Southfield

Future Midwest aims to create Midwestern SXSW

By Newsroom

●

April 7, 2011

Organizers of FutureMidwest have aspirations of creating a SXSW-type (South by Southwest) tech conference in the Midwest that will draw Metro Detroit's tech community closer and offer $100,000 in prize money to a local start-up."There is so much start-up potential here," says Adrian Pittman, who co-founded FutureMidwest in 2009 with Jordan Wolfe and Zach Lipson in 2009 to cater to tech and digital media enthusiasts. "There are so many start-ups here, and many of them are better than we realize."This year's conference, to be held in Detroit's Eastern Market on April 28 and 29, will be geared toward entrepreneurs, marketers, communication professionals, techies, and students from across the Midwest. It will also feature the Funded by Night business plan contest with a winner-take-all $100,000 in prize money. Funded by Night will feature 25 start-ups pitching their products and visions to potential investors. At stake is a $100,000 convertible note from two local venture capital firms, downtown Detroit-based Detroit Venture Partners and Southfield-based Ludlow Ventures. The organizers hope the conference and competition will help create more synergies with start-ups in both Metro Detroit and the Midwest."No city is an island and no region is an island," Pittman says. "We share an ecosystem in several states and industries. We need to be thinking globally."Tickets for both events are $250. Tickets for Funded by Night and the FutureMidwest evening networking event on April 28 are $25 for professionals and $10 for students. For information on FutureMidwest, click here. For information on Funded by Night, click here.Source: Adrian Pittman, co-founder of FutureMidwestWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Oakland County Medical Main Street now $61M program; 45,000 jobs to come

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

April 7, 2011

A now 3-year-old Anderson Economic Group study called for the health-care and life science sector to be the fastest-growing in Oakland County, prompting it to create the Medical Main Street program to encourage investment. That prediction is beginning to ring true today.The Oakland County Medical Main Street program scored investments totaling $34.8 million from five companies either moving or expanding in the county in the first quarter of this year. This contributed to the creation or retention of more than 1,000 jobs. Fifteen companies have put $61 million into Medical Main Street since it was founded in 2008, a trend Oakland County officials expect to continue as the economy rebounds."We're seeing this accelerating," says David Schreiber, chief strategist for Oakland County Economic Development. "This is trending upward."Among the recent investments are $3.7 million (162 new jobs) from Ascendant MDx for a new clinical laboratory for diagnostic tests in Farmington Hills and $28 million (640 new jobs) from health-care info tech provider CareTech Solutions to complete the second phase of its expansion project. Oakland County already had a strong base in the health-care and life sciences industries. The 2008 study shows approximately 93,000 jobs at about 4,300 life science and medical facilities there. About 45,000 more positions are expected over the next 10 years.Source: David Schreiber, chief strategist for Oakland County Economic DevelopmentWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Ideal Recycling aims to recycle 20,000 tons of shingles this year

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

March 10, 2011

Ideal Recycling's bottom line gains weight every year. Tons of it.The Southfield-based start-up recycles asphalt shingles and has increased the tonnage of recycled material each year since it started in 2009, when it collected 14,500 tons of old shingles, keeping them out of landfills and putting them into roads. That went up to 16,000 tons last year, and the company is aiming for 20,000 tons this year."Every year we get a little more," says Chris Edwards, vice president of Ideal Recycling. "More customers learn about us every day. It's a slow go because we're changing the industry."Old asphalt shingles are normally torn off a roof and disposed of in a landfill or places like the Detroit Incinerator. Ideal Recycling takes those old shingles and recycles the petroleum-based product into asphalt road material. The company also recycles the old wood and metal that comes with tearing off an old roof.Ideal Recycling employs four people during the slow time of year but will often increase its staff to half a dozen during the busy summer season. Edwards hopes to add even more jobs as the company continues to educate roofers, builders and people in construction trades that there are sustainable ways to dispose of construction waste.Source: Chris Edwards, vice president of Ideal RecyclingWriter: Jon Zemke

Specs Howard adds 39 jobs via digital media expansion

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

March 3, 2011

Specs Howard School of Media Arts continues to grow with the expanding media landscape that shapes its curriculum, hiring 39 new people in 2010 thanks mostly to its digital media arts classes.The 41-year-old school has traditionally created careers in broadcast industries, such as radio and TV. It expanded to graphic design in 2008 and the digital media arts (Internet, video, film) last year."We think these are the up-and-coming areas," says Lisa Zahodne, president of Specs Howard School of Media Arts. "That's where we saw the growth and continue to see the growth."The Southfield-based school plans to continue to expand its curriculum in the digital media arts this year. It has boosted its enrollment to more than 1,000 students this year, up 300-400 people from just a few years ago. The school is on track to add another 10-11 jobs this year to keep up with its rising enrollment.A new satellite campus opened in Farmington Hills last year. There are plans to expand facilities by a few thousand square feet at both locations, and potentially even beyond Metro Detroit soon."We are looking at branches on the west side of the state or possibly another state," Zahodne says. "We haven't decided yet."Source: Lisa Zahodne, president of Specs Howard School of Media ArtsWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Oakland County surfs for new ideas via crowdsourcing site

