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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Jul 6, 2010 |
“Montana is thrusting its mountainous finger right in our Midwest faces, taunting us with its magnificent scenery and world-class outdoor recreation.” Montana ad campaign goes viral, upping expectations for tourist season http://matr.net/articl ... .html
"Senator Tester To Host Small Business Workshop, 7/9, Kalispell, Montana" http://matr.net/events ... =3282 (Is there anyone interested in carpooling to this event in Kalispell from Missoula? I need a ride on Friday morning [email protected] Thanks) --- "The 72nd National Folk Festival July 9-10-11, Butte, Montana" http://matr.net/events ... =3301 ---
Glacier National Park Centennial
"Montana's Race To The Top - The State with the Best Education Wins!"
- Glacier National Park - Montana House celebrates 50 years of art at Apgar
For 50 years now, the Montana House has surprised travelers to Glacier National Park, promising standard gift-shop fare and delivering something else entirely - 550 artists featured across five decades.
Highway 12 Ventures
- International Baccalaureate Program Catches On in U.S. High Schools
Many parents, schools and students see the program as a rigorous and more internationally focused curriculum, and a way to impress college admissions officers.
- Forget grade levels -- schools try something new
Forget about students spending one year in each grade, with the entire class learning the same skills at the same time. Districts from Alaska to Maine are taking a different route.
City Club Missoula
- Highway 12 Ventures - Portfolio News | June 2010
This is the third installment of monthly portfolio news in blog format. Great progress in the portfolio during the month of June, click on the headlines to read the whole story.
Come Home Montana
- Western Montana InBusiness - Nonprofits are woven into the fabric of Missoula, Montana
City Club Missoula - Human Services In Missoula: A Hand Out Or A Hand Up? Help Or Hindrance?, 7/12, Missoula http://matr.net/article-39959.html
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- Montana Talent Available - Exceptional sales and management expertise
Exceptional sales and management background. Extensive experience in event planning and coordination, fund-raising and non-profit development. Very responsive in a fast paced environment. Strong in a team atmosphere in addition to working as a self motivated individual. Highly developed organizational and communication skills.
- Ex-economist comes home to Montana to start cool Heights shop
“All I want to do is get back to Montana. I was gone about seven years,”
- About "That's Montana"
That's Montana is available to all Montanan's via broadcast television, cable, and satellite viewers. Additionally, each week's show will be available to viewers all over the world, "on demand" on the ThatsMontana.com website! Individual DVD's will also be available soon.
- In like Flynns: Old Missoula family returns to 1800s homestead for reunion every 5 years on the 4th of July.
It’s hard-wired into the Flynn family’s DNA that every five years on July 4, no matter where each one might be, the Flynns return to Missoula and gather in a giant flock on the front lawn of the family homestead.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Why the Great Plains are Great Once Again
“I come from a big city, but I like the lifestyle here.”
- Sponge Cities on the Great Plains
Rural North Dakota is facing a protracted population crisis as significant numbers of its small communities are on a slow slide to extinction. This migration pattern is not new, nor is it unique to North Dakota.
- New global outsourcing hub - Wyoming?
Ten Sleep, Wyoming is home to a teaching center that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There, American teachers provide real-time video English lessons to thousands of students in classrooms across Asia via high-speed fiber optic networks.
Missoula Public Schools Excellence
- Small business and high impact entrepreneurs: The same, only different
One thing that that strikes me about economic development initiatives and organizations in places that have limited experience with the high risk/reward entrepreneurial culture that thrives in regions with robust venture capital resources, is that too many of them don’t understand the profound differences between the small business entrepreneur and the high impact entrepreneur.
- Five Things Michigan Entrepreneurs and Innovators Are Already Doing to Invigorate the State’s Economy
Michigan is making significant progress in the five areas she mentions. That these successes were overlooked is perfectly understandable given that the majority of the national media coverage regarding Michigan is negative.
Montana Business
- Cairo teacher, Wael Salah Elkateeb to take reins of Arabic studies for Missoula County Public Schools
Missoula County Public Schools recently won a grant from the U.S. State Department to host the teacher as part of the Teachers of Critical Languages Program.
- Kids eat for free at Missoula Summer Lunch Program
This summer, area children can eat lunch for free at the following Missoula schools: Russell, Lowell, Hawthorne, Franklin and C.S. Porter.
Montana Economic Development
- 5th Annual Montana Economic Outlook - Midyear Update, Kalispell, Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Helena, Great Falls, Missoula
The fifth annual Economic Outlook – Midyear Update provides a special opportunity for Montana businesses and others to learn about the state’s current and projected economic future. The Montana Chamber Foundation is pleased to be traveling to seven cities this summer.
