The May Report: 9/21/2010: Illinois named one of ten SBA “innovative economies”; Melanie Adcock on the Chicago Innovation Awards nominee reception; Sean Neilan on the MIT-EF meeting

Editor and publisher: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, www.themayreport.com , 773-525-3944.

Assistant editor: Melanie Adcock, iPHONE: 312-259-0610, melanie_adcock@msn.com

If you missed an article, go here: www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Scoop section:

– Illinois included in the SBA’s 10 regional economic development and job creation efforts through a new pilot program, “Innovative Economies.”
– ADT to be featured on TV series
– The Chicago Innovation Awards Nominee Reception September 20th, 2010 House of Blues Chicago, by Melanie Adcock
– The MIT-EF meeting on September 15th, by Sean Neilan
– High-tech industry generating jobs, opportunities, by Brad Spirrison in the Chicago Sun-Times
– Chairman & CEO of SalesForce to receive TechAmerica award
– Texting – trends, legislation
– Andrew Nelson: “Not Being Silicon Valley” at mvlaunch
– Mary Spaeth: VISIARC AB
– Miscellaneous notes (2 messages)

[Editor's note: May here. Thanks of course to Melanie Adcock who has been working hard on some YouTube videos which should be ready by tomorrow. Also, many thanks to Sean Neilan who used to work for Avery Cohen and who put a lot of time into writing up the MIT-EF meeting. I owe you a long Briefly noted section and that should be in your hands by Friday, I hope.]
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The Scoop section:
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Illinois included in the SBA’s 10 regional economic development and job creation efforts through a new pilot program, “Innovative Economies.”

WASHIINGTON – SBA Administrator Karen Mills announced today the U.S. Small
Business Administration’s support for 10 regional economic development and
job creation efforts through a new pilot program, “Innovative Economies.”

The pilot program supports small businesses participation in regional
economic “clusters” – collaborations between small businesses, the public
sector, economic development and other organizations.

“Maximizing a region’s economic assets is one of the best ways to create
long term job growth, and that’s what SBA’s new Innovative Economies pilot
initiative is doing,” Mills said. “Today we are announcing funding support
for 10 regional economic clusters. SBA’s support will help expand the
opportunities and the role small businesses play in these regional
collaborations, which are enhancing the ability to create jobs locally and
compete on a national and global scale.”

The 10 “Innovative Economies” awardees selected from among 173 applicants to
participate in the pilot program represent a wide range of diverse
geographic areas and industries. From urban to rural and clean energy to
robotics, the applicants focused on leading research and commercializing new
products.

SBA’s funding will be provided to each cluster’s organizing entity to
strengthen opportunities for small businesses within the cluster. The funds
can be used to provide services, including mentoring and counseling small
businesses, as
well as to attract more small business participation.

SBA is supporting two types of innovative economies: Regional Innovation
Clusters and Advanced Defense Technologies. The seven Regional Innovation
Clusters focus on providing business training, commercialization and
technology transfer services, counseling, mentoring and other services that
support the growth and development of small businesses in the cluster
region.

The SBA also worked with the U.S. Department of Defense to identify areas
around the country where regional innovation clusters can help meet critical
defense technology needs. Three Advanced Defense Technology awardees will
focus on providing business training, counseling, mentoring, matchmaking and
other services to small businesses that focus on critical DoD technologies.

The 10 Innovative Economies Include:

Agriculture Innovation Cluster (Monterey – Santa Cruz – San Benito, Calif.)
The AIC focus is on agricultural innovation, including production, related
physical and human capital infrastructure, and leading-edge agriculture
research.

Carolinas’ Nuclear Cluster (N.C., S.C.) The Carolinas’ Nuclear Cluster
provides strategy, structure, and on-the-ground execution to grow the North
and South Carolina businesses that serve the nuclear energy industry
locally, regionally, and multi-nationally.

Connecticut Hydrogen-Fuel Cell Coalition (Conn., N.Y., Mass., Maine, Vt.,
N.H.,
R.I.) The Connecticut Hydrogen-Fuel Cell Coalition/Cluster, administered by
the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, works to enhance economic
growth by developing, manufacturing, and deploying fuel cell and hydrogen
technologies and associated fueling systems.

