|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Tue Jan 10, 2012 |
“At a lot of meetings I go to in the community, public safety is the number one issue and then economic development. Early education, which includes early literacy, is certainly not a silver bullet, but it’s a strategic point of intervention…. We must start to redefine education. Education takes place on a 24/7 basis, and everyone has an obligation to participate in the education of all citizens.†Joan Kagan, Square One
2012 Elections
Globalization Partners International
- Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch Enhances Security of Elections With The Launch of Online "Fair Elections Center"
Montana launches website to report election law violations
- Local Chamber officials in Montana communities protest parent group's attacks on Tester
Chamber of Commerce officials in three Montana communities have publicly responded to a political attack ad created and paid for by their parent organization, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Montana Department of Commerce
- Tools to Reduce Language Translation Services Costs
GPMS includes a range of features which helps track and manage language translation services projects.
21st Century Education Initiative - "You Should Care..."
- Montana Energy 2012, 4/3-4, Billings, Montana
The two-day comprehensive energy conference and tradeshow will uncover opportunities for energy development throughout Montana.
SRS Crisafulli, Inc.
- Lack of interest and aptitude keeps students out of STEM majors
"Over a lifetime, the earnings of workers who have majored in engineering, computer science or business are as much as 50 percent higher than the earnings of those who major in the humanities, the arts, education and psychology."
City Club Missoula
- Dredging and Shoreline Remediation
Shoreline remediation is an investment in the overall economic and natural habitat of a community.
Come Home Montana
- UM College of Technology hopes renaming will change perceptions
Other than a new name change, the public in upcoming months and years may notice a broader range of general education courses offered at the UM-COT. The college plans to make it easier for students studying one of the hard sciences to transfer to a four-year college by offering classes like chemistry and biology labs.
MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association
- Montana Career Opportunity - Computer Support Specialist II - Montana State University Bozeman
Excellent benefits including tuition waiver.
- National Geographic Magazine Highlights Montana's Hi-Line
Between 1909 and 1923, settlers filed 114,620 homestead claims in Montana, many of those within a day's wagon ride of the Great Northern line, which crossed the state at about 48 degrees north latitude. Population and service businesses, if not rain, followed the plow.
- Montana Career Opportunities - Technology Opportunities - Northwestern Energy
Candidates must be self-starters, pursue self-education, embrace customer service and support the organization's goals and values.
- Montana Career Opportunities - Engineers - Northwestern Energy
Several Engineer positions at Northwestern
- Montana Career Opportunity - Developer/Programmer - Sterling Bank Services
Developer/Programmer needed for full-time position working on corporate web applications and mobile development at Sterling Bank services in Missoula.
Montana Business
- MEDA News - 1. January 2012 News 2. Take Legislative Survey 3. Save the date!
MEDA's January 2012 Newsletter is attached and available online.
Montana Economic Development
- Pasta Montana Achieves Food Safety Certification
"We believe in having a superior food safety program with related quality systems in place, adhering to the most widely accepted and stringent standards. It will benefit us in many ways," said Randy Gilbertson, General Manager of Pasta Montana, which is owned by Nippon Flour Mills in Tokyo, Japan.
- Red Lodge, Montana craftsman applies science in creating spoons - Earlywood
In the first month of the website going live -- it went up in late November -- Bernhart quickly logged close to 100 orders from 35 states and Australia.
- Senator Baucus Highlights Defense Department Employer Support Freedom Award- Nominations Requested
Montana's senior U.S. Senator Max Baucus is encouraging Montana's Reserve and National Guard members to nominate their exceptional employers for the 2012 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award.
- Bozeman, Montana's West Paw Design discovered that Apple's tablets let the pet supply company save money, improve productivity, and reduce its environmental impact.
West Paw is a 15-year-old small business that grew each year during the recession and posted 10% growth in 2011.
