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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Sep 9, 2011 |
"It’s an unfortunate artifact of our educational system that young people spend a dozen years focused more on memorizing facts than the learning process, and then thinking that they will have all they need to know for the rest of their lives by the time they graduate." Martin Zwilling
City Club Missoula Presents: "Wood For Haiti" How Montana Will Help Rebuild A Nation., 9/12, Missoula http://matr.net/events ... =3802 --- The Sunflower Matrix: Introducing A New Model For Business Success, 10/06, Hamilton, Montana http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Globalization Partners International
Missoula Schools Excellence
- Consider Your Target Audience When Writing Content for Language Translation
A critical component for any company's strategy for global branding and for increasing its products' reach to global locales is "speaking the language" of the targeted consumers.
Montana Department of Commerce
- Writing Coaches of Missoula seeks to mentor 420 eighth-graders
"We try to emphasize ideas and critical thinking. We challenge their ideas. We don't impose our viewpoints, but we make sure that whatever their viewpoint is, it is argued persuasively."
PrintingForLess
- "Workin' With Tradition" - Soft Skills Workforce Success Program For Montana, 9/27-29, Billings, Montana
"Workin' with Tradition" is a classroom-based soft-skills training program designed to help individuals from rural and/or Native American communities prepare for successful employment
- Montana Technology Innovation Partnership Newsletter
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program Still Without Reauthorization!!!
- Governor Schweitzer Announces Western Wind And Transmission Leadership Summit, 9/25-28, Big Sky, Montana
"Montana has world-class wind, with one of the highest growth rates in the nation. Our state has gone from just under 1MW produced in 2005 to over 386 MW today. In order to reach our wind and renewable energy potential and create more high quality jobs, we must enhance our ability to get that clean, green energy to market," said Governor Brian Schweitzer.
21st Century Education Initiative - "You Should Care..."
- PrintingForLess Presents: "Kick Groupon To The Curb", 9/27, Webinar
Deal services like Groupon take a piece of your business by grabbing consumers and then selling them back to you at a premium. That's not the way to do online marketing!
Great Falls Development Authority
- Microsoft Releases National Survey Findings on How to Inspire the Next Generation of Doctors, Scientists, Software Developers and Engineers
Only 20 percent say they feel that their education before college prepared them "extremely well" for those fields.
- Textbook-free schools share experiences, insights
Nearly one year after a a pilot program that put Virginia's fourth, seventh, and ninth grade social studies curriculum on an iPad, Virginia state officials say they have learned much from the implementation.
- Education's Guide to Mobile Devices: Everything You Need to Know About Mobile Tech and Your Schools
In this collection of industry reports and in-depth case studies, you'll find teacher-vetted apps and mobile technologies to help you and your schools understand what it takes to leverage mobile technology effectively.
- Solving the STEM Education Crisis
Attracting students to the STEM disciplines is the first hurdle, and retaining student interest in these areas is the second.
Highway 12 Ventures
- Rising Stars sought in Great Falls, Montana
Do you know someone who is having a significant impact on a larger business in our community? What about a small-business owner whose entrepreneurial skills and community vision are making Great Falls a better place to live? This includes those working in the public service and nonprofit sectors.
- Great Falls Development Authority studies branding to sell city
Area residents also will get their say in the process of creating a snappy image for Great Falls to use to attract shoppers, tourists and business developers.
City Club Missoula
- Highway 12 Ventures Portfolio News | August 2011
SendGrid is sending 2 billion emails per month and just getting started.
- VC's Unplugged, 10/4, Boise, Idaho
This is a great chance for local entrepreneurs to get to know the venture capitalists who are investing in our region.
Rob Ryan's Entrepreneur- America
- City Club Missoula Presents: "Wood For Haiti" How Montana Will Help Rebuild A Nation., 9/12, Missoula
Wood for Haiti is a non-profit organization that is working to provide US construction materials and training to Haiti in an effort to build earthquake and hurricane resistant homes and community centers.
Visit Montana
- The Sunflower Matrix: Introducing A New Model For Business Success, 10/06, Hamilton, Montana
Rob Ryan, Joe Graziano, and Dan Floyd provide on-the-spot feedback to audience members on their business ideas as well as troubleshoot issues with existing businesses; audience members interested in participating will fill out a questionnaire during intermission; business ideas and issues are then selected at random from the pool of questionnaires.
Come Home Montana
- Where the road ends: Beyond the borders of Yellowstone
What most of Yellowstone's millions of annual visitors never see is an expansive and remote wilderness adjoining the park on its north side, located primarily in Montana.
