MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• ‘We’re at an inflection point’: Development in the face of the Bitterroot’s shrinking ag lands

  Between 2017 and 2022, Ravalli County lost over 150 farms and 50,000 acres of farmland, according to a USDA census. The census reported that the county had 1,576 farms and 241,233 acres of land in farms in 2017 and only 1,400 farms and 188,084 land in farm acres in 2022.

• 1:1 Studios – Missoula, Montana’s Creative Hub for Video, Web, and Branding.

  Our strengths lie in delivering some of Missoula’s best video production and in our ability to bundle comprehensive digital services – all under one roof. This means our clients get a cohesive digital presence, backed by a responsive team.

• The Business Lifecycle Masterclass Series – Do You Have a Plan? – 10/20 – Kalispell

  Next week Montana West Economic Development and Rich in Thought Consulting launch the Business Lifecycle Masterclass Series — a first-of-its-kind, 12-part program designed to equip Montana businesses with practical tools from startup to succession. From foundational planning to advanced growth strategies, the series is a must-attend for anyone serious about building a resilient and successful enterprise in Northwest Montana.

• America Is Sliding Toward Illiteracy – The State With The Best Education Wins!

  The declining school performance and other worrying trends among Gen Z, such as the rise in anxiety, depression, and suicide, can be traced to the new “phone-based childhood.”

• In the race for Helena mayor, it’s a policy wonk versus a man about town

  Emily Dean and Andy Shirtliff, both current commissioners, are facing off in the race for the city’s top elected role.

• Norwegian battery materials company says Butte only site if U.S. expansion occurs

  That doesn’t mean Cenate is coming but it is an encouraging development in Butte’s chances of landing a factory, the officials said. Cenate — pronounced Sin-NAH-tah — says such a factory would employ 100 to 250 people.

• This Report Says AI Stole 17,000 Jobs This Year. The DOGE Effect Is Much Worse 

  DOGE and the typical workings of the economy are responsible for around 30 times as many job losses than AI.

• Irish eyes: New Montana push focuses on Ireland

  A new effort to bolster economic development, cultural and trade ties between Montana and Ireland is afoot.

Missoula Chamber of Commerce

• Join us October 29 in Missoula for “Conservation After Hours” – Trail Head Sports

  Please join Business for Montana’s Outdoors and Wild Montana at Trail Head River Sports in Missoula on Wednesday, October 29th for “Conservation After Hours”, a networking opportunity and panel discussion with local businesses about the state of affairs for Montana’s public lands and our outdoor economy.

Northwestern Energy

• NorthWestern Energy, nonprofit raise awareness about energy assistance programs

  A family must be within 200% of the federal poverty level to qualify, while for a household of four, that is an annual salary of about $64,000.

Big Sky Economic Development

• Big Sky Economic Development Announces Brandon Berger as Interim Executive Director –

  Brandon currently serves as Senior Director of Business Lending and Development and has been with BSED for 20 years.

Great Falls Development Alliance

• GFDA Upcoming Business Trainings and Events

  Navigate Government Contracting

Prospera Business Network

• Accepting applications for Prospera’s 56Strong statewide women’s mentorship program

  56Strong connects women entrepreneurs and business leaders from all of Montana’s 56 counties through a one-on-one mentorship program. This is a six-month program

Visit Montana

• Coming Soon: WILLOW: Diary of a Mountain Lion – 10/29 – PBS

  A unique, decade-long mountain lion study uses a vast network of over 200 trail cameras scattered throughout Montana’s Sapphire Mountains to piece together the story of a female mountain lion named Willow and her kittens. The film weaves together footage of mountain lions and their complex interactions with each other. Witness an epic saga about life and death that contains never-before-captured events and behaviors at every turn.

Funding and Building your Business

• PyMC Labs – LLMs Reproduce Human Purchase Intent via Semantic Similarity Elicitation of Likert Ratings

  “This paper shows that you can predict actual purchase intent (90% accuracy) by asking an off-the-shelf LLM to impersonate a customer with a demographic profile, giving it a product image & having the AI give its impressions, which are then compared to reference statements by similarity. No fine-tuning or training required & it beat classic machine learning methods for predicting customer interest.”

