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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Dec 15, 2006 |
If you have not often felt the joy of doing a kind act, you have neglected much, and most of all yourself. -- A. Neilen
Congrtatulations to Highway 12- Welcome to Montana! "Highway 12 Ventures has a Relationship with the Montana Board of Investments to Provide Venture Capital Information & Assistance to Montana and Intermountain West Startups and Entrepreneurs." http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Come Home Montana
Highway 12 Ventures
- Welcome to my world!!! Jeff Foxworthy's comments on Montana
If you can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging Blizzard, without flinching, You might live in Montana .
Modwest
- Highway 12 Ventures has a Relationship with the Montana Board of Investments to Provide Venture Capital Information & Assistance to Montana and Intermountain West Startups and Entrepreneurs.
Highway 12 Ventures is pleased to provide information, consultation, and assistance to Montana businesses that may be seeking venture capital funds.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Modwest Offers Live PHP Tool
"Modwest has always excelled at hosting PHP web applications and this new tool further cements our position in the PHP hosting industry.
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- Dos and Don'ts for Entrepreneurs, from Those Who Have Actually Done It
The recent 2006 Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference, organized by the school's Entrepreneurship Club, took on this issue, inviting a group of, well, entrepreneurs to discuss their backgrounds and business philosophies and offer advice to those interested in taking the plunge.
Montana Education Excellence
- Agency says more residents left California than arrived in 2005
"It was all about lifestyle."
- Milwaukee Launches Innovative Economic Development Website - The Milwaukee 7
ChooseMilwaukee.com, a $200,000 site that's meant to beam flashy graphics and reams of southeastern Wisconsin data to a global audience of potential investors and expansion-minded industries.
Education
- Teaching tech in Helena, Montana Schools
“I’ve learned tools for expanding students’ boundaries,” Goebel said. “And have a greater understanding about how technology can be expanded for every grade level.”
- University of Montana Professor William Wilmot's Book, "Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want", Makes Business Week's Top 10 List
"The success of any innovation requires tapping into the genius of teams," Wilmot said, "and those teams must be interdisciplinary, with a shared vision, complementary skills and shared rewards."
- Montana Campus Compact (MTCC) receives grant for its Raise Your Voice program.
MTCC’s Raise Your Voice program assists student leaders from Montana’s public, private, and tribal colleges and universities to meet the needs of each campus’ student body.
Montana Business
- New academy teaches 'ethical hacking'
To protect computer networks against attacks, students learn to 'think like a hacker.'
- Utah Gov. Huntsman cuts schools a billion dollar slice - 43 percent of the total budget. (THE STATE WITH THE BEST EDUCATION WINS!!!!)
His spending plan sets aside 43 percent of the total budget for public and higher education
- How to keep America's education edge. "Tough Choices or Tough Times"
For the first time in US history, the next generation of Americans may be less educated than the previous one. That's just one warning from a panel of experts in a must-read report released Thursday that calls for a root-and-branch overhaul of public schools.
- Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg sponsors bill to make it easier for vets to be teachers
Rehberg said the Troops to Teachers Improvement Act of 2006 will correct a drafting error in the No Child Left Behind Act that restricted the ability of U.S. veterans to obtain teaching certificates.
- President needs to increase funding for PELL grants
President Bush and the next Congress could begin to dramatically change the reliance on loans by significantly increasing Pell Grants, which as the name says, are grants—not loans. For the price of just two weeks of the cost of Iraq, they could almost double the Pell Grant program and free up our college graduates to spend their incomes in ways that improve both their lives and the economy.
- To fix US schools, panel says, start over
A high-powered group Thursday recommended college for some 16-year-olds and preschool for all.
Montana Economic Development
- Garlick indicted on helicopter parts fraud
Garlick is a Hamilton resident and Garlick Helicopters is located on Skalkaho Highway south of Hamilton. The other corporate defendant is Double “R” Flying Service.
- Kalispell's Auroras merges with competitor to form Avail Media, Inc
"The synergies were obvious. Auroras had been solely focused on its IPTV services while Broadstream had begun expanding its focus to the cable and advanced media marketplace. We recognized that a merger would allow the combined company to get to market faster and offer a broader array of services to our customers.
- Missoula firm, Allegiance Life & Health Insurance Co. joins Montana state-based health insurers
Allegiance Life & Health Insurance Co., which already manages employee health plans for large employers that are self-insured, will start offering policies to smaller businesses early next year, said Dirk Visser, chief executive officer for the company.
Funding and Building your Business
- DNRC to Present $65.2 Million Check to the Office of Public Instruction for K-12 Education in Montana
(Largest check ever to be presented to Superintendent of Public Instruction)
- Anaconda Main Street program to focus on revitalization, historic preservation
Anaconda’s Main Street program is part of a statewide economic revitalization effort that uses preservation as an impetus to revive commercial districts that often have historic assets hidden behind updated facades.