Enterprise for Innovative Geospatial Solutions (Miss., La.) EIGS organizes
complimentary geospatial businesses, government agencies, and educational
institutions in Mississippi and the Louisiana Gulf Coast to help create a
trained workforce, transfer geospatial technology from public institutions
into the market, and foster new business growth. Geospatial technology is
the combination of GPS (global positioning systems), GIS (geographical
information systems), and satellite or aerial image-based remote sensing.

Illinois Smart Grid Regional Innovation Cluster (Ill.) The ISG-RIC is a
collaboration of more than 100 entities (including 70 businesses) in the
Chicago region, focused on the acceleration of Smart Grid innovation,
deployments, and new market development. The Smart Grid is a convergence of
technological and investment interests across multiple sectors, focused on
using advanced technology to improve inefficient and outdated electric
transmission infrastructure.

NorTech (Ohio) NorTech focuses on technology-based economic development in
21 counties of Northeast Ohio. Funds will help small business development
within NorTech’s FlexMatters initiative, which focuses on advanced energy
and flexible electronics. Flexible electronics, which are electronic
devices printed on flexible substrates, are emerging as a newly
commercializable science, and a growing manufacturing opportunity.

Upper Michigan Green Aviation Coalition (UMi-GAC) (Mich.) The Upper Michigan
Green Aviation Coalition is a public-private partnership with 41 active
members, focused on expanding the green aviation industry.

Defense Alliance of Minnesota (Minn., N.D., S.D., Wis.) The Defense Alliance
of Minnesota connects high technology innovation to defense industry
opportunities and accelerating technology transfer of R&D and into
commercial markets.

San Diego Advanced Defense Cluster (San Diego, Calif.) The San Diego
Advanced Defense Cluster focuses on autonomous systems and cyber security,
as well as other technologies applicable to defense needs.

Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation (Huntsville, Ala.) VCSI’s
primary focus is Aero-Space technology with applications for NASA, DoD, and
NOAA.
Its projects have included robotics for the detection of Improvised
Explosive Devices, supporting spacecraft launches and building new micro
satellites.
_______________________________________
ADT to be featured on TV series

Subject: ADT to be featured on tv series
Date: 9/21/2010 12:23:41 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: ed.longanecker@techamerica.org
To: ronaldmay@aol.com

Great article about our recent tech employment update and news about Advanced Diamond.

mobile.suntimes.com/suntimes/db_9712/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=sse2qHZK&storycount=19&detailindex=1&pn=&ps=

Ed Longanecker
Executive Director, Regional Vice President
TechAmerica
630-282-4332
ed.longanecker@techamerica.org
www.techamerica.org

AeA & ITAA have merged to form TechAmerica

Where the future begins=
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The Chicago Innovation Awards Nominee Reception September 20th, 2010
House of Blues Chicago, by Melanie Adcock

From: melanie_adcock@msn.com
To: ronaldmay@aol.com
Subject: The Chicago Innovation Awards Nominee Reception September 20th, 2010 House of Blues Chicago
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 07:51:01 +0000

The Chicago Innovation Awards Nominee Reception September 20th, 2010 House of Blues Chicago

By Melanie Adcock

At this event there were approximately 300 people in attendance. I didn’t do a headcount, and I am estimating conservatively.

I saw a few people I know:

*Bruce Montgomery, owner of Tech Access Television. Bruce is such a great leader and mentor to many people. He has a lot of good things to say. He agreed he would definitely have gone to the Motion Graphics Festival over the Smart Bet Poker Charity event that was going on at the same time last week if given the choice. The May Report agrees with Bruce. Bruce reached his Facebook friend limit but has a fan page now that people can like to stay in touch with him: www.facebook.com/pages/Bruce-Eric-Montgomery/111422485567799?v=wall

*Keith McGorisk, partner in Mobile Visionary, a networking group for the mobile industry. Keith was in good spirits and introduced me to the people standing next to him. Keith cheers me up.

There was one person I know that I was afraid to say hello to because earlier this year I stated my opinion to them about something I didn’t like. What can I say? At least they heard it straight. Aside from wearing a neon shirt that says please like me I’m not sure what I can do about that one. Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all.

*Chris Miller, a lady I met years ago before my first full time tech sales job. She was working in Customer Support for Comcast and was sitting behind their table. Comcast was a sponsor of the event.

* Jeb Ory, Co-Founder of App House. He had just gotten back from a trip to London and it was his birthday. Happy birthday, Jeb. He gave me a high five, and I introduced him to Brad Spirrison, Managing Editor of Appolicious whom I’d just met a few moments before. I can’t believe Jeb was out networking on his birthday. That is hard core.

