NEOinc » Youngstown

Positive Change in Northeast Ohio - August 2008 Recap

NEOinc — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 06:00:46 +0000

Ah, early Fall in Northeast Ohio. The Tribe, after writing off their season mid-summer, has suddenly woke up and battled back to third place in their division just 10 or so games out. The Browns go 0-4 for the preseason but hopefully have got injuries out of their system early. Hang on, sports fans.

From a news perspective, August was a fairly slow month. We’ve recapped a nice selection of positive news from after the break.

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

August ‘08 Recap

ARCHAngels and LCCC form new fund
Lake Erie College gains $1M grant
A. Schulman to expand in Akron
CleveX secures $1.4M in funding
Lots of good results reported (Ferro, PolyOne, Hawk, JoAnn Stores, Preformed Line, Olympic Steel, McDermott)
Cleveland Professional Club 20/30 joins Advance Northeast Ohio partners (congrats Dan and Alex)
Ohio outshining Silicon Valley (no, we mean it!)
A. Schulman expanding
PartSource gets $50M in venture funding
NEOinc tenants in the news (Knotice, PolyFlow)
Primus raises $275M for sixth fund
Expedient continues Garfield Heights expansion
Diebold wins Brazilian contract

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.

More great news out of Youngstown

NEOinc — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 07:27:46 +0000

Must be great news week!

Here’s the latest update out of the Youngstown Business Incubator:

We haven’t talked about SofTek Software in a while. They are kind of our quiet company, offering a proprietary PoS (point-of-sale) software to four major market verticals, while taking customers from industry giants in those spaces like Reynolds & Reynolds and ADP.

And all the while, they have been quietly building all the necessary internal infrastructure, like one of the best customer support systems we have ever seen, to sustain and further grow the company.

Well in 2008, the pay off for all their hard work is finally here and sales are moving off the charts.

How good?

We’re pleased to report that in spite of a very good year in 2007, SofTek sold more systems in the first half of this year than they did the entire previous year. And to support that sales growth, five new employees started work at the firm just yesterday alone.

Visit SofTek Software to see the next rising star in the Youngstown Business Incubator portfolio.

Jim Cossler
Chief Evangelist
Youngstown Business Incubator

Positive Change in Northeast Ohio - July 2008 Recap

NEOinc — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:00:37 +0000

The dog days of summer finally hit us (maybe that’s what the Tribe’s bats needed to wake up). Hopefully, everyone is enjoying their summer vacations. This issue of positive change comes at a welcome time. With recent developments in the region, Cuyahoga County in particular, we could all use some better news to focus on.

We’ve recapped a nice selection of positive news from July after the break.

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

July ‘08 Recap

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.

Another “shout out” for YBI

NEOinc — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:37:55 +0000

Another national shout out for the exciting and unique managed technology cluster being built by the Youngstown Business Incubator.

This from the national public policy organization PolicyLink in its soon to be released report, To Be Strong Again: Renewing the Promise in Smaller Industrial Cities :

“The Youngstown Business Incubator, which has turned the city into a hot spot for business-to-business software development, is creating jobs and reversing the ‘brain drain’. Against all odds, YBI has made Youngstown the place to be for B2B software developers.”

When so many said we couldn’t, we did. Come see for yourself.

You can review the report in its entirety here: http://www.policylink.org/ToBeStrongAgain.pdf

Jim Cossler
Chief Evangelist
Youngstown Business Incubator
330.884.6262
www.ybi.org

V & M Star Hosts Science & Technology Teachers Camp for YBI’s TH3 Program

NEOinc — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:12:02 +0000

YBI’s Third Thursdays at 3 is a networking and educational forum that brings together innovative and progressive people with a vision - to create and sustain an innovative and entrepreneurial environment in the Mahoning Valley. TH3 events are for local companies to showcase new technologies, for technology organizations to share their resources, for entrepreneurs build relationships, for educators to highlight their initiatives. Sponsored by the Youngstown Business Incubator, the forum provides a place for innovative talk, robust debates and inquiring minds.

V & M Star Hosts Science & Technology Teachers Camp for 7/17/08 TH3

V & M Star will host over 30 science and technology teachers who are attending the 2008 ASM Materials Camp, a science and technology workshop sponsored by Youngstown State University’s Center for Transportation and Materials Engineering and The Industrial Information Institute for Education, Inc (4 I’s).

This free camp is in its 4^thyear at YSU and will focus on manufacturing technology that can be introduced into the classroom. The 4 I’s provides economic and career-based educational opportunities to students and educators and builds collaboration between education and the business community in the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys. Activities in the areas of science, guidance, and economic education are developed for elementary and secondary schools with an emphasis on economic education and understanding of private sector organizations.

Rhonda Williamson, Executive Director of the 4 I’s, states “We are thrilled that V & M Star is welcoming our teachers and exposing them to a modern manufacturing environment that they can then share with their students.”

“V & M Star is committed to supporting education in our community and is pleased to host this Third Thursday at 3 pm series that will allow teacher and industry leaders to exchange ideas on how to prepare our children for the workforce of tomorrow,” says Joel Mastervich, COO, V & M Star. “New technologies, an increased emphasis on science and technology, problem solving and a commitment to life-long learning are the keys to success in the advanced manufacturing field.”

