MATR Newsletter – March 30, 2023
The state with the best education wins!

Good people do things for other people. That’s it. That’s the end. A society grows great when old men and old women plant trees of which their shade they know they’ll never sit in.

Montana’s Tech Hub Effort

• NW Regional App Challenge – Open to Montana girls 4th – 8th grade teams of 2 to 5 girls – April 29th , Online Event

  Code Girls United is devoted to creating opportunities for 4th to 8th grade girls in technology course work, preparing them for successful high tech careers. The goal is to engage student creativity and encourage their participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education fields.

Come Home Montana

• ‘There and Back Again,’ or Why Do We Keep Returning Home

  A panel of six women talks about small communities they came from, what drew them back, and the wealth of opportunities they found there.

• Great Falls has a lower cost of living than much of Montana

  The Great Falls Development Authority reported that in 2022, Great Falls cost of living was about 87% of the national average.

• Investing in Montana–Raising Capital & Finding Investment Opportunities – Tuesday, June 27 · 12 – 6:30pm MDT – Bozeman, Montana

  You will hear first-hand success stories from Montana companies and develop an understanding of the regulatory framework surrounding capital formation. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn and start growing your business and investing the right way.

Northwestern Energy

• Marking 100 years, NorthWestern has new CEO, makes plans for future power supply

  “I give a lot of credit to the management team,” Dykhouse said. “Bob and Brian … said we’re going to focus on what we’re good at. We’re going to focus on providing reliable, low-cost electricity and gas to our customers.”

Big Sky Economic Development

• Meet Our 2023 Better Off in Billings Keynote Speaker: Patience Fairbrother 4/20 – Billings

  She has spearheaded more than a dozen talent attraction, economic development and tourism brands and websites designed to drive leads, visitation and relocation.

Great Falls Development Authority

• 8 Reasons to Move to Great Falls, Montana

  Find out how dedication to people, place and potential makes Great Falls, well, great!

Montana West Economic Development

• Free seminars for your business – Montana West Economic Development

  MARKET VALIDATION
  GUIDANCE AND SUPPORT SERVICES FOR ENTREPRENEURS
  Thursday, April 6, 10 A.M. – 2 P.M.

Prospera Business Network

• Prospera’s Top 10 of the Week

  Here is our Top 10 for this week celebrating southwest Montana’s economy. Our goal is share business resources and skill-building opportunities to empower your business.

Montana Business

• Missoula-based clothing brand Youer adapts to grow, bring production in-house

  Youer is an outdoor apparel brand that uses original, colorful designs and patterns displayed on skorts, pants, leggings, hoodies, dresses, shirts and other accessories using sustainable materials made in the U.S. This month, Ottariano released Youer’s first ever pullover jacket that is vintage-inspired.

• Montana startup ‘LandTrust’ becoming the Airbnb of outdoor recreation

  Kimmell is one of several hundred property owners in Montana part of the new online platform, LandTrust. That means people are paying to play here, and they’re coming from all across the U.S., including Pennsylvania, Idaho and Michigan.

• Latest Super Scooper addition makes Bozeman-based Bridger Aerospace’s fire fighting Super Scooper fleet largest in the world

  A Bozeman-based company cements its status as the largest collection of Super Scooper firefighting airplanes in the world. The “Matthew” is now the sixth in Bridger Aerospace’s fleet and will…

• The Montana Dept. of Commerce Needs Your Input: Survey – Can you quickly describe how your community is changing using statistics? Do you have a sense for the quantity and types of housing available in your community?

  We need your input to make sure that this tool includes the information and tools you need in a way that you need to access it. We need your help!

• Sip, Savor, Code Fundraiser April 6th, Kalispell

  Join us as our select panel of talented chefs serve ‘Chef’s Choice’ courses of gourmet bites and wine pairings. In a cocktail hour setting, enjoy music, conversation to support our team, The Tech Trio, who won the 2022 Congressional App Challenge for the state of Montana!

C-Pace – Property Assessed Commercial Energy Enhancement program.

• Brodehl resists requests for C-PACE district at Flathead chamber event

  Clarno said she was concerned that Flathead County businesses would struggle to compete with those in other counties and states if the commissioners failed to foster a pro-growth environment.

