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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Apr 11, 2006 |
“My way of fighting the competition is the positive approach. Stress your own strengths, emphasize quality, service, cleanliness, and value, and the competition will wear itself out trying to keep up.” Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's
Just a reminder that MATR now offers you the opportunity to add Stories (either original or excerts from published stories) events and comments on any posted story to further the dialogue. http://www.matr.net/lo ... phtml Networking and information sharing are key elements to a successful economy. Russ
Montana Education Excellence
Education
- Montana State University - Northern shows off state-of-the-art technology center
"They fly in on corporate Learjets, and they take off with our students," Kegel said. "Our biggest problem is that we don't have enough students in our program."
- UM Journalists Outstanding in Regional Competition
The UM journalists placed first in the every broadcast category in which awards were given for the society’s Mark of Excellence competition.
Montana Business
- A promise rooted in education. "The Kalamazoo Promise" (to bankroll - indefinitely - the college tuition of thousands of Kalamazoo public school graduates )becomes an economic development draw.
Out-of-state businesses are sniffing around Kalamazoo as a relocation site.
Montana Economic Development
- Leverage Relationships to Achieve Your Business Goals - Sage International
Whether your business address is on Wall Street or Main Street, you will increasingly be held to a national, or even global, standard of execution. Smart entrepreneurs look to relationship value to achieve their goals in this demanding environment.
- Synesis7 Corp., a Butte high-tech firm, lands Army contract
Synesis7, which started in 2003, converts technical drawings and other information into digital formats through contracts with the federal government.
- Montana tourism industry tops $2 billion
For the first time, more than 10 million out-of-state residents visited here, and they spent more than $2 billion, according to projections from the University of Montana's Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research.
Funding and Building your Business
- Main Street in Montana. Six Montana Communities Designated for Main Street Revitalization
“They say Montana is one big small town with one heck of a long main street,” Governor Brian Schweitzer said. “Of course time has taken some of the sheen off of historic structures, and that is why this state/local partnership is so important.”
- Indians form vision for Great Falls' future
"There's a lot of good things in this community that all started with a community vision exercise," Shield said. "We're hoping the same thing will happen with this — that people will step forward and make these things a reality."
- WIRED grant award counties in Montana to convene at MEDA conference on 5/2 in Polson, MT
You are invited to hear Evan Barrett, Tony Preite, Keith Kelly and Nancy Peterson as they host an informal meeting about the WIRED grant award and the kind of program that Montana is in the process of implementing.
Regional Business
- Questions about illnesses not permitted in job interview
The guiding principle of the ADA is to force employers to focus on applicants' skills rather than on their disabilities. The ADA has narrow exceptions that allow employers to inquire about an applicant's health.
- Nine Ways to Keep Employees Engaged
Managers who aren't taking care of their employees are missing out on significant cost-savings and profits.
- Want to help Web visitors? Speak to them
Did you know that by appropriately adding audio to your Web site you can increase the number of leads and sales your site generates?
- 10 Steps to Protect Your Great Idea
9. Find an inventor mentor—some one who's done this process before—to provide guidance.
- Social networking woos Web users. The most successful sites link people, serve up local information
The traffic analysis shows the Internet is still a space where new brands such as MySpace can suddenly break into the upper ranks, where older brands such as Citysearch can revive themselves after languishing for years, and where established outfits such as Google often wind up as beneficiaries because they buy or copy services pioneered by upstarts.
- The Art of Customer Service
... That's the way to create legendary customer service.
Regional Economic Development
- Silicon Forest is stunted. Technology falters in its promise of revitalizing Oregon's economy as once-promising startups stall, and new high-paying jobs fail to emerge
A cluster of publicly traded companies that once promised a new era of Oregon innovation and a fountain of high-wage jobs has instead stagnated.
Utah Business
- 'State of the Rockies' report to be released
"The idea is that the nation takes what it wants, like energy resources, timber and vacation housing, and leaves behind a mess, including abandoned mines, devastated forests and second-home, cold-bed communities," the authors of the report wrote in a preview of this year's edition, to be unveiled at a conference in Colorado Springs next week.