The program is free but reservations are required.

Contact: Julie Michael Smith
Youngstown Business Incubator
330-259-7644 (O)
330-727-6292 (M)
jmsmith@ybi.org

Center of Excellence established in Youngstown

NEOinc — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:41:20 +0000

Some great news arrived late last week with an award of $2.1M from the Ohio Third Frontier Commission for the creation of the Center for Excellence in Advanced Materials Analyses at Youngstown State University in collaboration with the Ohio Supercompter Center and Fireline TCON, Inc., a portfolio company of the Youngstown Business Incubator.

Fireline TCON will utilize the new center to extend its research activities toward developing new refractory materials for the processing of liquid aluminum as well as new applications such as light weight vehicle braking systems and conformal body armor for military forces.

The is the second new multi-million dollar Center of Excellence to be announced in the past 12 months where a YBI portfolio company is named as a primary collaborator.

Positive change in Northeast Ohio - June 2008 Recap

NEOinc — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:50:01 +0000

Well, welcome to the halfway point of 2008. That went quick, didn’t it? What started out as a slow month, ended on a high note with lots of positive announcements throughout the region. We’ve summarized a nice selection after the break.

June also saw one of the blogs we follow “going dark”, as they say. Chris Varley’s Tech Futures blog, which grew out of a NorTech study around technology-based economic development, signed off this month with the following note:

The TechFutures site will remain up for some time to come, but this will be the last blog post in this forum. As NorTech adapts to the changes around it, new priorities are emerging and new initiatives are being launched. We invite you to revisit the stories and history of this project here on this site, but even more than that we encourage you to get and stay involved in the new projects NorTech and other economic development groups in the region pursue in the months and years to come.

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

June ‘08 Recap

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.

Youngstown Business Incubator Welcomes Director of National Science Foundation

NEOinc — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:23:30 +0000

Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI) welcomes a special guest speaker to its Third Thursday at 3 (TH3) series on Monday, June 23^rdat 7:30 a.m. at Youngstown State University’s Moser Hall. Dr. Arden L. Bement, Jr., Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) will discuss NSF’s role in industry, economic development and education.

Dr. Bement heads the only federal agency that funds research and education in all fields of science and engineering. He directs a budget of more than $6 billion; hundreds of programs that support roughly 200,000 scientists, engineers, educators, and students across the country; and the development of world-class facilities and infrastructure. Since the launch of the American Competitiveness Initiative in 2006, he has overseen numerous initiatives that strengthen the U.S. innovation base and economic position and intensify the training of the U.S. workforce to operate in a high-tech global economy. He has expanded NSF’s centers of excellence program to encompass dozens of science and engineering disciplines partnering with industries and educators.

YBI is partnering with the Office of Congressman Tim Ryan (D-17) and Youngstown State University’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics for this special TH3 presentation. Dr. Bement will also give remarks and view poster presentations on various research topics by YSU students in YSU’s Ward Beecher Hall following the TH3 speech.

The program is free but reservations are required at 330-259-7644 or jmsmith@ybi.org.

Third Thursdays at 3 is a networking and educational forum that brings together innovative and progressive people with a vision - to create and sustain an innovative and entrepreneurial environment in the Mahoning Valley. TH3 events are for local companies to showcase new technologies, for technology organizations to share their resources, for entrepreneurs build relationships, for educators to highlight their initiatives. Sponsored by the Youngstown Business Incubator, the forum provides a place for innovative talk, robust debates and inquiring minds.

Positive Change in Northeast Ohio - May 2008 Recap

NEOinc — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 07:00:04 +0000

With nighttime lows that have dipped into the 30’s recently, it’s hard to believe we are making the turn into Summer, but here we are in June already. The temperatures are quickly on the rise (if only the Indian’s bats were heating up as well), and the Summer Solstice is only a couple weeks away.

Lot’s of good economic development news hit in May. Selfishly, we here at NEOinc are most proud of Mike LeHere’s award by the National Business Incubation Association as the top incubator innovator of 2008. Mike is the CEO of the Akron Global Business Accelerator (AGBA) and the innovation was the Global Technology Commercialization Initiative in conjunction with the City of Akron. Three links to separate articles are in the list below, but since we write this blog, we’re linking here too. Follow this link to read our original article on Mike.

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

May ‘08 Recap

Sources

NEOinc watches the following regional blogs. Please use our “Contact Us” page 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.
Tech Futures - This site grew out of a five month process that began in February 2005 when NorTech engaged Global Business Network (GBN), one of the world’s premiere scenario planning consultancies, to help evaluate the region’s strategic options and the role technology-based economic development could play in revitalizing our economy.

Third Frontier Grant Awarded to YBI Portfolio Company

NEOinc — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:05:29 +0000

We are thrilled to report that Syncro Medical Innovations, a portfolio company of the Youngstown Business Incubator, has been awarded a highly competitive $350,000 technology commercialization grant from Ohio’s Third Frontier program.

The funding will be used to help bring to market the company’s proprietary medical feeding tube technology which utilizes external magnets for tube guidance and placement.

Yep, a cutting edge medical device manufacturing company…

…in Youngstown, Ohio.

Jim Cossler
Chief Evangelist
Youngstown Business Incubator
330.884.6262
www.ybi.org