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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Sep 2, 2011 |
"There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth -- not going all the way, and not starting." - Buddha
Senator Baucus Asks Montanans To Share Ideas For Cutting The Deficit http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Montana Department of Commerce
Northwestern Energy
- Montana Small Business Development Center August 2011 Newsletter
Throughout the year we will highlight individual SBDC Service Centers across the state. This column will focus on the SBDC directors, the regions they serve, and the businesses assisted.
- Small Business Finance Workshop, 9/21, Livingston, MT
What you will learn: A variety of finance initiatives are out there to help small business owners grow and develop their small enterprises.
21st Century Education Initiative - "You Should Care..."
- Northwestern Energy Signs Agreement With OwnEnergy For Montana Community Wind Farm
Jacob Susman, Founder and CEO of OwnEnergy, said, "This is an exciting milestone for OwnEnergy, Two Dot Wind, LLC and the local Montana community. NorthWestern has once again shown true leadership, demonstrating that power generation can be environmentally friendly at the same time as being cost-effective."
Great Falls Development Authority
- 'TALENT Act' could assist best US students in math
The neglect of gifted math students, she says, "has gotten worse in the United States [while] other countries are increasing their support ... to develop students' talents and creativity."
Blackfoot Telecommunications Group
- On The Bubble Workshop, 09/28, Great Falls
Lillian Sunwall, PTAC Business Strategist & Project Manager and John Mack, SBDC Business Strategist will be presenting to contractors and subcontractors on various business improvement topics in preparation for a rough winter.
- Great Falls Airport Authority boosts incentives for new flights
The Great Falls Airport Authority voted Tuesday to expand and sweeten its incentive plan to attract new commercial flights in the face of an increasingly competitive market.
TechRanch
- Montana Education Technology Conference Highlights
Blackfoot wants to thank all of our wonderful presenters and experts, as well as attending educators, who made the 2011 conference such a success. Feel free to share the presentations with other educators who were not able to attend ETC this year as well.
Come Home Montana
- Pub Night Networking Event, 9/8, Bozeman, Montana
Meet and mingle at the Rocking R Bar's new office spaces overlooking downtown Bozeman with other entrepreneurs, local start-ups, investors and friends of TechRanch.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Montana Career Opportunity - Surgical Tech - Monida Healthcare Network
Work in the historic city of Butte surrounded by recreational opportunities.
Leadership Montana
- Why Governments Don't Get Startups-Or, Why There's Only One Silicon Valley
With one noticeable exception, governmental entrepreneurship policies and initiatives appear to be less than optimal, with capital deployed inefficiently (read "They would have done better throwing the money in the street.") Why? Because they haven't defined the basics:
Montana Business
- 12 Ways Great Leaders Turn into Bad Leaders
A leader you'd have followed anywhere because of their confidence, strong communication skills, and self-confidence CAN lose the handle on leadership...in a major way.
Montana Economic Development
- Campaign stresses workplace safety in Montana
The WorkSafe Montana promotional campaign has called attention to the issue of workplace safety through sobering TV commercials and the http://www.WorkSafeMT.com website.
- NewWest.net Publication Offline in Transition
NewWest.net, after 6 years online, is currently and temporarily offline as the business relocates to new headquarters and transitions/updates the site technology.
- Staying afloat: Making fishing rafts is a way of life at Big Sky Inflatables in Stevensville, Montana
"A lot of our sales come from people we've already sold to," he said. "A lot of our customers are super loyal, a little bit obsessed about it. You know it's a single-man craft. They want their buddies to go fishing with them. We get a lot of women, too. My wife doesn't fish, but she likes to get a suntan and go out on the water with me. So they are great for everything. I use mine for hunting, and people use them for photography."
Regional Economic Development
- Facilitated and Structured Round Table for Business Success PeerSpectives Round Table Begins
Roundtables include 8-15 business executives from noncompeting industries and provide a confidential forum where participants share challenges and experiences.
- Montana Department of Agriculture seeking proposals to provide food, ag-energy, other value-added ag business development technical assistance
The Montana Legislature authorized $195,000 per year in the current biennium to fund four Food and Agricultural Development Centers to help increase the capacity of Montana's farmers, ranchers and other Montana entrepreneurs to produce food and value-added agricultural products, including farm-derived renewable energy.
Careers
- In Higher Education, Success Follows Success
The more education you have, the more money you can earn. It also appears success follows success. An individual who earns a degree or certificate begins or continues the ripple effect that will likely impact their family for generations.
Economic Gardening
- Select tech workers in high demand in Idaho Valley, nation Some Boise-area companies say they are paying for top talent.
The tech job market nationwide hasn't been this overheated since the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s.
- 30 Austin tech CEOs headed to California in search of workers
Saying that Austin's pool of technical workers is becoming tapped out, 30 Austin high-tech CEOs are heading to California this month in search of talent.
- Meditate Your Way To A More Creative Mind
"Some studies show that people who do mindfulness meditation gain as much as 10 IQ points."
