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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Dec 29, 2006 |
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We at MATR hope you and yours have a most joyous New Year. All the best in 2007. Russ
"It's tempting but futile for Montana to manage growth one subdivision at a time. Bozeman to offer classes to learn the lingo of planning." http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Come Home Montana
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Montana Career Opportunity - Regional Sales Manager - AAA MountainWest
AAA MountainWest offers a professional upbeat working environment, a team oriented atmosphere and excellent benefits
- 2 New Montana Job Opportunities - Controller and Grant Writer
New positions at growing economic development non-profit serving Great Falls region.
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- NxLeveL Entrepreneur training shows link between planning, success
Offered annually in Great Falls, NxLeveL Entrepreneur 2007 will begin on Jan. 24, holding the three-hour classes every Wednesday until April 18 at the Montana State University — Great Falls College of Technology.
Montana Ambassadors
- How To Create A Great Place To Live
Five communities around the country demonstrate ways to overcome common challenges and create attractive, appealing places to call home.
- America's Worst Commutes
Relief is not immediately at hand.
- Plateauing: Redefining Success at Work
Some companies are beginning to take notice, providing new options and opportunities in the ongoing war for talent.
- Cody, Wyoming program aims to add hundreds of jobs, increase earnings
"We're not going to just let things happen in Cody," Mahieu said. "We're going to create what Cody is going to be."
- Industry discovers low cost of heartland
Some of those new industrial projects have nothing to do with the traditional agricultural base of places such as Grant County. Microsoft and Yahoo are both building data centers at Quincy; Intuit is doing due diligence on another, Brewer said, and the economic development council is talking to still more companies lured by lower land and power prices.
Education
- Montana Ambassador’s Annual Conference With Rich Karlgaard, Publisher Of Forbes Magazine, Sen. Max Baucus and Gov. Brian Schweitzer, 2/15-16, Helena, MT
Rich Karlgaard, Publisher of Forbes Magazine and author of “Life 2.0 How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness” will be our keynote speaker.
2007 Montana Legislature
- Schools search for balance in a digital world
Deprived of digital learning devices, would teaching grind to a halt? Or would everyone simply move to the sunny side of the building and continue putting pencil to paper?
- Are your kids getting the best education possible? Almost 1/3 of the school districts in the state say no.
"This case will be brought by school children in the state of South Dakota and the parents as guardians, claiming that the State of South Dakota has breached its constitutional obligation to proved a fair and adequately funded education,"
- MSU warns 259 students of security breach
Montana State University has mailed letters apologizing to 259 students and warning that their names and Social Security numbers were mistakenly released to eight other students.
Montana Business
- Energy Deregulation may be hot topic in 2007 Montana Legislative Session
This time, it's more likely to be about what to do with energy once it's created. "This is very important stuff for Montana and the West."
- 2007 Legislature: Fisheries, insurance among new bill topics
What bills do you plan to introduce this session?
- Education lobbying for added funding in Montana
"The state has used increased property taxes for K-12 and increased tuition for higher education as a pressure-relief mechanism to avoid increased state funding," Melton said. "Our obligation isn't just to do better than those before us, but to provide resources for the kind of education we need."
- Governor Schweitzer says budget is sustainable
"I believe my budget is sustainable based on the best estimates we have," Schweitzer said.
Montana Economic Development
- Beyond the Boot - Eastern Montana's Economy
This article follows up with an economic overview of the area east of the “Boot,” the geographically vast and sparsely populated central and eastern part of the state. For lack of a better term, we refer to this area as “Eastern Montana.”
Funding and Building your Business
- It's tempting but futile for Montana to manage growth one subdivision at a time. Bozeman to offer classes to learn the lingo of planning.
The current approach is reactive - focusing people on individual projects as they're proposed. A better approach - albeit a quantum leap from the status quo - would be to create an environment in which we find ways to steer developments to where they make the most sense. That requires a forward-looking, big-picture perspective.
- NxLevel For Entrepreneurs, Jan 9 - April 3, Victor, MT
Business Owners: The NxLevel for Entrepreneurs is not a theoretical business class--it is a hands-on class for business owners to improve their business. Improving your business can be a New Year's resolution that you keep.
