MATR Newsletter – December 31, 2021
The state with the best education wins!

Misery might love company but so does Joy and Joy throws much better parties.

Happy New Year!

A heartfelt thank you to the Sponsors and Supporters of MATR.  Your continued support is deeply appreciated and provides us the resources to continue to inform about and promote Montana’s economic opportunities and success.  

Here’s to a successful 2022.

Russ

Come Home Montana

• Pros and cons of moving to Montana – California Movers

  Local residents have to defend themselves from the regular attacks of predators. Montana facilities are not very developed, so if you run out of gas so where in the mountains, it will be a great disappointment.

Montana Department of Commerce

• Montana film based on James Lee Burke story heads to Sundance
  God’s Country,” a feature film based on a short story by Missoula author James Lee Burke will premiere at Sundance Film Festival next month with Thandiwe Newton (“Westworld”) in the lead role.

City of Bozeman Economic Development

• Visit Bozeman, Montana – Start planning your trip today.

  Bozeman is the western mountain town that’s got it all. Two world-class ski resorts within an hour. Hundreds of miles of trails and even more untouched backcountry. Views too incredible to be real.

Zoot Enterprises

• Bozeman, Montana based Zoot Partner Healthy is Wellness Exceeds Growth Targets

  Zoot’s operational resources provide the foundation for the Healthy Is Wellness business model. The resulting scalability is driving Healthy Is Wellness’s growth from a single trailer to a robust organization with 30 employees and hubs in Missoula, Bozeman, Billings, Great Falls, Sidney, Montana and Cody, Wyoming.

Senator Jon Tester

• Senator Jon Tester Highlights Top 7 Results Delivered for Montanans in 2021

  In a video, Senator shares how he worked hand-in-hand with Montanans to pass critical legislation, protect family farmers and ranchers, and lead economic recovery efforts

Housing

• ‘Zoom towns’ take aim at vacation rentals in western states

  “During most of the year, not just the season, there were more renters than there were full-time residents,”

Visit Montana

• This Quirky Co-Op In Montana Has Everything You Didn’t Know You Needed

  We weren’t surprised to hear that the people of Neihart (all 37 of them) formed a co-op to conserve the only store on Highway 89 Scenic Byway between Belt and White Sulphur Springs.

Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana

• Liz Marchi talks about the entrepreneur ecosystem in Montana

  Liz shares, in this episode, that the best about YE is: It’s gamified and takes a do first talk latter approach, creating a very experiential way of learning. Hear more about what she’s up to on this episode.

Funding and Building your Business

• Apple Pays Its Engineers $180,000 Bonuses to Stop Them From Joining Meta

  Meta has reportedly poached about 100 engineers from Apple.

• 4 leadership trends to watch in 2022

  Companies can recruit more diversely, revamp antiquated onboarding practices, and provide autonomy to workers with flexible scheduling. But leaders need proof beyond anecdotes and in 2022 we’ll begin to see that data roll in.

• The 25 best new apps of 2021

  From powerful search tools to better relationship building, these are the best new apps you’ve been missing.

• Open source NLP is fueling a new wave of startups

  According to a 2021 survey from John Snow Labs and Gradient Flow, 60% of tech leaders indicated that their NLP budgets grew by at least 10% compared to 2020, while a third — 33% — said that their spending climbed by more than 30%.

Incubators and R&D

• Exercise ‘sweet spot’ reverses cognitive decline in aging mice

  Researchers have discovered an exercise “sweet spot” that reverses the cognitive decline in aging mice, paving the way for human studies.

Government News & Events

• President Biden Announces Key Regional Appointment – Kathleen Williams, USDA State Director, Rural Development, Montana

  Williams has worked, hunted, and campaigned statewide, helped build an organization of farmers and ranchers across the North American West, and has a special love for, and commitment to, rural issues and economies, including Montana’s diverse indigenous communities.

Montana Leadership

• Leadership Montana – The Leading Edge, December 2021 – Building Bridges

  It’s here! It’s finally here! The Indigenous Immersion Initiative is designed to give LMT alumni a unique opportunity to learn from and alongside Indigenous leaders of our state.

Transportation

• Hyundai Home: You Can Purchase an Electric Car, Rooftop Solar, Battery Storage, & An EV Charger All In One Package

  Hyundai Home will debut in 2022 and offer customers to sign up for rooftop solar, a residential storage battery, and an EV charger in one seamless transaction.

• Waymo’s new all-electric robotaxi ditches the steering wheel completely

  Alphabet subsidiary Waymo opened up its fully driverless taxi service to the public in Phoenix, Arizona, in October last year, making it the first commercial service in the world to operate without safety backup drivers at the wheel. Now the company has unveiled a vehicle designed from the ground up with autonomous ride-hailing in mind that does away with the steering wheel altogether.

• Yes, Even Walmart Wants to Build Smaller Parking Lots

  Walmart has been quietly reducing its parking ratios for years.

• Mercedes-Benz Introduces World’s First Internationally Valid System For Conditionally Automated Driving

  Mercedes-Benz is the first automotive company in the world to meet the demanding legal requirements for a level 3 system.

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