Regional Economic Development
- Logo for Great Falls' downtown picked
"The minute you see it, you recognize a tie to downtown," said Joan Redeen of the Great Falls Business Improvement District.
Bill Payne
- ESRI to Offer Free Location Data App
Originally BAO was built with commercial realtors in mind. But ESRI sources said they realized the app would be useful for government agencies' economic development initiatives, thanks to the wealth of demographic data the app can access.
Business Plan Forums
- Brad Feld on Angel Investing
This is must reading for all angel investors and entrepreneurs seeking angel capital.
Funding and Building your Business
- How Business-Plan Competitions Reward Innovation
Business-plan competitions have fostered a "contest economy" that promotes start-up activity and much-needed innovation.
Incubators and R&D
- Companies say they can't find enough skilled workers
Plenty of people are applying for the jobs. The problem, the companies say, is a mismatch between the kind of skilled workers needed and the ranks of the unemployed.
- "409A Dismay" - Dismay over IRS regulations relating to deferred compensation (and other similar items of dismay)
This resource has become even more critical as a result of the IRS’ significantly increased audits and enforcement of executive compensation rules such as Section 409A as part of revenue raising activities. As the first comprehensive examination of Section 409A, this resource offers guidance that will be invaluable to any practitioner in the field of employee benefits or executive compensation.
- 4 Tips for Raising Funds in a Harsh Environment
With the following four elements in place, you can get venture capitalists to take notice of your business and raise that all important first round, even in the midst of an economic contraction.
- The 5 most common mistakes startups make with VCs
You’re always at a disadvantage when dealing with the venture capital community, since their experience almost certainly outweighs yours.
Montana Education Excellence
- Change in bid process puts development of $10 million Casper, Wyoming business incubator on track
In the design-bid-build process that has replaced it, contractors will submit bids after all planning is completed, and jobs will be awarded to the lowest qualified bidders. That's all local contractors -- who were shut out of bidding on the construction manager contract -- wanted in the first place.
- Why Universities Do Research?
I’m wondering now why universities do research — how does it make economic sense?
Regional Business
- Flathead Valley Community College gets $2.95 million grant for new program to focus on training health workers
It is intended to fill projected openings in the health-care industry and have a positive impact on the economies of Northwest Montana and the state.
Developing an Angel Network in Montana
- Farmers defend way of life with Facebook, Twitter
Armed with smartphones that allow them to post status updates from a tractor seat, and increasingly comfortable issuing pithy one-liners on the short-messaging site Twitter, they're going online to tell their own stories, connect to a public they feel doesn't understand them, exchange information and break the isolation they feel on the farm.
- Esterline expands to 54,000 square-foot addition in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Founded in 1977 as Advanced Input Devices in Post Falls, then moved to Coeur d'Alene and renamed Advanced Input Systems, the company was purchased in 1999 by Esterline, an international manufacturer of products for the aerospace and defense industries.
Oregon Business
- Big Sky Angels Meeting, 07/13, Missoula, MT
Bill Payne is a special guests and two companies will present.
Washington State Business
- Why doesn't Intel spawn more offshoots in Oregon?
The issue is that the kind of talent that Intel produces isn't the kind of talent that most Oregon startups are looking for. They need experience specific to their industry, not just talented managers.
Community
- Free downtown Wi-Fi returning to Spokane, WA
Spokane network service provider Integra Telecom will donate a free year of T1 broadband connectivity to a Spokane-area nonprofit.
Connectivity & Communications
- Old Movie Houses Find Audience in the Plains
"In a small town, the theater is like a neighborhood. It’s the see-and-be-seen, bring everyone and sit together kind of place.”
- Rural America's Fiscal Challenge
Declines in state and local tax revenues will have a greater impact in rural America than in the cities. Two Federal Reserve economists suggest how small towns and counties should respond to the coming fiscal crisis.
Energy and Climate Change
- Internet products ready to challenge cable TV
Google Inc. is rolling out services with partners like Sony Corp. this fall that will blend streams from the Internet and broadcast programming on television screens.
- Montana telecoms cheer news of Internet stimulus funding
“The (awards) in Montana seem to be funding projects for things the program is actually intended for,” said Geoff Feiss, general manager of the Montana Telecommunications Association, including expanding service where it is needed, and extending it where there is none, he added.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Gauging the pros and cons of smart meters
It will pave the way for the widespread use of solar panels and electric cars as well as help reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
- Makerbot Industries - Robots that make things
Could the ability to CREATE anything, with a machine smaller than a television, be far away?
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