MATR Newsletter – January 25, 2019
The state with the best education wins!

Don’t let the sun set on Montana’s Economic Development. Support HB52 which would allow eight key economic development tools to continue to serve the communities and businesses of Montana.

Come Home Montana

• Montana Career Opportunities -Precision Ag Specialist (Adv IS Consultant), Service Technician, Sales Representative and more… – C&B Operations

  C & B Operations Precision team is committed to making sure your John Deere Precision Ag equipment is working as accurately and efficiently as possible.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• Video – 2019 Montana Economic Development Programs – Don’t Let the Sun Set on Montana’s Economic Development. – Please Encourage Your Legislator to Fund Them and Make Them Permanent!

  Don’t let the sun set on Montana’s Economic Development. Support HB52 which would allow eight key economic development tools to continue to serve the communities and businesses of Montana.

2019 Montana Legislature and Politics

• Montana Senator Jon Tester Addresses State Legislature Urges Local Lawmakers to ‘Make Montana Proud

  “You’ve got about 78 days to get things done,” Tester said. “I would ask you only one thing- make Montana proud.”

Gov. Steve Bullock

• Governor Bullock Launches ‘Parenting Montana’ Prevention Resources and Website for Parents

  “In Montana, we want what’s best for our kids and we all want to be the best parent possible. Now, there’s a new resource available to tackle the wide variety of challenges youth deal with and to support the success of each child in Montana.” Governor Bullock

Montana Economic Development

• Kalispell Aims to Attract More Conventions and Conferences

  Convention bureau has helped book 3,000 rooms in 2019 and 2020 for conferences

• “Cities are hot again:” Downtown Master Plan could boost district’s retail sector

  After researching the local market, Gibbs – who teaches retail strategies at Harvard University – said downtown Missoula could support 70,000 square feet of additional retail space by 2025.

  That equates to 25 to 30 new retail businesses and restaurants.

• Time For Tourism To Shine In Havre

  There is one industry, however, that was missing in the series and it happens to be Montana’s second largest industry, tourism.

Montana Business

• Great Falls, Montana-based Pre-Engineered Fire Systems is helping fight fires across the United States for a decade without leaving the state.

  Pre-Engineered Fire Systems has built fire suppression units in the Electric City for the past ten years.

• Can Do: Meet Five Of Montana’s Outstanding Women Entrepreneurs

  Take a listen to these five interviews from outstanding women entrepreneurs describing the nitty-gritty behind their hard-won successes.

• Missoula, Montana-based Kind Apparel for the Active Lives of Mountain-Town Women and Those Who Wish They Lived Here

  We’re a small team based in Missoula Montana keeping the environmental component of our company strong through using funky and colorful fabrics made from recycled plastics and domestic production.

• Department of Commerce Loan Preserves 83 Jobs in the Bitterroot Valley

  “This program provides a kind of support businesses can’t find anywhere else.”

• Department of Labor accuses Oracle of discrimination that cost women and people of color $400 million

  In a new federal filing Tuesday, the Department of Labor claimed Oracle’s alleged discriminatory practices cost women and minorities an estimated $400 million.

• Excellimatrix, Inc. Delivers Mobile Application for Wildfire Defense Systems

  “We’re pleased to provide a custom solution that will improve the efficiency and productivity of the field personnel tasked with managing the properties of our customers in fire prone areas,” said Leland Johnson, CEO at ExcelliMatrix, Inc.

Visit Montana

• EQUUS INTERNATIONAL Film Festival® Names Riding with thisABILITIES a Best Documentary Finalist

  Hold onto your tissues and your heart while watching this documentary about New York City kids with physical and mental challenges and how the horses at a riding academy in the unlikely center of Manhattan changed the course of their lives.

Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana

• Montana Teenpreneur Roundup 2018-2019 – Shining a spotlight on high school entrepreneurs and innovators across Big Sky Country

  The Roundup is Montana’s premier, annual business innovation program during which high school students demonstrate their entrepreneurial spirit

• Taking products from R&D to production – 2/20 – Bozeman, MT

  This class was created by local photonics industry veterans to introduce quality concepts in a framework that is easily understood by engineers and management—stripped of jargon and put in plain terms. Sign up today and get control of your business!

Montana Department of Commerce

• Made in Montana Monthly January 2019

  We’re pleased to announce a new blog series to help you improve your digital marketing.

TechLink

• Navy awarded 7 patents on inventions with commercial potential

  TechLink’s staff of certified licensing professionals, knowledgeable and experienced, provides businesses with no-cost licensing assistance.

Zoot Enterprises

• Zoot is Leading the Way in Smart Decisioning Solutions for Motor Finance

  Zoot Europe Named Winner of Data & Analytics Solution and Credit Underwriting Solution at the 2018 Credit & Collections Technology Awards

Wyoming Business

• Wyoming House moves forward bill that could mean tens of millions in school funding

  “We’re business friendly in Wyoming,” said Obermueller. “But business friendly doesn’t mean you pick up everyone else’s share of the check.”

• Despite strong opposition, Democrats push Wyoming income tax proposal

  A bill introduced in the legislature this week will broach the most controversial subject in Wyoming politics: income taxes.

Funding and Building your Business

• Wisdom at Work: Why the Modern Elder Is Relevant

  Historically, the boss typically has been older than the staff. But in the last few decades, several trends converged that made it more common for employees to have younger managers.

• She Thinks Big – Women Entrepreneurs Doing Good in the World – Podcasts with Geraldine Carter

  Join the Community!

  Where women entrepreneurs who are doing good in the world come to connect, learn, share resources, have accountability and help each other do more good in the world!

• The Traditional Job Interview Is Dead. Here’s What Top Companies Are Doing Instead

  It will weed out potential jerks from being hired.

• “Venture capital money kills more businesses than it helps,” says Basecamp CEO Jason Fried

  Fried says tech startups are addicted to raising and spending money, and the VC funding cycle is to blame.

• Trust or bust: How to create solid relationships with your team

  At the center of every healthy relationship is trust.

• Reducing the ‘Drama’ of Business Transfers

  Approaches to ownership transfer vary, depending on the type of ‘exit owner’ you are.

• Ask these five questions to find out if you’ll like your future boss

  You don’t want to accept the wrong job–and bosses don’t want to hire people who won’t stick around. Here’s what to ask to find the right match.

• The Investor Seth Klarman, in a Rare Interview, Offers a Warning. Everyone Should Listen

  “it can’t be business as usual amid constant protests, riots, shutdowns and escalating social tensions.”

Business Plan Forums

• The 2019 Fast Company Innovation By Design Awards

  The competition, now in its eighth year, has featured a cross section of blue-chip companies, scruffy startups, and hungry young talents.

Regional Economic Development

• Utah starting $2.5M debt forgiveness program for tech grads

  Lawmakers created the Talent Development Incentive Loan Program $2.5 million program last year to retain graduates and keep Utah’s tech sector growing

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

• Financial Literacy Is Becoming a Requirement in Schools

  As most Americans struggle with money management, some states are making schools teach kids about personal finance. What’s the best age to start?

Education News

• A Different Way to Learn – Deep Springs College

  For what came ye into the wilderness?’ Not for conventional scholastic training; not for ranch life; not to become proficient in commercial or professional pursuits for personal gain. You came to prepare for a life of service, with the understanding that superior ability and generous purpose would be expected of you.”

Montana Education/Business Partnerships

• C&B Operations Join Montana State University Northern’s Industry Partners

  C & B Operations owns and operates thirty-seven John Deere farm equipment dealerships in six states and a diesel engine pump repair business.

Government News & Events

• Zinke leaves unfinished business at the Interior Department

  I am optimistic that almost everything they’ve done can be undone. We can win in court because most of the things they are doing violate the laws they are addressing.”

