MATR Newsletter – March 29, 2019
The state with the best education wins!

Come Home Montana

• 5 Entrepreneurial Skills I Learned From Acting in Theater Productions – Opportunities in Montana with Missoula Children’s Theatre

  Theater can help young people build empathy, resilience, and other skills they’ll need to be successful entrepreneurs.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• Video – Don’t let the sun set on Montana’s Economic Development. Support HB52

  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

• Bill to fund state development projects killed by Senate Taxation Committee

  If adopted, the Statewide Economic Districts Act would have helped offset the costs of major development projects like One Big Sky District.

• Preschool bill dies in Montana legislative committee

  A proposed bill that would have provided publicly funded preschool in Montana has failed in a state legislative committee.

Montana Business

• Working Together to Eliminate Montana’s Wage Gap

  Here in Montana, women experience a 27 percent wage gap and earn just $0.73 for every dollar a man earns for doing the same job. Montanans are being shortchanged thousands of dollars a year, and hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a lifetime.

• Montana’s ski areas are adapting and thriving, despite changing climate

  Over the last decade, the ski area has spent over a million dollars on forestry across the mountain and the removal of trees deadened by pine beetles.

• Missoula Co. commissioners ready for public comment on cryptocurrency policy

  The county’s main concern is over having zoning regulations that determine where — and how — such server farms can be operating.

• ZootBlog » The Wrong Kind of March Madness

  That madness is financial fraud. And unfortunately, it’s not set up as a single elimination tournament.

• GRIT (Girls Representing in Trades) spring break program helps Montana girls and non-binary youth build confidence and trade skills

  The program aims to introduce girls and non-binary youth to various skilled trades such as construction, electrical, welding and auto mechanics.

• Tactile marketing automation: PFL CEO Andrew Field on growing from printing to martech

  With humble beginnings, PFL has grown from a 6-person printing company in a rented office space in an old creamery to a robust marketing automation solutions company. Now, they have about 350 employees across multiple offices in Montana and one in Indianapolis.

• 6 Actions To Find The Perfect Angel For Your Startup

  “Raising money is the second hardest part of starting a startup. The hardest part is making something people want.”

Visit Montana

• 5th Annual EQUUS INTERNATIONAL Film Festival in Missoula, Montana: 40 Awards, Eight Nations, One Horse World

  The fifth annual EIFF was truly international in scope, with filmmakers, producers, musicians, horsemen and holy men from eight nations (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Mongolia, Northern Cheyenne, Pakistan, Switzerland) and the United States.

Idaho News & Events

• Boise Has Sent 240 Tons Of Household Plastic To Salt Lake To Be Turned Into Diesel

  “We’re also really interested in starting to turn the conversation to: how do we start to reduce the amount of single-use plastics in our lives.”

Wyoming Business

• Billionaire’s climate change fight includes Wyoming research

  Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and Carbontech Labs announced Thursday they’re providing $1.25 million to help researchers find ways to turn greenhouse-gas emissions from coal-fired power plants into products that can be sold for a profit.

• Wyoming governor wants state to take ‘realistic’ look at its energy dependent tax system

  Wyoming needs to be “realistic and mature” about its reliance on mineral money that could, as seen recently in the case of coal, drop significantly, Gov. Mark Gordon said Thursday at a press conference.

• Wyoming incomes among nation’s highest in 2018, but grew at slower pace than Rocky Mountain region

  Wyoming’s fourth quarter growth, meanwhile, was 4.1 percent – ranked 27th in the nation.

Incubators and R&D

• At Google, robotics lab is full of fast learners

  Google researchers believe that the subtly more advanced technology inside them gives them more potential in the real world.

Regional Economic Development

• In small towns across the nation, the death of a coal plant leaves an unmistakable void

  The main reason? Coal can’t compete against cheaper, cleaner alternatives, such as natural gas and solar and wind energy.

Regional Business News

• Apple now wants to be your cable provider, newsstand, credit card and arcade. But will it save you money?

  Don’t hold your breath

Government and University TechTransfer

• Economic impact of CU Boulder tech transfers neared $2 billion over 5 years

  “early indications are that our comprehensive approach is paying off, as evidenced by nearly double the number of invention disclosures, licenses and startups since our strategic reset.”

Government News & Events

• Why State Departments of Transportation Keep Making the Same Mistakes… and How to Break That Cycle

  A fascinating new blog post series by our friends at Smart Growth America, called How to Build a Better State DOT.

Cool Stuff That’s Coming

• Bottomless coffee scale makes sure there’s always fresh beans in your jar

  A Y Combinator startup is preparing to roll out a Wi-Fi-connected scale that sits under your coffee jar and orders freshly roasted beans to arrive just as your supply runs out.

MATR Newsletter Supporters: