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| MATR Newsletter - Fri May 22, 2009 |
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." --Thomas Edison, American inventor and businessman
Glacier Raft and Outdoor Center
Idaho National Laboratory
- Get out with the family! Come to Montana and take a river trip with Glacier Raft
"Not just a great trip, but life-long memories."
Montana World Trade Center
- Idaho schools receive Idaho National Laboratory grants for K-12 projects
Idaho National Laboratory has awarded nearly $100,000 in grants to teachers across the state to improve science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in grades K-12.
- Idaho National Laboratory Experimental Breeder Reactor-I (EBR-I): Opens for summer tours May 22
Since 1975, when the facility was opened for summer tours, more than a quarter of a million visitors from every state and dozens of foreign countries have come through its doors.
TechRanch
- The Montana World Trade Center Presents: "Marketing Workshop For Montana Artists, 6/20, University Of Montana - Missoula
The workshop will focus on the business resources available to artists and will include a panel discussion by successful Montana artists who will share their experiences. The workshop is designed to help artists enhance their marketing efforts.
Highway 12 Ventures
- Bootstrapping your Business in Rural Montana with TechRanch
The seminars tie in to another program administered by Tech Ranch, a no-interest loan program for projects planned by Montana businessmen and women that will provide a fast return on investment.
- Search Engine Marketing For Small Businesses, 5/27, Bozeman, Montana
On Wednesday, May 27, at noon in the TechRanch conference room, Sean Golliher of Future Farm, Inc. will introduce you to the power of Internet marketing and provide practical advice for driving traffic to your website.
Boomtown Institute
- Startups: Finding Opportunity in the Economic Downturn
What steps should small companies be taking to weather the economic downturn?
- Draft The Best Available Athlete
I believe that today’s start-ups can learn a lot from Tex’s strategy.
Come Home Montana
- Follow the Money - The Boomtown Institute
Following is a great story that makes tracking the impact of the stimulus easy and a lot of fun.
Leadership Montana
- Huntley, Montana - Against All Odds .. Small Town Success
Every year brings new challenges and every year “I think we are going to have a wreck,” said Becky, “but every year is better than the last.” So the Robisons will continue to function as a one-couple economic development program for Huntley. “We are just delighted that we can write some pay checks to local people and give this community a little pop,”said Becky.
- Montana businessman's career mirrors developments in technology fields. Stephen Vaile of Rising Wolf Enterprises in Shelby
When Stephen Vaile returned to the Hi-Line after a varied technology-oriented career that took him across the United States, he realized he had a broad scope of interests. He believed that if he managed those interests correctly, he could turn them into a business.
Montana Business
- In Praise of Dullness
Warm, flexible, team-oriented and empathetic people are less likely to thrive as C.E.O.’s. Organized, dogged, anal-retentive and slightly boring people are more likely to thrive.
Montana Economic Development
- Return to the skies - Hamilton, Montana based Rotorcraft Service Center contracted to rebuild, modify helicopters from dismantled parts
Word will shortly get to Bell about the small Hamilton company that does magnificent work. “I feel pretty good,” said Stinson. “This 205 is going to open some eyes.”
- Goomzee Introduces New Text Message Marketing Innovation to Increase Sales Opportunities
The new innovation, rightfully called InterAct, enables a text message chat conversation between potential buyer and seller.
- Build Your Own Solar Powered Vehicle for $15K
Free Drive Electric Vehicles announced today the release of “THE SOLAR BUG” electric vehicle kit.
Regional Economic Development
- Gov. Brian Schweitzer Invites You To "Working Forests, Managing Communities", 6/18-19, Kalispell, Montana
The “Working Forests, Managing Communities” meeting in Kalispell this June will provide the opportunity to have a conversation about the challenges and the opportunities we face in maintaining healthy forests that will support healthy communities.
- Renewable-fuel push may help Montana
Industry leaders say a White House directive to accelerate biofuel development could be a needed shot in the arm for Montana's renewable-energy firms.
- Tim Blixseth trades about 40,000 acres of land in Idaho, along the Montana-Idaho border near Lolo Pass to the U.S. Forest Service
The swap would effectively extend the reach of the Montana Legacy Project into Idaho, according to Teresa Trulock, project manager with the Clearwater.
- Enticing Business Growth in the Flathead with The State of Montana Big Sky Economic Development Trust Fund
The Big Sky Economic Development Trust Fund (BSTF) program is a state-funded program created by the 2005 Legislature with the intent of developing good-paying jobs and long-term, stable economic growth in Montana. The program is funded by interest from the state’s coal severance tax – about $1.5 million annually.
- Montana Manufacturing Extension Center engineer, Todd Daniels honored for service to manufacturing industry
Daniels won the award for his commitment to new MEP business growth services that stimulate the economy while sticking to the mission of simple and effective technologies, techniques and practices for small- to mid-sized manufacturers.
Careers
- Western Governors’ Association – 2009 Annual Meeting (June 14-16 in Park City, Utah) Early Registration Deadline is Friday, May 22
This year we will focus our attention on developing regional and global strategies for addressing the intertwined issues of energy, climate change and water. Joining us will be the Obama Administration, international dignitaries and a host of private and public-sector leaders from around the West.
Funding and Building your Business
- A Web Presence From Scratch
With unemployment at a 23-year high, job seekers need to expand the ways in which they search, say career and workplace experts.