I saw another person I know who shall remain nameless at their request who said to me they don’t care if they are compared to all of the Catholic Saints at once, he does not want to be in The May Report. Well, to be a saint you have to be dead, so I’m actually happy not to draw this comparison. Great guy. I hope as Assistant Editor I can reel him back into feeling some May Report love. We’ll see.

There was a more exclusive upstairs section of the venue with paper signs that said “reserved,” on the doors to sections of the balcony. I had no trouble walking into these small rooms and talking to people. This is good because it shows that the people attending this event were not snobs. Hooray!

I couldn’t hear much of the obligatory speeches to thank the sponsors and the nominees. To be honest, I was busy schmoozing. The most interesting speaker was Matthew B. McCall. He spoke passionately to the crowd around Chicago’s innovation in technology and proclaimed the time is now for Chicago. He said there need to be more tech and business heroes in the Chicagoland area. I spoke with him at the end of the night but I’ll get to that later.

Some new people I met plus interesting conversations:

*Dan Miller, Co-founder of the Chicago Innovation Awards. Dan is a friendly man who is quite good looking for his age (I estimate late 50′s) I was lucky enough to get to have a conversation with him because we were both in agreement that the pasta served at the event was excellent. Dan asked me what was the last newspaper I’d read and where I got my news information from. I said the last newspaper I bought had a recent article about Drew Peterson I wanted to read. I get a lot of news from social media but also buy a lot of magazines. I don’t watch television anymore because I think that’s passé. I am a product of the times, I think. He then introduced me to Ron Gleason, one of the judges of the awards this year who is Director of News and Programming for WBBM News Radio 780. Dan and I talked with them about how their radio station is a great source for news that falls right in line with how I like to consume information. We also discussed how The Chicago Innovation Awards Event inspires people to reach new goals and to reward people in the community, one of the past winners, Savo Group, and that Chicago publications should continue to be supportive of articles written by Appolicious writer, Brad Spirrison, who was also at the event. I appreciated Dan’s openness and sociable demeanor.

*John Kennedy, President of Kennedy Consulting Group, was in Hawaii for 3 years then moved back to Chicago recently. I told him he would get some applause from the Chicago community for returning from Hawaii for sure. He insisted I say hello to Ron for him. John’s company holds training sessions that help people learn to focus better. The session lasts for 3 or so hours and costs $750.

*John LeStarge from Chicago Electric Bicycles said they got a lot of people asking them Huh? What do you do? They take regular bikes and convert them to electric bikes by adding an electric motor and a few other things. It takes 3 hours to charge the battery. It costs a nickel in electricity to ride from Roger’s Park to the South side going 20 miles per hour on an electric bike. This sure beats the $2.25 we’re paying the CTA per trip these days. Their business is located nearby a bar called Twisted Spoke. How appropriate.

*Ed Swiderski, Principal of Green Canyon is a friend of Keith McGorisk’s who told me he’s going to make some videos of companies who work in Tech Nexus at the ITA for inclusion on the ITA’s website. That should be really cool and sounds like a nice benefit for everyone who has an office there. Can’t wait to check those out.

*Kelly Janura Gasparovic, Asst. Director of Admissions at Kellogg School of Management said hello to me and I said I’d love to get my MBA if I could get it for free. She said that doesn’t happen too often. Darn. Oh well, The May Report is far more fun anyway.

*Jim Tracy, President of ezLocal, told me ezLocal is the localized version of Google and they get 750,000 unique visitors a month to their website. If you’d like to be one of them check out their site: ezlocal.com/

*Keisha Howard and Rebecca Rothschild, Founder and Producer at Sugar Gamers. These two hands down win the contest for wildest business card I’ve ever seen at a business event. On each of their respective business cards they had photos of themselves dressed as comic book characters or super heroes. In Keisha’s business card picture she is holding a sword and wearing a cape. They smiled and said they did go a little overboard with the business cards, but I think they did an excellent job. I wish more people would make interesting business cards like that.

Here’s a quick description of their business and what they do taken from their website:

www.sugargamers.com

Sugar Gamers was founded in August of 2009 by Keisha Howard and has grown into one of the most innovative and exciting female gaming groups in Chicago. Sugar Gamers is known for its ability to integrate the interest of a tech savvy subculture with trendy events and fashion which creates an exhilarating alternative for those who live a “geek chic lifestyle”.

