|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Fri Jul 28, 2006 |
MATR
Web hosting provided by: Add an event... Upcoming Events
|
"Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater." -- William Hazlitt
Observations from the “Tech-Led Economic Development” conference in San Jose sponsored by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
Education
- Sioux Falls growing into high-tech hub. Hard workers, low costs a draw for businesses
As Sioux Falls pushes for a niche in the world of high-tech business, a national upsurge in tech jobs and a backlash against outsourcing means more high-tech businesses are slim, rural and local. And increasingly, those factors are boosting local tech companies, observers say.
Montana Business
- Idaho community college plan could cost Idaho State University millions
Currently, there are only two community colleges in the state, and some lawmakers worry about the lack of options for high school graduates.
- Lego kit builds better 'bots. Robot competitions a great way to encourage students to get involved in science and math.
Enthusiasts, many of them adults, have used it to build robots that sort Lego bricks by color, dispense soft drinks, or climb stairs. One Dane even turned it into a low-resolution scanner that took 3 to 4 hours to scan a CD cover.
Montana Economic Development
- Student Assistance Foundation Lands New National Clients
"We are extremely pleased to bring our new clients on board," said SAF President Jim Stipcich. "New business for us means more educational grants and public benefit services for Montana students."
- RightNow Technologies of Bozeman, MT continues with revenue growth
The nearly $27 million in revenue signals RightNow's 34th consecutive quarter of revenue growth.
- Chinook Wireless customers in Montana ready for phone changes
Information on the phones is available online at http://www.chinookwireless.com or at Chinook Wireless stores in Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Great Falls, Helena, Kalispell and Missoula.
- Bush nominates D.A. Davidson executive, Ron Tschetter to head Peace Corps
"We will all certainly miss Ron, but this is an extraordinary honor and opportunity to work with an organization he is passionate about," said Johnstone.
- Electronics Recycling Event In Missoula Saturday! 7/29, Missoula
This Saturday, July 29, WVE is co-sponsoring an electronics recycling event in Missoula, and we encourage you all to take advantage of this opportunity and get rid of those electronic items around the home or office that just shouldn't be thrown away!
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Acute-care center seen as filling gap in Billings
The question on just about everyone's mind went unanswered Tuesday during a press conference announcing Ernest Health Inc.'s plans to build a multimillion-dollar medical center in Billings.
- The Montana Department Of Commerce Presents NAFTA Export Training & Workshops, 8/10 Missoula, 8/11 Butte, MT
The Montana Department of Commerce provides export training to Montana businesses and residents interested in pursuing trade opportunities outside of the United States. Assistance is provided through workshops, on-site training, and individualized counseling upon request.
- Montana World Trade Center leads Trade Mission of Montana Companies to China, South Korea
Last July, Rehberg accompanied a similar trade mission to Ireland, Germany and Spain that resulted in nearly $10 million in new contracts and sales agreements for eight Montana companies.
GIS Technology
- State-by-State Venture Capital Investments Q2 2006
Montana comes up empty again.
Funding and Building your Business
- Ravalli County, Montana unveils new 3-D GIS computer program
The application tool now provides geo-codes - name, address, number of home owners and the location with GIS pinpoints. Officials can look up neighboring land owners and view parcels of land. Aerial photo with parcels, flood-plain information and various data can be overlaid.
Regional Economic Development
- Visibility for the Board. Treat Your Board of Directors as a Business Unit
If you are on a board that is increasingly being held to stricter standards of accountability, wouldn't you like to have your own information window into the enterprise? Wouldn't you like to show a court of law that you demonstrated fiduciary "due diligence" as a director by digging deeply into the data? Yes? Then "Hello, CIO!"
- How To Think Like An Entrepreneur
If you are going into your own business for the first time, prepare to go through a kind of human revolution as you stretch your mind and develop your skills, methods and experience at gathering and thinking about information.
- Finding an angel investor that will answer your funding prayers
Angel investors look for a sound business plan that clearly demonstrates how the business will work. They want to be convinced that management will be able to implement the plan.
- 10 steps every new entrepreneur should take
I began by looking at what entrepreneurs really do, and then looked at those things they should also do but often delay.
Utah Economic Development
- Colorado State University researcher, Martin Shields recruited to boost region's economy. Businesses chip in to hire expert.
Northern Colorado businesses chip in to hire an expert and fund his projects to help the area attract more jobs.
- Kodak jobs may develop in Colo. A Foreign Trade Zone, with special business benefits, extends 60 miles in all directions from Denver International Airport.
"Manufacturing today is, in many cases, taking place overseas. This may be the exact incentive (companies) need to bring a manufacturing operation to Colorado, where they can purchase products and assemble them," Yeros said.
- Funding opportunities and advice await entrepreneurs at the 8th Annual Intermountain Venture Forum in Boise, ID Sept. 26-27
"For the past several years the IVF has emerged as one of the very best regional events of its type and is a must attend event for companies from the seed stage and onwards."
- Observations from the “Tech-Led Economic Development” conference in San Jose sponsored by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC)
Make attracting and retaining top drawer talent a major priority. It is not just about creating jobs. If you have the talent the jobs will usually follow.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Salt Lake County launches 'Up Grade' website- a "one-stop shopping" resource for small businesses.
The Web site designates business categories under "start up," "grow up," "move up," and "fire up."
Incubators and R&D
- 'Jeopardy' champ Ken Jennings blasts game show
"We regret the insinuation that Mr. Alex Trebek is a robot, and has been since 2004. Mr. Trebek's robotic frame does still contain some organic parts, many harvested from patriotic Canadian schoolchildren, so this technically makes him a 'cyborg,' not a 'robot.'"
- TEDTalks (the really really smart voices of the future....)