- The Montana Department of Commerce has published updated WIRED Application Guidelines on its website
The Department of Commerce WIRED program will now also consider assisting manufacturing and energy related businesses in the defined region that create and retain a significant number of jobs, and which conduct business activities and products that are supportive to the development of the bio-product industry in the WIRED region.
- Proposed coal-to-fuel plant out in Butte, Montana
“We made the determination it isn’t feasible for us to pursue gasification in Butte,” said Russ Connole, county economic development director.
- Montana League of Cities and Towns, Missoula Mayor John Engen and others want to add local sales tax
Missoula Mayor John Engen and others asked state legislators Wednesday for a shot at a local option sales tax, a bigger slice of state revenues and, surprisingly, a wholesale state effort to purchase the Montana assets of NorthWestern Energy.
- Billings infrastructure falling behind says economist Larry Swanson
"Billings is an area where you can invest money and get return," he said. "We're working from a position of strength in Billings."
- Montana Department Of Commerce To Give Ravalli County $400,000 For Workforce Training, 12/19, Hamilton, MT
The funding is part of the Departmentís Community Development Block Grant Program, and will be used to train 53 new Glaxo Smith Kline employees.
Regional Economic Development
- Intellections
- The Founders Fund emerges as venture capital 2.0. How entrepreneurs get money, and time, for startups is changing
"Largely because we were all founders ourselves, we're inherently more interested in helping new entrepreneurs develop into successful leaders than we are in getting rich."
- Stop Procrastinating! Are you burying yourself in busywork to avoid really starting your business? These 10 tips will help you change your attitude--and get going.
After all, it's more fun to choose fonts than to make cold calls.
- Make a Great First Impression. You never get a second chance to grab your audience’s attention, so give center stage to a headline that really turns heads.
If you want your audience to take action, you’ve got to give them a reason to read on.
- Inside Entrepreneurship: Target your efforts to the appropriate VCs
Raising money requires considerable research and perseverance. Too often entrepreneurs reach a premature "I can't raise money" conclusion because they target the wrong venture funds.
Utah Business
- A Resource Guide for Technology-based Economic Development
Although state efforts reach back to the 1950s, the technology-based economic development field still relies heavily on oral tradition to convey what has been learned, and as one former official put it, “I am not aware of any formal training/academic programs for the directors and associates ... except for on the job learning.” This resource guide serves as a starting point in transferring the collective knowledge of the field to a written form that will be useful not only to those new to the field, but also to those with more experience.
- Cohousing Projects Increasing Nationwide
For those who live in cohousing, home is where the community is
Idaho Business
- Utah entrepreneurial forum announces award winners
The Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum on Thursday announced the winners of its 2006 Annual UVEF Awards.
Washington State Business
- Potlatch plans to sell 120,000 acres in N. Idaho
Company says some forest parcels in 4 states are worthmore for development than for timber
- Proposed nuclear plant in Idaho could add ethanol production
Alternate Energy Holdings, the Virginia company proposing a new nuclear power plant near Bruneau, announced Thursday that is considering incorporating a refinery to produce ethanol that would use surplus heat from the nuclear plant.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Venture Capital: Seattle's top tech stories of the year
The top technology stories of the year from Seattle's startup, venture capital and entrepreneurial communities.
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- Yellowstone domes rising at 'really pronounced' pace
Parts of the collapsed, restless volcano in Yellowstone National Park are swelling faster than has ever been recorded.
Energy
- MSU-B to receive $1.9 MM training grant to train students to work in the energy industry.
The College of Technology at Montana State University-Billings is receiving a $1.9 million grant to train students to work in the energy industry.
Connectivity & Communications
- Montana Green Power Monthly Newsletter December 2006
"Energy conservation is the cornerstone of a clean and affordable energy future.
- Solar cell breaks efficiency record. It converts almost 41 percent of light that hits it into electricity, almost double the efficiency of current commercial cells.
Potentially, the solar cell could bring the cost of solar power down to around $3 a watt, after installation costs and other expenses are factored in, over the life of the panel.
- Regulators move to curb coal plants. Rules could ban California utilities from buying their electricity
California utilities would be prohibited from buying electricity from most coal-burning power plants in neighboring states under far-reaching regulations proposed by state energy regulators Wednesday.
- Gore implores scientists to raise alarms. Ex-VP calls for research to be used for policy change. Montana panel hopes to counter global warming
"For civilization as a whole, we've somehow persuaded ourselves that we don't have to care about what happens to future generations,'' he said to about 7,000 scientists, including 3,000 in an overflow room at the Marriott Hotel. "We have a duty to act on the basis of the best evidence."
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Tempe, Arizona: First U.S. Citywide Public Access Wi-Fi - 40 Square Miles
Free access to city web sites was seen as the catalyst to jump-start e-government for Tempe as well as a way to streamline city services.
- Building a Better Wikipedia
Plans are underway to outdo the success of the popular online encyclopedia. Will it work?
- Start-up Jaxtr lets friends phone you on your blog
A Silicon Valley start-up is gearing up to embed free, Web-based telephone services on a variety of popular social networking and blogging services, including MySpace, Friendster and Blogger.
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