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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Oct 13, 2015 |
“The one thing I’ve heard from everybody I’ve hired is ‘I want to be in Montana.’” Main Street Montana Project - Skilled labor demand in spotlight as Bullock, business leaders discuss workforce challenges http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Hellgate Venture Network Next Meeting - Rod Austin, Dotmos, 10/15, Missoula http://www.matr.net/ev ... =5655
Early Edge Montana
Main Street Montana Project
- MSU's Wheeler Center to host Nov. 6 conference on expanding early childhood education in Montana
Featured speakers will include Gov. Steve Bullock and Ellen Frede, deputy director of early childhood learning with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Montana Data Focused Business Cluster
- Main Street Montana Project - Governor Bullock Hosts Workforce Development Summit
"The one thing I've heard from everybody I've hired is 'I want to be in Montana.'"
Montana Department of Commerce
- 96% of Businesses Fail to Unlock Data's Full Value - Top 11 Business Intelligence Software Companies
Some 43% of the organizations surveyed obtain little tangible benefit from their information, and 23% derive no benefit whatsoever.
Missoula Schools Excellence
- The Community Development Division Call to Action: Every Body Walk! Collaborative Micro Grants
A call for applications for $2,500 micro-grants to help with walkability through AmericaWalks. Applications are due on October 15th.
Come Home Montana
- MISSOULIAN EDITORIAL: Unite in support of Missoula's schools: Bonds will provide safety, security, modern education
Missoula voters have a big decision to make as ballots begin arriving in local mailboxes this week. Missoula County Public Schools is asking the community to support a pair of 20-year bonds that will significantly improve our faltering school facilities.
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Montana Career Opportunities - Avionics Technician, Aircraft Maintenance Technicians, Sheet Metal Technician, Human Resources Manager and more... - Avmax
Avmax Aviation Services offers a wide range of services to support the Aviation industry world wide. We specialize in Avionics, Maintenance, Interiors, Structures, Aircraft Sales & Leasing, Charters, Aircraft Paint, Engineering, Component Repairs, Spares and other various services in Aviation industry worldwide.
- Montana Career Opportunities - Implementation Engineer, Project Manager - ISCS, Missoula
ISCS is a fast-growing software company providing enterprise solutions to U.S. property and casualty insurance companies.
- Montana Career Opportunities - Database Developers - DataSmart Solutions
DataSmart Solutions, a Helena-Based healthcare data analytics business with national exposure, has openings in Missoula and Helena for database developers.
- Montana Career Opportunities - Staff Consultant, Tax Professional, Pension Administrator, Interns and more... - Anderson ZurMuehlen & Co., P.C.
For over 55 years, we've developed client relationships that are focused on finding solutions. We're a Montana firm with offices in Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Great Falls, Havre, Helena and Missoula.
- Montana Career Opportunities - Customer Success Director, Manager of Software Development, Salesforce Developer, Software Developer and more...- PrintingForLess.com
At PrintingForLess.com (PFL), we have all the opportunities of a big city career, located in the midst of breathtaking Big Sky Country near Livingston and Bozeman Montana.
Montana Business
- Five hot Missoula startups to pitch to investors
"This takes the best of Missoula's companies and presents them to people looking for investment opportunities."
TEDx Events in Montana
- Missoula's Bank of Montana CEO Tom Swenson to give presentation to Federal Reserve's Board of Governors
"I'm giving feedback on the perception of economic conditions in the area," Swenson explained. "What the Fed is trying to do is get real-time data. They want to hear what regular people feel about the economy, which a lot of times is contradictory to what economists report in the paper.
- Inventor moves Tailgater Production from Great Falls to North Carolina
"As much as I wanted to keep production in Great Falls, there was not enough opportunities for quality and quantity manufacturing, shop and warehouse space," Swensson said.
- Kickstarter - AirScape Bucket Preservation System. Air is the Enemy! by Missoula, Montana's Planetary Design
Turn any 3.5, 5 or 7 gallon bucket into a storage preservation system that keeps food and goods of all kinds much fresher, far longer.
- Billings, Montana-born Avitus Group continues rapid growth, looking for opportunities abroad
Chrans said Avitus Group's sales and marketing team is working to develop business opportunities in Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia.
- "Business: Made In Montana", 10/22 And 10/25, Montana PBS
This episode introduces viewers to Fang Mountain Wilderness Hardware of Missoula, Wizbang Hats of Missoula, Acuity Design in Missoula and Beard Mountain Trading Company in Billings.
Careers
- Today's TED Talk - Michael Green: How we can make the world a better place by 2030
Can we end hunger and poverty, halt climate change and achieve gender equality in the next 15 years? The governments of the world think we can.
