I went to Hob Nob yesterday (it’s the Mississippi Economic Council’s signature event). Think Neshoba County Fair without red dirt, harness racing and cabins. There are speeches from politicians, gobs of banana pudding and more importantly, the opportunity to shoot the bull with folks you haven’t seen in a while.  Right before lunch, the Governor spoke.  Say what you will about Governor Phil Bryant, he’s a very good speaker. He gives an excellent “rah rah” stump speech.  And yesterday’s was classic Phil.

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Where can you find someone researching how to turn solid waste into fuel? Discovering how to charge a cell phone on a camping trip? Piloting innovative programs to train aspiring principals on core leadership skills? Mississippi Public Universities. Mississippi Public Universities are a hotbed of innovation, where faculty, students and staff are working diligently throughout the laboratories, classrooms and centers to find solutions to Mississippi’s most pressing problems.

Conditions for entrepreneurs in the Netherlands have improved over the last year, according to the World Bank in its annual report on global conditions for small and medium businesses.

The Netherlands ranks 28th in the world, down from 31st in last year’s report.

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Some people are born to be entrepreneurs. Shlomo Kramer is one of those people. As an adolescent, all he knew about his future career was that he wanted to continuously learn and be challenged. Inspired by the story of a teenage entrepreneur who founded his own computer game company, Kramer went on to launch two IT security startups and become the CEO of his Silicon Valley security solutions firm, Imperva. The tech entrepreneur and angel investor shared his advice for fellow entrepreneurs with BusinessNewsDaily.

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We’ve all been wondering what Google is doing with floating barges and KPIX 5 says it has the answer. Sources tell the station that three floors will be  “dazzling showrooms” and an upper “party deck” will cater to events and high-profile customers.

The timing on this coincides with an upcoming launch of Google Glass — expected next year — as well as our own calls for dedicated Google stores. On our weekly Chrome Show podcast, we’ve lamented the fact that Google has no way to offer product hands-on experiences that help explain its products and services.

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Despite a pretty good week in the world of sports (actually an awesome decade in that respect) Boston continues to nurture a huge inferiority complex when it comes to hosting and retaining tech startups.

That was in evidence Friday at the annual MassTLC Unconference, where the first session I attended was “How to make Boston better.” Ideas for improvements came from industry vets — entrepreneurs, VCs and PR pros — but also, and probably most importantly, local college students who are weighing their post-graduation options.

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The 5th Annual Saudi International Technology Incubation Conference will be held in Riyadh on Tuesday. This year, the King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and Badir have teamed up with the Technopolicy Network to organize the 5th Annual Saudi International Technology Incubation Conference, which will incorporate the 10th International Annual Conference, a KACST official said.

Innovative research, commercialization and tech-entrepreneurship are cornerstones of the 21st century, U.S. economy. Yet, a large portion of Americans are disconnected from these economic building blocks. If we want to sustain our global economic competitiveness, we have to fix that.

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Applications are due November 11, 2013

DreamIt Health Baltimore is designed to speed the growth and success of early-stage health IT companies through its program in Central Maryland. Powered by the Johns Hopkins University, BioHealth Innovation, and DreamIt Ventures – the program gives participants access and advantages typically out-of-reach to healthcare startups.

The world’s first open source piece of hardware was the bicycle, according to the Open Source Hardware Association. To be more precise, it was the draisine, introduced as a two-wheeled human-propelled walking machine in 1817.

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On an average day, a couple of start-ups will receive their first round of institutional funding in California, Massachusetts, or New York. On that same average day, a number of start-ups will also receive their first round of institutional funding everywhere else in America.

The difference: if you’re an American entrepreneur inside one of the country’s hotbeds of innovation, you’re more likely to succeed.

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During the 2013 Legislative session, Gov. Mark Dayton and policymakers supported University of Minnesota initiatives aimed at advancing research, boosting the state’s economy, and ensuring health care access.

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Google provides account activity stats to all those who have an account. Within my Gmail account I discovered that I had received 8,233 emails and sent 153 emails last month. If I had only glanced at (not read in detail) all the emails I had received, my calculations are that I would have spent 22 hours on that task. I definitely cannot afford that amount of email time. To resolve this, I started using a few apps that work alongside Gmail to help me get the email I absolutely needed -- saving me time.

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The definition of ‘job’ has changed over the years. Way before, when there used to be an industrial economy, an employee was as good as a machine part: easily replaceable and obedient. Employees used to do what they were told to, with zero accountability and virtually no ownership.

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If your startup name can’t potentially be used as an everyday verb or doesn’t end with “ly” you’ve probably missed the trend train. Geekatoo, LOOKK, Ordrin, Wowzer, and of course Lettuce, are a handful of startups featured on 500 Startups who have joined the ongoing Web 2.0 fab of quirky naming schemes for their businesses. But there’s a thin line between having a brand name that shows your startup’s fun, friendly and innovative and one that screams “hipster!”

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As more and more discoveries made by University of Michigan Medical School researchers make their way toward becoming products that can help patients and health care providers, the school has named a new leader to accelerate that effort even further.

Data released last week show that UMMS researchers generated a wealth of technology transfer activity in the last U-M fiscal year, with a record 133 new inventions reported, and a record 41 patents issued. Both figures represent one-third of U-M’s total.

Image: University of Michigan News Service

Jeremy Glaser, Co-chair of Mintz Levin's Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Practice, discusses the shift to angel investors in initial financing rounds as venture capital funds move toward later-stage funding.

They may have taken on some of the sheen of Silicon Valley in the popular imagination, but do venture capitalists do to more conventional investment funds what the iPhone did to BlackBerry? Are they in another league, performance wise?

Not exactly. New numbers out from Cambridge Associates and the National Venture Capital Association show the industry performing better in the quarter ending June 30, with returns increasing for shorter and longer time periods.

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The country’s first venture capital firm, BD Ventures Ltd and DEFTA Partners of United States joined hands to invest in the new and innovative business projects.

The two organizations on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for co-financing in different business ventures in Bangladesh.

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Fine wine, good cheese, George Clooney. Some things just get better with age.

As it turns out, happiness at work may just be one of them.

A new study from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that a whopping 90% of employees over age 50 describe themselves as somewhat or very satisfied with their jobs. This level of career satisfaction appeared across the board, regardless of gender, race, education, political views, and income level.

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