Robert Amundson is taking his company, 2DigitMedia, into the healthcare field in a big way. A recent issue of MED Magazine (June 2010) featured this Sioux Falls start-up and graduate of the N2TEC Institute's Tech Accelerator Program, which is giving healthcare providers a new way to use text messaging to communicate with their patients.
Scott Meyer, a 2009 N2TEC Technology Accelerator participant, represented N2TEC Institute at the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators' Alliance (NCIIA) in San Francisco recently.
Four of the N2TEC Technology Accelerator teams pitched their businesses to investors Monday evening at a Deal Dating event sponsored by N2TEC Institute and the South Dakota Enterprise Institute. The event was the culmination of an 8-week intensive program designed to get these businesses organized and launched.
On June 12, Sioux Falls Public Radio's Dakota Midday focused on Innovation and the N2TEC Technology Accelerator Program. Cara Hetland welcomed Kathleen Allen, the author of more than 15 books in the field of entrepreneurship and technology commercialization. Also appearing was Dan O'Neill, the Director of Entrepreneurial and Research Initiatives at Arizona State University.
N2TEC Director Delore Zimmerman of Grand Forks ND has made a big difference for a number of people in the African country of Ghana. Zimmerman, who is president of Praxis Strategy Group, organized a group to import pineapples to North American via a sustainable farm community project. Zimmerman is also organizing the first agricultural expo for Ghana, brining in participants from across north America. See the attached article for more about this important project.
The N2TEC Institute is kicking off its new Technology Accelerator summer program designed to jumpstart technology companies. Based on a national search for new technology companies, four entrepreneur teams were selected for the Technology Accelerator program. The teams will be awarded $15,000 each in seed capital and will spend 8 weeks in South Dakota with access to industry and professional experts to help them launch their businesses. The companies will also participate in business workshops, networking opportunities, access to potential investors, and mentoring.
N2TEC Institute recently announced the four teams whose start-up businesses will take part in the 2009 Technology Accelerator Program in Sioux Falls, South Dakota beginning in June. They will be awarded grants of $15,000 each and spend 8 weeks in incubators in Sioux Falls and Vermillion to refine their businesses and get ready to launch.
Applied technology and entrepreneurial spirit lay just beyond your city gates in the rural landscape. Tapping and supporting this talent requires a combination of boots-on-the-ground evangelism—“success starts right here”—and, to develop these rural assets, the support of local community colleges, tech schools, high schools and regional universities. This is an interesting paper by Michael S. Summers, Director of Technology Development and Commercialization at California State University, Fresno.
Throughout American history, infrastructure investment has played a critical role in economic development; infrastructure is one of the basic building blocks of economic opportunity. Long written off by much of the national media the American Heartland of America has been displaying new signs of life. Made up of thousands of rural small towns and hundreds of second andthird tier cities scattered across America, the Heartland represents the vast regions outside themetropolitan areas. Many retain strong ties to agriculture, forestry, mining or fishing but many also have made a steady and successful diversification to globally competitive manufacturing, energyinformation and other service industries.
In this paper Delore Zimmerman (CEO Praxis and N2TEC board member) and Joel Kotkin (Senior Fellow, New America Foundation) lay out their vision of infrastructure as the new competitive imperative for realizing the full potential of the Heartland.
In times of economic transitions, layoffs and downturns the number of folks starting new businesses dramatically increases. It is a great time to travel - air fares are inexpensive. We invite you to attend the 2nd annual Economic Gardening Boot Camp in Fairfield, Iowa on April 1-2 followed by the 6th Annual Rural Entrepreneurial Gathering on April 2-3.