Regional Business
- Mass collaboration could change way companies operate
The "company" is about to get wikified. Or starfished. Or cracked open like a beehive hit with a baseball bat. Depending on whom you ask.
- Google launches search engine for U.S. patents
The search giant recently launched Google Patent Search – a search engine of all 7 million U.S. patents.
Regional Economic Development
- Utah starts ad campaign: 'Don't Dis the Disability'
"A disability isn't a reason not to hire the most qualified candidate."
- Top Ten Sustainability Stories for 2006
The year of 2006 in review from the perspective of sustainability in state and local government, presented in order of importance.
Utah Business
- Denver's prospects sunny, not snowy. Regional cooperation, diverse economy, environmental sensitivity spark rebirth
"Denver should be very proud of coming together to do the big public investments," said Patty Silverstein, chief economist of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. "There's a history of making these investments to create a great business environment."
- Smaller House Equals Smaller Price - Affordable Housing Initiatives in the Pacific Northwest
Several cities in the Pacific Northwest are encouraging the construction of smaller homes to help deal with the shortage of affordable housing.
Utah Economic Development
- Utah firms seeking more engineers
Utah is launching a campaign, including a phone hotline and e-mail address, to attract more engineers to the state.
Idaho Business
- Utah moving trucks are wearing rolling billboards to promote the state - for free
"I'm glad he has that kind of passion," he said. "If every company got that passionate and tried to promote the state like that, who knows what we could do. I certainly would like to see a day where we could partner with people in and out of the state."
Washington State Business
- Top 10 Boise, Idaho business stories: Good, bad and fair
Here are the Statesman's top 10 local business stories of the year, as voted on by the newspaper's four-person business staff:
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Cool New Chips from Lightfleet Corp.
Using start-up funding from angel investors, Lightfleet Corp. has built a prototype of what it calls "all-to-all technology," a patented new way for computer chips to communicate quickly without the danger of overheating.
- High-tech companies in Spokane focus on revenue growth beyond 2007. Economy is diversifying
High-technology manufacturers in the Spokane area are aggressively seeking to expand revenue through the introduction of new products and sales strategies, yet much of their focus is beyond next year.
- Pot rivals apples as Washington state's top cash crop
It's among the top three cash crops in 30 states, Gettman said. He said Washington is the nation's fifth-largest producer, behind California, Tennessee, Kentucky and Hawaii.
- Tight Seattle and San Francisco office space now landlord's market
Leverage in lease negotiations is shifting from businesses that rent office space to those that own it.
- Venture Capital: Angels like capturing mail at the post office. DocumentCommand
"Our whole strategy is don't let the paper ever enter the enterprise," Wiener said. "We capture it at the post office, and all of those functions are performed under one roof right at the same place."
Incubators and R&D
- Longevity Gene Keeps Brain Agile ... "Got Genes?"
People with a cholesterol gene variant are more likely to live longer and with better brain function.
University TechTransfer
- Gov. plans funding boost for research projects
Boosting public funding for cutting-edge research could prove to be a boon to some of the state's top universities — and to private companies that leverage their breakthroughs into big profits.
- Researchers use Yellowstone as CO2 lab
Plants near the thermal vents are exposed to nearly twice as much carbon dioxide as is normal. But if carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and cars keep increasing at current rates, the amount of carbon dioxide at the vents now will become the worldwide norm in 100 years.
Energy
- Extended continuous tuning technology for diode lasers available for licensing from Montana State University
To date, MSU has licensed 111 technologies developed by faculty. Seventy of those licenses are with Montana companies.
Leadership Montana
- Extra boost for going green. California PUC wants to award credits to owners of solar units - not to the utility companies.
In a decision closely watched by the solar industry, the California Public Utilities Commission recently signaled its intent to award the ownership of credits earned from renewable energy sources to the residential and commercial owners of such systems -- and not to the utility companies.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Crafting Leadership. A new book by business productivity guru Ram Charam details the key characteristics of geat leaders.
A person may possess the entire panoply of personal traits that everyone admires, but without the know-hows of running a business, that person can be a recipe for disaster.
- Wild Predictions for a Wired 2007
A major newspaper gives up printing on paper to publish exclusively online.
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