|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Tue Sep 7, 2010 |
"Great ability without discretion comes almost invariably to a tragic end." -Leon-Michel Gambetta
Globalization Partners International
Highway 12 Ventures
- Emerging economies will quickly add heft to global Internet
"The opportunities for online advertising and e-commerce in these markets are huge."
The Burton K. Wheeler Center
- Highway 12 Ventures - Portfolio News | July – August 2010
Balihoo ranked among fastest-growing private companies on Inc. 500 List.
Visit Montana
- ‘Rethinking Education' at Wheeler fall conference
Educators, legislators, business leaders, students and those who have an interest in the future of education will weigh in on "Rethinking Education for the 21st Century" when the Burton K. Wheeler Center at Montana State University hosts its fall conference Sept. 20-21 at the Best Western Great Northern Hotel in Helena.
Come Home Montana
- Billings Chamber of Commerce wins regional promotion contract
The Billings Chamber has said it wants to market Custer Country as a historic adventure.
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- CRDC RFP Now Available
Designated CRDCs manage, apply for and administer state and federal grants; develop and manage revolving loan funds; provide business technical assistance; and perform local and regional planning.
- Montana Career Opportunity - NewWest.Net Seeks Innovative Editor
This opening is an incredible opportunity to be a visionary for the "next phase" of an online news venture that is widely respected as a cutting-edge project in the online journalism scene.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Are There Jobs? It Depends
There are jobs in rural America. But people are stuck in high unemployment areas because they can't sell their houses.
- Wired towns edge out big cities
“Just attracting more residents won’t have much effect,” he says. “But building relationships with other cities both near and far, for example through business partnerships or more nonstop flights, can go a long way.”
Leadership Montana
- University of Texas IE Consortium: Creating a New Breed of Entrepreneurs
The program operates on the principle that entrepreneurial skills help individuals not only to build a career, but to build a life.
Montana Business
- Leadership Panel: Governor Schweitzer And Panel Of Dignitaries, 9/10, Montana State University, Bozeman
The panelists will be asked to speak about the development of their personal leadership style and philosophy, and the challenges that will be faced by leaders of the next several decades.
- Leadership Events On Tap For University of Montana Students
Only 30 students will be accepted for the Grizlead program.
Montana Economic Development
- Stinky Maps: Missoula company adds smells to maps app
"The addition of sounds were like frosting on the smelly cupcake."
Bill Payne
- Montana Association of Community Development Extension Professionals: September 2010 E-Newsletter
Worldwatch Institute reports that people all over the world are completing more years of schooling than ever.
- Sponsors expect more than 2,000 at Montana economic summit
Montanans will have the chance to interact with global leaders, including investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett and executives from Microsoft, GE and Disney, at the Montana Economic Development Summit Sept. 13-14 in Butte http://www.montanaeconomicsummit.org/
- Special Report: Breaking Cycle Of Poverty In Rural Montana - The Horizons Program
Closer Look At How Montana Woman Overcame Odds
Careers
- Thank Goodness for Super Angels
I love all this high visibility press on angel investing.
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Future hiring will mainly benefit the high-skilled
Job creation will likely remain weak for months or even years. But once employers do step up hiring, some economists expect job openings to fall mainly into two categories of roughly equal numbers:
Funding and Building your Business
- Michigan firms commit $50 million for unusual venture capital fund - Renaissance Venture Capital Fund
Renaissance http://www.renvcf.com invests in other venture capital funds that seek to invest in Michigan businesses. It's different from other so-called fund of funds because it does not have any government money supporting it.
Incubators and R&D
- Devil is in the detail when choosing investment 'angels'
“When the big boys come to play, they come with an agenda,” he complains. “They want to get rid of you.”
- How BMW is defusing the demographic time bomb
Corporate leaders, politicians, and labor economists in most developed nations are worried about the consequences of demographic change in their labor markets, which increasingly consist of older workers. In the United States, for instance, the population older than 65 will grow from 12.5% in 2000 to 16.6% in 2020 (the corresponding numbers for Germany are 16.4% and 21.6%, and for Japan 17.1% and 26.2%). This trend will prove expensive: Across the developed world, the health care costs for a person over 65 are roughly three times the costs for someone between the ages of 30 and 50.
- If You Make Any Of These 10 Mistakes, Your Company Will Fail
There are endless examples of teams creating success from nothing. So which is it, the people or the ideas?
- Ridiculous Ideas That Made People Ridiculously Rich
Ridiculous Idea #2: iFart App Estimated Profit: $400K
- 5 Lessons That We Can Learn From The co-founder of South West Airlines, Herb Kelleher About Entrepreneurship & Leadership
1. People first – “The business of business is people.”
- Ultralight startups: little capital, just computer
UC Berkeley sophomore Raymond Lei runs an online T-shirt printing business that grossed more than $60,000 in August, putting him on track to post more than $700,000 in sales this year. Lei represents a new wave of startups that require little or no capital by finding new ways to produce and sell products or services online.
Montana Education Excellence
- It’s Time for Universities to Get More Nimble
We are convinced that much of the answer can be found in our research universities, but they need to be re-structured.
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- Continuing Education- Montana Water Marketing: An Introduction to Water Rights Transactions
I'm excited to announce a Montana Board of Realty 2 credit course on the ins and outs of water rights transactions in the great state of Montana.
- Montana's high drop-out rate defies efforts to keep kids in school
A recent national study showed that Montana's drop-out rate among students from 16 to 19 years old was 9 percent, the sixth-highest drop-out rate in the nation. The Montana Office of Public Instruction's data show that for students in grades nine through 12, Montana's drop-out rate is 5.1 percent.
