|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Thu Feb 16, 2006 |
"Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire." William Butler Yeats
"Montana State Superintendent of Public Instruction Linda McCulloch pledges to continue kindergarten funding campaign" http://www.matr.net/article-18186.html
Come Home Montana
Montana Ambassadors
- Featured "Come Home Montana" Community~CUT BANK
Cut Bank provides the very best of what Montana has to offer.
- Montana-Jobs.net Featured Career ~ Software Developer/Administrator, Great Falls, Montana.
Successful candidates will have a broad technical background, be self-starters and not afraid to pitch in where help is needed.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- MSU College of Business dean, Rich Semenik honored as Montana Ambassadors' Educator of the Year, Don Cape Named Entrepreneur of the Year
"Dean Semenik has been an instrumental force in developing Montana's entrepreneurial landscape through his role as executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship for the New West and visionary for the formation of the Alderson Program for Entrepreneurship," O'Donnell said.
- Seattle resident promoting Butte’s growth through Seattle Chapter of the Montana Ambassadors. New Chapter Planned in Denver
“The mission of our local group is to build a bridge from Montana to Seattle and promote economic development.”
MEDA Entrepreneur Working Group
- Workshop good as gold for Helena high school entrepreneurs in training
Keynote speaker John Hollow, a Helena attorney who was the manager of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team on the World Cup Circuit, advised the students who plan to become business owners to operate it in a way that respects the environment, employees and families.
Education
- Respondents Cite Workforce Talent as Most Important Factor in Growing a Business; Access to Seed and Expansion Capital are Critical Areas for Triangle Improvement
“The survey is a great vehicle to benchmark regional perceptions. I hope the findings will stimulate discussion on how our region can maintain its competitive advantage as a great place to start and grow an entrepreneurial company.”
- The Kauffman Foundation's Hot Shot Business Simulation Program for Kids
The Kauffman Foundation's Hot Shot Business, the award-winning Internet entrepreneurship simulation for kids, now has been enhanced to give players an even more challenging taste of what it takes to start and run a business.
Montana Economic Development
- Babson College Takes Top Entrepreneurship Award
With its emphasis on giving undergraduates real-life business-building experience, Babson College's Foundation Management Experience recently nabbed an award for having the nation's most "Innovative Entrepreneurship Course."
- Despite their tech skills, students take pass on electronic textbooks
How can e-books be more than print?
- Millennial M.B.A.s Prompt a Shift In Approach, Services at Business Schools. Jobs heat up for MBA grads
"What happens when a group that has always felt sought after, needed and indispensable arrives in the workplace with higher expectations than any generation before it?"
- Parents, students don't see a crisis over science and math. Education needs a new PR firm
"There's energy and leadership at the top, but there is a task to be done in getting parents and kids to understand some of the ideas," said Jean Johnson, executive president of Public Agenda. "You can do a lot from the top, but you can't do everything. Schools are local. The leadership needs to reach out and help the public understand the challenge."
- MSU offers new scholarships for Montana freshmen
"We encourage students who have not already applied for admissions and scholarships to do so as soon as possible," she said.
- Venture Capitalists Are Investing in Educational Reform
Recipients of the fund's investments are not whiz kids eager to become the next Bill Gates. Mainly, they are public school teachers with a passion to improve the ways poor children are taught.
- Montana State Superintendent of Public Instruction Linda McCulloch pledges to continue kindergarten funding campaign
Studies have shown that children who attend full-time kindergarten perform better on achievement tests and are less likely to drop out of school, she said.
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- State Tourism conference set for Great Falls April 10-11
Gov. Brian Schweitzer is inviting people in the tourism industry "to celebrate with our Great Falls partners the important role tourism and recreation plays in the Montana way of life and the benefits it brings our economy."
- Montana Governor Schweitzer lists 1,000 jobs in '06, education as top goals
Jobs are key to that strength, Schweitzer said, adding that his administration aims to attract 1,000 new ones this year. Those will be created "by focusing on economic development, and not just in the easy places — Kalispell, Missoula, Hamilton and Bozeman," Schweitzer said at a news conference announcing his administration's priorities for 2006.
- Yellowstone visitors take it slower. Sightseers choose leisurely tours on snowcoaches instead of snowmobiles
“It's all market-driven. I was very surprised to see it go so quickly down this path,” Roberson says. “Even a lot of our old-time snowmobile customers that are trying the snowcoaches are preferring them.”
Funding and Building your Business
- Venture Capital in Northern Rural Wisconsin
What are you doing to facilitate entrepreneurial activity in your town?
- Iowa Fund of Funds invests in Minnesota, Tennessee-based venture funds
The Fund of Funds, a venture capital development program created by the state Legislature in 2002, is in the early stages of building a portfolio of up to 15 venture capital funds that will invest in companies ranging from start-ups to mature businesses nearing the buyout stage.
- The Effectiveness of State Venture Capital Programs
Due to the geographic concentration of the formal venture capital industry, a number of states—particularly in the nation’s mid-section—have introduced a variety of programs in order to promote a local venture capital industry.
Global Telework
- Startups On The Cheap
For startups, even those that have raised venture capital, it is important to stretch the dollar. Here's how:
- Tips for Budding Entrepreneurs
"There's a vast number of young people who are opting to be their own boss,"
- The Art of Creating a Community by Guy Kawasaki
#7 Foster discourse.
- Stay up to date on regulations when setting up payroll system
Try this step-by-step approach to setting up a simple payroll system
- Opposites Attract. What do you do when consumers want something you don't have? Give it to them.
Done poorly, an anti-brand can drag down both brands.