*John Stamoolis and Michael Eisenwasser, Account Manager and Director of Design at Cluster. Cluster helps people better design their blogs by configuring WordPress and BuddyPress for their clients. www.clusterig.com/services/buddypress/

*Gregory Venburg and Peter Petracek Director of Global Research and Manager of Plant Sciences at Valent BioSciences. They produce organic Biological Insecticides and Plant Growth Regulators that are safe for the environment. An insecticide is what a farmer puts on crops to keep bugs from eating what they’re growing. A few decades ago insecticides consisted of chemicals that were bad for the environment and toxic if you had repeated exposure to it. Nowadays Biological and organic Insecticides get the same results but without the harmful chemicals. Their plant Growth Regulators also helps farmers grow larger sized grapes. They mentioned they are travelling to vineyards all over the world to sell their Plant Growth Regulators. We had a good long chat about agriculture, the various hybrid and insecticide brands my father used on his farm when I was growing up, and how the absurdity of grass fed beef becomes clear if you’ve ever watched what cows actually eat.

*Matthew McCall was surrounded by a group of 7 people at the end of the night who were all listening to him talk about the lineage of various companies in tech like Orbitz, BrightTag, and Tickets Now. He said the Midwest needs to have heroes in technology and they need to change their mythology. You can download a PowerPoint of his presentation at The Chicago Innovation Awards Nominee Reception here:

www.vcconfidential.com/

Here is a list of the top excuses we need to stop believing about the Midwest according to McCall:

“We’ve tried before

And we’ll never make

It work here”

“It’s the

flyover zone”

“Meatpackers

& farmers…”

“We don’t

have the capital

(or don’t have the

entrepreneurs.”

“Chicago’s

Culture is

too conser-

vative.”

“Archipelago was

in Chicago?”

“There no support

network or

community.”

“The press

never builds up our heros”

I collected around 47 business cards. Will get those typed up later this week.

Melanie Adcock
iPHONE: 312-259-0610
DROID: 312-833-1825
E-Mail: melanie_adcock@msn.com
Facebook Fan Page: bit.ly/MelanieAdcockFacebookFanPage
Bio: bit.ly/MelanieAdcockARC
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/melanieadcock
Twitter: twitter.com/melanie_adcock
Facebook Profile: www.facebook.com/melanie.a.adcock
___________________________________

The MIT-EF meeting on September 15th, by Sean Neilan

From: Sean Neilan
Date: Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 3:42 PM
Subject: the mit-ef report
To: ronald@themayreport.com

[Hey Readers of The May Report, I'm Sean Neilan and I'm a DePaul Comp Sci student and a programmer currently working a contract for a company at the CBOT. My partner is Derek Schaefer and he is also a great programmer. He has a website at derekschaefer.net/. We are both working for a company at the CBOT right now. We make an excellent team. Give one of us a call or send us an email. If you are looking for a solid programmer, you can email me. My email is sean@seanneilan.com. You can find my resume at my website which is seanneilan.com/ ]

I’ve compiled a summary of the state of entrepreneurship in Chicago from the MIT Enterprise Forum on Sept. 15th.

The panelists were Linda Darragh, who is Director of Entrepreneurship Programs at Univ. of Chicago Booth School of Business; John Roberson, who is Executive Director of Chicago Entrepreneurship Center; and Dennis Barsema, who is a faculty at NIU and a successful entrepreneur.

The focus of the forum was why we don’t have a base of entrepreneurs like the one found in Silicon Valley. We started by talking about how we don’t have as much venture capital in the Midwest. Entrepreneurs go where the money is. In the Valley, you can throw a stone and hit a venture capitalist. There’s 30 billion dollars in Silicon Valley looking for great ideas and 90% of that money will be invested in that area.

Still, there are plenty of resources for entrepreneurs in Chicago. If you claim to be an entrepreneur in Chicago and can’t find venture capitalists, then you are an idiot.

There’s also more fear of failure in the Midwest. Investors here are more averse to risk. Chicago also has a very corporate DNA. We send students to Loyola and DePaul to eventually join corporations. Being an entrepreneur here is like being a random twenty-something in a garage because you don’t want to get a real job.

Chicago also has not grown any jobs in a decade.

