's Government-Industry Executive Interchange:
Actionable Opportunities in e-Health and Identity Management

Be part of AeA's next Government & Commercial Markets Group (GCMG) conference and premiere executive networking series for high-tech leaders, on December 7 in Washington, DC, discussing E-Health & Identity Management. As part of AeA's Government-Industry Executive Interchanges, GCMG brings together federal Chief Information Officers, program managers, and top government procurement officials with senior-level executives from the high-tech industry for an intimate gathering that allows government and business power players to share insights privately and exchange best practices.

The following key areas of emerging technology will be discussed at this conference:

E-Health: Trends, Challenges, and Actionable Opportunities
Identity Management: Biometric and RFID Technologies

The keynote address will be delivered by the Honorable Dale Meyerrose (bio). Mr. Meyerrose serves as Chief Information Officer to the U.S. Intelligence Community and has procurement approval authority over all information technology items related to the enterprise architectures of all Intelligence Community components. Mr. Meyerrose came to this position after over thirty years of military service, culminating with his retirement from the United States Air Force as a Major General in November 2005.

Register for this event online or for more information on this program contact Goldy Kamali, Director, Federal Government Market Group, at 202.682.4432.

Greg Poersch (bio)
Vice President, Government and Commercial Markets Group

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Plan on More Productive Employees Every Business Trip

Hertz has all the right products and services for business travel. Wherever your employees� next business trip takes them, book Hertz and plan on everything going smoothly. Because Hertz has everything needed for a more productive trip. Like reliable, newer vehicles, and thousands of locations across the country. Hertz also offers #1 Club Gold^�, so your employees can spend less time at the airport and more time focusing on business. And with NeverLost^�, the GPS in-car navigation satellite system, getting there is easy. Find Hertz on the web at www.aeanet.org/hertz. For additional program information, contact our AeA/Hertz Specialist at 877.257.9461. And when you want everything to go according to plan, book Hertz. It�s your business. Rent Wisely.

The Challenge to Achieve Worksite Wellness

A principal objective of AeA's corporate initiative on healthcare is to provide our member companies with tools to more effectively manage and control costs.

There is widespread agreement now within the high-tech, medical, and insurance industries that the promotion of wellness through healthy lifestyle choices can measurably impact employee health status and satisfaction, as well as trends in corporate health claims.

However, it is oftentimes difficult for small and intermediate size companies to organize and sustain wellness initiatives at the enterprise level. To help address this need, AeA will introduce in 2007 a National Wellness Challenge designed to help our member companies better communicate the importance of healthy lifestyles to their members.

Recently, AeA endorsed UnitedHealthcare as our preferred national insurance provider. Part of our new agreement establishes substantially more sophisticated wellness tools and support for participating companies.

Three immediately addressable categories of lifestyle choices, which are statistically proven to drive medical costs, include: smoking, improper diet and eating disorders, and lack of exercise. AeA's National Wellness Challenge will focus on three core components:

Lifestyle choice education campaign to encourage employees and their dependents to reduce body weight by better diet.

Campaign to promote physical exercise by high-tech employees and their families through walking, biking, jogging, or other regular indoor exercise.

National smoking cessation and healthy lung awareness initiative focused on those populations which have seen the highest rates of smoking and which clearly lead to greater incidence of heart disease and severe risk of lung cancer.

The first building block of all these campaigns is information. Many important informational tools are available through the UnitedHealthwellness.com website which offers employees and their families a very positive approach to wellness. The beginning step is completion of a health and wellness self-assessment survey to identify those areas where an annual medical check-up, nutrition, exercising, smoking cessation, stress relief, and more can improve outlook and well-being of employees and dependents. This web site offers many tools for setting goals and tracking progress as well as discounts on health and wellness products.

Through the unique AeA program with UnitedHealthcare, we also have the ability to offer participating employers on-site educational forums led by specially trained nurse practitioners to work directly with employees on reinforcement of wellness issues.

UnitedHealthcare also offers a wide range of disease management programs for those individuals that are already dealing with chronic illness or specific medical conditions. These programs are also designed to improve health and focus on successful outcomes of existing medical conditions.

One area of particular importance is UnitedHealthcare�s healthy pregnancy program to support and reinforce pregnant women throughout gestation.

As a final note, the wellness portfolio offered through UnitedHealthcare is fully integrated with their 24/7 nurse and counselor telephone help lines which include mental health and preventive care assistance.

AeA will distribute to our member companies more information on how they can participate in this national wellness challenge throughout 2007. We'll be providing a range of materials and information and events to support better health awareness through wellness at the workplace. For additional information on the AeA Wellness Challenge, please contact Eric Meyer, AeA Vice President of Insurance Services, at 202.682.4430.

We urge your company to build worksite wellness into your planning model for corporate objectives in 2007.

