The car’s stopped! Within seconds you’re opening the passenger door of the vehicle.

A short conversation ensues about where both parties are headed. But in truth the verbal exchange simply masks the more important stuff, because the decision to accept a lift is never a small one. You’re checking out their appearance and the state of the vehicle; you hear their tone; you smell the air. And if they’ve got company, there’s many more judgements to make.

Sometimes the decision is easy and delightful. For example, whilst hitching north of Aberystwyth I opened the door of a large Mercedes only to set eyes on a world rugby legend sitting behind the wheel. Then there’s the bizarre, like the time I slung back a minibus door to be greeted by a group of singing builders (who had a curious passion for scaffolding) . And of course, the real challenges; this is when your sixth sense (which is only developed through experience) tells you something isn’t right.

DIGHTON, Kan., Nov. 18 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The Northwest Kansas Regional Energy Collaborative (NWKREC) is the first organization to choose Economic Gateway, an innovative Web site system featuring a site selector map, as its new online tool for retaining and attracting business and industry to its area. The first of its kind in the industry, Economic Gateway is a joint venture between Minnesota-based Web development firm Golden Shovel Agency and Applied Data Consultants, Inc. (ADC), an Eau Claire, Wis. geographic information systems (GIS) company.

The NWKREC is a regional economic development group with a focus on promoting wind and other renewable energy as a means of increasing economic development in its region.

According to Ron Kresha, president of Golden Shovel, the two companies came together to offer a comprehensive economic development solution at an affordable price.

With news reports often emphasizing the slow economic recovery with respect to jobs, it is possible that we lose some perspective about some legitimate success stories. National unemployment rates often overshadow the work of some communities in transforming their economic profiles. Cities like Raleigh NC have transformed their economy and others like Des Moines IA have significantly lowered their unemployment rates. Another below the radar screen example is Québec City, Canada.

Observe the latest unemployment statistics from October 2010: United States: 9.6 percent; Canada: 8.1 percent; Ontario province: 8.2 percent; Québec province: 7.9 percent; Québec City: 4.7 percent. Québec’s capital city, the so-called government town, has the lowest unemployment rate of any major city in Canada.

In itself, that is a story. But what is more significant are the facts. Québec City has had consistent growth due to its increasingly diverse economic base. When I worked in Québec City in the early 1990s, it was accurate to call it a haven of public service jobs. Now it is becoming a leader in information technology, biomedical research, defense research, applied optics and photonics research, food technology research, brain disease research, etc.

Remember a few years back, when big companies such as Nike kept getting immersed in sweatshop scandals? You hardly hear about that sort of stuff anymore. But the fact is, child labor and forced labor remain startlingly common throughout the developing world.

This superb interactive chart shows you everything you need to know, from the countries where child and forced labor are most prevalent, to what exactly is being made -- the point being to better inform people, so that they can avoid such goods.

We’ve created almost a dozen PDF downloads (eBooks) here at Small Business Trends over the past few years. Typically these are compilations of tips or advice from readers like you. One of the things we are learning is how to use images to make these PDFs more interesting and appealing.

Our first attempts had rudimentary formatting. They looked like Microsoft Word documents, with our logo dropped in. Basic — but not exactly scintillating to the eye. More recently we’ve tried to make these PDF downloads interesting by using one or a few carefully chosen images. We usually go for royalty-free stock photography and images that we purchase. We can get high-quality professional images in a wide range of subjects, styles and colors. We don’t have to worry about copyright issues, because we know when we purchase them that we will have the right to use them without the need to pay ongoing royalties.

California has a high share of venture capital. But in a recent article, Where’s The Beef? Can Venture Capital Save California?, Gino DiCaro, Vice President of Communications for the California Manufacturers & Technology Association, makes an interesting point: point: All of California’s venture capital hasn’t created much growth in manufacturing. While California accounts for over 40 percent of all U.S. venture capital activity, DiCaro says, it is home to only “1.3 percent of the new or expanded manufacturing facilities in the last five years.”

DiCaro’s article raises an interesting question: Does it matter that California’s dominant position in venture capital fails to translate into growth in manufacturing in the state?

Forbes Magazine recently released their list of America’s 100 Best Small Companies.

Right off the bat, I need to say that the phrase “small companies” is relative.  We’re not truly talking about “small businesses” with this list. The annual revenues of those on the Forbes list were in the 8 and 9 figures – from a low of $29 million for NV Energy to a high of $987 million for Skyworks Solutions.

But the list is instructive because it gives you an idea of the kinds of businesses that are growing, even in this economy.  And if you need inspiration for your own business or are looking to spot trends in businesses, look no further than this list.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Has Obama, like most company CEOs, been set up to fail? Hopefully, that question is provocative enough for all leaders to question their current and future career moves as well as those who hire them.

As someone who has consulted with boards, as well as coached and been an adviser to CEOs themselves, once someone reaches this level, the stakes are too high to rely on resumes and charisma.

Many are now looking at President Barack Obama and wondering what's gone wrong?

Over the past decade, tech entrepreneurs and innovators have scaled some of the industry’s highest peaks and struggled through its lowest valleys. In that time period, I had my share of successes and failures: I was part of the founding team at PayPal, I co-founded and ran LinkedIn, where I am now executive chairman, and I have advised and invested in more than 80 high tech start-ups, including high-fliers such as Facebook, Zynga and Flickr, as well as a number of others with more limited elevation. Looking back on the lessons I’ve learned by partnering with great start-up founders and being a part of the creation and growth of a number of companies, I have realized the path is more challenging than it might initially seem.

