Kids these days spend a lot of their time doing one of two things – watching TV or playing video games. P15 Studios wants to take advantage of both of those sectors.

The Birmingham-based start-up is creating a video game that incorporates live actors. The 9-month-old firm's 10 employees and 25 independent contractors, all gamers, are working on the concept from P15 Studios space above Cosi in downtown Birmingham.

"It will bring a level of gaming and television that wasn't here before," says Doug Kinnison, producer and CEO of P15 Studios.

Similar to a TV show, real actors will act out story lines determined by gamers. The actors will be doing anything from drama to sports. "We know where the show is going but we don’t know how it’s going to get there," Kinnison says.

Kinnison estimates it will take about 200 employees to fully complete one single game. He expects his company will go on a big hiring binge once his concept catches on, something he doesn't see as a problem with the state's movie tax credits. He also would like to see this concept expand into things like iPhone applications.

"There are a lot of people we will be hiring," Kinnison says. "It has the potential to become a huge industry here."

Source: Doug Kinnison, producer and CEO of P15 Studios
Writer: Jon Zemke

Social media mavericks no longer have to go it alone in Metro Detroit now that the Social Media Club is setting up a Detroit chapter.

Social Media Club started in San Francisco three years ago and now has chapters around the world. The club allows both social media professionals and people who have a passing interest in the virtual phenomenon to gather, meet and talk face to face.

"It's anyone who is involved in the digital landscape," says David Murray, one of the Detroit chapter's organizers. "The Internet touches just about everyone in business."

The group held its first meeting last week in downtown Royal Oak and is planning another in September. About 35 people attended the first meeting and Murray, whose day job is as a director of web communications, expects that number to grow within the next year.

"I'd love to see this get up to 200-300 people," Murray says.

Source: David Murray, organizer of the Detroit chapter of the Social Media Club
Writer: Jon Zemke

The Franklin Wind Energy Group recently took a major step forward, signing its first distribution contract with Power Distribution Center.

Power Distribution Center deals primarily with solar products, but had fielded a number of requests for wind-power generators from its customers. David Koyle, president and founder of Franklin Wind Energy Group, expects this will be the first of many such contracts that will enable the Franklin-based firm to begin selling wind turbines this fall.

"We are intending to ramp up quickly," Koyle says.

Franklin Wind Energy Group recently acquired the U.S. rights to manufacture and market a 30-foot tall vertical axis wind turbine. The plan is to install these across the state on buildings, in farm fields, and even on cell phone towers. The firm installed its first Franklin wind turbine at Wayne State University's campus earlier this summer.

The alternative-energy firm now employs 15 people, 10 independent contractors, and is looking at bringing in summer interns. All of this growth came this year as the company began to aggressively market its product. The 5kW Franklin Vertical Axis Wind Turbine can take wind from any direction, operates at low RPM with no vibration, and emits little noise

Source: David Koyle, president of Franklin Wind Energy Group
Writer: Jon Zemke

Arts Beats & Eats is taking its promotion and marketing to the next level, employing a number of viral media methods to ramp up interest in this year's festival in downtown Pontiac.

Organizers behind the Labor Day weekend event have been successfully drumming up interest through popular social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. They are recognizing that patrons get their information through a number of different avenues, ranging from traditional news sources to new Internet fads.

"This is in its infancy this year," says Jonathan Witz, producer of Arts Beats & Eats. "We grew our Facebook fan page from 200 to 2,000 in 10 days. We see a huge potential for this."
 
Part of that success is because Witz and his cohorts are offering juicy incentives through these social-media outlets. For instance, the first 2,500 fans of the Arts Beats & Eats Facebook page receive free parking (worth $8) and users of Twitter who retweet messages can earn VIP passes. It all amounts to a street team generating real interest in a virtual world.

Arts Beats & Eats is still working with traditional media sources, such as newspapers, TV and radio. However, Witz sees future promotions utilizing all avenues.

"We're still strongly tied to into traditional media but it's a future transition that is coming soon," he says.

Source: Jonathan Witz, producer of Arts Beats & Eats
Writer: Jon Zemke

Giffels-Webster Engineers is doubling down on sustainability, doubling the number of its staff with LEED certification.

As of this week, nine of the Rochester Hills-based firm's 65 employees are certified as LEED AP. That basically means when it comes to sustainable design, the firm has nine experts in it.

"We see it as a trend where people want to be green," says Loren Crandall, president of Giffels-Webster Engineers. "We want to be at the front end of that."

