MATR Newsletter – June 11, 2021
The state with the best education wins!

Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development

• Economists break down how the pandemic impacted Montana tourism

  Last year Montana saw a 12% decrease in out of state visitors, but compared to states like California, who saw a 55% decrease, the Big Sky state faired pretty well.

Big Sky Economic Development

• Will You Be One of Three Lucky Attendees to Win MT Made Products? – 6/16 – 10AM Online

  During this virtual event attendees will have a chance to present their company’s capabilities to their peers with a quick 30 second elevator speech.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• MEDA Summer Conference – 6/28-30 -5:30PM – In Person (Carroll College in Helena) and Virtually –

  It is time to identify priorities and build strategies based on the Montana Next Generation of Community and Economic Development Tools study.

• Missoula fairgrounds director Emily Brock promoted to new county economic development job

  “My work as director of the fairgrounds, particularly my oversight of the ambitious redevelopment of the facility, has been a pleasure,” she said. “I am excited to continue in that role and use my experience to lead additional economic and redevelopment projects for the county.”

• New state childcare scholarship offers up to $2,000 for working families

  If you have children between the first and fifth grade, the Elementary Out of School Time Child Care Scholarship helps cover a variety of programs, on top of licensed childcare.

• New report shows Montana hospitals pump billions into local economies

  The report uses audited findings from 56 of the state’s 60 non-governmental hospitals and shows them accounting for close to 12% of Montana’s private sector employment and 13% of the total private-sector wages.

The Telecommuting and Gig Workforce in Montana

• Coworking in Kalispell, Montana

  Communal office space designed for remote workers is growing in popularity in the Flathead, following a nationwide trend

• Purdue University Global launches free course on remote work

  The five-module, self-paced course is designed to be completed in five to seven hours. It will provide organizational employees and leaders with the knowledge and resources to effectively contribute in remote work contexts.

• Will Work-from-Home Work Forever?

  The pandemic may be winding down, but that doesn’t mean we’ll return to full-time commuting and packed office buildings. The greatest accidental experiment in the history of labor has lessons to teach us about productivity, flexibility, and even reversing the brain drain. But don’t buy another dozen pairs of sweatpants just yet.

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• Montana’s Broadband Opportunity

  Congratulations to the Legislature for making the tough choices and hammering out a fair bill

Housing

• Nearly two-thirds of millennials have homebuyer regrets, new survey says

  One factor that may explain this divide is desperation; younger homebuyers are more likely to rush into a purchase which can lead them to settle for properties that might not be to their liking.

• New Buildings Lure Tenants With Free Rent

  To fill empty buildings, developers have been offering generous concessions, including up to five months of free rent.

Visit Montana

• We’re Loving Our National Parks to Death

  The parks’ unrelenting popularity is making it impossible to preserve them “unimpaired.”

Funding and Building your Business

• Anthro-Vision A New Way to See in Business and Life By Gillian Tett

  In an age when the business world is dominated by technology and data analysis, award-winning financial journalist and anthropology PhD Gillian Tett presents a radically different strategy for success: businesses can revolutionize their understanding of behavior by studying consumers, markets, and organizations through an anthropological lens.

Incubators and R&D

• New plant-derived polymer could replace single-use plastics

  The plant-based polymer film leaves no pollutants behind and breaks down naturally.

Regional Economic Development

• Senate approves new $10 billion program for regional technology hubs

  The Senate bill would authorize the Department of Commerce to designate at least three new “regional technology hubs” in each of the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) six regions.

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

• Montana Office of Public Instruction gathers feedback on how the school year went during COVID-19

  While not fully representative of students and educators in Montana, the responses offer an idea of trends like how students were able to access the internet or how engaged they were in remote lessons.

• Montana Code Girls’ social app a semifinalist in national challenge

  Sit With Us, a mobile app developed by 11-year-old Josephine Morrison of Bigfork and 10-year-old Juliet Skinner of Kalispell to combat bullying and loneliness at the lunch table, has made it to the semifinals in the junior division of the Technovation Girls international coding challenge.

• Life in 2050: A Glimpse at Education in the Future

  Thanks to growing internet access and emerging technologies, the way we think of education will dramatically change.

Rural Communities

• Commentary: The Future of Rural Libraries Could Be Healthcare

  With newly available funding opportunities and new technologies, libraries could be at the forefront of the rural healthcare revolution.

2021 Montana Legislature and Politics

• New Montana laws enshrine health care alternatives, for better or worse

  State legislators this year, however, sought to preserve the approach and passed two new laws that prohibit direct primary care practices or health care sharing ministries — religious or ethical groups whose members pool money to cover medical costs — from being regulated as insurance.

Government News & Events

• In Montana, Crisis Support Teams Offer Alternatives To Policing Mental Health

  Missoula began sending this special crew on emergency mental health calls in November as a pilot project; next month the program will become permanent. It’s one of six mobile crisis response initiatives in Montana — up from one at the start of 2019. And four more local governments have applied for state grants this year to start teams.

Transportation

• Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Can Benefit Local Economies

  Building enough charging infrastructure to capture the anticipated economic and health benefits will be an enormous undertaking. But can the country’s power grid handle the strain of so many EVs plugging in on a daily basis?

• What would you pay for autonomous driving? Volkswagen hopes $8.50 per hour

  Volkswagen’s real moneymaker might be autonomous driving, though. “In autonomous driving, we can imagine that we switch it on by the hour. We assume a price of around seven euros per hour. So if you don’t want to drive yourself for three hours, you can do it for 21 euros,” said Klaus Zellmer, chief sales officer of the Volkswagen brand.

• Archer reveals its Maker flying taxi, promising an alternative to traffic hell

  “Who hasn’t sat in traffic wishing they could fly over it?” said Archer cofounder Brett Adcock.

• Driverless electric shuttle makes debut at Yellowstone National Park

  “We look at that as a way that we can reduce congestion, in the future, we think that it’s something that we need to be out in front of,” said Park Superintendent Cam Sholly. “ I believe it is very possible that we’ll hit four, four-point seven to five million visitors this year in this park,” he added.

VR/AR, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Artificial Intelligence and The Internet of Things

• Is buying cryptocurrency investing or gambling? Here’s how to tell the difference
  Dear Pete,

  I’m one of the lucky ones. I invested very little money, and now own cryptocurrency worth more than $350,000.

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