Dozens of high-tech entrepreneurs converged on the Albright Knox Art Gallery Thursday to pitch their products to potential investors. YNN's Kevin Jolly tells us why organizers are hoping the event plants the seeds for Buffalo's economic future.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Designer Van DiBernardo has Multiple Sclerosis and as a result he has a hard time in hot weather. So he designed a vest, it's a cooling garment that he hopes becomes one of the hottest ideas at this year's Buffalo-Niagara Investor High Tech Forum.

"I just wanted to do something that would be better looking and be more along the lines of something that I would want to wear," said DiBernardo.

His sister, Luanne DiBernardo, helped him with the project and said it will millions, "Coolture is introducing a cooling garment for the heat intolerant and that includes the 133 million people who have a chronic illness in addition to the 50 or 26 million recreational golfers and other sports enthusiasts."

Coolture was just one of the many businesses who made their pitch at the UB sponsored forum.

"The future of our economy, not just in Buffalo but in this entire country really is high tech," said Marnie LaVigne, Director of Business Development at the UB Center for Excellence. "It could mean information technology, it could mean advanced manufacturing. It could mean some of the new energy or clean tech initiatives in companies that are launching."

Levine feels that Buffalo’s future may be in life sciences, "Those are the ones that excite me because they directly affect your healthcare and your quality of life every single day."

And that could mean a second look for entrepreneurs like Luanne DiBernardo, who hopes Coolture becomes a household name, "We want to create jobs here, create opportunity here. And it would be nice to say that when we become a household brand in cooling apparel that we are from Buffalo."