The LEED AP exam has been around since 2001. It focuses on green building practices and principles in LEED requirements, resources and processes. This certification is essential to obtaining LEED status on projects.

The 55-year-old firm specializes in civil engineering and surveying. It hasn't hired anyone so far this year, but Crandall expects that to change.

"We're marketing our services aggressively," Crandall says. "We expect to grow."

Source: Loren Crandall, president of Giffels-Webster Engineers
Writer: Jon Zemke

Could Michigan's best chance to raise the number of its college graduates lay in the present, not the future? Such a question seems likely to have "Yes" for an answer in light of a new survey from the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Michigan has 321,000 young adults (ages 25-34) with some college experience but no degree, giving the state the third largest percentage (25.7 percent) in the U.S. Metro Detroit has a similar percentage of young adults that fit this profile (25.3 percent), however, it is the largest percentage of any major metropolitan area of the country.

About 57,000 young adults in this demographic (39 percent) said they are likely or very likely to return to college in the next few years.

"It's a group of people that is just as big as the seniors who graduate from high school in Metro Detroit each year," says Tim Davis, director of iLabs in the University of Michigan-Dearborn's Center for Innovation Research, which conducted the survey.

The survey identifies this group as "stop-outs" and believes it is a target-rich environment for higher education. About 85 percent of these stop-outs already have at least one year of college under their belts and 25 percent have three years.

Stereotypical reasons, time and money, prevent them from finishing. The survey advocates for more flexibility in the higher-education system to make it work for this group.

"We really see these people as potential consumers of higher education," Davis says. "They are easy people to re-enroll in the process."

Source: Tim Davis, director of iLabs in the University of Michigan-Dearborn's Center for Innovation Research
Writer: Jon Zemke

Thinking locally and nationally was always the bailiwick of the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, a locally-produced radio show that got started in Ann Arbor nearly 15 years ago. A smart look at environmental issues that focused on the Midwest as well as around the country, it began getting picked up by more and more public radio stations, but there was a hitch: General managers in the Southeast and Northwest and New England questioned the relevance of a show named Great Lakes Radio Consortium for their market.

Hence a name change became a necessary move, says Lester Graham, senior editor of the radio show now called The Environment Report. "We knew there had been several regional start-ups like ours attempted, and there was a demand for more environmental stories across the country," he says. "We had to change the one thing getting in our way, and that was our name."

That was three years ago, and despite a name change and a growing listening audience -- the show reaches just under a half-million a week -- many other things have stayed the same: their Ann Arbor address, their emphasis on Great Lakes stories and their commitment to connecting environmental stories to their listeners in a personal way. "This trick is trying to make these stories [resonate in the] everyday lives of people," says Graham. "Our show is done during drive time, [with listeners] that don't necessarily know they are looking for environmental news...we are not just preaching to the choir."

The show has three formats available for stations to pick up: a four-minute feature, a longer version of the same story and a quickie "spot." This allows stations to choose what fits their time and budget allowances. Recent topics have included the Gulf of Mexico's Dead Zone, the overpopulation of cormorants, the spread of tomato blight, and the future of McMansions.

The Environment Report has over a dozen regular freelancers and staff reporters based in Detroit, Washington, DC, Chicago and Cleveland. A now-regular feature will be Greenovation.TV, as was discussed in Green Space last week. Locally, it is carried on Michigan Radio's three stations as well as occasionally on WDET 101.9 FM.

Source: Lester Graham, The Environment Report
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh

Buddhist monks are some of the greenest people in Detroit/Hamtramck, creating lots of new eco-friendly jobs at the Detroit Zen Center.

Excerpt:

The Detroit Zen Center is known for its ultra-green complex in Hamtramck and expansion into organic food and urban farming. It's not as well known that the Buddhist temple supports itself by having a hand in a number of green projects across Metro Detroit.

Today the Detroit Zen Center's green building operation employs three full-time Buddhist monks, four local contractors and five student volunteers.

"The more we did the more we got into green building and sustainability," says Hillary Moga, director of the Detroit Zen Center.

Read the rest of the story here.

Ann Arbor SPARK is paying more and more attention to business acceleration in the Ypsilanti area these days.

Excerpt:

Business on the east side of Washtenaw County is getting some special love from Ann Arbor SPARK.

The business development agency and Washtenaw County have teamed up to create the Eastern Washtenaw Micro Loan Fund. The $225,000 will provide precious capital for start-ups based on the east side of the county.

