|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Fri Aug 8, 2008 |
|
This MATR newsletter sponsored by: Add an event... Upcoming Events
New Events
MATR supporter: MATR Web services provided by:  To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page |
"I ask the question: "Why is the country so angry? Who is trying to organize that anger? And what will come out of this anger; which direction will it push the country? Montana is front and center in that.'" David Sirota http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Great opportunities for your business to work with some of our best and brightest: "Montana State University Billings College of Business students seeking businesses" http://matr.net/articl ... .html -- and "Montana State University's College of Business looks to partner with local and regional businesses" http://matr.net/articl ... .html -- and an example of how students work with one of Montana's excellent research institutions: "The Rocky Mountain Laboratories Summer Internship Program celebrates its third decade of success" http://matr.net/articl ... .html
2009 Montana Legislature
Montana Chamber of Commerce
- Author David Sirota's study of populist movement zeroes in on Montana in his new book, "The Uprising,"
"I ask the question: "Why is the country so angry? Who is trying to organize that anger? And what will come out of this anger; which direction will it push the country? Montana is front and center in that.'"
Montana World Trade Center
- Business Opportunities For Montana: Expansion Through Trade To New Markets, 8/15, Bozeman
The Montana Chamber of Commerce is co-sponsoring two international trade programs to be held in Montana this summer.
Boomtown Institute
- Edmonton Oil Sands Show & Conference, September 23 & 24, Edmonton, Alberta - Financial Assistance Available
Canada is a friendly, accessible market for Spokane regional goods and services. Are you curious about whether or not there’s a market for your product or service in Alberta? Give us a call and we’ll help you explore the possibilities.
Making the Most of the American Prairie
- The Agurban from Boomtown Institute - High-Impact Firms -The Gazelles Revisited
Are you doing anything to encourage and grow the high-impact firms in your community?
MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association
- Oh, give me a home - Genetically pure Yellowstone buffalo available
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is looking for groups or agencies willing to adopt what would be the first genetically pure Yellowstone bison herd placed outside Yellowstone National Park in decades.
The Burton K. Wheeler Center
- Register Today For MEDA's 2008 Fall Conference, 9/8-9, Billings, Montana
Reminder: Governor Schweitzer has requested all Montanan’s to exercise all travel options that will lead to energy conservation. If you wish to car-pool to the MEDA Conference in Billings, September 8th and 9th, please contact Gloria O’Rourke who will coordinate the rides.
Come Home Montana
- Ralph Johnson named new director of Burton K. Wheeler Center
"Montana is still a place where we share the Jeffersonian idea that the people have control over their landscape and their lives and the balance between individual rights and the community's rights is still quite achievable," Johnson said. "Here an individual can have an influence on the state."
Come Home Wyoming
- New dentists choose small town (Lewistown, Montana) over fast pace of California
“We’re more interested in health care and prevention of disease,” explained Sunnshine. “We wanted to go to a place where we could make a bigger difference – have a bigger impact. Taking care of what people need as opposed to just cosmetic procedures that people want. Probably more importantly, we wanted a place that is good to raise kids in.”
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- Wyoming Career Opportunity - Administrative Assistant - Forward Cody Wyoming
The incumbent must have excellent communications skills, experience in financial management, superior computer skills and be a self-motivated team player.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Telecommuting benefits staff, employer
"We expect it will have positive impact on productivity," she said. "Work/life balance and telecommuting is something that we're actively looking at."
Montana Business
- Starting & Financing A Business Workshop, 8/26, Butte, Montana
Headwaters RC&D and the Small Business Development Center will present valuable information on business plans, marketing, industry profiles, cash flow projections, loan information and many other topics.
Montana Economic Development
- Eddie Bauer, Paws Up join forces
There's a boon for Montana tourism, too, as the images portray the state as a destination for the adventuresome. “I think it's huge,” said Christine Oschell, interim director of the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research at the University of Montana.
Regional Economic Development
- Montana Department of Commerce, Block Grant Program Awards $166,860 in Funding to the City of Kalispell for Flathead Valley Community College to develop a a welding and metals fabrication program
“These funds are keeping Montana on the move,” said Governor Brian Schweitzer. “Flathead Valley Community College expects to see at least 60 students enroll in this program over a two year period and more than half of these students are expected to find employment with local businesses after completing the program.”
- 6 lots in town offered at about half-price to qualified buyers in Red Lodge, Montana
At about $50,000 each, the lots are selling for a little more than half-price, and qualified applicants can build homes on them with financial help from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's HOME program.
- Montana Department of Commerce, Block Grant Program Awards $300,000 in Funding to Flathead County for Glacier Stone Supply, LLC
"Montana is on the move," said Governor Brian Schweitzer. "This expansion project will help Glacier Stone Supply expand its successful operations and create many excellent employment opportunities for the Kalispell community."
- Stimson puts Bonner, Montana mill up for sale: Missoula developer interested in site
“Maybe there is an opportunity to keep it going as a scaled-down mill. Right now, there is a ton of people looking for deals, especially in biomass and alternative energy.”
Careers
- Rural America outgrows label - Communities with urbanlike woes fall through cracks of farm-driven policies
In a nation whose urban needs influence federal policy and whose rural policy is dominated by agriculture, rural areas that have urban-style woes can fall through the cracks. "There is no rural policy for the kind of rural we are."
- 6 Utah plants help fuel rise in geothermal projects
"These new projects will result in the infusion of roughly $15 billion in capital investment in the Western states and create 7,000 permanent jobs and more than 25,000 person-years of construction and manufacturing employment."