Each year, TED hosts some of the world's most fascinating people: Trusted voices and convention-breaking mavericks, icons and geniuses.
- How To: The Wired Guide
Knowing how to use the technology that surrounds you is good, but a little creative hacking is even better. This special section is your instruction book on how to do, well, anything. From Wired magazine.
University TechTransfer
- MSU biofuels research fills need for new sources
"Montana farms produce 10 million tons of wheat and barley straw that are typically left in the field. An additional five million tons of hay are produced annually," said Dave Wichman, superintendent of the Central Ag Research Center "The advantage of using annual farm crops for ethanol production is that farmers can produce biomass with conventional crops and equipment, and can alternate crop production for energy, food or feed," he added.
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- University of Washington biotech startup, Seredigm wins financing from Accelerator
Now the Seattle-based incubator with ties to biotech pioneer Leroy Hood has made its initial fund's sixth and final bet in a new company, a University of Washington spinoff called Seredigm.
Small Diameter Timber Utilization
- Montana Arts Council’s “State of the Arts” newspaper
- Toronto Considers Strategies for Building Regional Creative Economies
The Toronto study focuses on the region's need to build on this growth to advance Toronto as a center of North American creativity and to connect creative firms with partners in other industries. These partnerships give creative firms greater access to the capital available to more traditional industries and provide those industries with access to the region's creative talent.
Careers
- Eureka, Montana schools secure financing for heat system
"We now have the chance to budget ($150,000) on heating instead of dealing with volatile pricing going up and down," Blaz said. "So this is huge on the impact down the road five or six years,"
- Wood Fuel Supplier Needed For Kalispell's Glacier High. - Pre-Bid Meeting, 8/3, Kalispell
A 3-year contract to provide biomass fuel to heat Glacier High School must be in place by October 1, 2006.
Non-Profit News
- Reluctant Vacationers: Why Americans Work More, Relax Less, than Europeans
The average American receives approximately four weeks a year of paid leave, while the average person in France gets seven and the average German, eight.
Energy
- The economy’s middle child. Though a major part of the economy, the nonprofit sector is poorly understood and maybe a tad underappreciated
If you've ever been a Scout, belonged to a religious organization, listened to a live orchestra, had a baby; if you're a veteran; if you've volunteered or been a member of a local chamber of commerce—among many, many other things—then you've participated in the underappreciated economy of nonprofits.
- Nonprofit Leader, Brian Magee, executive director of the Montana Nonprofit Association Recognized for Commitment to Charitable Sector
Magee is the 2006 recipient of the national Phyllis Campbell Newsome Leadership Award.
Connectivity & Communications
- The Un-Coal. By investing in energy efficiency, we could vastly reduce carbon dioxide emissions and save money.
Princeton University's Carbon Mitigation Initiative concludes that using the most efficient building technologies for commercial and residential buildings could avert as much carbon dioxide as is produced by 800 one-gigawatt coal power plants. Doubling automotive efficiency -- possible with existing technology -- would achieve the same. Do both and you've canceled out the emissions of 1,600 coal power plants -- more than all the coal plants proposed globally today.
- The Experimental Home. A new, sustainably-built home seeks produce as much energy as it consumes.
From the arctic entry to the clerestory windows, designer Liz Olberding reached for both sustainable design and permanence -- a green structure that will stand for 100 years.
- Bill promotes renewable energy at schools - Fuels for Schools
The bill offers “a great potential for reduction of rising energy costs, but the learning opportunity for students is most important,” said Rose McKinney-James of the Nevada Renewable Energy and Conservation Task Force.
- Building 'green' reaches a new level in Portland, OR.
The green ethic — energy-efficient, water-stingy buildings full of features that stress the natural over the chemical, the recycled over the new and the renewable over the finite — is firmly mainstream.
Space and Zero Gravity Research
- Server Farms Live Off Open Source. "Whenever you go to Google, you're using Linux,"
To the many oft-sung virtues of open-source software you can add this: it saves electricity.
- Surprise, Arizona second in nation to provide broadband over power lines (BPL) No modems, no dial-up, no cables.
It would be one of the first tests of a cutting-edge technology that some experts think will expand Internet use dramatically across the country.
- Great Falls considering wireless Internet access
Municipal Wi-Fi is hot, with scattered cities across the country offering free citywide Wi-Fi, and the city of Great Falls is considering dipping its toes into the water.
- New Internet is the Stuff of Dreams. Chicago stands at the hub of a fast network that will offer wonders of 3-D virtual reality
Chicago's advanced computer network, dubbed Starlight, is operated by Northwestern University and UIC and has connections to Europe as well as Asia. It runs at speeds more than 10,000 times faster than broadband connections common to home computers and is used by scientists doing advanced research.
- Wiki tools resembling standard software
A California start-up wants to help people grow more comfortable with online collaboration tools known as wikis by making shared pages resemble spreadsheets, photo albums and other software they already use.
Commuter Rail Development
- Crash of Russian rocket destroys Montana's first satellite
The first satellite built in Montana was destroyed Wednesday when the Soviet-era intercontinental ballistic missile it was riding on crashed shortly after liftoff in Kazakhstan.
Transportation
- Commuter Rail System for Missoula/Bitterroot area could be long haul but well worth the effort.
“This is a comprehensive project that has a lot of synergy between communities up and down the 93 corridor,” Sponseller noted, “and of course we’re gonna need to get together and figure out how we’re going to regionally address this. There’s going to be huge benefit from working together.”
- Montana Department of Transportation Introduces Roundabout Website
As roundabouts gain popularity in Montana, the Montana Department of Transportation has developed a Web site providing information to help the public understand how to maneuver through these circular flowing intersections.
- Very light jet takes big step skyward
Eclipse Aviation already has 2,500 orders for its $1.5 million jet, the transportation secretary said.
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page