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All Four Sectors of the U.S. Tech Industry
Add Jobs in the First Half of 2006

Tech Manufacturing Employment Up for Second Year in a Row

Employment By High-Tech Sector
(January 2006 - June 2006)

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

The U.S. high-tech industry added 140,200 net jobs between January and June of 2006, a 2.5 percent increase, for an industry total of 5.81 jobs. This is nearly double the 78,900 tech jobs added in the first half of 2005. All four tech sectors added jobs over this time period. Nonetheless, the January to June 2006 tech job growth lags that of the U.S. private sector, which rose by 3.5 percent over that period.

For more details on high-tech employment trends, see AeA's most recent installment of our ongoing Competitiveness Series.

For more information on Industry Data and AeA Publications visit
www.aeanet.org/research

AeA Honors Co-Chairs/Co-Founders of Adobe Systems Incorporated with the Annual Medal of Achievement Award

Medal of Achievement Executives
William T. Archey, President & CEO, AeA; Dr. John Warnock, Co-Chairman, Adobe; Dr. Charles M. Geschke, Co-Chairman, Adobe, and winners of the 2006 AeA Medal of Achievement; Tim Guertin, President & CEO, Varian Medical Systems, and 2007 Chairman of the AeA Board; and Tom Edman, VP, Applied Materials, and 2006 Chairman of the AeA Board (L-R).

Bruce Chizen, CEO, Adobe

The Medal of Achievement Awards

300+ MOA guests enjoy networking

AeA awarded $3,000 on October 6 to promising students that plan to study Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math (STEM). Nearly 300 of Colorado's business leaders attended the Celebrate Technology Awards 2006 in Colorado Springs, CO, where nearly $10,000 was raised for educational scholarships.

Nearly 130 investors and tech executives enjoyed networking at the first annual AeA Technology Capital Conference in beautiful Dana Point, CA, Oct 11-12. The conference showcased 18 privately held technology companies from across the country.

On October 12, the AeA San Diego Council hosted the sold out 13th Annual High Tech Awards. Nearly 600 attendees gathered to recognize the winners: Exametric, Inc.; WebSideStory; Continuous Computing; Staccato Communications; XIFIN, Inc.; Elgar Electronics Corp.; Dexcom, Inc.; and Verimatrix, Inc.

On October 19, AeA's Midwest Council CFO Committee met including CFOs from Andrew Corporation, ISCO International, Littlefuse, Cabot Microelectronics, eCollege, M-Wave Inc, Nanophase Technologies, Inc, Vasco Data Security, and Stratos International for an opportunity for private networking with industry peers and to openly address issues of mutual interest and concern to finance professionals.

AeA hosted a delegation of 11 senior Chinese Government Ministry of Information Industries (MII) officials in Washington, DC; Austin, TX; and Silicon Valley, CA, for ten days of meetings with U.S. high-tech companies to discuss the China RoHS regulations. Pictured are WANG Bingke, Deputy Director General, Department of Economy Reform and Economic Operations of MII, Leader of China RoHS Standard Working Group, and William T. Archey, President & CEO, AeA, on October 23 at the AeA David Packard Conference Center in DC.

On October 26, senior officials from the Chinese Ministry of Information Industries (MII); representatives from Intel and Cisco; and lawyers from Holland & Knight LLP, addressed over 250 high-tech attendees at Sun's headquarters in Santa Clara, CA, on the new China Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) regulations, which go into effect March 1, 2007. This was the first time that MII has publicly spoken to U.S. companies in America on China RoHS.

Tina Morais
Director, Financial Conferences & Surveys

P: 408.987.4234
F: 408.727.7057

Tina Morais is the Director of Financial Conferences and Surveys for AeA. Based in Santa Clara, California, Tina manages AeA�s national financial conferences, which are offered as a means to showcase member companies to the financial community. In addition to the cornerstone conference, the AeA Classic, which will take place in Monterey, California, from November 5-8, Tina also manages the AeA Micro Cap Conference. Most recently, she has also begun working with the Southeast and Orange County council offices to bring back the capital conferences for privately held high-tech companies to the east and west coasts.

In addition to the public and private financial conferences, Tina manages the AeA Salary Surveys program. The Surveys have provided tech specific compensation data to member companies for over 20 years.

Prior to joining AeA in 1999, Tina worked in the marketing department of SATO America, where she coordinated their marketing, advertising and tradeshow efforts.

Tina holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Psychology from Santa Clara University.

Date	Event	Location
Nov. 1	Welcome Reception for Jeff Clark	Austin, TX
Nov. 1

Attend AeA's Government-Industry Executive Interchange: Actionable Opportunities in e-Health and Identity Management

Save on Every Car Rental with Avis and Hertz

Attend AeA's Government-Industry Executive Interchange:
Actionable Opportunities in e-Health and Identity Management