Funding and Building your Business
- “Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive”
This book ranks in the top 10 business books that I’ve ever read.
Incubators and R&D
- Entrepreneurship 101
His greatest challenge, he says, is to help students understand that most of what they have been taught on other business school courses does not apply to entrepreneurship.
- Data Volume is Becoming Unmanageable, Say Executives
17.5 percent of executives surveyed said their companies are not ready to handle complex discovery requests. Is your company ready?
- A Patently Risky Business
Because patent attorneys charge many thousands of dollars to prepare and file a patent application, some people with the next bright idea opt for the "poor person's patent" (call it the three Ps), which is simply to write up a patent-like description and send it to themselves by registered mail or to pay a notary public to seal it in an envelope.
- Venture Fund Economics
When I write about venture fund returns, there are always comments and questions that lead me to believe that the economics of a venture fund are not well understood. And since most of the readers and commenters on this blog are people who work in the startup ecosystem, I think its important that the economics are better understood.
- Business cards are often effective tools - don't be stingy with them
Carry your business cards with you wherever you go. This includes when you go shopping, on vacation and when you're out running errands. After all, you never know where your next business relationship may come from.
- Starting up: 8 things you should know before starting your own enterprise
Hearing these success stories helped me when I became an entrepreneur myself.
- New (and free!) VC database is useful research tool
"It's my hope that VCDB plays a role in developing an "entrepreneur friendly" ecosystem,"
- Montana State University's College of Business looks to partner with local and regional businesses
During the four-month course, students help manage special consulting projects requested by area businesses. Past projects include developing business, marketing and financial plans, identifying ways to improve business processes, suggesting solutions to problems, conducting market and competition analysis, and helping with human resources and customer service issues.
- Getting funded means getting fired
You might be surprised to learn that 50% of venture backed startups fire their ceo/founder within the first year.
- Inside Entrepreneurship: Giving away business profits takes planning
In an era of active social entrepreneurship and the growing interest in developing well-managed, community-enriching organizations, the definitions of profitability, return on investment and business purpose are becoming blurry.
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- University of Montana’s College of Technology building a better generator that uses biomass
Without using diesel, the system combusts biomass—like ag waste or logging slash—and converts it into a hydrogen-rich gas that powers a 25-kilowatt generator. That’s enough to power 15 houses.
- Scientists create stem cells for 10 disorders
The researchers said they plan to make the cell lines readily available to other scientists.
Idaho Business
- The Rocky Mountain Laboratories Summer Internship Program celebrates its third decade of success
The Rocky Mountain Laboratories Summer Internship Program is wrapping up its third decade. The program brings elite college students from across the nation to live and work in Hamilton. Students work with scientists for eight to 12 weeks, garnering real life lab experience from some of the best in the field.
- Montana State University Billings College of Business students seeking businesses
The client will receive 10-year free cash flow analyses using payback, net present value and internal rate of return concepts. The students will link the Excel worksheets, so the client can do "what if" financial analyses (e.g., what if sales grew at 10 percent instead of 5 percent, etc.).
North Dakota Business and Economic Development
- 5 northern Idaho counties get grant for economic planning
The region targeted for this project is Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Kootenai and Shoshone counties.
Oregon Economic Development
- North Dakota farm land value sets another record
"The big difference now from the land boom in the 1980s is that a lot of the land is paid for with cash."
Washington State Business
- Seattle venture capital firm puts money on Oregon. Voyager Capital plans to invest in at least two state companies a year
"We think there is a real gap in the marketplace, here in Portland and in Oregon in general."
Education
- Tobacco fund could help get ideas from scientists in Washington State to market
"Some people tell us that the movement, the translation, of certain types of research into commercial projects is still too difficult," he said. "So the question is, is there anything we can do to help that be more successful?"
Community
- Must public education suffer from Baumol's disease?
Where other service industries have found productivity gains in organizational redesign, education's organizational infrastructure has evolved at the speed of concrete.
- Governors Challenge Youth to Solve Real-world Industry Problems
The Real World Design Challenge hopes to reverse this trend by providing high school students with the background and framework for competing more effectively in the global economy.
Connectivity & Communications
- Seven NEW Community-Friendly Grants
- National Timber Framers Guild to host 5 day project to develop structures by the old mill site in Missoula and they need your help.
“What we're doing now - think of it as a tune-up,” said project leader Geoff Badenoch.
Energy
- Internet design flaw allows crooks to misdirect traffic
The gaping security hole enables a scam that targets ordinary people typing in a legitimate Web address.
- MTA Commentary—August 6, 2008 Network Neutrality or Network Management?
Last Friday, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) found that Comcast cable company violated FCC Internet policies by “interfer[ing] with Internet users’ right to access lawful Internet content and to use the applications of their choice.”
- Why YOU Aren't Using Videoconferencing
Despite dramatic improvements in quality and affordability, most businesses still aren't using videoconferencing. The reasons why might surprise you.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Department of Energy to Save $13 Million in Annual Energy Costs at Four National Laboratories
The TEAM initiative also seeks to reduce energy intensity by 30% and reduce water consumption intensity by 16% in all DOE facilities by 2015.
- Montana public buildings switching to ground source heating
One reason for the low maintenance is the limited visibility of equipment; it is not exposed to the outdoors. Another reason is the simplicity of the pump and its limited parts.
- Win at Rock Paper Scissors
Just imagine all the shotgun seats and last beers that would be yours if you won every game of rochambeau.
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page