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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Mar 21, 2008 |
Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.
Are you or do you know an outstanding candidate for this very important position?: "Montana Career Opportunity - Executive Director - Big Sky Economic Development Authority" http://matr.net/articl ... .html --- The Montana economy has and is changing: "Making it in Montana - Manufacturing Exports top Agricultural Exports for the first time ever." http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html --- which has resulted in workforce challenges. Does Montana have a program like this to address the talent shortages? "N. Idaho School-to-Registered Apprenticeship Program (STRAP) helps student apprentices" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html --- but to keep Montana's economy moving forward, we need more successful entrepreneurs: "4th Annual College Of Business Entrepreneur Day, 4/1, MSU Bozeman, Montana" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Come Home Montana
Highway 12 Ventures
- Doing HR business from the wild - TR Hayes & Associates
The new career choice allows the Hayeses to live somewhere remote, while earning a living.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Executive Director - Big Sky Economic Development Authority
Functions as CEO having overall management responsibility for the successful operation of the organization.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Festival Director - Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
This is a full-time, year-round position.
- Outdoor Life magazine ranks Lewistown, Montana sixth in nation as sportsman’s paradise
“Bottom line: Million-dollar views on a blue-collar budget and a dizzying diversity of distractions for a sportsman.”
Idaho National Laboratory
- Starting up: It's not easy to tell people you won't invest in their start-up. Mark Solon of Highway 12 Ventures
Every single day, I have to tell great entrepreneurs that I'm passing on an investment in their company.
Montana Chamber of Commerce
- Idaho National Laboratory scientists develop tiny antennas to capture energy
"Ten to 20 years down the road, this is what we're going to be using for a portion of our energy needs."
Boomtown Institute
- Chamber of Commerce sounds alarm on climate legislation. Carbon plan debate: Boon or disaster?
The Montana Chamber of Commerce is hoping to get ahead of climate change legislation pending before Congress and the state legislature this year.
- Climate Change Dialogue Report from the Montana Chamber of Commerce
Our Montana Climate Change Dialogue got some good discussion going on the economic impacts of climate change.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- The Agurban from Boomtown Institute - You can subscribe to Agurban
If you find our newsletter interesting or valuable, please forward this email (along with a personal note, if possible) to a few colleagues who might also be interested in subscribing.
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- Entrepreneurship and Success: There are no "silver bullets"
Localities and states should pursue sound "build it and they will come" policies—building strong local educational systems and institutions, and developing supporting infrastructure—because these components are important for citizens and businesses, regardless of whether they stimulate the formation or growth of new companies.
Funding and Building your Business
- Save the Planet, Work Remotely
Aruba and Avaya team up to provide secure enterprise-quality voice and data applications to remote workers--and reduce greenhouse gases while they're at it.
Education
- Thanks to Internet, Starting Your Own Business Never Easier
I am amazed every single week at the sheer number of ideas that are floating around out there -- many of which have the makings of a serious business waiting to happen.
- Best Practice #41: Creates a well thought out monthly plan.
Taking 30 to 90 minutes at the beginning of each month to create a plan on how to invest your time, identify target accounts and write a plan of action can make a sales person more proactive. The discipline of writing the plan avoids the temptation to fall into a low-yielding routine.
- Rally Your Troops Like Churchill
How you can borrow from the British politician's speaking skills to lift the spirits of managers, employees, and customers worried about today's economy
- Are You Receiving Enough Customer Complaints?
It is said that 91 percent of people do not complain.
- Starting Up: Don't let focusing on the details blind you to the bigger picture
Most business owners are obsessed with some details to a point of insanity, but there are only so many hours in a day, and deciding which details to focus on is the key.
- Inside Entrepreneurship: How to write realistic projections
I have no idea what really matters on the financial forecasts to funders. What do you advise?
- Creating a company in three days
Startup Weekend seeks to collaborate ideas, concepts and passions
- LinkedIn now offering corporate profiles
"There's a lot of new information, instead of just a company description and financial statistics. We're giving our audience a lot more information about people news."
- The Puppy Dog Close
It is one of the most powerful ways to win more business and it is based on the magic of “Try before you buy”.
Connectivity & Communications
- Fueling a Town's Future with Corporate Sponsored Scholarships for All Graduating Seniors
If you graduate, you get to go.