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

February 24, 2011

Lots of politicians pay lip service to listening to their constituents' ideas and even implementing a few here and there. Oakland County is looking to take that a step further with its new online crowdsourcing initiative.Excerpt:Every city, county and state these days is faced with hard decisions about budget cuts and reorganization — and even harsher feedback from residents after the cuts are made. Oakland County, Mich., has found a way to use technology to spark that citizen-to-government communication during the decision-making process. County officials launched an online public forum so residents can be an integral part of making tough budget decisions. The website, http://oakgov.ideascale.com, gives citizens the opportunity to respond to questions, make suggestions and post comments. Citizens can also rank the county's proposals by voting for the ideas they like best on every issue, from technology to parks and recreation."Since we are using social media in so many different ways here, we thought … what is the next wave of how we engage our citizens in the process?" said Phil Bertolini, Oakland County's deputy county executive and CIO. "In a focus group, you put 20 people in a room, you ask the idea and you get 20 opinions. If you use crowdsourcing, you put out an idea and you get thousands of opinions. More minds and more ideas make for a better product."Read the rest of the story here.

What is makeLAB?

By Natalie Burg

●

Arts & Culture

●

February 24, 2011

Lawrence Tech is taking custom manufacturing to the masses. In a unique program that weds digital fabrication to design and community outreach, makeLAB harnesses cutting edge digital technology to produce custom design and architecture where it once wasn't available or affordable.

Building A Cultural Bridge

By Natalie Burg

●

Arts & Culture

●

February 17, 2011

With audiences across all of North America, Southfield-based Middle Eastern American Television is the only 24-hour media outlet of its kind in the nation. And starting in March, owner Wally Jadan will see his dream of building a bridge between the Arab and Arab-American world come true as MEA-TV goes international.

Oakland County announces cloud computing, Wi-Fi initiatives

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

February 3, 2011

Oakland County is making more and more of its IT and tech services wireless, according to County Executive L Brooks Patterson in his State of the County speech on Tuesday.Oakland County will introduce a cloud computing initiative where it will conduct its own IT services through the cloud computing platform, and offer the services to local municipalities. The new program will eliminate the need for each local government entity to have its own servers and applications, instead accessing the county's for a nominal fee. The first offering will be Oakland County's eHealth software.The county is also revamping its Wireless Oakland initiative with a new partnership with Frankenmuth-based Air Advantage. The 8-year-old Internet provider will provide Wi-Fi services to communities in northern Oakland County, utilizing the county's towers. In exchange for selling these services, Air Advantage will provide free wireless Internet in some downtowns, starting with Holly, Oxford and Clarkston. More communities will be announced later this year."Our philosophy is all people should have access to the Internet," says Scott Zimmer, president of Air Advantage. "The Internet is becoming a necessary utility like electricity or water."Making this deal possible is a $64 million grant from the federal stimulus package. The grant is meant to help Air Advantage make Internet services available in underserved areas within a 13-county section of eastern Michigan. That section stretches from Bay County to the north, Shiawassee County to the west and Oakland County to the south.Source: Oakland County and Scott Zimmer, president of Air AdvantageWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Lawrence Tech students team with auto, robotics companies to develop new tech

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

February 3, 2011

Lawrence Technological University has formed what might be the first Autonomous Vehicles and Robotic Systems Student Committee in Michigan, and perhaps the entire country, as part of the Great Lakes Chapter of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.The new committee is expected to create more synergies between Lawrence Tech's engineering students and the automotive and robotics companies. The participating students will be able to leverage the experience into more academic research that is more closely tied with what's going on at companies like KUKA Industrial Robots, which already has a relationship with the committee. The committee originated in Lawrence Tech's mechatronics master's degree program, which concentrates on autonomous/conventional ground vehicle and robotic systems engineering. "It gives students full access to the outside world," says Vladimir Vantsevich, a professor at Lawrence Tech and the committee's faculty advisor. "It lets them interact with companies to get better jobs."Those jobs will be helping design and develop the world's future autonomously working machines, everything from regular cars to mining equipment to industrial robotics. Source: Vladimir Vantsevich, professor at Lawrence Technological UniversityWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Oakland Co Medical Main St hits $21M in investment

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

January 13, 2011

Oakland County's Medical Main Street notched a strong 2010, attracting $21 million in investment that retained or attracted about 600 jobs.The Medical Main Street program began in 2008 as a tool to help diversify Oakland County's economy by growing the health-care and life-science industries. Those industries represent 93,000 jobs today and are expected to create 45,000 new jobs over the next decade. The program helped six companies relocate or expand their operations in Oakland County."In the next couple of months you'll hear about more companies moving into the area," says Irene Spanos, senior business development representative for the Oakland County Economic Development Team. "We have a lot of projects in the pipeline."This year's totals are up from four deals worth $5.2 million in investment that took place in 2009. Spanos is expecting an even better 2011. She points to Oakland University's new medical school opening this year and its new stem cell center as reasons for optimism."This is going to be a good resource for us," Spanos says. "We can build on that."Source: Irene Spanos, senior business development representative for the Oakland County Economic Development TeamWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.