|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Tue Jan 5, 2010 |
|
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 |
"We cannot vote as if we have blinders on and only see our present economic picture. We must take lessons from the past seven generations and also look forward and provide for the interests of the next seven generations." Montana Superintendent Denise Juneau http://matr.net/articl ... .html
"Homegrown CEOs drum up high-tech business for their native state. How can you help Montana?" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html --- "Rural Montana Saves - Does someone you know in Montana need support for job training or education?" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html ---
Glacier Raft and Outdoor Center
TechRanch
- Glacier Outdoor Center to unveil new cross-country, snowshoe trails for new year
The facility has expanded and will unveil its new groomed trails at a full-day festival on Saturday. Called Glacier Nordic Day, it comes with special deals on rentals as well as free use of all groomed trails and even free ski lessons.
MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association
- Is your stock Outstanding?
Your Company likely has Authorized Stock, Issued Stock and Outstanding Stock and derivations of those. I see these terms getting miss-used often enough to want to clarify them.
Missoula Children's Theatre
- January 2010 Montana Economic Developers Association (MEDA) Online News
MEDA Members Expertise Database: Over 100 of MEDA’s 249 membership have taken advantage of this feature on MEDA’s website thus far. Just click on the Find Other Members button on the bottom of each page to access the data.
Montana Ambassadors
- On the Road with The Missoula Children's Theatre - Fall- Winter 2009
Your vision has helped so many young people discover themselves. Having been in drama during my college years, I know the dedication and determination needed. Watching my “cool” teenagers perform has been a thrill. Junann Basehor, Kansas
- ‘Next Step Prep’ performing-arts high school a hit for Missoula Community Theatre
Building on that success, "Next Step Prep" will be in full operation the next two summers, foreshadowing the opening of Missoula's only performing arts high school in the fall of 2011.
Come Home Montana
- Homegrown CEOs drum up high-tech business for their native state. How can you help Montana?
“Now is the best time in the world to go after some of these companies,” Gallaway said in a phone interview. “When times are difficult, companies want to cut (expenses) to survive.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Home / News / Local From parks to wildfires, centennials abound in western Montana in 2010
Here’s a look at what to expect this year in the way of centennial celebrations:
Montana Business
- Attracting Foreign Startups: Access To U.S. Could Get Easier
It may soon be easier for foreign startup entrepreneurs to set up shop in the United States thanks to immigration reform which would create a specialized startup visa program.
- The Lipper Current - News for Innovators, Investors and Developers
The Lipper Current connects innovators, developers and investors to advance the innovation economy.
Montana Economic Development
- “Slick Willy Banana Wax” and “Black Death” Thriving in Big Sky, Montana
In the 2007 USSA Masters Championship at Big Sky, 14 skiers were using Slick Willy Wax. Of the 14, all had podium finishes.
- How a Bozeman company, Barnard Construction, landed a half-billion-dollar job
“We go after the toughest, most difficult projects,” he said. “The projects most people don’t even want to bid.” The Bozeman company hasn’t a job in Montana for more than a decade.
- Red Lodge, Montana based, The Healthy Pantry, provides "meal kits" for healthy meals that can be prepared in less than 10 minutes
So, for about the price of a cheeseburger combo, and one-fifth the calories, you can have whole grain apple cinnamon pancakes or blackened chicken with calypso rice.
- Montana Chamber of Commerce President, Webb Brown, looks back on hard year, ahead to new decade
Montana Chamber of Commerce President Webb Brown has an idea for a booth his organization could set up at job and college fairs around the state. "I've always thought we should have a booth with a big mirror and the slogan 'How would you like to work for the best booth in the world?'" he said.
- Montana Health Facilities First in Nation to Go Live with eMix
The interoperable, vendor-neutral eMix builds on innovations in cloud computing. The result is a simple, secure, universal exchange of imaging data in real time.
- Biomass company said to be interested in shuttered Smurfit-Stone facility in Frenchtown, Montana
Montana would be well served to learn from states like Wisconsin and Maine, where the states’ environmentalists and business leaders have learned to work together. She points to the Flambeau River Paper mill in Park Falls, Wis., as a prime example.
- Western Montana InBusiness - January 2010 - Outlook 2010 - Where Does Montana's Economy Stand?
What makes the Missoula economy hum is not manufacturing or the wood products industry - which two decades ago amounted to 14 percent of the economy and today represents just 6 percent - rather, it's several things.
