Montana Business

"Our federal and state funding had been flat for a decade, but our costs haven’t," Holland said. "We had been able to offset our rising costs with a variety of grant opportunities, but those dried up."

The installation will act as a trial run for Zinc Air, which has been working on battery modules that could store large amounts of energy generated by existing utilities and renewable sources.

Montana Ambassador Business of the Year: Frank McAllister, Chairman & CEO, Stillwater Mining Company http://www.stillwatermining.com/ Award for demonstrating extraordinary innovation and success in their field of business including a commitment to employees, community and economic development to the State of Montana.

"Brian’s cooking is as good as anything anywhere on the planet."

Parsec Data is the preferred Montana based destination for companies needing a value-add, safe, secure and supportive data center that enables them to confidently deploy their mission critical solutions and services in today’s dispersed cloud computing environment.

Schleim says summer isn’t the only time of year for tourists, a big ski season in our area helps keep our tourist numbers strong all year long.

Beartooth Capital http://beartoothcap.com/ is selling feel-good investment opportunities with a sporting, environmental bent.

"We’ve been proud to see Grupthink used with great success by companies of all sizes, from Fortune 500 to small non-profits," said Steven Sundheim, founder of Grupthink. "But we knew early on that our platform was particularly suited for fostering consumer-led innovation, so for KL Communications, Grupthink will serve as the perfect foundation for their co-creation solution."

As the Billings store slowly takes shape, Scheels vice president of store development Jason Loney is working on other projects, including opening a store next month in Cedar Falls, Iowa, remodeling a Grand Forks, N.D., store and starting another in Overland, Kan., that will be a twin to the one in Billings.

Increasingly, visitors to Montana are looking for more authentic encounters — more personal interaction, said Sarah Lawlor, spokeswoman for the Montana Tourism office.