There’s no reason why we can’t have an entrepreneurial center in this town.
* We have a great and affordable labor market right in the middle of the country.
* Transportation is excellent.
* There are big agricultural, manufacturing and financial industries.
* We have excellent professional services and good universities.
* Software developers here are much cheaper than in Silicon Valley. Developers in the valley charge $150,000 a year compared to something like $80,000 to $100,000 here.
* There is an excellent business community in Chicago.
* There is no difference in talent and drive between here and Silicon Valley. In fact, we probably have more drive here.

The business community has been behind every major change in this city. If we want entrepreneurs to build businesses here, then we have to get the business community to put money towards venture capital and angel funds.

Our time is coming. Hopefully, when this city starts growing again.

Some minor points of discussion:
* Companies that make a profit don’t necessarily need venture capital. Groupon is one such company that was grown organically by acquiring real customers.
* Venture capitalists can also distract people from the real purpose of doing business which is getting customers. When people get venture capital, they tend to want to flip the company in 2-3 years like they do in The Valley.
* Entrepreneurs could get loans and not give away equity. If entrepreneurs pay interest on money, they will be more inclined to get customers and not try to flip the company in 2-3 years like they do in The Valley.
* Chicago is also traditionally a brick and mortar city. It’s very easy for our city planners to create growth by incentivizing real estate. We have not figured out how to create tax incentives for service related businesses.
* People start businesses in Chicago for the long term. Chicago businesses are geared towards using technology to make other businesses better.

New things I learned:
* Venture capitalists invest in the person as much as the idea. You have to have a track record for making companies if venture capitalists will fund you.
* For profit social ventures have no funding sources right now. They generally don’t make money.
* The business community was behind rebuilding the city after the Chicago Fire and building Millenium Park.

If you are looking for a solid programmer, you can email me. My email is sean@seanneilan.com. You can find my resume at my website which is seanneilan.com/

———–
notes and stuff

Linda started the discussion with the idea that Chicago will never be and never should be like Silicon Valley. We are a very different city.
We could use a catalyst like a Moon program.
In The Valley, people treat innovation as something that’s always revolutionary. In reality, innovation is evolutionary and incremental.
Illinois – no taxes on services?

In 2002, Silicon Valley lost over one million jobs and 700,000 people left.

As the city that works, we want our city to be better.

average VC deal is 7.2 million dollars in somewhere. Angel range 500k to 1M. Chicago has grown in angel capital. Hyde Park angels started in 2006. something about tax credits and angel tax credits. more angel groups in other places though.

Minor points:
Another mentioned we have very little resources for food entrepreneurs.

this attitude won’t change anytime soon. let’s build something solid that will create jobs.

Some people say our time is coming. We’re not visionaries. We understand scale though.
Chicago is humble. we don’t blow our horn.

Software developers find Chicago not as sexy as boston or Silicon Valley. There’s opportunity here though.

We need to go out and find people who are breaking the mold. We should bring people who have failed to the MIT-EF forum.

How Venture Capitalists Work:

restaurant.com is a 10 year old company. that is a pretty typical chicago company. groupon is a new type of company in chicago. they’ve gone from 0-1000 miles an hour in less than 2 years. money also brings contacts. every entrepreneur needs a network.

upcoming events
how to finance your business at any stage in oct
nov. how they did it billion $ insights from the heart of america-author robert jordan
december-holiday party networking
Entrepreneurial impact study
25,800 companies from MIT alum, employs 3 million people, $3 trillion revenue
2009 highest number of people reporting to be entreprenuers in the last 14 years. – Kauffman Foundation
types of industries – construction the biggest, manufacturing then trade and services.
african americans fasting growing entrepreneurial race 1996-2009
___________________________________
High-tech industry generating jobs, opportunities, by Brad Spirrison in the Chicago Sun-Times

Subject: A Chicago Sun-Times article from: Johnpla122@gmail.com
Date: 9/20/2010 7:38:35 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: Johnpla122@gmail.com
To: ronaldmay@aol.com
The following article from the Chicago Sun-Times has been forwarded to you by Johnpla122@gmail.com

If you wish to stop receiving these articles, please contact the sender.

Comments from the sender:

To read the full story, click here:

www.suntimes.com/business/spirrison/2727308,CST-NWS-spirr20web.article

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
High-tech industry generating jobs, opportunities
Comments

September 20, 2010

BY BRAD SPIRRISON chicagotechmatters@gmail.com
A decade ago, a technology-driven bubble led the economy at large into what in retrospect looks like a very mild recession. Moving forward, prosperity will be regained through enterprises that revolve around technological advancements. Thankfully, the future is now.

