Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
Somehow, the words "incubator" and "accelerator" have somehow become interchangeable. They're not. They're two different things.
Business incubators have been around for decades—they're the original. Accelerators, the new kids on the block, started popping around the turn of the millenium.
Image: http://www.techvibes.com/
Small business owners fret over what their logo looks like. They want it to be clean, cool or fancy. What they should really focus on is how it makes a customer feel since logos play a large role in their purchasing decisions. Researchers at the University of Amsterdam found that children as young as two years old could recall a logo and its product 67% of the time. By eight, 100% of children tested could associate the logo with the product.
Whoever says you just need money to buy the most awaited motorcycles of 2014 has not gone shopping yet. Yes, that’s right. If you are planning to splurge on a two-wheeled guzzler this year, make sure you have loads of attitude to carry it off.
With so much excitement around the tech we’re putting in our cars, it’s easy to forget that the motorbikes are advancing at an equally fast pace. It’s also easy to forget that the needs and wants of bike enthusiasts are as diverse as those of their four-wheeled counterparts.
Image: http://motorburn.com/
FRANKFORT, Ky. (April 15, 2014) – The Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development awarded nearly $100,000 in prize money this past weekend to some of Kentucky’s most-promising college entrepreneurs.
The awards were announced during the seventh-annual Idea State U event, a two-day student competition that identifies and supports the next generation of Kentucky innovators and entrepreneurs. The event was conducted at the Lexington Center, in Lexington, April 11-12.
Image: http://www.lanereport.com/ - The Idea State U top award of $21,619 was presented to Trifecta Cooking Equipment, a graduate student team from the University of Louisville. Trifecta unveiled plans for its patented “FutureFry,” an energy-efficient deep fryer for restaurants. The FutureFry also uses less cooking oil and is easier to clean than a traditional deep fryer.
Every year there’s a list of cities that have been researched to be the best of some category. There are the “most livable,” cities and the “happiest,” the “Best for VC Capital” and more, but can you put a measure on the cities with the most possibility?
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Charlottetown, PE, April 16, 2014 -- While its tag line may be ‘Next Generation Prosperity’, an economic analysis of the PEI Bioscience Cluster suggests that this relatively new economic sector is already having a profound impact on the Island’s economy.
The report, released today by the Prince Edward Island BioAlliance, was carried out by David Campbell of Jupia Consultants, a New Brunswick-based economic development planning and research firm, with funding provided by the Government of Canada.
The report confirms that the bioscience sector has become an important growth engine for the PEI economy, with an average increase in economic output of 33% per year since 2006, reaching $188.3 million in industry output in 2012.
Image: http://www.peibioalliance.com/
Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba is widely expected to set the record for biggest tech IPO — and it may file next week.
The Hangzhou, China-based company is expected to file the prospectus for its U.S. IPO next week, reported Reuters, citing anonymous sources. Alibaba could file as soon as Monday.
The IPO will likely surpass $16 billion, which is how much Facebook scooped up in its 2012 IPO. That’s the current record for a technology share sale.
Image: Opening of the Alibaba Group's Taiwan branch. Image Credit: Rico Shen
The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity is a leading indicator of new business creation in the United States.
Image: http://www.kauffman.org
GrowFL, the program of the Florida Economic Gardening Institute at the University of Central Florida is driven by one goal – to cultivate growth companies across the state. Working with statewide partners, GrowFL is committed to local delivery of services that help second-stage and emerging second-stage growth companies achieve their potential. Based on the philosophy of Economic Gardening – to grow existing businesses in a community, region or state – GrowFL is a critical component to the state’s economic development strategy and Florida’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Our "Weekly Innovation" blog series explores an interesting idea, design or product that you may not have heard of yet. Do you have an innovation to share? Use this quick form.
While the magic of flight is still worth marveling at (Note: This video contains adult language some might find offensive), the airline industry remains held back in a few areas that really need an upgrade. It's 2014 and you can still find gate agents using dot matrix printers. And we've already written about the hopelessly poor user experience of paper boarding passes.