- U.S. Eases ‘No Child’ Law as Applied to Some States
The Bush administration, acknowledging that the federal No Child Left Behind law is diagnosing too many public schools as failing
- What Does Georgia Gain by Investing in Its Colleges and Universities?
An overwhelming majority of residents in Georgia see higher education as vital to the state’s economic growth and quality of life, as more educational attainment is aligned with higher incomes, higher levels of entrepreneurship and less government spending.
- Idaho Turns to Chess as Education Strategy
On Thursday, state officials will announce in Boise that the program will be extended in the fall to all second and third graders — making Idaho the first state to offer a statewide chess curriculum.
- States’ Data Obscure How Few Finish High School
Like Mississippi, many states use an inflated graduation rate for federal reporting requirements under the No Child Left Behind law and a different one at home.
- Learning to Teach Tech-Savvy Students
In the last decade, I’ve noticed that traditional college students seem more dependent on technology, less comfortable working with others, less able to weather criticism, and unwilling to persist when their first attempt met with failure.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Unscripted Ending. The picture gets blurry for the future of public access television.
In the past three years, some 20 states have, like Indiana, switched to statewide franchises for cable TV. In the process, public, educational and governmental channels — the so-called "PEGs" — are getting hammered. Many are losing funding or studio space, and in a few places PEGs are being shut down altogether. The wild sandbox that gave political gadflies, aerobics instructors, sex therapists and many others a place to hone their video skills, while entertaining those who dared to watch, may never be the same.
- Nowhere To Run, Nowhere To Hide - Privacy on the Internet
George Orwell's 1984 envisioned a world where individuals were controlled and monitored by centralized government. In such a world, the individual had no place to hide from governmental omnipresence.
- Google Gives Free Phone Numbers and Voicemail to Homeless
The philanthropic program is aimed at helping the homeless not just communicate with friends and family, but also land jobs.
- Call for wireless regulation gets louder
Consumer discontent with wireless service has been brewing for years
Incubators and R&D
- Storming the Campuses with GoCrossCampus, or GXC
Next month, Google will bring GoCrossCampus to its New York office, pitting sales departments against engineering groups over a map of the company’s Manhattan campus.
Regional Business
- West Virginia Legislature Approves “Bucks for Brains”
Witnessing the success experienced by its neighbor, West Virginia is creating a university R&D matching endowment program similar to Kentucky’s.
- It takes a "village" of Montana State University students and researchers to create a camelina market
The goal is to find uses for the by-products of camelina oil processing, as well as for the better-known omega-3-rich camelina oil.
- Researchers use Great Falls first-graders to study fetal alcohol disorders
Great Falls is the "perfect American community" in which to research developmental disabilities related to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in first-graders, according to one researcher.
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- Sixty days for Stimson Mills in Coeur d'Alene, ID and Bonner, MT
Stimson to close: Workers at lumber mill given 60-day notices
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Keeping Missoula's art scene fresh
“Our success comes from our rapport with buyers and artists, but also our determination to keep fresh work on the walls.”
Montana Business
- The Allure Of Angel Investing
Angels are the new venture capitalists. Sound like a bold statement?
GIS Technology
- Bear spray company, Universal Defense Alternative Products Inc. looking at Butte for new warehouse
Lynch, a Butte native, said UDAP Inc. selected the Mining City for its location based on the tax abatement program and his hometown connection.
- Martha Stewart show to feature Fancy Flours of Bozeman, Montana
“We’ve been receiving a steady stream of national press, but to get on (Stewart’s) show is beyond huge,” Quist said.
- Making it in Montana - Manufacturing Exports top Agricultural Exports for the first time ever.
That’s a huge turn of events in such an agrarian state. Yet, while manufacturing is making its mark in the state like never before, it remains one of the least understood segments of our economy.
- Butte startup Ensi-Med disputes wage claims
Ensi-Med claims the ruling is wrong because contracts between the company and employees are governed by laws from New York.
Montana Economic Development
- Intermountain GIS Conference, 4/10, Missoula, Montana
If you own or work in a Montana business, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to learn how geospatial technology can work for you.
Regional Economic Development
- Manufacturing Project Needs 60,000 square feet of space
I am contacting you on behalf of a Paper Products Manufacturing Company that is doing a national site-location search.
