I think it’s fair to say that no one was particularly upset bidding farewell to 2008.  What a year!

The winds of change are blowing however, and NEOinc continues to see positive entrepreneurial activity throughout the region.   Incoming requests for assistance for all our member incubators remains strong.  Cuyahoga County kicked off a new support program for high potential technology startups.   VC and investment activity is still strong, albeit perhaps a bit more cautious, with most investors telling us to continue bringing them good opportunities.

So while the list of news items below is perhaps not as long as usual, NEOinc and all it’s partner organizations remain very optimistic about the state of Northeast Ohio entrepreneurship.

There is a lot of positive change happening in the region, particularly around entrepreneurial activities and economic development.  NEOinc follows several regional blogs reporting on these topics.  Sometimes the posts shine a spotlight nationally (or internationally) on the region.  Every month we publish a short list of some of the stories we’ve noticed that embody the spirit of achievement, growth and change in our region.

Here is NEOinc’s December recap of the articles we feel speak to the growth and positive change that is happening quietly, every day, in our region.

December ‘08 Recap

• Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend by 8%
• Timken Gets $2M Order
• Another Order for Timken – This time $16M
• FFEF Makes $1.2M in Grants
• Irish Biomed Firm Headed to Cleveland
• Investors Float $312K to Purification Firm
• New Fund Targets Northeast Ohio Life Sciences Companies
• 8 Area Companies Awarded $5M in Third Frontier Grants
• New Internship Program with Purdue University
• Wireless Environment LLC Wins Jumpstart Investment
• Positioning Ohio as the Ideal Business Location
• Government Collaboration Growing
• Civic Innovation Lab Makes Two Awards

This list certainly isn’t meant to be exhaustive, merely a representative sample of some of the more positive articles we saw throughout the month.  We want to hear from you too! Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts with us here at NEOinc and our other readers.  Come on, you know you want to.

We’re also looking for other blogs to follow that report on positive entrepreneurship and economic development activities throughout Northeast Ohio.  You can review the list below of the blogs we currently follow.  Please post any additional recommendations via the comment box at the end of this post.

NEOinc’s blog reports regularly on entrepreneurial activities within the region, news and successes within the five incubators making up our collaborative, and resources available throughout Northeast Ohio.  If you found this post useful, please consider subscribing to our blog.  Our “Connect With Us” page will give you all the information you need to subscribe via your RSS reader or receive E-Mail updates.

Sources

NEOinc watches the following regional blogs.  Please use our “Contact Us” page, or the comment box below, to recommend a blog not on the list.

• Advance Northeast Ohio – the online home of our region’s economic action plan, which was inspired by Voices & Choices. Learn about the actions our region is taking to grow our economy and engage in conversations that shape the plan and evaluate our performance.
• Brewed Fresh Daily- topical, wide-ranging, and sometimes irreverant, George Nemeth’s blog is a clearinghouse for the pulse of Northeast Ohio.
• Cleveland Plain Dealer’s business blog
• Crain’s Cleveland
• NorTech – NorTech leads the region’s technology based economic development agenda. By supporting and nurturing Northeast Ohio’s most promising technology projects and initiatives, they help to create new technology industries and make the region ’s economy more globally-competitive.
• Ohio Means Business – The OBDC blog is a chance for Ohio executives to share their perspective on how locating in Ohio has enabled them to achieve both their professional and personal aspirations without having to sacrifice one for the other.