Western Montana InBusiness June 2009

Offices are greener on the other side of the river

As sweet digs go, you can’t beat our newsroom – or at least, the view outside our newsroom windows.

Ours is a front-row seat to the people and places that make Missoula its ever-eccentric self: dogs and owners playing in our little riverfront park, wilder beasts wintering on the slopes of Mount Jumbo, high water and kayakers matching wits on Brennan’s Wave. We have a resident raccoon that we are appropriately cautious around while trekking to our cars at night, and the river’s resident eagles and osprey for which we are appropriately thankful.

By SHERRY DEVLIN

Still, we’re a little envious of the new offices atop the First Interstate Bank building, where our reporter and photographer ventured this month to write about office space, pricing and availability in Missoula. Now there are some sweet digs (although I’d probably spend way too much time lookie-looing!).

In this month’s InBusiness, we have a pair of stories about Missoula’s office spaces, and another pair on branding. "A brand is your promise to the consumer," said Wes Spiker, owner of Spiker Communications in Missoula. "It simply means having a distinguishable presence in the industry or environment that you are in," said MaryEllen Campbell, a management and marketing professor at the University of Montana.

I think you’ll find their advice useful, as well as that of Ken Quinn, a branding strategist and UM alum who’s advised some of the nation’s largest businesses since leaving Missoula not so many years ago. Quinn is this month’s featured Q&A.

And how about downtown Bigfork’s brand? Turns out, folks in the little resort town along Flathead Lake have given their image and reputation a ton of thought, and are taking action. One Electric Avenue business owner, in fact, told our reporter that her newly renovated diner and pub will have as many booster seats as bar stools. Enough said.

We’re continuing our renovation/evolution here at Western Montana InBusiness as well. This month’s edition includes several new features, beginning with graphics editor Ken Barnedt’s full-page looks at Montana employment and real estate trends. He’ll do the same sort of statistical treatment – albeit with different topics – each month.

And you’ll find a page of photographs from several recent Missoula Chamber of Commerce events. We’re looking for photos from your business functions, too. Send them to our photography editor, Kurt Wilson, at [email protected] with caption information.

And we have our second installment in a new series of Q&As with successful University of Montana business graduates. Ken Quinn is this month’s alum and tells a fascinating story of his life as a corporate brand strategist in Chicago.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and suggestions for future editions of InBusiness. So give me a call, or drop a line to Sherry Devlin, Western Montana InBusiness, P.O. Box 8029, Missoula, MT 59807; telephone (406) 523-5250; e-mail [email protected].

Sherry Devlin is editor of Western Montana InBusiness and the Missoulian. Reach her at (406) 523-5250 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Full Newsletter: http://www.mtinbusiness.com/inbiz-0906/