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| MATR Newsletter - Fri May 15, 2009 |
"What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds." -Wayne Dyer
Workforce Development
Idaho National Laboratory
- Disconnected Youth: A Look at 16- to 24-Year Olds Who Are Not Working or In School
Without attachment to work or school, disconnected youth may be vulnerable to experiencing negative outcomes as they transition to adulthood.
TechRanch
- Regional youth learn, play and win scholarships at Idaho National Laboratory sponsored Physics Day
Terms like “conservation of energy” and “rotational mechanics” have kept nearly 100,000 high-school and middle-school students screaming with delight for an entire day since the first event was held. Last year, more than 6,000 students and teachers from regional high schools and middle schools attended Physics Day.
Vision Net
- Web Collaboration and Marketing Series in Bozeman, Montana
We invite you to join us for the following events that will show you the best practices in leveraging the World Wide Web
Highway 12 Ventures
- VisionNet enables rural Montana students to question scientists, astronaut via video conference
Visiting the Great Falls-based Vision Net, the students were able hold a video conference with top NASA scientists and an astronaut live from Cape Canaveral, Fla., right before watching the space shuttle launch.
The Burton K. Wheeler Center
- The Reason There Are So Few Great Entrepreneurs
I learned what two characteristics make a great entrepreneur.
Come Home Idaho
- 'Thick' border may deteriorate U.S.-Canada relations, expert says at Wheeler Conference
Also speaking at the conference was Montana Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger, who said the relationship between Montana and its neighboring Canadian provinces is vital to both countries.
Come Home Montana
- Call center in Boise aims to hire 200 more employees
Only tech-savvy people need apply for new jobs in Boise.
Montana Business
- Montana Career Opportunity - Webmaster - The Flathead Beacon
Deep experience with, and passion for, creating and using new content vehicles to drive traffic to the online publication. Strong ability to think creatively and implement projects from the idea phase.
Montana Economic Development
- Fifth Anniversary of Montana Dinosaur Trail Kicks Off May 12 During National Tourism Week – “Dino” Prizes Waiting For You!
It was 150 million years in the making and now the Montana Dinosaur Trail is celebrating its 5th Anniversary.
- Montana Chamber of Commerce and Safety at Work
The Montana Chamber of Commerce announces the formation of another association insurance group – this time for workers’ compensation.
- Concerns of stimulus funding intended for Montana being directed to out-of-state companies
What appeared to be a real benefit to the very slow economy of Montana, is in fact, not much of a benefit at all. The majority of the $77.4 M will never see Montana.
Regional Economic Development
- Fight over biomass - Law making it difficult for businesses to expand. Thinning projects help loggers find work
Flora pointed to other research that a century of fire suppression in the national forests has left them so overstuffed with debris, trees are dying at twice the normal rate since 1986. “We have to get some of that material out of the forest,” Flora said. “It's going to burn one way or another, by pyrolysis or forest fire.”
- Get hands dirty with Helena's learning brand - "The Learning Center of the West"
Education is a lifelong endeavor. Luckily, here in Helena, the opportunity for sustained learning is coming to fruition through channels above and beyond books and the Internet.
- Broadcast dates for "Economist Larry Swanson: Missoula lags behind other cities when it comes to the crucial elements of sustainable and focused economic development"
To put it bluntly, Missoula has become a growing center of commerce with a highly educated workforce, but it has notably low wages and high poverty rates. This scenario means Missoula, for all its amenities and allure, is trailing Bozeman, Billings, Great Falls and Helena in terms of economic health and the degree to which we are improving.
- Montana Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Annual Report
I encourage you to read Montana’s SBDC Annual Report to learn about our impressive accomplishments for 2008, and the range of services available through our network at any of the ten SBDC local centers across the state.
- Help Develop Montana's Next 5-year Strategic Plan, 5/20, Great Falls And Online 6/10 And 6/17
This is your chance to provide input on your community's needs and on Montana's draft Consolidated Plan (CP) Annual Action Plan for 2010-2011 and the state's Five-year Consolidated Plan (strategic plan) for 2010-2015.
Business Plan Forums
- Can small towns be cool?
The best advice for all small towns wanting to be "cool" maybe a quote from President Theodore Roosevelt. "Do what you can with what you have where you are."
- Earthtrepreneurship
Rural sustainability needs to be built on an earthtrepreneurial middle class that understands how to create, use, and sell appropriate technologies and services at home and around the world.
- How Can Cities Create a Green Economy?
Most cities in the Green Cities survey are beginning to address climate change, but very few are prioritizing the needs of low-income citizens. The report notes that this is a big step in going green, as construction and retrofit jobs are becoming increasingly important in making buildings more energy efficient.
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Clean Tech Open - Rocky Mountain - Entry deadline is May 30, 2009.
Enter the Clean Tech Open - Turn your ideas into $100,000
Funding and Building your Business
- Interview with Richard Bendis, Board Member of NASVF and Jim Jaffe, President of NASVF
The National Association of Seed and Ventures Funds (NASVF) announced it is working with a national innovation intermediary, Innovation America, to create a new National Innovation Seed Fund of Funds (NISF) to help remedy the lack of funding for young entrepreneurial companies and to get knowledge-based job growth going again.
Incubators and R&D
- Web Content Is Like Sushi, and Other Tips
“The fresher the better,” he said during a Streaming Media East panel session on digital content production, “and don’t leave it sitting around for too long.”
- What Type of CEOs Make Money for Investors?