• How to assist federal workers impacted by the shutdown

  There are many opportunities for you to make a difference.

• Today’s TED Talk – What’s needed to bring the US voting system into the 21st century

  Civil engagement champion Tiana Epps-Johnson shares what’s needed to bring voting in the US into the 21st century — and to get every person to the polls.

Government Technology

• ProudCity’s New Meetings Tool Aims to Help Small Governments

  As an add-on or standalone product, ProudCity Meetings aims to fill a simple niche overlooked by larger software providers: a public meeting tool for small governments that can’t afford huge enterprise systems.

• New Colorado CIO wants to deliver ‘customer delight’ to state workers and residents

  myColorado debuted with the capability to file driver’s license and vehicle registration renewals online, but it will be up to Szczurek to add more functions as the app matures.

Transportation

• New Colorado Governor’s First Executive Order: Get More Electric Vehicles on the Road

  Citing his pledge to fight climate change by moving the state toward all-renewable electric power by 2040, Polis said the order will make it easier for residents to adopt electric vehicles while saving consumers money and providing widespread public health benefits.

• Dangerous By Design: Streets Are Only Getting Less Safe for Pedestrians – Reserve Street in Missoula!

  The status quo in American road design is claiming more and more lives

• What happened when Oslo decided to make its downtown basically car-free?

  “Cities, like Oslo, have been built for cars for several decades, and it’s about time we change it.”

• Study: Uber and Lyft Have Been Catastrophic for Public Transit Ridership

  The most damning evidence yet of how ride hailing is making urban transportation less efficient, not more.

• What do you think? – The future of motorsport: McLaren’s vision for all-electric Formula One in 2050

  What’s going to happen to Formula One when it goes fully electric, and today’s lack of overtaking is added to tomorrow’s lack of sound to create the fastest yawn-fest on wheels?

• Meet Scout, Amazon’s friendly neighborhood delivery robot

  Amazon has begun testing six of the cooler-sized, six-wheeled robots in a neighborhood in Snohomish County, Washington, about 60 miles northeast of Amazon’s Seattle headquarters.

• Frontier Airlines returning to Billings, will resume flights to Denver

  Frontier Airlines is returning to Billings Logan International Airport and will begin flying nonstop to Denver “starting as low as $39 each way,” the airline announced Tuesday in Billings.

• Boise wants you to ride public transit so badly, it’ll pay for your Lyft to a bus stop

  “The goal is to get more people using public transit and out of single occupancy vehicles.”

• Stuck and Stressed: The Health Costs of Traffic

  The physical and psychological toll of brutal commutes can be considerable.

Energy and Climate Change

• The Future of Wind Turbines? No Blades

  A Spanish company called Vortex Bladeless is proposing a radical new way to generate wind energy that will once again upend what you see outside your car window.

• How to solve the world’s plastics problem: Bring back the milk man (or bring on robot deliveries)

  An alternative to recycling — a system that isn’t working well these days.

• New Hampshire Approves Groundbreaking Home Battery Pilot to Fight System Peaks

  The order allows Liberty Utilities to own and install up to 500 Tesla Powerwalls. Third-party aggregators will have a shot, too.

Community

• Top 10 reasons not to move to Bozeman

  In the 19 years I’ve lived in Bozeman, I’ve watched my town gain an international reputation as some kind of paradise.

Other Economies

• Airbnb will pay for you to live in Italy for three months – Buonissimo!

  The catch? There is no catch.

Rural Communities

• Housing program helps workers find homes in rural Nebraska

  “We’ve had employers tell us that the retention rate would be higher if there was more housing here.”

Social Media, Connectivity & Communications

• How a Vermont social network became a model for online communities

  The site looks like a relic from another era; its website is clean and minimal, without the pictures, reaction buttons or comment fields that most social platforms have implemented today.

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