MATR Newsletter – December 20, 2019
The state with the best education wins!

“Ninety percent of the data in existence was created in the past two years. In two years that will still be true.” Art Amador, CEO, EquBot

Come Home Montana

• Montana Career Opportunity – Staff Attorney – Montana Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence

  The Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (MCADSV), a non-profit operating in Helena, Montana, is seeking a full time Staff Attorney for our Sexual Assault Legal Services (SALS) program.

• Montana Career Opportunity – Finance and Operations Manager – Bozeman Area Community Foundation

  Support the Bozeman Area Community Foundation’s (BACF) efforts to demonstrate best practices in financial and operational management.

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

• Erin McCrady Named Missoula Office Head for International law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP

  Ms. McCrady represents issuers and underwriters in public and private debt securities offerings, including high yield, investment grade and convertible debt, and on tender offers, exchange offers, consent solicitations and other debt restructuring matters.

Montana Department of Commerce

• Montana Department of Commerce – Commerce Connection

  Happy Holidays from the
  Montana Department of Commerce!

• 2020 Montana Financial Education Coalition Conference – 2/25 – Helena

  Don’t miss this opportunity

Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development

• Friday Flash 12/20/19 – Your Update From the Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development

  Join us April 26-28 for the 2020 Montana Governor’s Conference on Tourism and Recreation in Billings!

Arrow Solutions Group

• Recruiting Is a Full-Time Job. Here’s How to Outsource It Effectively

  One in five jobs, in their current form, will disappear within five years, according to a poll by HR consultancy Mercer. Employers will have to compete for “upskilled” workers.

Great Falls Development Authority

• Great Falls Montana MSA Generates 5.0% Average Wage Growth

  Now, it’s time our economic development effort expand to tackle the challenge of our growing our labor pool. We’ll launch our talent attraction efforts in January. Stay tuned!!

Zoot Enterprises

• Zoot Enterprises Named To Credit & Collections Power List – Zoot Makes ‘Top 20 Companies in 2019’

  “Zoot strives to constantly benchmark and innovate based on our clients’ needs, and we invest significant resources to ensure our products and services are the latest and the greatest. The inclusion in the Power List is a testament to this.”

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• Montana Association of Counties (MACo) News: December 2019

  We are the voice of Montana’s 56 counties.

• The 4th F Fund from the Montana Bioscience Cluster Initiative Now Open to Montana Bioscience Companies

  This fund is designed for maximum flexibility in support of new and established businesses and entrepreneurs in the bioscience industry.

• His Job Is Our Future – Grant Kier, Executive Director of Missoula Economic Partnership

  His challenge is to guide, facilitate, and articulate a vision for growth that balances progress with character.

• Why Microsoft is getting behind a revolutionary plan for high-speed rail in the Pacific Northwest

  One of the region’s most powerful tech companies sees it as a boost to business.

Montana Businesses For Sale

• Billings company buys Butte metal fabrication business

  WMLK Steel Fabrication has acquired JK Fabrication located on Parkmont Street in Butte.

Montana Business

• Five Holiday Scams to Avoid from LMG Security

  Also: Discover why not all two-factor authentication is created equal, how to keep pen testing safe for everyone and what we can learn from data breaches

• Posh Chocolat’s new Montana Fly Box a sweet treat for anglers

  12 handcrafted dark chocolate bonbons with milk chocolate huckleberry centers, each featuring a colorful, detailed fly tie design.

Visit Montana

• Make Your Next Visit to Helena Special – The Unique Barrister Bed and Breakfast.

  Memories are made here.

Funding and Building your Business

• 4 Ways Small City Startups Can Win Funding from Big City Venture Capitalists

  Founders should also tout the things that make their city special, like talent pipelines from local colleges or access to the outdoors, Broshar said. “Being able to articulate your city’s competitive advantage is a really important part of the strategy.”

• Why Your Company Must Plan to ‘Do Good’ From Day 1

  The better we understand the problems our customers face, the better we can help them.

Idaho News & Events

• The Key to a Greener Planet Could be Right Under Our Tires – Solar Roadways

  Streets and roads that can not only turn sunlight into electricity for the grid but also generate their own light and produce heat to melt ice and snow.

• Washington, Idaho colleges bracing for ‘enrollment cliff’ in 2025

  It will be an immense challenge to recruit and keep up enrollment from that smaller pool of prospective students.