Read the rest of the story here.

The boys behind Switchback are really making their start-up take off in Ann Arbor.

Excerpt:

Last time we checked in with Switchback, the newly formed start-up's two partners were figuring out their business plan and fighting to gain footing in the competitive world of Ann Arbor start-ups. My, how times have changed.

The almost-2-year-old firm now employs 11 people, an intern, and is looking to hire. The staff is expected to double within the next year. The software-development firm, started by Mike Monan and Stephen Colson, continues to bring new products to the market, bad economy or no.

"There are still deals to be done and relationships to be made," Colson says.

Read the rest of the story here.

Most people's commutes leave them a lot of time to think. Todd Foster's gave him ample time to come up with a business idea.

The veteran waste-disposal worker got the bright idea of recycling asphalt shingles during his day job, and last year created Ideal Recycling.

"I was hauling all of this waste everyday to the landfills and weigh stations," says Todd Foster, partner in Ideal Recycling. "I figured there must be a better way to do this, especially for shingles."

He brought in Chris Edwards, a friend fresh from an automotive industry layoff, and started the business last year. Today it employs six and Foster expects his staff to double again within the next year.

The secrete behind the growth is shingles. Most landfills don't want them because they are dense and messy to deal with. However, they are also petroleum based, which makes them ideal candidates for recycling into material for road asphalt. Michigan is still, slowly, catching onto that trend. It doesn't allow as much recycled material in its asphalt as other states where recycling shingles into asphalt is common practice.

"It's very popular on the East and West coasts," Foster says. "It's very popular in the greener states."

Ideal Recycling has recycled about 9,000 tons of asphalt shingles so far and expects to double that by the end of this year. Future growth is expected, the key being the liberalization of the state's asphalt recycling laws, which Foster sees happening sooner rather than later.

Source: Todd Foster, partner with Ideal Recycling
Writer: Jon Zemke

Electronic information, whether it's smart grid or digital health records, should be a boon for cyber security firms like RazorThreat.

The downtown Pontiac-based firm specializes in threat analysis and other cyber security issues for firms. It's been a growth industry as the world goes digital, and Greg Guidice, CEO of RazorThreat, sees it exploding as more and more hackers become more sophisticated, better funded, and more effective.

"Look at what's happening at Twitter," Guidice says.

He points out that these forces are a lot like organized crime. They are often financially or politically motivated and well-funded. Initiatives like the smart grid and electronic health records give them a bigger field to play in.

RazorThreat employs mostly 1099 (freelance) workers, with some located in its Pontiac office and others spread remotely throughout Michigan and the eastern half of the U.S.

Source: Greg Guidice, CEO of RazorThreat
Writer: Jon Zemke

It's little wonder that Terry Bean's passion is closely identified with his day job. The Bloomfield Township resident owns the Networked, Inc. business during the day and runs the Motor City Connect website at night.

"Motor City Connect is my gift," Bean says. "Networked is my business."

Networked, Inc. focuses on teaching business development and networking to people who are good at their craft but need to supplement their interpersonal skills. Bean, who is also looking for an intern, and his two employees help clients figure out how to optimize their business interactions with others, both in person and electronically.

"I would run sales appointments and found more opportunities for other people than myself," Bean says. "I thought I should make a business out of this."

In essence, he helps shorten the learning curve for breaking the ice. This includes helping people make more connections at cocktail hours and harnessing the power of social media. It's turned into a nice little cottage industry for Bean, who hopes to hire another person or two in the near future.

"I'm always interested in speaking to people who are good networkers," Bean says.

Source: Terry Bean, owner of Networked, Inc.
Writer: Jon Zemke

Oakland Community College isn't just teaching the basic college courses anymore. Its new Nanotechnology in Material Sciences Program marks an expansion into the nanotech industry.

The program will be housed at its Auburn Hills campus. Nanotechnology is the study of the control of matter on a molecular and atomic level with wide-ranging applications in medicine, electronics, and energy production. It will be associated with coursework in science areas such as chemistry and the physical sciences

The program gives students a broad range of options, including careers in the aerospace, alternative energy, telecommunications, and life science industries, among many others.
 
Oakland Community College is offering a number of scholarship opportunities for this program. For information, contact Phil Crockett at (248) 232-4196 or pdcrocke@oaklandcc.edu.

Source: Oakland Community College
Writer: Jon Zemke

Laid off auto engineers worried about being left behind will have a chance to push the envelope in their field soon.