Regional Economic Development

• CBS News Video – Greensburg, Kansas goes green while rebuilding after devastating tornado

  In 2007, a powerful tornado decimated Greensburg, Kansas. Today, 100% of its electricity comes from wind energy and many of its roofs are lined with solar panels. In the past 10 years the average electricity cost has risen 1/2 of a penny.

• A Florida ‘library without books’ looks to expand one county’s tech workforce

  Visitors will have access to resources like coding, virtual reality and artificial intelligence learning labs, where they can learn about and practice using innovative technologies, Janer said. County officials hope the library will help develop people’s digital literacy and skills in an equitable and accessible way, ultimately allowing more individuals to pursue a tech career in the community.

• Radiant Nuclear Picks Tennessee Over Wyoming To Build Nuclear Microreactor Facility

  Radiant Nuclear announced Monday afternoon that it will build its first nuclear microreactor manufacturing facility in Tennessee, abandoning plans for the controversial project near Bar Nunn, after months of heated debate over spent nuclear fuel storage.

• Wyoming’s Data Center Boom Sparks Fears Of Soaring Electric Rates

  Wyoming’s growing sector of artificial intelligence and data centers have collectively announced 12.8 gigawatts worth of processing power so far. That has sparked concerns about rising power bills, but not everyone is worried.

Regional Business News

• Remote Work is Dying in the Bay Area — and Tech is Leading the Charge

  Roughly two-thirds of Bay Area workers are back in the office full-time.

City Club Missoula

• City Club Missoula hosts Missoula mayoral debate

  Shawn Knopp, who has no political background and currently works at Montana Glass, is running against incumbent mayor Andrea Davis.

YOUR CAREER

• A Massive New Study of 40,725 People Says This Is What Happens When You Drink Coffee Every Morning

  Morning coffee drinkers had a 16 percent lower risk of dying from any cause during the study period compared with non-coffee drinkers.

Energy and Transportation

• Car Culture Kills. Motornormativity Explains Why. The words we use normalize harm and marginalizes non-drivers. And it starts with the words we use.

  From “car accidents” to “traffic violence,” language shapes perception — and policy. When it comes to the words we use, let’s put the power with the people.

• Waymo Crosses the Ocean – Will they not have a driver on the right side of the car?

  Whether taking passengers to Premier League games, music concerts, Wimbledon, Big Ben, or countless other places, Waymo robotaxis will be exciting, thrilling, and eventually relaxing our friends in London.

• General Motors Quietly Ends Its Hydrogen For Transportation Experiment

  Hydrogen fuel cells are not a viable pathway for road transportation. They never were.

• Boston is piloting window heat pumps in affordable housing

  Housing authorities in Boston and two nearby cities are installing plug-in heat pumps from startup Gradient to try to swiftly and affordably cut emissions.

• ChargePoint to debut 10-minute EV charging in 2026, says CEO

  ChargePoint Express Grid locations will host these 600 kW charging stations, capable of recharging passenger EVs in as little as 10 minutes.

• Coral reef collapse drives world across first climate tipping point

  The dire condition of the Earth’s coral reefs means the planet has now reached its first tipping point from human-caused climate change, report finds.

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

• Superintendent Hedalen Announces Release of New AI Guidance for Montana’s K–12 Schools

  Developed in collaboration with the Montana Digital Academy (MTDA) and education stakeholders statewide, this living document provides practical principles, policy alignment, and classroom strategies for schools as they explore AI’s potential to support teaching, learning, and operations while maintaining a strong focus on student privacy, and local control.

2025 Legislature and Politics

• Kalispell Mayoral Candidates Lay Out Competing Visions for Growing City

  Sid Daoud, Ryan Hunter and Kisa Davison make their cases as city residents vote in a new mayor for the first time in a decade

• Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World

  In this urgent treatise, which evokes George Kennan’s essay calling for “containment” of the Soviet Union, Anne Applebaum calls for the democracies to fundamentally reorient their policies to fight a new kind of threat.

• A guide to the 2025 Great Falls ballot

  Voters will weigh in on the next mayor, two city commissioners and whether fireworks should be banned. See how the candidates responded to key issues.

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