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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Jan 16, 2007 |
[The] sense of place is critical in today’s changing economy where knowledge replaces physical resources as the driver of growth. Let me explain. The most common way to describe this new reality is the “creative economy.” Technological advances, speed of communications, growth of information and the rapid changes of the last decades, make the need for creativity fundamental to devising new products, services, technologies, business models, and ways of earning a living. What is different in the creative economy? · Creativity, the source of economic wealth, is within every person’s reach – we all have that capacity. · People become the key economic asset · Place replaces the corporation as the fundamental business building block. And the key to competitiveness in the creative economy? Attracting talented people through quality of place, drawing them in and rooting them here. Human capital is now the primary determinant of a region’s economic vitality. Wisconsin Lt.Governor, Barbara Lawton ( Thanks to Jack Schultz of Boomtown Institute http://www.matr.net/ne ... itute for passing this along. )
"Girls' science and math conference seeks presenters, sponsors for "Expanding Your Horizons" Program." http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html ---- "Montana laptop lawmakers log on, blog on. Do you know how to find your Legislators' websites and blogs or watch the 2007 session on live streaming video?" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html ----- "Keiretsu Forum - Boise/Sun Valley Inaugural Kickoff, 1/18, Boise, Idaho" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html ------
Boomtown Institute
Come Home Montana
- The Agurban from Boomtown Institute - How will your local employers recruit workers amid a rural labor shortage?
These are just three rural communities in Kansas and what their employers are doing to recruit and retain workers. What are your local employers doing to keep pace with labor shortages. What are your local economic development groups doing? What can you do?
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Montana Career Opportunity - Director of Biotechnology Business and Product Development - Resodyn Corporation
Resodyn Corporation is a, small, but growing, fast-paced, technology development company located in Southwest Montana.
- Montana Career Opportunity - DIRECTOR OF FINANCE- Yellowstone Association, Yellowstone National Park
Opportunity to live and work in one of the world's most beautiful natural areas.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Senior Technology Advisor - First Call Computer Solutions
We offer industry leading products & services, proven sales system, recurring revenue, sales engineering & a professional company & team you can count on.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Senior Cost Accountant/Financial Analyst - Montana Silversmiths Inc
Recommends actions by analyzing and interpreting data and making comparative analyses; studying proposed changes in methods and materials.
Montana Education Excellence
- Answer These Questions Before Taking the Entrepreneurial Plunge
To give potential entrepreneurs an idea of the sort of questions they must face when entering business for themselves, I've prepared the following checklist.
Education
- Blazing an all-day trail: Missoula school shows that more time in class helps prepare kindergartners
“As a staff we decided to do this,” Thomas said. “Our third-, fourth- and fifth-grade teachers gave up their Title I support so we could go full day. And we can really see the difference. Their reading scores are stronger. They come into first grade with more academic skills.”
- Girls' science and math conference seeks presenters, sponsors for "Expanding Your Horizons" Program.
Expanding Your Horizons is a national program that is hosted locally by MSU's Extended University outreach program. The conference can accept 192 girls, and regularly fills to capacity. Last year, girls from all around Montana attended, and participated in activities ranging from assembling robots to designing a skyscraper to analyzing fossils.
- Unsung hero of aerospace engineering, Lysle Wood, leaves Montana State University $1 million
"Mr. Wood was an extremely talented and visionary engineer whose accomplishments can serve as an inspiration to all," Marley said. "It's wonderful that we can honor his memory through this endowment to support faculty and students."
2007 Montana Legislature
- AAA offers scholarships to Montana graduates
AAA MountainWest will again offer academic, athletic and arts scholarships to graduating Montana high school seniors.
- For Teachers, Being 'Highly Qualified' Is a Subjective Matter. 'No Child' Standards of Content Mastery Widely Interpreted
"Meeting the qualifications has become an exercise in bureaucratic compliance,"
- No Child: 5 years of frustration
Five years after federal No Child Left Behind rules were imposed nationwide, Montana educators are still digging. But optimism is fading.
Montana Business
- Jobs for Butte in Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer's budget plan
With a projected $1 billion surplus, Gov. Brian Schweitzer has definite ideas on how to divvy up extra money the state has not seen in quite some time.
- Montana laptop lawmakers log on, blog on. Do you know how to find your Legislators' websites and blogs or watch the 2007 session on live streaming video?
Nearly every lawmaker lists an e-mail address with his or her profile on the Legislature's Web site (http://www.leg.mt.gov). It's a transformation from even a decade or so ago.
Montana Economic Development
- LigoCyte of Bozeman, Montana, appoints new board chair, Don Beeman.
The company plans to begin testing its norovirus vaccine on humans this year and is awaiting word from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the timeline for doing so.
- Consulting Firm Delivers High-Impact Technology Solutions. Granite Peak Systems focuses on midsize business market
“Our target client is an expanding business that recognizes the impact technology has on their profitability,” says Rupsis. “By focusing on matching the right technology to streamlined processes, we can implement effective solutions that ease the pains of success.”
- In Butte-Silver Bow: Wage growth outpaces state, nation
“The 21st Century has been good to Montana residents’ wallets,”
- Seeley Lake's Pyramid Lumber upgrades computer system
The computer code they're creating will help ensure the mill gets every last board foot possible from the wide variety of logs processed each day at the facility.
- Gambling wastes Montana's potential wealth
One-fifth of the gamblers then had incomes under $15,000 a year (1997 dollars). Twenty percent were on Social Security. Seventy percent were employed. Five percent were on public assistance. The study described gambling participation rates as “stable” at the time, so we’ll guess they’re at least roughly the same today.
GIS Technology
- Forward Great Falls a success - gets rave reviews
Brett Doney has only been at the helm of the Great Falls Development Authority for a few months, but said more seasoned heads couldn't remember an economic discussion in Great Falls drawing nearly such a big or enthusiastic crowd.