While I worry that managers might not read this carefully and jump to the wrong conclusions, it’s worth reading and considering.
- Some Fees waived on SBA loans
Borrower and lender funding fees waived for loan approvals through September 2009
- Idiot CEOs Pursue VC Investments
Unless you can reach a great VC independently or with help from others quickly, my suggestion is to wait with testing your CEO skills until Venture Capital, not the economy recovers. If you can.
- It's 10am. Do You Know Who's Talking To Your Clients - PracticeView News from Muzeview, LLC
It's every professional's nightmare, the frightening thought that your client is talking with a professional from an arch-rival firm.
Montana Education Excellence
- $765,677 NSF grant largest in Montana State University history
Montana State University researcher Christa Merzdorf, who studies early development of the brain, has received the largest National Science Foundation CAREER Award in the school’s history.
Universities and Economic Development
- Missoula County Public Schools approves new academic freedom policy
“The rights of teachers and students are protected clearly now.”
Idaho Business
- University Economic Development Association (UEDA) focuses on the nexus between higher education institutions and economic development partners.
UEDA is a vibrant and growing organization of higher education institutions and their economic development affiliates from across the nation.
- University Economic Development Association (UEDA) 2009 Summit, 10/11-13, San Antonio, Texas
Learn how economic development is going green with new technologies and using traditional energy sources in eco-friendly ways. Win Awards of Excellence!
Utah Economic Development
- Successful Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Business Recruitment Campaign Stays Strong in Down Economy
Since its creation in 1987, Jobs Plus, Inc. has recruited more than 80 companies to northern Idaho, creating over 5,100 new direct jobs.
- Luxury log building company has a deal on two structures - Edgewood Log Structures
Edgewood currently has two log projects that have been produced but whos original owners are no longer able to pay. It is with their blessing we are offering their log structures for sale to the public at a very reduced price.
- Boise startup says aloha to Boise
The administrative trio at Boise's Mesiab Labs decided to move to Hawaii, where they plan to live and work in a home office on the beach.
Washington State Business
- Utah dangles incentive to lure eBay jobs
The state hopes to capitalize on eBay's plans to close a 700-employee facility in Vancouver, British Columbia, and redistribute the work elsewhere.
Wyoming Business
- Spokane, Washington: Scam Capital of America
Welcome to Spokane, Wash., a metropolitan object lesson in what can befall the unwary when rugged individualism is revered and consumers unsuspecting.
Education
- Medicine Bow, Wyoming plans town wind power - "We'd like to run the whole town on wind."
Right now, the town pays High Plains Power about $2,000 a month in electricity bills. The wind turbines would reduce that by about $800 a month.
Government
- Community colleges and the economic recovery
President Barack Obama has urged every American to commit to at least one year of postsecondary education.
- Website estimates education's effect on health, crime, income. LiveUnited.org
Education matters. A new website seeks to quantify just how much.
- James Burke ("Connections" TV Show) Launches "Knowledge Web" - Technology Will Foster Interconnected Web of Ideas and Innovation
Founded by James Burke, the author, host, and narrator of the acclaimed television series Connections, the Institute exists to encourage innovative uses of educational technology.
Connectivity & Communications
- The Montana Interagency Committee for Change by Women (ICCW) Announces Nominees for Excellence in Leadership Awards
The Interagency Committee for Change by Women (ICCW) is an organization established by Executive Order of the Governor. ICCW honors persons who have created positive change for all state employees by promoting the full participation of women in state government.
Energy and Climate Change
- MTA Commentary--Rural Healthcare Networks
Expanding telemedicine and telehealth opportunities through broadband technology can bring substantial benefit rural communities, if done right.
- Wi-Fi on the go with MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot
I'm eager to ditch my 3G USB modem for MiFi once my own Verizon contract expires in several months. MiFi isn't flawless. But it's a smart, sensible solution for road warriors tired of hunting down Wi-Fi.
- 100 Geeks You Should Be Following On Twitter
We have to stick together, and keep the geek community thriving.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- China Outpaces U.S. in Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants
China has emerged in the past two years as the world’s leading builder of more efficient, less polluting coal power plants, mastering the technology and driving down the cost.
- Cellulosic Ethanol on the Cheap
Mascoma has announced several advances that may lead to a cheaper, more efficient process to turn biomass into ethanol.
- Skyview High (Billings, Montana) student's biofuel work leads to international science fair
LaRoque, a senior, has spent the past six months refining a new technique in the production of biodiesel that could help make the vegetable-oil-based fuel cheaper to produce and more widely used than crude-oil-based fuels.
- Johnson Controls to evaluate Missoula's energy use
You gotta spend money to save it. That's one strategy the city of Missoula is taking in a bid to push energy use 10 percent below 2007 levels by 2011.
- Saving the Earth One City at a Time - Reduce energy consumption, primarily by ceasing to plan for automobiles.
Richard Register argues that we can do much more to redesign cities and city functions to reduce energy consumption, primarily by ceasing to plan for automobiles.
Government Technology
- Ryanair adds fee just to check-in (What's next...a fee for breathing during flight?)
The CEO has also floated the idea of selling branded toilet paper with his own face on each sheet.
- GIS Called Key to California's Future
To successfully integrate comprehensive GIS solutions across state agencies, an enterprise GIS strategy, coupled with strong executive leadership, was deemed California's best hope for dismantling state IT silos and facilitating cross-agency data sharing. Also vital to the mission is getting the public to better understand the role GIS can play in the state's success.
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