- North Eastern Montana Counties Qualify for Carbon Offset Credits
NCOC will be conducting workshops throughout northeastern Montana. The workshops are scheduled to begin on April 8th through April 11th. All landowners and the public are invited to attend.
- Sen. Baucus Announces $28 Million Investment in Ligocyte Pharmaceuticals, Inc. of Bozeman, Montana
“These dollars are a clear example of what I’ve been saying for a long time now, that investing in Montana is always a good move,” Baucus said. “In addition to an investment in LigoCyte, this is an investment in our state’s economy and a validation of the high quality of work being performed here. This is excellent news for our state, and especially, the Bozeman business community.”
- Thinking About Smart Growth in Montana
Gallatin County, Montana, has experienced 20 percent population growth over the last eight years, and officials are hoping that the adoption of smart growth principles will help guide the rapidly developing area towards a sustainable future.
Utah Economic Development
- $5 billion power line proposed for Inland Northwest
Power-generating costs already have risen sharply in recent years, and with the big volume of power-line projects that’s planned, “the same thing is going to happen with the transmission,” Kopczynski says. “It’s bad, but it’s inevitable. It has to be done, or the region won’t survive.”
- The Institute for Systems Medicine Planning Authority of Spokane, Washington names star-studded advisory panel
“The formation of this advisory board, comprised of extraordinary scientists and physicians, represents a significant milestone in the progress of the ISM and for the future success of biomedical research in Spokane,”
Idaho Business
- Governor sets work-force goal
"For the first time in our state's history, we're finally listening to what people are saying out there," Huntsman said. "We are providing incentives to local businesses that want to expand and grow like any other business. And in the past, there's always been showing some sort of deference to those coming in from the outside."
Washington State Business
- AMI Semiconductor's new owner to lay off more than 200 employees
AMI Semiconductor in Pocatello officially became ON Semiconductor Monday, but more than 200 local employees won’t be around very long to get to know the new owner.
- N. Idaho School-to-Registered Apprenticeship Program (STRAP) helps student apprentices
It was developed by the U.S. Department of Labor and offers high school students the opportunity to receive long-term career and occupational training both in the classroom and at an approved job site.
- Meridian, Idaho based RxElite buys FineTech of Haifa, Israel
The acquisition expands RxElite’s ability to produce complex pharmaceuticals.
- Forbes: Boise is No. 2 for business, careers. Spokane #9
"We have a 90 percent close rate when we have a company come visit us, so we promote the heck out of Boise."
- TechIdaho: Idaho shouldn't dump development incentives
Why dump the tax breaks for research and development and broadband? Rep. Lake told me they have outlived their usefulness and represented a large amount of state revenue.
Wyoming Business
- Washington biotech startups still able to capture capital
Washington may not have the nation's biggest biotech market, but startups still attract millions in venture capital. Geography isn't as much of a hurdle as the general competition for money.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Plans for Wyoming supercomputer include energy efficiency
The project is expected to bring at least 40 employees to Cheyenne and has been widely hailed as a project that could trigger more tech development in southeastern Wyoming.
- Private investors complete funding for Powell, Wyoming fiber network
"Getting funding is a big hurdle, but not the only hurdle," Logan said of the deal, which saw several delays in securing financing and faced opposition from telecom giants Qwest and Bresnan Communications.
Careers
- How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong
Steve Jobs' fabled attitude toward parking reflects his approach to business: For him, the regular rules do not apply.
Transportation
- Don't wait to land your dream job
This demographic shift in thinking about careers leads to a new way to think about retirement and dream jobs and team work.
- Online Database of Job Candidates with Disabilities Made Available to Employers
"Finding and retaining qualified workers is vital to all employers."
Montana Education Excellence
- How Mechanization Can Help Cities Rethink Parking
The rise in innovative parking solutions and mechanization technologies is poised to transform the parking garage from an eyesore into a cohesive element in any sustainable, walkable and livable project.
- Traffic Calmed
This video from StreetFilm shows the extensive traffic calming efforts taken by one beach community in Australia.
Community
- Montana Superintendent McCulloch Announcing After School Program Grants
"These grants are a great way for schools and community organizations to provide fun, safe, and educational activities for students after school and during the summer."
- Creating and Sustaining Healthy and Successful Communities
Why are we putting a special focus on digital communities?
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