- Guy Kawasaki Names Montana's Goomzee As Favorite
Goomzee Corporation provides a mobile marketing technology platform that connects buyers and sellers at the point-of-interest.
- Economic Outlook Seminar Headed To Nine Montana Cities
What are the latest economic trends and forecasts for the nation, state and local economies?
Careers
- 2009 Kalispell Businesspeople of the Year - Board members of the Kalispell Business Improvement District
“Thursday!Fest” A Party with a purpose.
- Boost Montana's economy with nature, not natural resources
“We could sell every parcel of state land and log every tree on state lands, but we don’t … because we want to sustain Montana’s lands for future beneficial use … keeping Montana ‘Montana.’” Public Instruction Superintendent Denise Juneau
- Otter Creek decision reminiscent of old buffalo hunter
In the winter of 1882-83 ranch hands of Levi Howe shot the last buffalo on Horse Creek, tributary to Otter Creek. In the summer of 1883 rancher Walt Alderson shot one lonely old bull near Tongue River — the last of millions. This hearing was about the very same landscape — only deeper! The most refreshing part of the hearing was the testimony of students from Missoula's Big Sky High School. The students presented factual, emotional and inspirational testimony; but, then it is their future on this planet that is at stake.
Funding and Building your Business
- Uptick in Executive Jobs Seen for 2010
Recruiters are bullish on the outlook for executive-level job hunters in 2010.
- Taking smaller steps toward new career
Self-evaluation a big first step toward making switch
Incubators and R&D
- Life after funding
Venture capital firms (and Angel Investors) can offer fledgling companies much more than funding, and the non-financial input by the venture capital firm is a very important contributor in the growth and success of companies.
- Where Digital Marketing Is Heading in 2010 (Part 1)
Using new technology won't in itself bring success; your digital communications still need to be creative, engaging and relevant if they are to cut it during the second decade of this century. Here are the first five of our top 10 trends for 2010.
- Top Web Design Trends For Small Business In 2010
For businesses that do not yet have a website or are contemplating and update, their goal for having a website in 2010 should be:
- Companies turn to virtual trade shows to save money
Who needs handshakes and cocktail hours?
Montana Education Excellence
- Washington Technology Center Awards $394,910 to Spur Innovation and Jobs
Four University of Washington researchers have been awarded state funding for partnerships with Washington companies developing innovative commercial technologies.
Regional Business
- Montana Higher Education Leaders Overpaid
Should we start hiring people who are more in line with Montana wages or allow the educational bureaucracy to continue this ‘leap frog’ mentality that is now present in higher education?
- Montana universities seek $71M in earmarks
Millions of dollars are being requested for such projects as turning coal into synthetic gas, building a federal livestock research lab in Bozeman and finding new “Star Wars” technologies to kill missile threats from outer space.
- Rural Montana Saves - Does someone you know in Montana need support for job training or education?
The Rural Montana Saves program is a special matched savings program that is helping families with limited incomes save for job training or college education.
- New Montana State University President Cruzado plans state listening tours
"I'm a firm believer the entire state is our campus," she said, "because we are a land-grant university."
University Business Plan Competitions
- Strapped cities review corporate tax breaks Many are enacting 'clawback' provisions when job promises aren't kept
Cash-strapped communities have a message for corporations that promised jobs in return for tax breaks: A deal's a deal.
Developing an Angel Network in Montana
- University of Washington Startup Nanocel Seeks Funding and Partners, Wants to Make Computers Cooler
Nanocel’s technology uses a combination of microfluidics and novel plastic materials to cool devices more cheaply than other liquid-based systems and more efficiently than cooling fans.
Education
- Hellgate Angels Monthly Meeting, - Presenting Rivertop Renewables And Satic, 1/19, Missoula
The meetings are open to Accredited Investors interested in investing in area companies. Companies scheduled to present on January 19th include Rivertop Renewables http://www.rivertop.com/ and Satic http://www.saticsaver.com/.
Government
- Governor Announces Dropout Prevention Program - State Receives National Award, Policy Proposals to Further Reduce Dropout Rate
“If we’re serious about growing our economy and giving our children opportunities to pursue their dreams right here at home, we have to give them a great education. Our students simply cannot succeed without an education – whether that is reflected by a GED, an industry-based certification, a high school diploma, or better yet, a postsecondary certificate or college degree." Governor Bobby Jindal
- Making College ‘Relevant’
THOMAS COLLEGE http://www.thomas.edu/, a liberal arts school in Maine, advertises itself as Home of the Guaranteed Job! Students who can’t find work in their fields within six months of graduation can come back to take classes free, or have the college pay their student loans for a year.
