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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Jul 3, 2009 |
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Investors don't want you learning on their nickel." --Christopher McDemus, lawyer and startup adviser, as quoted by Forbes
The Burton K. Wheeler Center
Vision Net
- Save the Dates!!! - The Burton K. Wheeler Center Fall Conference-“’Failure To Inform’: Is There A Looming Media Crisis In Montana?”9/30-10/1, Missoula
"An informed people is the basis of, and a necessity for, successful democratic government. The people of the United States are entitled to hear all sides to a question..." - Burton K. Wheeler
Highway 12 Ventures
- More hotels invest in videoconference rooms to cut costs
Videoconferencing has grown rapidly in recent years as more companies cut back on business travel.
MAPS™ : Media Arts in the Public Schools
- Highway 12 Ventures Announces Acquisition of Portfolio Company - Sensus Acquires Telemetric Corporation - Expands Smart Grid Coverage to Distribution Assets
Highway 12 Ventures, Inc., an early-stage regional venture capital firm, today announced that Sensus has acquired the assets and business of Telemetric Corporation, one of their portfolio companies.
- Treat Your CEOs Like Children (Your Own)
Personally, I’ve spent a good deal of mental energy trying to teach my kids that no matter how horrible a thing they think they did, if they come to me proactively when they’ve made a bad decision (which I point out to them that dad still does with great regularity), that I will never react with anger or “punish” them.
- Boise's Telemetric sold to N.C.-based Sensus
“This acquisition brings with it a team of talented and dedicated employees, a broad proven product and software offering, and many strong customer and business relationships,” Sensus CEO and President Peter Mainz said. “Integration of Telemetric’s assets and engineering capability into Sensus brings a key solution set that electric utilities want from their Smart Grid applications, distribution automation and asset-management solutions.”
- Alone Time
Sometime during the next three days, find 30 minutes to be completely alone.
MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association
- MAPS (Media Arts in the Public Schools) secures five years of funding
“This is a big deal - it guarantees that we open our doors this fall,” Rosten said of the 21st Century Community Learning Center grant focused on providing non-school-hours educational outlets for high school aged kids.
Montana's "Big Sky" Supercomputer
- July MEDA Online News
It was great seeing so many of you at Fairmont. If you haven’t already, I hope you have checked out the conference summary and taken advantage of reviewing many of the presentations…and checked out the photos, too.
Come Home Montana
- Montana's 'Big Sky' SuperComputer Schedules Interactive Demos“Associative Memory” Software Technology Discussion, 7/8, Butte, Montana
Associative memory software allows high speed computers to access massive amounts of data by content rather than memory address, much like the human mind retrieves past information, allowing resultant comparisons beyond that of traditional “rules-based” data analysis.
Three Cups of Tea - The Central Asia Institute
- Hellgate Venture Network, 7/9, Missoula, Montana
No speaker. No agenda. Just networking and socializing.
- Montana Career Opportunity - ITV Content Coordinator - Vision Net
This position is responsible for compiling all on-net and off-net content that is available to Vision Net’s videoconferencing subscribers and communicating this information to its customers.
- Montana Career Opportunity - City Manager - Helena, Montana
Position works under the broad policy guidance of the City Commission, performing high level administrative, technical and professional work.
- Montana Career Opportunity - State of Montana - Legislative Fiscal Analyst - Director
- Montana Career Opportunity - President - Montana State University
MSU is Montana’s land grant university and ranked by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching among the top 96 research universities in the nation.
Montana Biotech
- Greg Mortenson (“Three Cups of Tea") lauded by National Education Association
"Greg Mortenson's book is an outstanding and inspirational story of the possible," said NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. "Every student in America's public schools should receive a copy to learn firsthand what one person can truly do to make a difference in the world."
Montana Business
- Montana INBRE program receives five-year, $17.5 million grant
The National Institutes of Health has awarded a five-year, $17.5 million grant to the Montana INBRE program to improve the state's capacity for biomedical research and train new scientists in that field.
Montana Economic Development
- Western Montana InBusiness Monthly - July 2009 - This summer region is 'greener' than ever
Welcome to the July edition of Western Montana InBusiness.
- "Bubba Burger" from The Cutting Board in Eureka, Montana voted best in nation - Goes 'Live! with Regis and Kelly'
"It catches you off guard," Monroe said. "And of course it's messy. [People] remember it."
- Brightsun Technologies, Inc. of Billings, Montana announces the release of FormPro software, a groundbreaking tool in life care planning
“FormPro represents a major advance in the technique of obtaining medical opinion,” says Gibbs. “We believe life care planners and attorneys alike will find the product very useful.”
- Montana Chamber of Commerce announces Workplace Safety Program
Liberty Northwest and the Montana Chamber of Commerce partner to offer qualifying Montana Chamber of Commerce Members a comprehensive Workers' Compensation Group Program that is committed to providing maximum benefits for group members to assist with workplace safety and controlling losses.
Careers
- Matt Jones Named Montana State Director for Rural Development at the USDA. - Obama Administration Begins Naming State Directors for Rural Development
Matthew Jones is the Director for Economic Development in the office of U.S. Senator Max Baucus.
- Montana Association of Community Development Extension Professionals: July 2009 E-Newsletter
We would appreciate your comments on our Conference Evaluation to help make next year's Conference even better.
- Montana's Future Is At a Crossroads - "Montana Matters"
How do we move forward, with knowledge and understanding of our past, our wildlife victories as well as our defeats? How do we remember those hard-learned lessons, in the face of short-term financial gain?
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Beyond Job Boards: Targeting the Source
Now job seekers are finding that prospective employers increasingly are looking elsewhere to find new hires—the companies’ own Web sites.
Economic Gardening
- Wisconsin kicks our butt with Angel tax credits
Wisconsin’s new budget more than triples the annual pool of credits for angels and venture capitalists from $11.5 million to $37 million. Angel credits move to $18.25 million while from $5.5 million; VC credits jumps to $18.75 million from $6 million.
Funding and Building your Business
- Reflections on the 7th Annual Economic Gardening Conference
We hope to use this site as a central repository for gathering resources, sharing conversation, and building collaboration among conference attendees. We are looking forward to hearing from you!
Montana Education Excellence
- Pre-IPO shares find a trading place - SharesPost
Now a startup called SharesPost http://www.sharespost.com/ is trying to light a fire in the frigid economy with a novel members-only marketplace for willing sellers and buyers of shares issued in advance of an initial public stock offering, or IPO.
- A Dozen Don’ts for Entrepreneurs
Here is my list of the twelve most important things that entrepreneurs should not do.
- Harvard Business: Don't emulate Steve Jobs
To me, the issue is more Jobs's approach to leadership itself - which, despite the compelling and cutting-edge quality of his products, is strangely unappetizing and often downright retro.
- Determine your website needs and then set a budget
One of the biggest challenges for the small entrepreneur is budget.
Regional Business
- New Grant Awarded for Montana's 'Green' Apprenticeship Training
"This is a great investment in our 21st century workforce," Department of Labor and Industry Commissioner Keith Kelly said. "This grant allows instructors to be trained in rapidly changing technologies, giving a competitive edge to Montana's apprentices."
- Rocky Mountain Laboratories (Hamilton, Montana) scientist, Harlan Caldwell honored as mentor of the year
“There’s probably no one at RML who is more committed to mentoring and nurturing people than Harlan,” Marshall Bloom, RML associate director, said. “The effort that he puts out to forward the careers of people at all levels is truly remarkable. This extends from summer students to postbacs to postdoc fellows and also to tenure-track researchers and staff in his lab.”
Universities and Economic Development
- Small businesses vital to economic recovery go bankrupt
Today shows a different reality: Commercial bankruptcies are surging. Fewer people are starting small businesses, and firms already open are struggling under changing consumer habits, a lack of funding options and tougher bankruptcy laws. If a nationwide trend seen since January holds true, more than 300 businesses will file for bankruptcy — today alone.
North Dakota Business and Economic Development
- A Case Study of the Leadership Model of a Small Rural College in Advancing the Regional and Rural Entrepreneurship in Kansas. U.S.A
This single-case study appraises the leadership model in academic entrepreneurship of a small rural college in Kansas and its endeavors in advancing the regional and rural economic development.