Funding and Building your Business
- Startup support program off to a Quick Start
Another focus of Quick Start is "economic gardening," which provides support to early stage companies looking to advance to the next level.
Montana Education Excellence
- "Financing High Impact Ventures: Creating Wealth And Jobs In Montana", 9/27, Missoula, Montana
The four-hour program will help provide real world knowledge for funding businesses.
- How Much is Your Million Dollar Idea Really Worth?
A visionary is someone who can make sense out of the wealth of ideas, and weave together a plan for implementation that will make a difference in the world.
- It's Not How Big a Startup is -- It's How Well it Performs
More than 90% of startups fail, due primarily to self-destruction rather than competition.
- The 'Blessings' of Failure
"There were plenty of painful setbacks along the way," Farwell said. "But each of them was a blessing and led to a better solution to the original problem."
- 7 Reasons For Your Startup to Skip Stealth Mode
Too often it becomes an excuse to move slowly in a world that's all about getting to market fast.
- Doing Business in Russia Part I: The Russian economy today
As the largest country in the world with relation to territory, Russia offers investors a highly diverse environment in which to do business. In addition to pairing regions in Russia with specific industries, the report highlights the 10 regions in Russia with the most potential:
- How to Score on the Entrepreneur Likability Scale
You have to like yourself first.
- 6 Components of an A+ Elevator Pitch
The name elevator pitch is based on the premise that sometimes you can only catch an influential or powerful person in an elevator--and your pitch should therefore be deliverable within the time it takes for an elevator to move from one floor to another.
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- Lessons From the One-Room Schoolhouse - Spring Creek School near Decker, Mont.
Students often build close relationships with teachers, pupils in mixed-age groups help each other learn, and parents and neighbors tend to get so deeply involved that the school becomes the center of community life.
- University of Montana seeks to dramatically expand study abroad
"People come to Kalamazoo to leave," he said. "Our job is to send students away as long as possible."
Regional Business
- Montana State University to Offer New Courses on Sustainable Business Practices
In order to address this need in the business world and with the new generation, the MSU College of Business has a new course designed to focus on sustainable business practices.
Utah Economic Development
- Energy-hungry China is becoming a big player in the Mountain West
The natural resources that built America are no longer all-American. No matter how many red-white-and-blue flags fly over your trailer park, you too are tangled up in a global economic web that has compressed time and space and confused our ideas of place.
Washington State Business
- University of Utah Technology Venture Development 2011 Annual Report
Inside, you will find the latest highlights from our many efforts during the last fiscal year. We support all commercialization efforts on campus, and we outline these efforts in our Annual Report.
MAPS : Media Arts in the Public Schools
- BMW plant opening hailed in Moses Lake, Washington
Drawn to the region by cheap hydropower and Washington state's renewable energy efforts, the SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers plant could become the largest facility of its kind in the world because of strong demand for the composites.
Other Economies
- MAPS Media Institute offers new curriculum and new teachers
MAPS is a unique after-school program that combines education and real business experience for Hamilton, Corvallis, Stevensville, Darby and Victor youth. The students learn how to create and produce a wide variety of media and then have the opportunity to use these new skills for fee-paying clients.
Community
- New California Law Will Boost Social Entrepreneurship
"The modern corporation was 'Born to be bad,'" Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard wrote in a letter to Governor Brown. "Benefit Corporations are 'born to be good' because their corporate purpose must include the pursuit of a material positive impact on society, not just shareholders."
Connectivity & Communications
- Downtown development can pay off, experts say
It costs cities a lot of money to extend infrastructure -- streets, sewer lines, water, streetlights -- to a suburban development. Downtown, the infrastructure is already there, meaning the city makes much more money per acre and pays much less to provide services.
- FIVE New grant announcements
Energy and Climate Change
- 13 Mind-Bending Social Media Marketing Statistics
20 percent of searches on Google each day have NEVER been searched for before.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Solar energy company collapse a worrisome sign for 'green-tech' hopes
Private investors and Silicon Valley green tech investors acknowledged Solynda's failure was a worrisome sign.
- Mini Nukes Could Help Meet Electricity Demands
The Tennessee Valley Authority, a public utility in the Southeast, is testing small nuclear reactors as a source for cheaper, cleaner energy.
Legislative Newsletters
- TED Video: Skylar Tibbits: Can we make things that make themselves?
It's a big concept at early stages; Tibbits shows us three in-the-lab projects that hint at what a self-assembling future might look like.
Government Technology
- Senator Baucus Asks Montanans To Share Ideas For Cutting The Deficit
Senator Will Use Montana Input to Guide His Efforts on Bipartisan Deficit Reduction Committee
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- 5 Emerging Technologies Soon to Hit the Government Market
The following five emerging technologies are poised to go from amazing to ordinary -- and the change will most certainly benefit us.
- The Montana Arts Council - State of the Arts CyberNewspaper
The September/October 2011 edition of the Montana Arts Council's State of the Arts newspaper is now available at http://svcalt.mt.gov/art/soa/ .
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