A report released last week by the TechAmerica Foundation revealed that the high-tech industry nationwide generated more than 30,000 jobs in the first half of 2010. While this 0.5 gain does not make up for jobs lost over the last two years, it does indicate greater opportunities for those skilled in tech manufacturing as well as services focused on communication, software, and engineering.

“We are cautiously optimistic,” said Ed Longanecker, executive director of TechAmerica Midwest, who added that tech employment trends in Illinois between January and June mirrored patterns nationwide. “The tech industry was the last to feel the recession, but the first to show signs of growth.”

Longanecker pointed to Lisle-based SXC Health Solutions – which has grown from $80 million to $1.5 billion in annual revenue in recent years marketing software application services to the medical benefits industry – as an example of a local company charging ahead in the 21st century. He also cited Chicago-based healthcare automation company Allscripts and the several Internet companies to emerge from 600 W. Chicago (most notably deal-of-the-day site Groupon), as private sector entities creating quality jobs at home.

“Now we need to make sure we have enough infrastructure to support this in the coming years,” he said.

It looks like we now have enough economic opportunity to justify those investments.

Romeoville home to nationally recognized startup
Nanotechnology startup Advanced Diamond Technologies will be featured in a cable television series early next year that will showcase 24 breakthrough companies from all across the country. The Romeoville-based company, which was founded in 2003 by former Microsoft executive and serial entrepreneur Neil Kane, will be profiled in tech blogger Robert X. Cringley’s Not in Silicon Valley Startup Tour. The cable series is sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurship and BlackBerry creator Research in Motion.

i.c. stars starts social enterprise training program
i.c. stars, which for more than a decade has trained young adults in the inner-city on computer development and design skills, is formally shifting its focus to concentrate more on business communication and social media initiatives. Formerly a 16-week program, i.c. stars will now offer students two years of classroom and on-the-job training experience.

For more information about the program, and to learn how to become involved as a student, employer or supporter, visit icstars.org.

Quill.com uses Facebook for Breast Cancer Awareness campaign
Lincolnshire-based office supplies retailer Quill.com created a Facebook campaign to bring attention to and raise money for breast cancer research and awareness. Facebook users can incorporate virtual and personalized versions of “Hello my name is Hope” stickers on their profiles. For every user who participates, Quill.com will donate $1 (up to $20,000) to the City of Hope National Cancer Institute. For more information about this campaign visit facebook.com/quill
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Chairman & CEO of SalesForce to receive TechAmerica award

Subject: Chairman & CEO of SalesForce to receive TechAmerica award
Date: 9/21/2010 12:42:05 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: ed.longanecker@techamerica.org
To: ronaldmay@aol.com

There are many Illinois companies that were nominated for our innovator awards that will be held in conjunction with our annual medal of achievement awards in CA.

www.techamerica.org/innovatorawards/

Ed Longanecker
Executive Director, Regional Vice President
TechAmerica
630-282-4332
ed.longanecker@techamerica.org
www.techamerica.org

AeA & ITAA have merged to form TechAmerica

Where the future begins=
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Texting – trends, legislation

Subject: Texting – trends, legislation
Date: 9/21/2010 12:34:05 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: ed.longanecker@techamerica.org
To: ronaldmay@aol.com

If it’s of interest. More going on today.
DOT’s blog link: fastlane.dot.gov/2010/09/welcome-to-dots-second-distracted-driving-summit.html
Tuesday, September 21, 2010 12:24 PM
DOT Proposes New Anti-Texting Rule
The Transportation Department is holding a day-long distracted driving summit Tuesday in Washington during which Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the agency will implement a new rule that would ban commercial truck drivers from texting while transporting hazardous materials.
Two rules LaHood announced at a similar summit last year have now become law. The rules ban commercial bus and truck drivers from texting on the job and restrict train operators from using wireless devices while driving.
LaHood has made stamping out texting while driving and other forms of distracted driving one of his signature initiatives. In a blog post Tuesday, he noted 5,500 people were killed in distraction-related crashes last year, while 450,000 others were injured.
“The research presented today will confirm what I’ve been saying over and over for the past 12 months: You cannot text or talk on the phone while driving safely. You just can’t do it,” LaHood said in the blog post.
The department also announced nearly 1,600 U.S. companies and organizations, covering 10.5 million workers, have signed on to a program aimed at persuading private firms and groups to implement policies that discourage distracted driving. Another 550 organizations have agreed to adopt distracted driving policies in the next year that cover 1.5 million