- MuzeView Research - Announcing our new IndustryViewâ„¢ and PracticeViewâ„¢ Briefing Series
Starting next week, we will begin publishing e-mail updates that provide weekly and monthly coverage of selected industry and practice specific insights and activity from the leading law, accounting and consulting firm as tracked by our PracticeViewâ„¢ platform.
- Book from Stevensville, Montana publisher to be made into movie - "Colter's Run"
The McAllister author has joined forces with a well-known Montana film producer, Kevin Donovan, and the CEO of Wheat Montana, Dean Folkvord, to form a corporation that could begin producing a major motion picture about one of the state's most famous stories.
Regional Economic Development
- Business leaders urge Billings and Eastern Montana to prep for Bakken boom
The boom in western North Dakota that is moving west is so crazy that someone needs to put "a rope around this chaos for a while."
Bill Payne
- XL Pipeline's Unequal Treatment
If the Keystone XL oil pipeline were approved today, residents in the six states along its route would not receive equal treatment from TransCanada, the company that wants to build the project.
Funding and Building your Business
- The Changing Exit Environment for Early Stage Companies
The two major differences in the exit environment in the past decade are (1) the disappearance of the IPO market and (2) the rapidly increasing size of the average VC fund.
Government and University TechTransfer
- Give Your Employees Unlimited Vacation Days
The 9 a.m.-to-5 p.m. workplace is almost dead. Throw your preconceived notions about vacation out the window and give your employees the no-strings-attached, unlimited vacation days they deserve or you'll soon be a dinosaur.
- Startup Partnership can help you
As a core American value, entrepreneurship is critical to the country's long term success and it's time to step up our game.
- 10 Reasons Why Business Action Can Trump Thinking
The future of everything for startups these days is unpredictable.
- Want A Great Team? Focus On Talent, Not Hiring
I've found three critical questions that help an organization create that shift to focus on talent.
- Advisory Boards: Why Bother With One?
Although private companies (and non-profits) have no legal obligation to create advisory boards, many of the most successful companies have them.
- Tax Implications of a Sale or Withdrawal from a Partnership
I sure hate to disappoint people, but facts are facts and so are tax code rules.
- Respect, Trust Key to Healthy Ad Relationship
Agency-client relationships are like a marriage. You need to talk, listen, compromise and have a sense of humor.
- Recruiting programmers to your startup
The most important thing to understand is what motivates programmers.
- The Startup Clock Starts When You Incorporate
My rule of thumb expectation is that it should take two months to set up the legal entity, six months to finalize the business plan, and by the end of the first year have a prototype product ready for customers.
- Big Data: Why All The Fuss?
What has changed is the way we deal with that data.
Incubators and R&D
- Licensing Technologies from Universities
Many outstanding companies have gotten formed by licensing university technologies
Montana Education Excellence
- INNoVATEâ„¢ is a unique program that offers scientific postdoctoral fellows and researchers the opportunity to develop the needed entrepreneurial skills to move innovations to the market.
INNoVATEâ„¢ is a training and development model for accelerating the translation of scientific discoveries into commercial technologies.
Idaho Business
- Bozeman, southwest Montana schools eye co-op to save money
If school boards jump on board, the cooperative potentially could serve the region's 70 school districts and 35,000 students, who represent a quarter of all Montana public school pupils. A big incentive is that the 2011 Legislature made available $2 million in seed money for school co-ops.
- Montana professors like Christian but surprise hiring sparks concern
"It's not necessarily the result that bothers us, it's the way the process was truncated."
North Dakota Business and Economic Development
- An Alternative Idaho State of the State Preview
With a healthy distance from the Statehouse, we listened to small business owners, a recent college graduate, a hospice worker, an alternative energy developer, a former prison inmate, a computer programmer and a river guide.
- Governor Otter Maps Aggressive Plan for Idaho - looks to invest more in business development
The hope is to facilitate technology transfers, which are conduits between private sector companies looking to universities for help in research and development or, on the flip side, helping universities and their staff turn their research into marketable products or services. Sayer said creating a common process for the schools and private sector to use could accelerate the transfer of technology.
