By Whit Richardson, BDN Staff
Posted Oct. 02, 2012, at 7:12 p.m.
Last modified Oct. 03, 2012, at 9:39 a.m.
PORTLAND, Maine — Five promising Maine companies have been selected by Blackstone Accelerates Growth to receive specialized business mentoring services, and to serve as the core of two new regional “innovation hubs” in Portland and Bangor.
Whit Richardson | BDN
Ben Polito, co-founder and CEO of Pika Energy in Gorham, moved back to Maine to start his wind energy company, and says the state's "entrepreneurial ecosystem" has already helped him in that endeavor. Buy Photo
The innovation hubs will act as “catalysts” for entrepreneurial activity in Portland and Bangor by offering and supporting a focused set of services and networking activities, said John Voltz, executive director of Blackstone Accelerates Growth, Tuesday morning at a press conference in Portland.
Read more: Blackstone selects 5 Maine companies to pioneer innovation hubs
By Lauren Reeves
Posted on Oct. 28, 2012, at 9:54 p.m
The second-annual University of Maine Epic Fashion Show, hosted by Her Campus, turned out to be another great success. The Tuesday night show raked in $233 for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a foundation that supports breast cancer research.
Also known as the “Collegiette’s Guide to Life,” Her Campus is an online magazine that targets female college students. Chapters have emerged in different colleges and universities throughout the country.
UMaine grad student Jennifer Hooper is using Innovation Engineering practice in her graduate work as an Intermedia MFA student. Hooper launched a project called "spark!" in November 2012. Her goal is to create ways for Bangor community members to express ideas about making Bangor a better place in fun, interesting, and provocative ways. "I want to create forms of community express that extend beyond traditional forms such as ballots, council meetings, surveys, or public hearings."
The first "spark!" project was a community engagement at the downtown Bangor artwalk
on November 16, 2012. Hooper created "fill-in-the-blank" labels that asked visitors to finish this sentence: "With a magic wand, I would make Bangor better by..." As the labels were completed, they were affixed to the storefront window of 81 Main Street (the future home of River City Cinema). The stickers remained on the storefront for several weeks, with blanks available for additional contributions. "The project has been very well received," Hooper says. "People have been very enthusiastic and eager to participate."
Hooper knows it's too early yet, but hopes that over time "spark!" will inspire and create change in Bangor, and she has ideas for future engagements. In the meantime, she posts a "spark! of the day" on Facebook and Twitter to reflect the ideas back that have been collected back to the community.
To connect with "spark!" check out these links:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sparkbangor
Website: http://www.spark-bangor.com
Hall Internet Marketing, Maine’s largest 100% interactive agency, announced that they have joined forces with mobile application development firm, LabelTop Software, to complement their existing mobile marketing and mobile web offerings. Prior to adding LabelTop’s native web app expertise, Hall completed development of their responsive design mobile framework and mobile landing page framework, both work hand in hand with their mobile SEO and mobile advertising programs that they provide to many national brands.
“Following the completion of our successful mobile web framework and our responsive design process, it is exciting to have the opportunity to complete that suite of skills and offer native app development and distribution,” says Tom Hall, president of Hall Internet Marketing, “This gives us a strong competitive advantage in mobile marketing as we go head to head with regional and national agencies in this rapidly evolving space.”
Read more: Hall and LabelTop Software Join Forces to Provide Mobile App and Marketing Solutions
Owners of new businesses undaunted by economyBy Jessica Hall Staff Writer
Morning Sentinel, July 1, 2012
The Great Recession and an economy that has remained sluggish have provided a daunting backdrop to would-be entrepreneurs over the past few years.
But even with unemployment among young adults more than double that of the rest of the state’s work force, some ambitious twenty-somethings in Greater Portland have bucked the odds and started their own businesses.
These young entrepreneurs say their projects grew out of longtime dreams, fueled with unending confidence and nurtured with some raw nerve and naivete. One found inspiration amid the scraps of sail cloth on a sewing room floor, another juggles a second job overnight to finance a daytime dream of running a surf shop, while a third had the courage to scrap her business plan and start over after a misstep.
On May 2nd, University of Maine President Paul Ferguson, GWI, Inc. CEO Fletcher Kittredge, national Gig.U Executive Director Blair Levin were joined today by local and regional business and municipal leaders to announce GWI’s plans to build an ultra-high-speed, Gigabit Main Street Internet Network in the Old Town and Orono communities surrounding the University of Maine campus to drive innovation and create economic opportunity. University of Maine and Innovation Engineering student Nate Wildes stole the show with his comments. Check out the video at http://www.youtube.com/embed/sxWK01902gY.
The University of Maine Business Challenge held its first award ceremony on Saturday at the Wells Conference Center, with a team of brothers taking first place for their business project, Aerial Fly.
First-place winners Luke and Jake Thomas won $5,000 and start-up business support from the challenge’s contributing companies. Second place was awarded to Shannon Byers and her business, Best In Show Paws; she received a $1,000 prize.
James Morin, Matt Ciampa, Owen McCarthy and Sangam Lama, all 2010 UMaine graduates, founded the competition.
“In its simplest form, which doesn’t do it any justice, it’s a business concept competition involving a business plan and a business pitch,” Morin said.
The four final businesses were offered the opportunity to start on the right foot with the chance to win the top $5,000 prize and “a basic business starter kit, if you will, with legal services, consulting, advertising [and] product development,” Morin said.