- The beauty of biodiesel in Montana's small town economy
"We're really trying to create some economic development for the Chester area," Fisher said. "Chester's been getting smaller and smaller, as many of the small towns have." The beauty of biodiesel is that it makes sense on a small scale.
- Haider, Uhl join MMEC for WIRED effort
MMEC's (http://www.mtmanufacturingcenter.com) involvement in the WIRED initiative enables Montana to participate in a national strategy to reduce petroleum dependence and enhance the value of regional cash crops.
Funding and Building your Business
- High-Tech Fire Prevention Through GIS Analysis
a vegetation management plan for Del Mar that targets specific areas for brush removal to mitigate fire exposure. Unlike Del Mar's previous broad prevention efforts, the new vegetation management plan used the field assessment maps to identify precisely where the fire department needed to reduce hazardous fuel volume to limit fire continuity, lower potential threats to property and provide buffer zones so firefighters can more effectively control the spread of fire.
Regional Business
- Venture Capital In The Rockies, 2/20-22, Bachelor Gulch In Beaver Creek, Colorado
Venture Capital in the Rockies http://www.vcintherockies.com/ is the largest and oldest capital conference in the Rocky Mountain region. Venture Capital in the Rockies showcases the region’s most promising emerging growth companies for an audience of over 200 venture investors, CEOs, entrepreneurs and service professionals.
- Wielding Kitchen Knives and Honing Office Skills
Forget ropes courses and golf outings. Cooking is the new wave in corporate team-building exercises.
- Right words help win deals
Companies find good communication skills pay
- Solicit employee opinion to craft a strong fitness plan
Between the rising costs of health insurance and the start of a new year, being healthier is on the top of everyone's list.
Regional Economic Development
- Job market picks up for MBA graduates. East Coast students find opportunity in West
Employers plan to hire 22 percent more newly minted MBA graduates this year than they did in 2006, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. That's even more aggressive than their plans to hire new four-year grads, where they project a 17 percent increase.
Utah Business
- Keiretsu Forum - Boise/Sun Valley Inaugural Kickoff, 1/18, Boise, Idaho
Keiretsu Forum is the largest North American private equity investor network of 500 accredited private equity (angel) investors, venture capitalists and corporate/institutional investors.
Government Technology
- Flan man's enterprise typifies small-business loan program's triumphs
"I don't find any money until I find Utah Microenterprise."
Idaho Business
- Governor's use of Web sets model for outreach
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pitched an ambitious agenda for his second term this week with an equally ambitious display of Internet technology that experts say surpassed even the White House in its scope.
Other Economies
- Coeur d'Alene Tribe Gets Moving - Berg Integrated Systems emerges into the remote site, integrated Expandable Shelter Platform (ESP) market.
Berg has entered into cooperative partnerships with North Idaho College on workforce development, with the first onsite class of new workers graduating from basic welding in December 2006. In 2007, Berg plans to continue this partnership with NIC to provide even more welding and fabrication classes to employees. "By providing this education, we enrich the workforce with skills that they own for a lifetime," said Darren Stuck, general manager of Berg . "Not only do our employees improve their welding abilities, they are also learning basic tenets of high-end steel fabrication, blueprint reading and practical application of basic math skills."
Incubators and R&D
- The Hawai`i Innovation Initiative. Gov. Lingle unveils plan for economic innovation unveiled, Public school 'academies' would grab student interest
Hoping to provide the creative spark for a new generation of Island scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs, Gov. Linda Lingle announced a series of initiatives yesterday to promote innovation and help move the state's economy away from land development.
Careers
- Researchers: Medical answers might be in Berkeley Pit
The future of mental health, fighting cancer and environmental cleanup could lie in the toxic water of Berkeley Pit, and two Montana researchers believe the potential for discovery at the forlorn landmark may be enormous.
Non-Profit News
- Be prepared for your first video interview
''While you need to always be prepared for an interview, it's even more critical in a videoconference interview because you've only got a certain amount of time to get your qualifications across to the interviewer before the thing is shut down,'' she says. ''In that amount of time you've got to present yourself well as someone who is savvy and aware.''
- Six Things You Should Know About Pre-Employment Tests
Executive candidates often are surprised when asked to take a test or other assessment for a job. They shouldn't be.
- Experts Offer Their Tips For Fruitful Networking
When it comes to finding a job, nothing beats good, old-fashioned networking -- contacting friends, relatives and former colleagues, setting up face-to-face meetings in the hope of getting job referrals.
Energy
- Herberger’s again offers local nonprofits fundraising opportunity
Qualifying Community Day organizations include local 501C-3 nonprofit organizations, churches and schools.
Making the Most of the American Prairie
- Plug+Play Construction - Panels stuffed with wires and pipes, preassembled on a factory floor, make high tech green building a snap.
This room and two more like it hold the house's high tech systems. It arrived at the site as a single unit stuffed with a tankless water heater, pumps, and other equipment ready to hook into the air, water, data, and power systems.
- The Warming of Greenland
A penisula long thought to be part of Greenland's mainland turned out to be an island when a glacier retreated.
Commuter Rail Development
- American Prairie Foundation Video with Tom Brokaw
It provides an overview of our current progress and reiterates the vision we are pursuing with our partners at World Wildlife Fund.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Salt Lake City embraces light rail, expansion
When light rail opened here seven years ago, people lined up around the block. From the first day, the trains carried more people than were forecast for 2025.
- Laser body sculpting for zapping unsightly blubber.
Because it uses lasers, Smartlipo has several advantages over conventional liposuction, the company claims; Smartlipo is minimally invasive, and it can be used more easily to remove small deposits of fat in such areas as the neck.
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