Image: Coming in December: the eTrack and the eTag, from Air France and KLM. The innovations let you drop off your bags without checking them, and track them throughout your journey. Courtesy of FastTrack Co.
NEW YORK – Ford Motor Co. Chief Operating Officer Mark Fields discussed the automaker’s future by first discussing its past – starting with the 1964 World’s Fair in New York.
Fields talked about how that event 50 years ago marked a key time for innovation – from Apple introducing a new computer to Ford creating the pony car segment with the Mustang – and how the same basic characteristics of innovation play a key role in successful companies today.
Image: 2015 Mustang 50 Year Limited Edition (Curtesy image)
Keith Rabois famously quipped, “I don’t know of a single successful CEO or entrepreneur who blogs regularly.”
That was five months ago, and people are still talking about it. And agreeing.
But why?
Sure the usual exceptions are trotted out – Rand Fishkin, Joel Gascoigne, etc.. But the examples outweigh the exceptions 100-to-1.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Prefab used to get a bad rap. Mass-produced in factories, modular homes were considered cheap, like the architectural equivalent of TV dinners. Buster Keaton famously parodied the prefab house in his 1920 slapstick film One Week, in which a couple receives as a wedding gift a home-in-a-box that can supposedly be built in a week. It doesn't go so well.
Image: Prefab Home, out from Taschen, documents the history of the factory-made house and features today's most innovative designs. Here, the WeeHouse, inspired by the basic principles of sustainable design--building small and efficiently. COURTESY OF ALCHEMY LLC
NSF Launches New STEM Program. NSF has announced a major revision of it primary funding mechanism for its program on Ethics Education in Science and Engineering. The new program is now called Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM (CCE STEM) and will be "directed towards research that addresses the formation of ethical STEM students, faculty, and researchers at all levels, through a variety of means beyond conventional classroom instruction." The proposal deadline for 2014 is June 17, with an expected funding amount of just over $3 million.
“The Polar Vortex Didn’t Stop Us!” might have been an apt title for this year’s February jobs report: Despite the cold weather — which tends to put a damper on hiring trends — the economy added 175,000 jobs. The good news continued into March, during which nonfarm payroll employment increased by 192,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
When Kathleen Sebelius took the helm of one of the largest civilian departments in the federal government, the first thorny issue on her desk was responding to the H1N1 flu virus, a new pandemic flu strain that seemed to target otherwise healthy young people. After less than week on the job her first public speech focused on how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration, was responding to the public health emergency. She released millions of antiviral drugs from the national stockpile and warned against fake flu cures while calling for continual investment into research to stay ahead of future flu outbreaks. Talks about women’s and children’s health, obesity and AIDS soon followed.
Image: http://www.scientificamerican.com
The Google Fiber bunny is finally hopping closer to Kansas City businesses. After nearly two years of insisting they "hang in there," Google Inc. is recruiting Kansas City companies to test a Google Fiber small business product. Kansas City will be the first city to test the product, which Google said still is taking sha
In his 2011 State of the Union Address, President Obama promised that, for the first time ever, American taxpayers would be able to go online and see exactly how their federal tax dollars are spent. And for the fourth year in a row, he’s keeping that promise.
Just enter a few pieces of information below, and the Taxpayer Receipt gives you a breakdown of how your tax dollars are spent on priorities like education, veterans benefits, or health care.
Governor Deval Patrick announced Thursday a plan to keep highly-skilled international students in Massachusetts post-graduation. Under his proposed Global Entrepreneur in Residence program, however, the "highly-skilled" appear to have one trait in common: technical talent. And now is not the time to be focusing solely on science, technology, engineering and math.
Image: http://bostinno.streetwise.co
You will often see Denmark listed in surveys as the “happiest country on the planet." Interestingly Danes are not only happy at home, they're also happy at work. According to most studies of worker satisfaction among nations, the happiest employees in the world are in Denmark. The U.S.? Not so much. Here's just one data point: a recent Gallup poll found that 18% of American workers are actively disengaged, meaning they are “emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and less likely to be productive.” The same number for Danish workers is only 10%.
Image Courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