- Rethinking Education as the Practice of Freedom: Paulo Freire and the Promise of Critical Pedagogy
There is little interest in both public and higher education, and most importantly in many schools of education, for understanding pedagogy as a deeply civic, political and moral practice - that is, pedagogy as a practice for freedom.
- Bridging the teaching theory, classroom gap
"This program is designed to help them become even more effective in the classroom, and to prepare them to lead as administrators in their schools and districts."
- Can inner-city charter school succeed? Students say 'YES'
There is also a nonstop conversation about college. Middle school homerooms are named after the teacher's alma mater. On Fridays, everyone is encouraged to wear shirts with college logos. Banners, posters and signs in hallways and classrooms tout schools. A popular bumper sticker sums up the school's mission: "Will my child go to college? The answer is YES."
- Staying After School is Cool! - Teens who participate in extracurricular activities are six times less likely to drop out, two times less likely to be arrested, and 75 percent less likely to smoke or use drugs.
Teens who participated in After School Matters for four or more semesters graduated from high school at higher rates than students who did not.
- With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them - Myths and Realities About Why So Many Students Fail to Finish College
How should higher education respond?
Energy and Climate Change
- Google executive running for Vermont governor post
Dunne's use of that technology _ and the broadband Internet connection supporting it _ is an example of what he touts as the key to Vermont's economic future as he campaigns for the 2010 Democratic nomination for governor.
Grupthink
- No more power lines?
Buried super-cooled electrical cables may replace towering transmission lines and carry solar and wind energy efficiently over long distances.
- PG&E customer revolt may threaten rollout of 'smart grid'
Consumer backlash and cost concerns may cause delays in the nationwide rollout of "smart" utility meters at the center of the Obama administration's $8 billion push to update the U.S. electricity grid.
- Biodiesel production tanks - Federal subsidy of $1 per gallon ends
As a result, some U.S. producers say they will shut down without the government subsidy.
- Scientific illiteracy clouds climate-change politics
Knowing that 90 percent of lung cancer deaths in men and 80 percent in women are caused by smoking, most of us don’t smoke and encourage our loved ones to quit. When 90 percent of scientists agree that the effects of climate change put us all at risk, and that there is a high probability that failure to change our behavior by 2015 will make those effects difficult or impossible to reverse, we should take that just as seriously as other scientific facts regarding risks to our health and lives that we routinely accept and, accordingly, change our behavior.
- Big Power Plants and Sprawling Wind Farms are the wrong approach. Small is Better
It's an idea that could upend the traditional way of supplying electricity and weaken the control of utility companies. Supporters of the idea consider that a plus.
- Local Power: Let's Be Smarter This Time
Rural communities must be wise to gain the benefits of smart grid technology, combining their broadband ambitions with more efficient locally produced power.
- Humiliation for green convert Sarkozy as carbon tax ruled unconstitutional
France's highest court dealt an 'unexpected and embarrassing blow' to French President Nicolas Sarkozy by ruling his carbon tax, set to take effect on New Year's, unconstitutional on Dec. 30.
- Uranium Is So Last Century — Enter Thorium, the New Green Nuke
Thorium is much cleaner, more efficient and safe than uranium, and doesn't leave any waste that can be weaponized. Could a thorium-based nuclear power industry save the U.S.?
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Project Management + Social Networking = User-Driven Product Improvements
Social media allows project management professionals from around the world to tap into a bottomless pool of knowledge whenever the need arises. Without involving a search engine, academic tome or an advanced degree, social media makes project management best practices and the experience of industry thought leaders accessible to any organization.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- My 10 predictions for Silicon Valley in 2010
#1. Palm will be sold.
- How to Make an iPhone App
How would you like to offer an iPhone application for your website or blog?
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- Control a computer by simply flexing your muscles
When I'm carrying six grocery bags, a coat and my laundry hamper, the last thing I want to do – or am able to do – is reach into my pocket to lock my car. If I had access to technology in this Microsoft Research video, I wouldn't have to.
- New award-winning gadgets at The Consumer Electronics Show
The Orb, from Hybra Advance Technology is a ring that doubles as a wireless-phone headset and information display.
- Humanities Montana - E-News - January 2010
The Butte Digital Film Project, funded in part by Humanities Montana, gives twenty-four young adults the opportunity to creatively explore, examine, celebrate and critique their hometown using the medium of digital film.
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page