ORANGE COUNTY

Town and Gown: Can Orange County businesses and the University of California, Irvine make a future together in biotechnology? Leaders of both will ponder that question Thursday at the second-annual Technology Showcase, sponsored by UCI and the local biomedical industry. Although town-and-gown collaborations elsewhere have borne fruit, Orange County business leaders and academicians have old animosities to overcome. “There is a pre-existing bias in the business community that UCI is impossible to deal with,” says Ronald H. Coelyn, an executive recruiter in Irvine who will address the gathering. “For many years, companies in this area have tried to work with UCI and always hit a brick wall.” The conference will run from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at UCI’s student center.