Come Home Utah
- Montana Career Opportunity - Internet Help Desk Technician - Vision Net
Vision Net's 24/7 Technical Assistance Center (TAC) is seeking candidates with strong customer service skills.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Network Engineer - Vision Net, Inc.
The successful employee will be responsible for engineering and documentation of telecommunications networks. Desired candidates should have previous experience engineering and configuring IP networks.
MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association
- Wanted: Nerds with ninja-like coding skills for prize worth $10K and maybe a job
To connect with young programers, particularly computer-science students, the firm is holding a coding contest Saturday to give away more than $10,000 and to identify potential new hires.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Montana Economic Developers Association September Newsletter... and much more
MEDA 2011 FALL CONFERENCE : CULTIVATING LOCAL ENTREPRENEURS FOR JOB GROWTH Oct. 6/7 in Kalispell
Montana Business
- Interest in entrepreneurship at Montana State University grows with donation and stalled job market
TechRanch has helped push Montana to be named the country's best state for entrepreneurship and innovation, according to a recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce report. About 200 companies across the state have created between 300 and 500 jobs after going through the Bozeman-based incubator.
Montana Economic Development
- Monida Healthcare Network Receives $900,000 Grant for Rural Hospitals - Money Will Support Health Information Technology in Six Montana Critical Access Hospitals
"We are thrilled with the reward of grant dollars for this large project," states Greg Drapes, CEO of Monida Healthcare Network, "these funds will enable us to rapidly bring technical assistance and centralized planning and coordination for six Critical Access Hospitals in our region."
- Industrial Directory Reports Montana's Manufacturing Employment Remains Steady Over Past Year
"The recovery is gaining momentum in Montana and across the U.S.," says Tom Dubin, President of the Evanston, IL-based publishing company, which has been surveying industry since 1912. "Montana's abundant natural resources has helped it maintain jobs that are difficult to outsource."
- Roscoe Steel sells to North Dakota company
"It was just a great opportunity for two companies that are nearly identical in culture and business makeup to get together," said Roscoe president and chief operating officer Bill Lundberg. "The sum of the new company is greater than the sum of the individual parts."
- Tom Spika, president of Spika Welding & Manufacturing Inc. of Lewistown, MT featured in Wall Street Journal Article on Jobs..
Mr. Spika says his business could rebound by expanding into overseas markets. He sees opportunity in South America and Asia but moving into those regions has been a challenge due to import and export restrictions and tariffs from the U.S. and foreign governments.
Regional Economic Development
- HUD Awards Over $2.5 Million to Montana Native American Communities For Housing and Economic Development For Low-Income Families
Regional Administrator Rick M. Garcia said, "The competitive grants are provided through HUD's Indian Community Development Block Grant (ICDBG) Program to support a wide variety of community development and affordable housing activities."
- Energy development key to Montana's future, expert says
"This isn't huckleberry jam and elk-antler furniture. If we want to move the economy forward in an aggressive way, these are the industries that can produce."
Funding and Building your Business
- Thomas Friedman To United States: Innovate Or Else
The principle driving forces behind the need for a more inventive worker is "access to more automation, more software, more machines and more people, and more talent of an above average quality," says Friedman, noting that even "cheap genius," is a click away.
- SBA Advises White House On Promoting Entrepreneurship
The Small Business Administration today presented the White House with suggestions on how to reduce barriers to entrepreneurship, gathered from eight roundtables it held around the country as part of the Startup America initiative.
Incubators and R&D
- Standing Desks Are on the Rise
Silicon Valley's newest status symbol is a humble piece of furniture.
- How Small Wins Unleash Creativity
Big breakthroughs at work are really rare. But small wins are something people can experience pretty regularly if the work is chunked down to manageable pieces. This suggests that you really do have to sweat the small stuff."
- Have you developed a small business exit strategy?
Developing an exit strategy is something that every business owner should start thinking about ten years prior to the sale.
- 4 surefire ways to protect your IP
With the rising tide of WikiLeaks-style attacks and increasingly sophisticated hackers, it's more important than ever to be especially diligent in protecting your company's sensitive information.
- If Your Dream is to Get Rich, Don't Try a Startup
It's an unfortunate artifact of our educational system that young people spend a dozen years focused more on memorizing facts than the learning process, and then thinking that they will have all they need to know for the rest of their lives by the time they graduate.
- Entrepreneurs, leadership is not a popularity contest
Leadership is about getting results and meeting goals and objectives. And most important, it's recognizing which direction to go toward for the best results.
