Maybe it’s the Cavs, maybe it’s the Spring weather (come on, it was just two days of snow), but things are starting to feel like they’re looking up.  With a two week Wall Street rally and the beginnings of optimism, perhaps the worst is behind us.

While the entrepreneurial spirit continues to run high and NEOinc incubators have seen no shortage of innovation over the winter, we would particularly like to recognize the growing student entrepreneur movement.  Colleges and universities throughout NE Ohio are embracing entrepreneurship through education, programs and competitions.  NEOinc, along with it’s partners, continues to be impressed by the quality of the business concepts and the professionalism of the students.

In particular, the recent LauncTtown finals event, held this year at Baldwin Wallace, saw eight student entrepreneur teams present their concepts.  The LaunchTown Entrepreneurship Awards competition is an annual event open to students of any Northeast Ohio four-year college.  Students, individually, or in 2-5 person teams, submit a 5-10 page essay describing their idea for a new business, product, or service.  The best ideas shared $10,000 in cash prizes, including a $5,000 grand prize, and over $30,000 in business services to help bring their ideas and concepts to reality.

Participating universities and members of the sponsoring Entrepreneurship Education Consortium include John Carroll University, University of Akron, Kent State University, Baldwin Wallace College and Ashland University.  Other schools participating in the 2009 open competition included Hiram College, Youngstown State University, Oberlin College, The College of Wooster, Cleveland State University, Case Western Reserve University, Walsh University, Cleveland Institute of Music and Lake Erie College.

Every student participating in the event is a winner and all the business concepts had merit.  NEOinc congratulates Citizen Groove, this year’s winner of the LaunchTown event.  Before we get to this month’s positive news, here’s a short video describing Citizen Groove’s concept (video developed by the student entrepreneurs).

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 March recap of the articles we feel speak to the growth and positive change that is happening quietly, every day, in our region.

March ‘09 Recap

• Global attraction effort given a boost
• Ohio recognized as leader in international trade
• Think-A-Move wins $75K grant
• Ohio #1 choice for capital investment third consecutive year (another take here, and here)
• Neuros Medical gets $375K investment
• A. Schulman starts up Akron manufacturing plant
• Cleveland Foundation awards $10M in grants
• $400M coming to the Cleveland Inner Belt
• TeamNEO launches multicultural business attraction effort
• LCCC continues to Innovate (more here)

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.