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• Amazon Sidewalk Is the Sleeping Giant in Your Neighborhood

  Your Ring doorbell camera isn’t just beaming a live videofeed from your doorstep to your computer. It’s also extending your home network out onto the street, making a chunk of your internet bandwidth freely available for anyone to use.

• Syracuse, NY Votes to Provide Low Cost Fixed Wireless Broadband to Low Income Households

  After issuing a request for proposals (RFP) last year, Syracuse officials say they’ve selected Community Broadband Networks FLX to help build the fledgling, city-owned network.

Housing

• New Tool Maps Sidewalks From the Sky — And Encourage Cities to Fill The Gaps

  in layman’s terms, the first free tool that uses machine learning technology to scan satellite imagery for the presence of sidewalks and crosswalks.

Visit Montana

• ‘Mission accomplished’: Montana lawmakers put tourism promotion on the chopping block

  “Mission accomplished,” Sen. Jeremy Trebas, R-Great Falls, said of those programs during Monday’s Senate debate on the bill. “I don’t know if most of you know this, but we’ve been discovered.”

Regional Economic Development

• Carlos Moreno’s Urban Improvement Efforts (the 15-minute city) Under Attack by Conspiracy Theorists.

  The false claims have circulated online, at protests, and even in government hearings, driven in part by climate change deniers and backers of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Idaho News & Events

• The Nation’s Most Advanced Secessionist Movement – “Bad for the Country”

  Legislation supporting the Greater Idaho Movement, which would annex over half of neighboring Oregon, has advanced in the Idaho legislature.

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

• ‘Feeding our future’: New Mexico to provide free meals to all students

  “When we feed our children, we’re feeding our future – these investments today will yield benefits tomorrow through generations of healthier New Mexicans.”

• Mules On the Oval promotes University of Montana summer courses

  Among the classes, students can go on a five-day “wilderness pack trip” into the Bob Marshall Wilderness with these packing mules.

Government News & Events

• Wednesday’s Headlines Have Ample Parking

  The average U.S. city devotes a fifth of its prime downtown real estate to parking. The problem varies by size and density — Des Moines has as many parking spaces as Seattle — but it’s making cities less walkable everywhere.

South Dakota News & Events

• North Dakota’s Future Is in Coal, but Not for the Usual Reason

  Green energy may one day depend on the state’s vast reserves of lignite and oil drilling waste, and the rare earth minerals they contain.

Transportation

• New Colorado plan envisions 2.1M electric cars on state roads by 2035

  The plan also calls for 1,700 public fast-charging ports to be installed around the state. Almost 6,000 level-2 chargers would also be deployed.

• Bill Gates – My trip around London in an autonomous vehicle

  While it’s too soon to tell which approaches will ultimately be the most successful, I believe we’ll reach a tipping point with autonomous vehicles within the next decade.

• How to Reframe the Narrative About Car Dependency

  On today’s episode of The Brake, host Kea Wilson brings you an extended interview with Grant Ennis, author of Dark PR: How Corporate Disinformation Harms Our Health and the Environment. Listen below, and check out a sharable summary of the “nine devious frames” he outlines in his book here.

• The Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority (BSPRA) applies for federal financial support and technical assistance toward the development of southern Montana passenger rail service.

  For each corridor selected, the FRA will award an initial grant of $500,000 for preliminary planning toward creation of a service development plan.

• Chicago To Launch 1st Commercial Electric Air Taxi Service

  Chicagoans will soon have a new way to beat the traffic and congestion on their way downtown. The city will be the debut location for the first commercial electric air taxi route, according to a joint press release by Archer Aviation Inc. and United Airlines.

Energy and Climate Change

• How do we get the world off fossil fuels quickly and fairly?

  Through TED Talks and conversations with experts, activists and leading voices in the space, this video delves into the tension between the necessity to extricate ourselves from fossil fuels, which endanger our collective future, and the equally paramount necessity of a stable and secure supply of energy for everyone.

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

• Open letter calling for AI ‘pause’ shines light on fierce debate around risks vs. hype

  The letter was signed by Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Yoshua Bengio, Gary Marcus and several thousand other AI experts, researchers and industry leaders

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