- Culture Crash The collision between sales and marketing can be jarring. Here's how to avoid whiplash.
Admit it: You hate your sales department.
- Priced to Sell. Should your product's price point be its major selling point, too?
If your marketing is based on being the cheapest widget around, the minute a competitor sells its product slightly below your price, you've lost your one main selling point. "It's very hard to establish customer loyalty that way,"
- Rewarding Competitors Over Collaborators Doesn't Make Sense
The challenge for top executives is persuading ambitious managers that their career success depends on collaboration -- not competition -- with peers.
- When Entrepreneurs Make a Decision to Hire
To make sure that unmanaged growth doesn't hinder a young business, it's important to start with a business plan.
- Intellections Newsletter
Regional Business
- Outsourcing Is Climbing Skills Ladder
The report found that multinational corporations were global shoppers for talent. The companies want to nurture close links with leading universities in emerging markets to work with professors and to hire promising graduates.
- What's The Real Cost of Your Offshore Operations?
To answer this requires us to look a lot deeper at the changing performance you get over time as dispersed teams get used to working together and the absolute difference in cost and productivity that occurs.
Utah Business
- Madrona gets $150 million to bankroll new startups in Pacific Northwest
The Seattle venture capital firm will use the money to bankroll as many as a half-dozen new startup companies in the Pacific Northwest each year -- a potential booster shot to the region's high-tech economy.
Government Technology
- Utah job creation rate roars. State is an employment hot spot in the nation
A state-by-state ranking for January is not yet available, but Utah's blistering rate of employment growth probably will end up the second-highest among all states, said Mark Knold, chief economist for Workforce Services.
Wyoming Business
- FEMA technology set for upgrade
“As I said before, I’ve mandated that we build the hardware and the culture to integrate these operations centers into a single virtual operations center, maybe eventually even a physically integrated operations center, so that we no longer have a seam or a stovepipe within the federal government on the flow of information,” Chertoff said.
- S.F. Mayor Newsom Announces Community Disaster Pilot Program
"A prepared community can be better equipped to stabilize and recover during those first critical hours following a disaster. It can also allow emergency responders to focus on the most devastated areas," added Mayor Newsom.
Other Economies
- Wyoming growth up to communities. Communities will either be on the bus or under it.
Growth is going to happen in Wyoming, especially given the state's energy boom. The question is whether communities will guide it or react to it, said the executive director of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute.
Incubators and R&D
- IT association gets $200,000 grant from State
For initiatives in workforce development, new company creation, company growth and capital formation, according from a statement from the governor's office.
University TechTransfer
- Tech executive to run MIT media lab. Moss aims to focus on work with broad impact on society
''In many ways, it's a business," Moss said, suggesting the media lab may conduct more research into projects of interest to its corporate sponsors.
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- Nano Financiers Aim to Reinvent Seed Funding Through Tech Transfer
Companies are sponsoring research at the university level in exchange for rights to commercialize the intellectual property that results.
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- Great Falls high school mentor program aims to provide positive role models
All kinds of students have mentors. Some are struggling academically and others just need a positive role model, she said.
Non-Profit News
- Montanans look East for ideas to promote tourism and art
The idea is to connect Montana artisans with tourists or anyone willing to pay a premium for high-quality, handcrafted goods.
- The reality is growing — Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana stretches wide in content, quality
The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival takes place today, Thursday, Feb. 16, through Wednesday, Feb. 22. Screenings of all films are held at the Wilma Theatre, 131 S. Higgins Ave.
- Call for applications for folk and traditional arts apprenticeship awards in Montana
Awards of $1,500 will be given to master artists skilled in such arts as quilting, beadwork, saddle making, fiddle playing or one of many other forms of creativity that are found in traditional Montana cultures.
Connectivity & Communications
- Call for Presenters for the Montana Nonprofit Association Annual Conference 9/25-27 in Helena, MT
Plans are well underway for MNA's 5th Annual Conference. Nearly 300 people attended last year's event in Missoula. To make this year's conference the best ever, we need your help!
Transportation
- Rumours mount over Google's internet plan
Google purchased a 270,000sq ft telecom interconnection facilities in New York. It is believed that from here, Google plans to link up and power the dark fibre system and turn it into a working internet network of its own.
- Blind Cal student sues Target. Suit charges retailer's Web site cannot be used by the sightless
Advocates for the blind said the lawsuit is a shot across the bow for retailers, newspapers and others who have Web sites the blind cannot use. They chose Target because of its popularity and because of a large number of complaints by blind patrons.
- Telecom industry attacks city-run Wi-Fi
"EarthLink will build, own and manage the wireless network at no cost to the city, while providing Wireless Philadelphia a revenue share to fund its operation," he said. "EarthLink has guaranteed network upgrades on an ongoing basis."
- A Truly del.icio.us API
The devil is in the details.
Community
- Big Sky Airlines Begins Walla Walla - Boise Service
Big Sky Airlines serves 20 cities in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.
Leadership Montana
- The Gallatin Valley: Fatal attraction?
Is this civic and community quality threatened by our success? If we want to preserve the special qualities that foster civic culture and vitality, we should be wary of community development schemes that neglect the emergent underclass in rural communities. As part of the new “code of the West”, we should be careful not to generate false expectations of success. To fail to do so will make the Gallatin Valley a poorer place in which to live.
- One book works to bring community together
“There are a lot of kids who are angry in this community,” he said, and “Touching Spirit Bear” is one way to reach them.
- How Great Leaders Get Great Results
"Toyota is a car company that challenges itself in a way that makes the world shudder,"
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page