Oregon Economic Development
- North Dakota co-op, Basin Electric Power Cooperative, to get $100M to research CO2 reduction
"The future really requires that we find the technology that will allow us to sequester carbon," Senator Conrad said. "We simply must reduce the carbon levels being emitted, and the question is, how do we do that in a cost-effective way ... This $100 million will hopefully go a long way toward helping to answer that question."
Utah Economic Development
- One in three Oregon students failed to get a diploma
In a file released Monday with no news release, the state reported that more than 15,000 students who began high school in fall 2004 or joined the class of 2008 along the way did not earn a diploma.
- Connecting the ideas and the wherewithal
The new position at EDCO will coordinate the region’s venture capital needs for the next three years — will help the region attract technology startups, grow its aviation sector and establish Central Oregon as a national hub for renewable energy.
- Oregon Small Business Centers funding cut by more than half
"Oregon has the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation and our challenge is to help entrepreneurs create jobs," said Tom Lowles, director of the Portland SBDC. "Cutting funding for a program with a demonstrated ability to do that is very frustrating, frankly."
Washington State Business
- Spies like us: NSA to build huge facility in Utah - The facility could offer more than 1,000 high-tech jobs for the state.
Hoping to protect its top-secret operations by decentralizing its massive computer hubs, the National Security Agency will build a 1-million-square-foot data center at Utah's Camp Williams.
Wyoming Business
- Washington Technology Center Awards $376,454 to Spur Innovation and Jobs
Washington Technology Center http://www.watechcenter.org has awarded a total of $376,454 in state funding to five researchers working with companies to develop commercially promising technologies. The companies expect commercial adoption of their technologies to create 175 new jobs in Washington during the next five years.
- Flynn's Harp: Unpleasant surprises loom for Washington property taxpayers
The taxpayer unrest that bubbled to the surface occasionally in Washington State over the past dozen-plus years as soaring property values in many areas were accompanied by regular hikes in property taxes may soon turn to a darker taxpayer mood.
Education
- Lack of transmission capacity stymies deals with wind developers
A newly formed alliance of landowners in southeast Wyoming says its has more than 6,000 megawatts of wind energy resources, but not enough power line transmission to finalize deals with developers.
Community
- Not going to college? How about a 'career diploma' from high school?
High-schoolers in Louisiana will soon be able to opt for a "career diploma" – taking some alternative courses instead of a full college-prep curriculum. The new path to graduation – expected to be signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) in the coming days – bucks a trend in which many states are cranking up academic requirements.
- Online-Education Study Reaffirms Value of Good Teaching, Experts Say
If online courses are more effective than their face-to-face counterparts, it may be because the new setting forces instructors to break out of stale teaching habits, and not necessarily because computers are an intrinsically superior medium.
Connectivity & Communications
- Geek squad: Ignite Boulder puts twist on PowerPoint - Kicker: 20 slides are on auto-advance at 15 seconds per slide and you talk.
"It boils down to what are you passionate about? What do you want to teach others about?"
Energy and Climate Change
- Government Makes $4 Billion 'Down Payment' on Project to Expand Rural Broadband
The administration has touted the expansion of broadband access as a way to quickly create jobs during a stubborn recession.
Grupthink
- Report issued on success of California's solar program
Despite the worst economic downturn in decades, California's multibillion-dollar program to expand solar power production — the country's largest — remains on track to install as much new energy this year as last, according to a report issued Tuesday by the California Public Utilities Commission.
- Towns Transitioning To Peak Oil Future
The Transition Town movement has spread to 150 towns in 14 countries. David Bollier of On The Commons takes a look at how these towns are making the shift towards locally-produced food and reduction in energy use.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Missoula, Montana based Grupthink links feedback to results
How do you harness knowledge to become better informed, improve your workplace, strengthen your business and tackle pressing issues that affect your decision-making challenges and successes?
Government Technology
- Can Alzheimer's Be Cured?
P. Murali Doraiswamy discusses recent breakthroughs in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease and what everyone can do to postpone the onset of memory loss.
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- How to Create Effective Government Blogs - Missoulagov.org
"The best blogs are ones that carry a personal point of view, reveal what an elected official is thinking and have a little bit of personality and edge to them," Schrier said.
- Montana Public Radio Offers Transportation To National Folk Festival In Butte
Montana Public Radio is sponsoring motorcoaches from Missoula to the National Folk Festival in Butte on Saturday and Sunday, July 11-12.
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