• High property taxes? Growth may be to blame. Idaho’s local governments are trying to fix that

  The move is intended to help relieve a growing pressure on taxpayers by getting developers to fund some of the new construction projects that growth necessitates.

Wyoming Business

• Video – The Women of Jackson Hole Ski Patrol

  This video from Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, in Wyoming, celebrates the women of its ski-patrol team, working an occupation traditionally dominated by men.

• Teton County (Jackson Hole), Wyoming leads nation in per capita income – $252,000 per person including children

  Astronomical wealth complicates life for residents of truly average means.

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

• Billionaire Warren Buffett: This is the ‘one easy way’ to increase your worth by ‘at least’ 50 percent

  “If you can’t communicate, it’s like winking at a girl in the dark — nothing happens.

• This 31-Year-Old’s Company Rocketed To A $1 Billion Valuation Helping Workers Get Degrees

  Carlson’s groundbreaking idea when she launched Guild four years ago: help companies offer education benefits that employees will actually use.

Education News

• How to Keep Alumni Engaged With Your Higher Education Institution

  Rather than alienating graduates and alumni with repeated asks for donations, tap into the nostalgia and goodwill of graduation season and offer programs and communications with additional value and benefits for alumni.

• Bitterroot college makes steps to separate from the University of Montana and Missoula College.

  Some college supporters, and businesses looking for the school to train workers, complain the Hamilton campus finds itself in competition for students and funding.

University of Montana & Montana State University Tech Transfer

• Montana State University Office of Research, Economic Development and Graduate Education awards funding for MSU inventions

  Five MSU inventions from the College of Agriculture, Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering and College of Letters and Science were funded.

Government News & Events

• Missoula’s Higgins Avenue Bridge construction will not begin in January 2020.

  As a result of the Transportation Commission’s decision, MDT will update and re-advertise the contract.

• Big Sky, Montana in search of more water to accommodate growth

  They’re relying on Big Sky’s resort tax to pay for more than half of a proposed $35 million upgraded wastewater treatment plant.

Government Technology

• As Cyberthreats Grow, Government Cybersecurity Should Be Centralized

  All levels of government, as well as the private sector, face growing dangers from cyberthreats.

Non-Profit News

• Montana Photonics Industry Alliance Newsletter

  This email serves as an invitation to the MPIA’s winter networking social on January 23rd.

North Dakota Business and Economic Development

• Company sues over North Dakota’s new caller ID anti-spoofing law

  The North Dakota Legislature earlier this year passed a law that makes it a crime to “transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information with the intent to defraud or cause harm.” It also outlaws using a telephone number the caller does not own or have the consent to use.

Washington State Business

• Spokane Delays Vote on Public Space ‘Mosquito’ Noise

  Some think it’s counter intuitive to a welcoming downtown.

Connectivity & Communications

• Go read this New York Times exposé on smartphone location tracking because it’s worse than you think

  Big brother is real

Transportation

• It’s Time To Get Excited About Homebuilt EV Hot Rods

  Have a Tesla track car and you want to crank up the juice? Presumably this will help you. Have a Porsche Taycan motor you want to swap into a Porsche 928? Here’s your answer.

• Economic growth: Vision for Missoula’s Brooks Street includes rapid transit bus lane

  It revolves around transit-oriented development and the implementation of a center-running, rapid transit bus lane – a tool that’s already been implemented in other cities but would be new to Montana.

TED and TEDX Talks

• Today’s TED Talk – How civilization could destroy itself — and 4 ways we could prevent it

  In this incisive, surprisingly light-hearted conversation with Head of TED Chris Anderson, Bostrom outlines the vulnerabilities we could face if (or when) our inventions spiral beyond our control — and explores how we can prevent our future demise.

• TEDxBigSky 2020 – 1/25 – Gallatin Gateway, Montana

  11 exceptional people who will share personal stories, ideas and inspiration behind the 2020 event’s theme of “CONNECTION.”

Privacy, Hacking and Virus Alerts

• Meet the Mad Scientist Who Wrote the Book on How to Hunt Hackers

  “If you’re so smart, if you’re so brilliant, make something that will make the internet a better place! Find out what’s wrong and make it better! Don’t go screwing with information that belongs to innocent people!”

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