- Tomorrow’s writers need coaches today: Missoula high school tutoring program requires volunteers
Those of us who love the written word and understand just how important good literacy skills are can only shake our heads in dismay at the global trend that has increasing numbers of young people texting grammar-defying, punctuation-less, nearly incomprehensible abbreviations to one another.
- New Hall of Honor will celebrate Bozeman High alumni
It's important that today's students know this, she said, so "they can dream and become anything they want to be."
Regional Business
- Former Smurfit-Stone workers retool skills after layoffs with help from Montana's education institutions
Since spring, the Missoula learning center has been hustling to meet the increasing demand of the area's many displaced workers - helping with career exploration, providing mentoring and teaching refresher courses in math and writing.
Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)
- Costs high, benefits higher in saving Sterling - The successful recapitalization of Sterling Financial Corp. may well be the best economic news of 2010 for Spokane.
Sterling was the biggest TARP beneficiary in the Northwest. It was also the region’s biggest home-grown bank.
University TechTransfer
- SBIR Reauthorization? Hit the Reset Button.
It's also a brand new game at many of the SBIR Agencies. The three biggest in terms of SBIR budgets, DOD, NIH and DOE, all have new leadership at the Program Director level.
Wyoming Business
- Startups get $1.1M for tech-transfer efforts
All told, 15 startups that are working with university and federal researchers received $75,000 each to help move their technologies from the lab to the marketplace.
2011 Montana Legislature
- Wind energy company's appeals raise questions about Wyoming's tax, distribution approach
When the tax bill came due for Duke Energy this year, the company went back on its promise, according to Converse County officials.
Education
- Montana lawmakers, health care providers plan to tweak workers' comp overhaul
Lawmakers on Friday agreed to work with physicians and health care service providers to try to fine tune a controversial committee bill aimed at overhauling the state's workers' compensation program.
Other Economies
- Wyoming schools plan to offer high school students associate's degrees
Wyoming Public Schools is ramping up a new way of preparing all students for college: requiring them to complete some college-level coursework to graduate from high school.
- School for Boys takes a different approach to learning - "They'll only learn after they make mistakes."
The founder of a new private school has tailored the curriculum and teaching style to how he thinks boys learn best. Some public schools are starting to do the same thing.
- Japan fattens textbooks to reverse sliding rank
In a move that has divided educators and experts, Japan is going back to basics after a 10-year experiment in "pressure-free education," which encouraged more application of knowledge and less rote memorization.
- Bioinformatics Education Should Start in High School
In this digital age, one of the areas that should be most exciting to students is the intersection between technology and biology.
- In a New Role, Teachers Move to Run Schools
“This is a fantasy,” Mr. Lee said. “It’s six passionate people who came together and said, ‘Enough is enough.’ We’re just tired of seeing failure.”
- Students, faculty inspired by magnet schools’ approach
Anna Wilson remembers the first-grader who told her the schoolwide science day at Ramsey Elementary had been the best day of his life. “How can you argue with that?” said Wilson, principal of the Coeur d’Alene school. “They were learning; they were having fun; it was hands-on.”
Community
- New York's Tech Start-Up Scene Comes of Age - Just stop calling it 'Silicon Alley'
"There is a general feeling here, a buzz, that there is momentum here,"
Energy and Climate Change
- 'Sunday Streets Missoula' celebration to be festival without traffic downtown
Missoula In Motion and the Missoula Parks and Recreation Department are sponsoring the festival of biking, walking, yoga, gymnastics and more as a way to promote healthy physical activity, according to a news release. The event was inspired by Ciclovia of Bogota, Colombia, where some 72 miles of streets close to cars every Sunday.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Guest opinion: Harness wind energy, reduce federal subsidies for oil industry
We can’t spill wind.
- Bjorn Lomborg's climate change sparks environment debate
Lomborg made headlines in the United Kingdom when the Guardian reported his next book would include a call for a carbon tax, loathed by global warming naysayers, and a $100 Billion annual global effort to address climate change.
- Electric vehicles: What you need to know about home charging
Among the questions to ask yourself: What kind of home charging system does the automaker advise you to get? How many miles do you expect to drive each day? What time do you expect to start charging your car? Most important, have you told your utility company you plan to get one?
- Santa Fe Public Parks Go Off the Grid with Qnuru’s 100% Solar LED Light Fixtures
Artfully-Designed, Sun-Powered Lighting Fixtures Help Santa Fe Save Money and Advance the City’s Environmental Stewardship Objectives
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Pacific Northwest Megaquake Imminent
New research shows the Pacific Northwest faces high probability of a mega-earthquake in the next 50 years. Discovery News' Kasey-Dee Gardner finds out what this means for cities like Seattle.
Government Technology
- Kinect's Israeli partner sees remoteless world
Controlling your surroundings with the wave of a hand sounds like magic, but Beracha's company, PrimeSense, is already making headway, thanks to a little help from video games.
Non-Profit News
- Boston Launches a Mobile Version of its Website to Align With Various Ways People Access the Web
As mobile devices evolve, some might wonder whether building a mobile version of a website still makes sense. Boston CIO Bill Oates and Raj Pareek, the city's manager of e-government initiatives, believe it does. They built an inexpensive mobile site they believe will put the city in a better position to communicate with citizens now and in the future.
- Montana's Going to the Sun Rally benefits veterans
The rally is limited to 50 vintage cars from 1972 and earlier. It's not a race, but a "historic driving adventure" across the West - through Montana and occasionally adjacent states or Canada. This year's route starts in Bozeman, and then goes to Jackson Hole, Wyo., Sun Valley, Idaho, Missoula, and Helena. The trip will end where it began, 1,200 miles later, back in Bozeman late on Sept. 11.
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page