- Rockies’ population rises 3 times more than nation’s
The report defines the Rockies as Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.
Utah Economic Development
- Utah firms to get tips on growth
"We see a lot of business owners that just get scared,"
Government Technology
- Grow Utah Ventures gives back. Founder Hall's 'mission in life' is helping local entrepreneurs succeed
"Grow Utah Ventures' goal is to be the most powerful private entity for economic development," Hall said. "We've got the governor and counties and cities doing what they do, but there's no reason why private people can't try and marshal their resources to get some things done."
Idaho Business
- North Dakota Has New CIO - Lisa Feldner
"We have laid a strong foundation with STAGEnet, which links schools and state government in an integrated voice, data, video network, and now Lisa will bring to the job the skills necessary to take the state to the next level of development."
- Bozeman, MT launches new website
Washington State Business
- Idaho Office of Science & Technology April 2006
"We Create Jobs, Strengthen Communities and Market Idaho."
Government
- Washington State official touts incubators
Every dollar of public money invested in small business incubators generates $30 in return
- Surfing the Web -- with no connection. Webaroo unveils new service for mobile computer users
Today, Husick and Mathur are introducing Webaroo -- a Bellevue company whose free software allows users of laptops and hand-held computers to take portions of the Web with them wherever they wander.
Other Economies
- Blunt-Davis bill would create federal grants database
Aiming to bring more transparency to the federal grant-making process, two top lawmakers have introduced legislation that would create a public database to track government-issued grants.
Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)
- Northern Kentucky Releases a new Economic Development and Civic Strategy, "Vision 2015"
Six strategic directions emerged-each sharing one common purpose: insure Northern Kentucky is capable of competing in a global economy, with our citizens benefiting from the prosperity and opportunity this creates.
University Business Plan Competitions
- Montana SBIR 2006 Educational Events
Here's a full calendar of SBIR sponsored events in Montana. Great opportunities for entrepreneurs, researchers and professionals.
Non-Profit News
- Dartmouth Wins $100,000 Rice University Business Plan Competition
The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University hosted the sixth installation of the competition. Thirty-five of the top MBA schools from around the world presented business plans to a panel of more than 150 judges that were selected based on their expertise in venture capital, early-stage investing, and entrepreneurship.
- 4 students sweep Brigham Young University business contest. Makers of machine that reads caloric output win $50,000
If you're a student at any Montana college or university, you have time to enter your business plan in the 17th Annual John Ruffatto Memorial Business Plan Competition, May 11 at the University Of Montana, Missoula http://www.matr.net/article-18801.html
Energy
- Center for the Rocky Mountain West Newsletter - April - May 2006
The Center is a regional studies and public policy program of The University of Montana, located in the heart of the Rockies. We want to keep you regularly informed of our work and hope that you find these newsletters valuable.
Connectivity & Communications
- Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers to invest in 'green technology'
Menlo Park-based Kleiner Perkins plans to set aside $100 million of its latest $600 million fund for technologies that help provide cleaner energy, transportation, air and water.
City Club Missoula
- Major Upgrade Coming to Manassas, Va., Broadband Over Powerline System
The COMTek network in Manassas, said the company in a release, is the first commercial deployment of BPL in the nation to use a city-wide electricity grid to provide individual homes and businesses with direct "plug in" broadband access through electric sockets, rather than over phone or cable TV lines.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- City Club Missoula looks at the past, present and futureSearch and Rescue on 4/21
R. J. Nelson, volunteer chief of Missoula County SAR, will discuss "Missoula Search and Rescue: Leaving Dinner Half Eaten for 50 Years."
- Nanomix developing an 'electronic nose'. New meaning when the doctor says "please cough"...
IMAGINE THIS. You walk into a doctor's office to find out what's wrong with your body. Need a blood sample? Nope. A urine or hair sample isn't necessaryeither. Just a whiff of your breath.
- Say Hello to Voiceprinting. Voice biometrics is poised to add more security to phone-based transactions in Europe.
The system will require a user to remember a minimal amount information, while relying instead on that person's voice for authentication.
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