Oregon Business
- North Dakota Officials Unveil New Tourism Campaign - "Arrive a guest. Leave a Legend"
State tourism officials, along with Gov. Jack Dalrymple, have unveiled the state's new marketing campaign for the year: Arrive a guest. Leave a Legend.
Oregon Economic Development
- Portland lawyers become inventers, now they hope Kickstarter funders will back the $75,000 production costs
Working with Portland product design shop Fuse, they created the Clutch, an iPad case with a rotating handle that doubles as an easy way to prop the tablet up.
- Retire Here, Not There: Oregon
"One of the biggest draws here is the lifestyle."
Washington State Business
- Portland entrepreneurs launch big ideas, bring products to market with crowdfunding
He's raised more than $537,000 through the crowd funding site, and his project is gaining thousands of dollars a day.
Other Economies
- Pacinian hopes new technology leads to keyboard evolution
Pacinian http://www.pacinian.com/ is a technology company passionate about improving the user experience by enabling digital devices to provide compelling, natural tactile feedback.
- Better Business Bureau and Forbes don't see eye to eye about Spokane
The lists compiled by Forbes magazine often seem to cast Spokane in a bad light. We were previously painted as a scam capital, and now we rank at the bottom for job growth. Swell. But the BBB perspective is a bit different. Scam capital?
- Young Entrepreneur Social: Seattle Has to Stop Eating its Young
And even worse, Olson says, was the lack of generosity he found among the 30-something generation of Seattle entrepreneurs that came up before him.
- Washington Governor chris Gregoire to push for billions for transportation
"Transportation will definitely be a major focus of her speech."
- Higher-ed woes tied to state 'leadership vacuum'
The authors say state leaders should set "clear goals and an ambitious agenda" to increase the number of students earning bachelor's degrees.
Community
- Kansas City looks to take a focused, creative and aggressive approach to attracting, retaining and launching businesses.
"This is our opportunity to examine closely how Kansas City recruits and retains businesses and jobs."
- Effort Looks To Attract Entrepreneurs To Phoenix - Silicon Valley Bank Expands to Arizona
The ACA also said it has upped its commitment to the Arizona Innovation Challenge, which awards grants to promising companies in the state, to $3M.
Connectivity & Communications
- Newcomers have a lot to learn about Bitterroot life
For example, as a matter of precedence and respect for changing seasons, lawn mowing, no matter how badly needed, just shouldn't be done during the first week of January.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Monday Update: What Good is Rural Broadband?
Right now,America is focused too much on getting "average" bandwidth to the last 5 percent of the country in rural areas, rather than getting "ultra-high-speed" bandwidth to the top 5 percent, in university towns, who will invent the future.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Dropped your phone in the toilet? Use Bheestie to fix it - Dropped Your Phone in the Toilet? No Problem!
The Bheestie Bag can dry out small electronic devices after you drop them into water or spill something on them.
- Thirty ideas from people under 30: The Change Agents
They are explorers and activists, artists and educators, farmers and faith leaders - even mayors. And they have trenchant suggestions on how to improve the world.
Government Technology
- Young entrepreneurs offer peek into tech's future
"These are some of the greatest minds of their generation and they provide us a real good idea of where things are going."
- Samsung, LG and Sony sign on to Google TV
"There are over 80,000 movie titles and TV episodes available through Google TV," says Mario Queiroz, vice president of Google TV. "We're trying to make it easier for the consumer to find content."
- Sculpteo 3-D Printing App Uses Your Mug to Make a Mug
The Sculpteo iOS app is a 3-D printing app that uses a photograph of yourself or a loved one, converts it to a 3-D image, and, after some interesting high-tech transformations, turns it into a ceramic vase or mug that you get to admire and actually use.
- A 'Smart Cities' Technology Revolution Underway
What can high technology do to help cities confront their thorniest problems -- from police strategies to water systems, traffic control to waste disposal?
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page