Next Generation Broadband in Montana
- It's a great time to be a recent college grad looking for work
But the wages and salaries for all those available jobs still look like they're from harder economic times.
- Computer science is now the top major for women at Stanford University
A hopeful sign for those trying to build up the thin ranks of women in the technology field.
- The 10 Worst States for Women
24/7 Wall St. reviewed a range of economic, leadership, and health factors to identify the 10 worst states for women. Utah trails the nation as the state with the worst gender gaps, while Oregon has the smallest gender gaps overall.
- Margaret Hamilton's Code Got Humans on the Moon--And Invented Software Itself
Then, as now, "the guys" dominated tech and engineering. Like female coders in today's diversity-challenged tech industry, Hamilton was an outlier. It might surprise today's software makers that one of the founding fathers of their boys' club was, in fact, a mother--and that should give them pause as they consider why the gender inequality of the Mad Men era persists to this day.
- 10 Best Paying Big Data Career Skills
Big data and cloud experts earned the best U.S. technology paychecks in 2014, according to Dice.com's salary survey results. But which 10 technology skill sets deliver those big salaries?
Rural Communities
- The Need for (Broadband) Speed
It's 2015 and too many Americans still lack broadband Internet service. What's the problem and who should fix it?
- Community Broadband Easily Explained
Broadband is magic that directly or indirectly enables us to do things we could not do before, or do them more easily.
Government
- Rural Towns Farm More Servers, Fewer Crops
Server farms are supplanting scrub brush and cornfields, underwritten by small-town tax breaks.
Idaho Business
- New California law extends privacy rights to electronic data
California will require police to get a court order before they can search messages, photos and other digital data stored on phones or company servers in the nation's most-populous state.
- California Law Will Automatically Register Drivers to Vote
The new law will "help improve elections and expand voter rights and access in California," the governor's office said in a statement.
- Prisons - The stunningly simple idea that could change solitary confinement as we know it
A general consensus has emerged among politicians, academics and prison officials that something is seriously wrong with the way we isolate tens of thousands of prisoners in solitary confinement.
Incubators and R&D
- Study says Idaho is the best place to be a doctor
Idaho was chosen as No. 1 for its low rate of physician density and its low cost of living.
North Dakota Business and Economic Development
- Bear spray originated from University of Montana research conducted in the 1980s
Carrie Hunt, who directs the conservation nonprofit Wind River Bear Institute, studied various prototypes of bear spray as part of her master's thesis at the University of Montana in the 1980s. Working closely with advisor Chuck Jonkel, Hunt and colleagues tested a number of different ingredients on captive grizzlies.
Regional Business
- Great Video: John Oliver looks at North Dakota's deadly oil boom, asks polite residents to get angry
"So maybe let's use this pause to take stock of what the hell just happened to North Dakota," Oliver said. It wasn't all good.
Workforce Development
- 11 Reasons Why Elizabeth Holmes is the Manufacturing Technology Leader of 2015
If you have never heard of Holmes, if you are asking why she is on the cover of this magazine, why she is the 2015 IndustryWeek Manufacturing Technology Leader of the Year, consider the fact that in a little more than a decade she has developed a new technology that researchers decades her senior had never envisioned, and that she has used it to upend one of the larger industries in the country.
Education
- RevUp helps prepare Montana workers to secure high wage positions employers across Montana need to fill
RevUp Montana is a partnership between the state's Department of Labor and Industry and many of Montana's two-year colleges.
Montana Education Excellence
- Elise Andrew F*cking Loves Science
She created a Facebook page that now boasts an audience of over 7 million.
- A Student Loan System Stacked Against the Borrower
"It feels like I'm being set up to fail."
- For-Profit Colleges Break U.S. Rules, but Still Get Billions in Federal Funds
The Education Department, despite a crackdown against what it calls "bad actors," continues to hand over tens of millions of dollars every month to other for-profit schools that have been accused of predatory behavior, substandard practices or illegal activity by its own officials or state attorneys general across the country.
- The Future Won't Wait - American Public High School hasn't changed in 100 years.
XQ: The Super School Project is a nationwide competition to reimagine high school for the future.
Universities and Economic Development
- The Montana Afterschool Alliance - Opportunity for working parents to lend their voice and impact public policy.
The Alliance is looking for input from families, providers, advocates, and other interested parties at meetings throughout the state
- Montana Tech sees largest head count in history
"It is also important to note we are seeing an increase in our retention rates demonstrating our efforts over the past years have been successful. I would like to thank our faculty and staff for all they do for Montana Tech and our students."
- Voters Overwhelmingly Approve Bigfork School Renovation
"We've had absolutely amazing support."
- Montana Educators Participate in Second STEM in the Rockies Weekend
The purpose of the class is to help these teachers bring the engineering thought process to the classroom.
