MATR Newsletter – August 14, 2019
The state with the best education wins!

If you see me talking to myself, please just move along. I’m self-employed. We’re just having a staff meeting.

Come Home Montana

• Bozeman tech companies bring in over $34 million in investment capital – Career Opportunities Available
  Technology companies Schedulicity and Quiq are both based in Bozeman and to-date have raised millions of dollars in investment capital, which they say goes right back into the local economy.
• Montana Career Opportunities – Enterprise Sales, Midmarket Sales, Digital Marketing Analyst, Front End Engineers and more… – Quiq

  Although our team is small, our aspirations are mighty! First and foremost, we are motivated by getting stuff done. Some teams spend a lot of time talking about doing work.  We get work done! We love technology, but only if it works for our customers. We believe in going fast and failing forward. We’re not afraid of hard…

• Montana Career Opportunities – Software Development Test Engineer (SDET), Senior Software Engineer, API, Senior Software Engineer, DevOps  – Schedulicity

  Schedulicity is home to engineers and creatives, misfits, and data nerds. We’re located in Bozeman, Montana, a beautiful place to live and work (or just to visit if you work remotely). We believe great people make great companies, and yes, we will toot our own horn — we have GREAT people (and office dogs)!

• Montana Career Opportunity – Cooperative Development Program Manager – Lake County Community Development Corp.

  The Cooperative Development Program brings resources, education and technical assistance to existing…

Montana Department of Commerce

• Deadline Approaching for New Infrastructure Grant Program to Support Local Governments, Schools – Apply before Sept. 30

  Delivering Local Assistance is an additional tool to allow local governments and schools to finally get shovels in the ground to address these needs.

Great Falls Development Authority

• GFDA Top 10

  Here is our Top 14 for the last two weeks, celebrating work and successes to grow and strengthen the Great Falls regional economy.

Montana Technology Innovation Partnership

• Montana Innovation Partnership P3 to PIII Newsletter

  Fall Market Research and SBIR Proposal Writing Workshops

The Telecommuting and Gig Workforce in Montana

• Remote Work – How Smaller Cities Are Trying to Plug America’s Brain Drain

  The widening economic gap between the so-called “superstar cities” and the rest of the country is a relatively new phenomenon.

Gov. Steve Bullock

• Montana Governor Steve Bullock announces funding for workshops to help women negotiate better pay

  “Actually having the skills to negotiate a decent salary and working conditions – sometimes even those base skills can make a real difference, to the tune of thousands of dollars in the pocket,” he said.

Montana Economic Development

• Innovation: Examining efforts by competitor states and national leaders

  What other states are doing to jumpstart innovation bears a close look now as the nation seeks to accelerate its recently slow productivity growth.

Montana Business

• Follow your dream home to Missoula, Montana. Danni Moore – Engel & Volkers

  Danni’s commitment to her clients and their lifestyle needs, along with her extensive market knowledge and exclusive level of service translate effectively into successful results.

• Uber Eats – The Silk Road, Missoula • Mediterranean • Spanish • Gluten Free • Japanese • Indian • Vegan

  Uber Eats is the easy way to get the food you love delivered.

Funding and Building your Business

• 1 in 3 workers would take a pay cut for unlimited time off

  The average worker willing to take a lower salary for unlimited time off is happy to part with 26% of their pay, according to a survey from Allianz Global Assistance.

• Hiring neurodiversity in the workplace is smart business

  Each one has a resume, but you’ll soon see that hiring talent doesn’t come from what is written on paper rather what’s inside of the person.

• The CEO of General Motors Says She Asks the Same 3 Questions in Every Job Interview. Here’s Why the Right Answers Are So Surprising

  Barra changed GM’s dress code from a long, complex policy that ran 10 full pages to a simple two-word sentence: “Dress appropriately.”

• City leaders work to attract and retain foreign-born entrepreneurs

  Immigrants are twice as likely to form companies than American-born peers and have an outsized impact on U.S. economy.

The Creative and Cultural Economy

• Ed Harris scouts out Fort Benton, Montana for upcoming movie

  “The Ploughmen,” is an adaptation of the novel written by Montana author Kim Zupan.