Ed Longanecker
TechAmerica=
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Andrew Nelson: “Not Being Silicon Valley” at mvlaunch

From: Andrew Nelson
Subject: “Not Being Silicon Valley” at mvlaunch
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 10:16:46 -0500
To: ron@themayreport.com

Dear Mr. May:

How are you? My name is Andrew Benedict-Nelson. I am the digital agitator for the Chicago Insight Lab. We’re coordinating a discussion at the midVenturesLAUNCH event on Sept. 28 on “Not Being Silicon Valley.” (You can read more about it here: midventureslaunch.com/) The main topic is what strengths and weaknesses Chicago has as it tries to become a more attractive location for tech startups. In advance of the live meeting we’ve started an online discussion at chicagotechhub.posterous.com. The question we’re asking is “What would Chicago look like if it were the center of the startup universe?”

I feel like our discussion would really benefit from some of the insights you’ve gained from writing The May Report. Would you like to join in? You could write me an e-mail with your thoughts, link us to relevant stories from the Report or elsewhere, or send us a suggestion via Twitter @insightlabs. We’re also constantly promoting useful comments from the discussion to full posts, so feel free to speak up there. We’d really appreciate it!

Sincerely,
Andrew
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Mary Spaeth: VISIARC AB

From: Mary Spaeth
Subject: VISIARC AB
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 09:40:40 +0000
To: “ron@themayreport.com”

Hi Ron and Melanie,

Nice look on the email version of the news too.
It’s been awhile since I sent a bit of business news from Scandinavia. Here’s a great tech story (my authoring) out of the Mjärdevi Science Park where I began my Swedish journey 10 years ago this week!

On September 1, VISIARC was named as one of the ten winners of Mobilize 2010 LaunchPad, a high-profile competition that recognizes the 10 most promising mobile start-ups. These winners will be presenting their companies, all of which are younger than 18 months, on September 30th at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. (events.gigaom.com/mobilize/10/ )

Conference developer and organizer, GigaOM, is the leading provider of online media, events and research for global technology innovators. In their announcement of the winners this month, GigaOM?s editor, Stacey Higginbotham lauded the 10 companies for their ?innovation and executable ideas?.

VISIARC, a company that got its start in the LEAD incubator on Mjärdevi Science Park, has developed MOBILE DOCUMENTS? and a cloud-boosted push mail & mobile document sharing system which is patent pending with its unique remote mobile attachment handling.

Peter Lindgren, CEO for VISIARC, is headed to Asia tomorrow and then on the the United States to present the company at MOBILIZE 2010 before returning to Sweden in mid-October. He will be blogging (blog.mobiledocuments.com/ ) and tweeting the journey and promises that things will be exciting during the fall.

All the best from Stockholm!
Mary

__________
Forskningsingenjör
Institutionen för industriell ekonomi och organisation-INDEK
Kungliga Tekniska högskolan
Lindstedtsvägen 30, Rum 416
SE-100 44 Stockholm
__________

Research Engineer
Department of Industrial Management – INDEK
Royal Institute of Technology
Lindstedtsvägen 30, Room 416
SE-100 44 Stockholm
__________

Tel: +46 (0)8 790 60 55
Mob: +46 (0)70 341 53 59
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Miscellaneous notes (2 messages)
___________________________
#1: From: “Timothy Deane Mather”
Subject: Subscribe
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 11:19:31 -0400
To:

Ron,

I’m a friend of John Kennedy’s and saw him last night at the innovation event. He was telling me about your report and I’m interested in finding out more.

When I click to create an account I get a bad link page.

Tim
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#2: From: MGlotz@aol.com
Subject: Re: The May Report: 9/20/2010: TMR now has a Facebook presence; It’s now 1 mo…
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:01:10 EDT
To: ron@themayreport.com

RON MAY Martin Glotzer friend Dr Carol Dunitz in one woman event “Bernhardt on Broadway” opening Thursday Sept 23 at Maxims on east Goethe and for next few Thursadys she is a communications expert and written 2 books Thenks for mention Sun Times had an item

In a message dated 9/20/2010 6:40:45 P.M. Central Daylight Time, ron@themayreport.com writes:
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END OF REPORT