The Engineering Society of Detroit is teaming up with Michigan Technological University and AVL to help the state's automotive engineers learn about hybrid vehicle technology and the electrification of the automobile. It's doing this through a semester-long course to be offered this fall.

"Advanced Propulsion for Hybrid Vehicles with Concentration in Battery Engineering" is a graduate-level, three-credit class starting this fall. The 100 students admitted to the program will focus on battery design and on what makes the next generation of hybrid and electric vehicles tick.

For information, contact Linda LaPointe at llapointe@esd.org or by snail mail at The Engineering Society of Detroit, 20700 Civic Center Drive, Suite 450, Southfield, MI 48076.

Source: Engineering Society of Detroit
Writer: Jon Zemke

The business plan for new web-based start-up dodetroit.com? Doing Detroit, of course.

Excerpt:

Detroit is about to get another website all about, you guessed it, Detroit. Bill Stacey is getting ready to launch dodetroit.com next week as away of connecting people with the fun, exciting and positive things going on in the city.

"We wanted to create something that was just Detroit and portray it in a positive light," says Stacy, editor in chief of dodetroit.com.

Read the rest of the story here.

A Metromode favorite, Greenovation.TV, has hit the big time, with a slot on The Environment Report, a nationally-syndicated show with a home studio at Ann Arbor's Michigan Radio.

Twice a month, there will be a Greenovation segment that will focus on the how-to of greening a home. Greenovation.TV's Matt Grocoff says topics will cover the gamut, from "green bling" to "low-hanging fruit." What he means is that things like geothermal, solar panels, and wind turbines are all fair game -- although they might be currently out of reach for most people -- as are more-affordable choices such as limited-shower heads and dual flush toilets. "There are really practical things people can do in their homes now to make them more sustainable," he says. "If zero-energy, zero-waste homes are the ultimate goal, just because you can't start at zero doesn't mean you shouldn't start at all."

Grocoff knows from Adam. He and his wife Kelly base Greenovation.TV on their own experiences greening their home. "Our entire energy bill last month -- hot water, central air, water, and all gas -- was $58 to run the whole house," he says. "Our neighbors, who don't have central air, spent almost double that that, so the whole idea [that energy efficiency] means less comfort and more expense [is no longer tenable.]"

Greenovation's first Energy Report segment was on the whole house fan, an energy-efficient alternative to air conditioning. Listen to it here.

Source: Matt Grocoff, Greenovation.TV
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh

Okay, so it's a bit like cheerleading for ourselves, but Metromode's parent company, Detroit-based Issue Media Group, has launched a new sibling e-zine in Baltimore MD called Bmore.

And true to our mission, it's an indication of growth. Yes, our own growth but, hey, we're a SE Michigan company, right?

Bmore launched last week and promises to provide the latest news on emerging tech sectors and industries, development, neighborhoods, and all the other cool stuff going on in Baltimore. If you get a chance take a look. They're sporting a nifty new design aesthetic that's being considered for Metromode.

Issue Media Group's other publications include:

• Concentrate in Ann Arbor area, MI
• ModelD in detroit
• Rapid Growth in Grand Rapids, MI
• Capital Gains in Lansing, MI
• Soapbox in Cincinnatti, OH
• Keystone Edge in Pennsylvania
• Pop City in Pittsburgh, PA

Writer: Jeff Meyers

The people at ProQuest have become old pros at creating jobs in Ann Arbor.

Excerpt:

The company that is ProQuest today hasn't changed its business philosophy since it was started in Ann Arbor 71 years ago.

Back then the company focused on commercializing microfilm into a product. Today is focuses on offering specialized information from journal articles, dissertations, and newspaper stories (it has agreements with The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press) electronically. They sell it to researchers at every level, from grade school to commercial.

"The last two years we have grown substantially," says Elliot Forsyth, senior vice president of human resources for ProQuest. "We have literally doubled in size. A lot of that has been through acquisitions and strategic investments back in the business."

Read the rest of the story here.

MediQlogix wants to create the benchmark for healthcare-quality management in Ann Arbor.

Excerpt:

MediQlogix is a small firm with some big plans on some big growth, mostly centered on its home in Ann Arbor.

The year-old start-up is in its final phase of development, which means it has 15 people working to spread its gospel of improving healthcare quality. A couple are based in Ann Arbor with the rest based around the world in places as close as Philadelphia and as far away as India.

Read the rest of the story here.