Idaho News & Events

• Are States Taking Cybersecurity Seriously Enough?
  Only Idaho has a cabinet-level official dedicated to the issue.

21st Century Education Initiative – “You Should Care…”

• Carroll College, University of Montana partner to help students earn graduate degrees faster

  “It saves students one full year of education,” Carroll President John Cech

• Most College Students Would Choose Community College with a Guaranteed $100K Job Over Free Harvard Education

  While few students outright regret going to college, if they were to go back in time and redo their higher education experience, some would opt to attend schools that resulted in less student debt.

• Focus in kindergarten may predict future earnings

  The way a child acts in kindergarten may predict how much money they earn as an adult.

• 11 of the Best YouTube Channels for Understanding Mathematics

  These 11 mathematics YouTubers have got your back.

Education News

• Why School Systems? The Rise of Ransomware in Public Schools

  Ransomware is increasingly being aimed at school districts across the country.

Government News & Events

• Montana Supreme Court will decide key renewable-power cases

  Supporters of the projects say the five-member PSC, controlled entirely by Republicans, is ignoring laws that require it to set reasonable rates and contract terms for NorthWestern Energy to buy these projects’ power.

• Missoula’s mayor proposes tourism tax as part of 2020 budget

  Engen’s focus for his 2020 budget is on improving key areas of the city, such as policing, transportation and park maintenance.

• The Government’s Challenge Is Not Attracting Top Tech Talent—It’s Keeping It

  Amazon is coming to town: Everybody panic! How will the government compete with the behemoth for tech talent?

Government Technology

• Hackers were told to break into U.S. voting machines. They didn’t have much trouble.

  “This is a race without a finish line.”

City Club Missoula

• City Club Missoula – Senator Steve Daines opposes gun legislation; supports hardened schools, early intervention

  “I don’t think the answer is more gun control. We’re not going to be safer with more gun control.

• Event attendees say City Club Missoula denied them opportunity to question Sen. Daines
  “And really we believe that we’re in a climate crisis, and (Daines) failed to acknowledge it at any point the entire time he was in that room, which is a problem.”

Transportation

• The Flathead Electric Co-Op hosts Montana’s only electric car loaning program

  Flathead County has terrible CO2 emissions compared to other cities in our state.

• How Self-Driving Cars Could Shape Our Future

  Once challenges are surmounted, the world (and world of business) may be altered forever.

• A Dutch Startup Created ‘The World’s First Long-Range Solar Car’

  The Light Year One can be powered solely by solar panels on its roof.

Cool Stuff That’s Coming

• This is the computer you’ll wear on your face in 10 years

  Snap’s new Spectacles 3 camera glasses are an important step toward the augmented reality glasses that could one day replace the smartphone as our go-to computing device.

• Meet the ClimaCell weather app. Alerting you when it’s about to rain, down to the minute, all around the world.

  It promises “street-by-street, minute-by-minute short-term forecasts.”

Energy and Climate Change

• Politicians Still Need Convincing When It Comes to a Decentralized Grid

  Who wouldn’t want to power their home or business and commute vehicles using free, inexhaustible and nonpolluting power from the sun or wind?

• Montana Developer Ready to Build Modern-Day Pumped Hydro Storage

  Absaroka Energy and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners plan to update an old storage technology for the 21st century. All they need is a customer.

• Extreme climate change has arrived in America

  In any one geographic location, 2 degrees Celsius may not represent global cataclysmic change, but it can threaten ecosystems, change landscapes and upend livelihoods and cultures.

• A university has banned beef to help fight climate change

  “Declaring a climate emergency cannot be empty words.”

• Hawaii’s Trailblazing Solar Market Continues to Struggle Without Net Metering

  “For Net Metering, it was so damn simple,” said Mangelsdorf. “[For] every kilowatt-hour that you fed into the grid, the homeowner would be compensated.”

Privacy, Hacking and Virus Alerts

• Hacked! How to stay safe from cyber crime

  In this eBook, we set out the top five most common cyber threats, what you can do to prevent them and how to respond when an attack strikes your business.

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