Montana Education Excellence
- Haggling for better deal means money in bank
A new poll by Consumer Reports found that more than 66 percent of Americans have tried to negotiate a better deal in the past six months, usually with great success.
- 15 copies of QuickBooks for small town businesses
Here's why we're giving away 15 copies of QuickBooks to small business people who aren't using QB yet: I want you to get a better handle on your business.
- SBA offers interest-free loans to struggling businesses
These are deferred-payment loans of up to $35,000 that will be made available to established, viable, for-profit small businesses in need of short-term help to make their principal and interest payments on existing debt.
- V.C.’s Ignore Business Plans, Study Finds
“I’ve never given funding to an entrepreneur who had a business plan with him when he walked into my office,” Mr. Fagnan of Atlas Ventures told The Times. “Never. Most of the information you find there, five-year financial forecasts and so on, is not relevant.”
- Startups rising from ashes of recession
Startup creation accelerates during economic downturns as the newly unemployed strike out on their own, making silk purses out of sows ears.
Regional Business
- Montana State University graduate student, Janice Lucon, wins $90,000 fellowship from National Science Foundation to study how light is harvested for alternative energy
Lucon and her husband, who works in Butte as a mechanical engineer, would like to stay in Montana after she graduates if they can both find careers they enjoy.
University Business Plan Competitions
- South Dakota residents finance town's only variety store
Town residents coming together to open stores is "definitely a growing initiative," says Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher at the Minneapolis-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance. "People feel a sense of ownership for the business, and that sense of ownership brings people into the store," she says.
Idaho Business
- MIT's 100K Entrepreneurship Competition Produces A Company Developing A Drug-Dispensing Contact Lens
The company was a finalist for MIT's 100K Entrepreneurship Competition, a yearlong contest that provides resources and funding to student entrepreneurs and researchers who submit business plans for ventures that show significant potential.
Making the Most of the American Prairie
- Idaho wind farm donates turbines to schools
The turbines used to power the first commercial wind farm in Idaho will be donated to a state college and university for training programs.
- Pacific Ethanol files for bankruptcy in Burley, Idaho
Company says it still plans to reopen Burley plant when market improves
- Still time to register for TechLaunch business competition
Participating companies, which may be either start ups or existing companies with a new product, will be provided with training and education on finding funding, as well as the opportunity to present business pitches to potential investors.
Government
- American Prairie Foundation E-Newsletter May 2009
We want to give a big thanks to all of you for keeping this exciting project moving forward. Please come visit soon!
Other Economies
- The Montana Interagency Committee for Change by Women (ICCW) announces 11th Annual Excellence in Leadership Award Recipients
The Interagency Committee for Change by Women (ICCW) is an organization established by Executive Order of the Governor. ICCW honors persons who have created positive change for all state employees by promoting the full participation of women in state government.
Community
- Companies bite on Colorado's new job-incentive program
Colorado's House Bill 1001, signed into law recently by Gov. Bill Ritter, gives companies a state income-tax credit if they choose Colorado over competing states for establishment of at least 20 new jobs.
Connectivity & Communications
- Missoula trying to become Playful City USA
Playful City USA status would help Missoula improve its ability to raise outside funding and business sector support, receive honors and recognition at national conferences of our peers, gain special incentive opportunities and highway signs, be included in a national media campaign, and receive priority status in accessing all KaBOOM! resources.
- Boise Valley, Idaho citizens drive new community problem-solving project
One expert says plans succeed best when regular people take the reins in tackling the issues that matter to them.
Energy and Climate Change
- FCC’s Warrantless Household Searches Alarm Experts
“Anything using RF energy — we have the right to inspect it to make sure it is not causing interference,” says FCC spokesman David Fiske. That includes devices like Wi-Fi routers that use unlicensed spectrum, Fiske says.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Interns help companies cut energy use
The Climate Corps interns - drawn from such schools as Yale, UC Berkeley, Columbia and Michigan - will spend 10 weeks hunting for ways to trim the amount of power their host companies need. Last year's class of seven interns found enough savings to cut their host companies' energy bills by $35 million over five years.
- Global warming may be twice as bad as previously expected
Unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, "there is significantly more risk than we previously estimated," says study co-author Ronald Prinn of MIT. "There's no way the world can or should take these risks."
GIS Technology
- New '2D barcodes' puts info at the tip of your camera phone
The tech start-ups are in a race to get consumers to scan "2D barcodes" — matrix-like patterns that can hold much more data than the ubiquitous striped barcodes.
- Is this the eve of revolution for food? The Networked Future of Local Farms - "FarmsReach"
A Bay Area startup has launched a service to make it easier and cheaper for restaurants to buy food from small, local farms. With a suite of mobile apps for use in restaurants and on farms, FarmsReach wants to create an online food marketplace that would directly connect farms with restaurants.
Government Technology
- Tax GPS to Save GPS?
According to a new GAO report, a bunch of the satellites up there guiding our cars, geo-shagging applications, and soldiers might go kaput soon. If they fall, the report implies, the sky falls.
Non-Profit News
- Data.gov Launches to Mixed Reviews
Open-government advocates see the new site as a sign of good things to come for government transparency.
- Mrs. Obama Announces New Fund to Aid Nonprofits
The fund would offer financial support to nonprofit and community groups that focus on education, health care and economic mobility, among other issues.
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