- Montana State University program to broaden participation of women faculty recognized in magazine
"Thanks to ADVANCE Project TRACS, MSU has been able to implement several policies and programs in support of faculty (especially women faculty), including a sick leave donation pool, a dual career community placement liaison, a faculty partner accommodation program and a family care program."
- "Defining A 21st Century Education For A Vibrant Democracy" U.S. Secretary Of Labor Thomas Perez , 10/26-27, Missoula
The conference will focus on important and timely topics in higher education, including liberal education, global education, workforce development, academic innovation and educational delivery.
Funding and Building your Business
- The Optical Technology Center (OpTeC)at Montana State University Wins Talent Development Category From University Economic Development Association membership for Best Practices In University-based Economic Development
The Optical Technology Center (OpTeC)at Montana State University now boasts more than twenty faculty members and has helped establish more than thirty optics-related companies in Bozeman.
Energy and Climate Change
- 12 Sure Signs You Shouldn't Trust a Business Partner or Vendor - What Makes a Great Business Partner?
When you've been through the trenches together you have seen one's moral compass and know who you can trust in good times and bad. You know you've found a partner for life.
- Why Everyone Should Join an Accelerator
After living through the adventure, we actually now have a much better understanding of these cohort-based mentorship programs.
- Anderson ZurMuehlen Offers Beginning QuickBooks Course (Free), 10/19, Missoula
Do you own a business and want to learn how to use the popular accounting software QuickBooks?
- Building A Sustainable Business Is More Than Profit
The next generation of corporate business and even the political economy is emerging based on the creation of purpose.
- Why Amazon is moving into the handmade market
Online retail giant Amazon has rolled out a marketplace for handmade items just in time for the holiday season.
- What Your CIO Is Reading: Reid Hoffman, Network Man; Military Strategy
"Hoffman is convinced that we can fix economic challenges facing the middle class through Internet-enabled networks."
- How big data can take the pain out of performance reviews
A new program aimed at HR departments says it can unearth employee information that human managers might miss.
- Can 360-Degree Reviews Politic-Proof Your Workplace?
Rather than having just one person to kiss up to, the under-performer disguised as an achiever has to fool many more.
- Telecommuting Isn't Always a Win-Win Situation
A growing number of companies offer work-from-home options even though there is conflicting evidence about the effectiveness of this approach, the study authors said.
Government Technology
- California Governor Makes Solar Power More Affordable
"All of our climate change efforts are incredibly laudable, but if we can't provide access to this new green world to everyone, then I don't think we've really achieved our goal."
- Portland is now powered by water pipes and flushing toilets
Portland residents can now generate green electricity simply by turning on their water taps and flushing their toilets.
- Missoula XPRIZE Winner Sunburst Sensors Donates $10,000 to Nonprofit Climate Smart Missoula to Boost Area Climate Efforts
"We're not getting sufficient action from the top down on this issue, so it's up to cities and states to act on their own." Sunburst founder and UM professor Michael DeGrandpre
- Amazing ERO Concrete-Recycling Robot Can Erase Entire Buildings
Ero - a robot that recycles concrete in an energy-efficient manner and separates it from rebar and other debris on the spot.
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- We're doing a terrible job of measuring the modern workforce, and the feds know it
"It's crazy that we're having this debate with 10-year-old data."
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Helena's The Means of Production Shop, a communal workspace for manufacturers, tinkerers and emerging artists now fully functional; members have plans for growth
It's a place where the creative thinkers can gather to critique one another's ideas and share expertise, and they see it as offering much more.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Real Tech or Star Trek? A Quiz.
Which of the imagined 23rd-century gadgets from the original "Star Trek" and its movie and TV sequels remain futuristic, and which technologies have already been invented?
- Stephen Hawking: Technology is making inequality worse
While the pie is growing, not everyone is getting more of it.
Transportation
- Google Wants to Get in Your Levi's
Created by Google, the textile is a platform with digital connectivity that will enable the control of phone features from the surface of a garment.
- A futuristic razor that shaves hair with a laser has raised nearly $4 million on Kickstarter
More than 20,000 supporters have donated nearly $4 million as of this writing to a Kickstarter campaign for a shaving implement that promises to eliminate the pain, irritation, and mediocrity of regular shaving.
- An early look at Elon Musk's Gigafactory, a building that could change the world
For those unfamiliar, Tesla describes its massive 5.5 million square-foot Gigafactory as a way to "accelerate the world's transition to sustainable transportation."
- The Benefits of Slower Traffic, Measured in Money and Lives
There's overwhelming evidence that road diets reduce collisions, with some federal studies suggesting an average decline of 19 percent
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