The summary of advice people often give entrepreneurs seems simple enough: Identify a market opportunity that supports a massive company with strong revenue, incredible growth and high margins. Identify a market opportunity that has either insignificant or significantly outdated competition. Develop a core product or service that your small company can develop and use capital efficiently. Build your start-up by recruiting great talent and establishing a powerful and agile organization that can adapt the product or service as the market changes. Aim for a product or service that has a powerful, sustainable competitive differentiation –- like network effects.

Build a magnificent technology park next to a research university; provide incentives for chosen businesses to locate there; add some venture capital. That is the common recipe for harnessing higher education and industry to spur economic growth as prescribed by management consultants touting the "cluster theory" developed by Harvard Business School's Michael E. Porter.

Hundreds of regions all over the world have spent billions on such efforts; practically all have failed. Yet others are following suit—such as Japan, with its Okinawa research-and-development cluster, and Russia, with its Skolkovo project.

Face book Fan Pages have become the popular method of gathering crowds around common or popular interest. Millions of fans follow specific interest on these pages and share related content. Some of the most popular fan pages include:

1. Texas Hold’em Poker has over 20 million fans
2. Michael Jackson has over 15 million fans
3. Lady Gaga has over 11 million fans
4. Taylor Swift and Vin Diesel each have over 10 million fans
5. Numerous brands such as Starbucks have over 10 million fans

In McKinsey’s article titled Leadership Lessons For Hard Times the leaders of 14 major companies,  all seasoned CEOs or chairmen, were interviewed, asking them to reflect on what they felt they learned during hard times.

The responses from the interviews McKinsey conducted were focused on communications, people and strategy. While the leaders of these companies emphasized common elements required of leadership during hard times, one must ask, do they understand social media is exactly about communications, people and strategy ?

Forrester Research confirms that very few CEOs or board members at top global companies have any material presence on popular social media sites. Being absent from the market of conversations may mean not being aware of  market sentiments.

Many people are asking the following question: Is this just a regular old economic recession or is something completely different happening? Conversational Currency and our affiliate researchers have long said that social media is siphoning off the old economy into a new form of economy. People trade influence and options on information, knowledge, wisdom, etc.

Never before have people had so much power to enforce social priorities over wall street priorities. The unit transaction is a conversation. Conversational Currency is the next wealth creation mechanism. Stay tuned as we will feature visionaries influencing the future of money

“The problem with most organizations is that they are governed by mediocre ideas.”  Retired Hanover Insurance CEO Bill O’Brien made this observation in Peter Senge’s book, The Dance of Change, and it remains as true as ever. In my almost 20 years of studying and consulting to organizations, as well as teaching executives, I’m constantly astonished at how bad ideas keep flowing into companies and take root, crowding out innovative thinking, damaging morale and creating enervating cultures of despair.

Why do people cling to weak ideas even when they have such destructive effects? Because they often don’t recognize how ill-conceived the ideas really are. Below are ten of the most common, bad ideas I’ve seen at work.

To celebrate the ends of years, decades and other milestones, science publications often churn out "Whither science?" predictions. Just last week, The New York Times Science Times section celebrated its, um, 32nd birthday with a special issue on "What's next in science". What I found fascinating was the issue's overall tone of caution rather than the traditional boosterish enthusiasm.

Gina Kolata recalled a job interview 25 years ago with U.S. News and World Report, an editor of which asked her, "What will be important medical news next year?" Kolata replied that "next year gene therapy will be shown to work." Gene therapy, of course, has been a big bust. Kolata goes on to say that the best answer to "Whither science?" is to expect the unexpected. (Fortunately for her, Kolata didn't get the job with what a mean friend of mine liked to call "U.S. Snooze and World Distort," the print version of which just died after years of terminal illness.)

Leaders from the tech and finance sectors are having an ever greater impact on the nonprofit world. Nowhere is this most apparent than at the Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

Omidyar Network, or ON, works with a wide range of for-profit and non-profit ventures that they believe can have a massive social impact—including Digg, Wikia, Kiva, and Creative Commons. ON provides them all with financial capital and recruiting, governance, and scalability support.

The Dublin SmartCamp 2010 final is a grand affair. The main sessions are housed in the same building in which the first Dáil Éireann sat — and was apparently built in eight weeks which is a lot faster than a lot of start-ups.

Sitting in on a very funny presentation by Bill Reichert, managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, gave the entrepreneurs advice on how to raise funds, and more importantly how to talk to VCs.

His best slide of all — the top 10 lies entrepreneurs tell VCs:

1. Our projections are conservative
2. Our target market is $56 billion
3. We have a world class team
4. Our average sales cycle is 90 days
5. We have no direct competitor

When times are tough, it’s tough to stay positive — particularly if you are surrounded by gloomy people.

But rather than fall victim to negative attitudes, resolve to take a different approach. Stay positive and channel your optimism to create a healthy, more productive environment. One idea you can start using right away is peer recognition.

Expressing your appreciation to a co-worker is one of the simplest, most rewarding efforts you can make. Giving credit where due, or just telling a co-worker you appreciate their work, can give an unexpected boost — and it has an additional benefit: it improves their perception of you.

What ELSE in the life is the Voice’s motto. And ELSE are the new entrepreneurs and their life styles. The Voice’s players are entrepreneurial individuals of the 21^st Century Renaissance acting as channels of knowledge flows across cultural, societal and firm boundaries.

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Nicola Farronato