- Senate passes major overhaul of patent system
The first major change in patent law in six decades is aimed at streamlining the patent process, reducing costly legal battles and giving the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office the money it needs to process patent applications in a timely fashion.
Montana Education Excellence
- Research by UC Santa Cruz's chemists could prevent groundwater contamination
UC Santa Cruz http://www.ucsc.edu/ chemists have developed a new type of material that can soak up pollutants from water, and the work could lead to better methods for dealing with radioactive waste and removing pollutants from agricultural runoff and other sources from waterways.
Regional Business
- Montana ranks near bottom for teacher pay
One problem Glendive schools have is the Montana educational payment schedule does not allow for salaries to go up if there is declining enrollment.
- Montana State University Foundation assets reach new record
Despite the sickly economy, the Montana State University Foundation is in robust good health and raring to raise even more donations for the Bozeman campus.
- UM-Helena is direct path to self-betterment
The inspiring stories that pepper each spring's graduating class are a testament to the growing number of opportunities available to anyone willing to make sacrifices and work hard to improve their lives.
- Juneau Announces $7.6 Million Striving Readers Literacy Grant Awarded to Montana
"Reading is a vital skill every child must have for their future academic and economic success. This grant will allow Montana to seek out innovative strategies to improve literacy for children of all ages." Superintendent Juneau
Universities and Economic Development
- Governors Convene Special Sessions on Jobs
Governors in several states are bringing lawmakers back into session this fall with a more focused agenda on job creation.
- Celebration marks 30th anniversary of Horizon Air's inaugural flight
"That was an incredibly fast turnaround of 90 days from the startup of the airline in late spring of 1981 to first flight," noted Bruce McCaw, who was also a key player in Kuolt's creation of Horizon. "We had to buy the airplane, refurbish it, get the FAA operating certificate, redo the interiors. We were still getting the final touches on the plane the night before that first flight."
- Businesses in Idaho valley, across U.S. hire despite economic uncertainty
"Government regulations are not 'choking' our business, the hospitality business," Bernard Wolfson, the president of Hospitality Operations in Miami, told The Miami Herald. "In order to do business in today's environment, government regulations are necessary, and we must deal with them. The health and safety of our guests depend on regulations. It is the government regulations that help keep things in order."
Oregon Business
- Entrepreneurial Universities
In the 30 years since the U.S. Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act, which assigned ownership of federally-funded inventions to academic institutions, university inventions have led to 6,000 new businesses, 4,300 new products, and 153 drugs, the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM)
Utah Economic Development
- Former Intel employee develops thermal window product - Indow Windows
Great for retrofitting historic structures
Washington State Business
- Utah's Research Universities are Churning out Exciting Technology
From renewable energy sources to the latest in entertainment technology, Utah's universities have a plethora of interesting research spinning out of their laboratories.
- Composite fiber-pipe firm, Fiberspar Corp. agrees to create 276 Utah jobs
The board of the Governor's Office of Economic Development awarded an incentive Thursday to a company that plans to invest $23 million in a new Utah plant and hire at least 276 people over the next 10 years.
Wyoming Business
- The future is in Moses Lake, WA
The future was on display in Moses Lake with the grand opening of a new state-of-the-art carbon fiber manufacturing plant.
Education
- More Wyoming schools will receive high-speed Internet
"It also has great potential for the private sector,"
Government
- National Governor's Association - Using Community Colleges to Build a STEM-Skilled Workforce
Community colleges are uniquely positioned to grow the pipeline of STEM professionals and produce more STEM-skilled workers.
Community
- Veterans Administration Montana hires surgeon to address backlog of veterans needing orthopedic surgery
“Veterans across the state have been telling me at every stop how important it is to get an orthopedic surgeon to serve Fort Harrison,” Sen. Jon Tester http://tester.senate.gov/ said. “We pushed and pushed — and even brought the VA secretary here to see the need for himself. I’m pleased the VA’s moving forward because a whole lot of Montana veterans should not have to wait for quality orthopedic care.”
Energy and Climate Change
- Scoop Up Fun At 10th Annual Neighborhood Ice Cream Social - Free Ice Cream!, 9/18, Missoula, Montana
The 10th Annual University Community Ice Cream Social to welcome new and returning students to The University of Montana and Missoula neighborhoods will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 18.
- Department of Energy awards $3 million grant to Idaho researchers
This is one of the largest grants the Department of Energy gave out in an effort to spur the development of alternative energy.
- Climate report links extreme weather events to global warming
Tornadoes, droughts, blizzards and the the rest of the year's U.S. record-breaking extreme weather, likely enjoyed a boost from global warming, suggests a climate report.
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