The 03.10.05 Northeast Ohio Business Plan Challenge networking event at the Tower Press Building was a lively party where 100s of entrepreneurship champions enjoyed a brisk snowy evening to explore business opportunities, fine art and a great historic property in the heart of downtown. The event was designed to heighten awareness of this competition for innovative business plans, which awards a total of $120,000 across many categories. This was not the usual entrepreneurial suspects seen at so many
business soirees - this was a young, hip, diverse group that appeared
they could accomplish anything, and attendees seemed happy to be there to share good cheer.

The Cleveland Institute of Art's vision for strengthening NEO Design is an encouraging development. In the tradition of Hugh Greenlee and Victor Schreckenghost - honored seatholders in the Pantheon of Cleveland designers - the region's design center credentials are getting burnished.

"Searching for Success" - Leslie Carruthers of The Search Guru and moderator stresses the importance of application of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques being discussed. The topics included both pay per click and organic ranking of all major spidering search engines.

Tower City and Tower City Cinemas are often empty and eerily
quiet, even on a Saturday night, but that all changes during the Cleveland
International Film Festival. This past Saturday night the 29th
Cleveland International Film Festival transformed Tower City and its
surrounding areas into an energy infused cultural event that felt distinctly
unfamiliar and un-Cleveland like. A diverse group of thousands of people,
flowed through the building excitedly talking about the films they had seen or
planned to see.

Connect
with Academia to Build a Sustainable Economy

An
E4S
Third Tuesday Networking Event

Tuesday,
March 15, 2005

5:30
- 6:15 P.M. Networking
6:15 - 7:30 P.M. Presentation/Dialogue
7:30 - 8:00 P.M. Networking

Great
Lakes Brewing Company - Tasting Room (entrance
on Carroll Avenue)

Location

Notacon is the second iteration of a yearly technology, arts and music event held at the Cleveland Holiday Inn.

Location

The inventor of Moore's law and a co-founder of Intel spoke recently of the loss of competitive advantage in Silicon Valley that offers either a warning or opportunity for NEO, highlighted with "Other areas have picked up on the technology - it's spread around to a lot of other places", "We have very formidable competition in the world. I think the
impact of China is just beginning to be felt," and "Chief among the challenges ahead for Silicon Valley is the
relative weakness of the U.S. public education system, which Moore
characterized as a problem for the entire country."

Location

March 29: “CIA
Design & Technology Transfer Center: A Showcase for Sustainable Business
Development in NEO"

Location

March 15: "A
Holistic Approach to Developing Cities and Regions" 

Michael

Location

Joe Stanley a 5th year interior design major at the Cleveland Institute of Art gave a presentation on his senior project to an enthusiastic crowd at the Peter B. Lewis building at 2 p.m. today as part of REALNEO. Joe's senior project is an ambitious vision for CIA, University and the City of Cleveland. It was exhibited at 1300 Gallery this past fall along with the work of several of his classmates. Joe's project and those of his classmates were destined to be forgotten after the exhibition (which only lasted one night), but Joe's project has been given new life through REALNEO. Joe has his own COIL at REALNEO called neomainstreet. neomainstreet contains images of Joe's models and drawings, a discussion of his design philosophy and its context within contemporary and historical trends in architecture and civic planning. Its a fascinating site of local, national and international interest!

WOW - WOW - WOW – Draft Notes - I stepped in late to Natural History
Director Bruce Latimer's talk on sustainability of sustainability with sobering
insight from a biologist on evolution of man, that we are on a run away train
headed toward the abyss, that termites are more important to the Earth than
humans, that we are all Africans, that man is hard wired to compete, and that
odds are 60/40% against the survival of humanity. He is not hopeful mankind -
man unkind - will survive more than the next few generations. He sees the only
hope of human survival is that we hijack our hard wiring to compete with
economic reward for doing the right things - getting together like we are today
and talk about the problems and find the right solutions - and we must do that
at a global level. China will not decide they want less than Americans and we
already need 4 planets Earth to support what we already consume.

The City Club of Cleveland's innovative Youth Forum Series featured a fantastic event on 03.07.08 for participants in the Student Group on Race Relations (SGORR), where probably around 200 high school students and educators and youth care professionals participated in discussions on issues of social consciousness.Â

Ideastream broadcast an interesting community discussion show called Ideas, Sunday at 11 AM (after broadcast of the City Club Forum, which is also excellent), which this week covered the Fund For Our Economic Future's annual report to the community, held last week at the Akron Inventors' Hall of Fame. The show featured a panel of foundation leaders talking about Voices & Choices, led by America Speaks (see related Plain Dealer article), a $3 million, 18 month initiative for facilitated dialogue among up to 100,000 area residents on their issues and views about the future of this region. The FFOEF believes this effort will help local leaders set agendas, and educate the public.

Are you the representative of a nonprofit organization? New to fundraising?
Learn how to get in shape to raise funds and how to
identify prospective funders. Find out how the Center's
resources can help you become a more effective grantseeker.

Location

REALNEO is a free open source social network established to
support dialogue and inclusion among all people interested in Northeast Ohio, at all levels. Visitors are
welcome to create an account and add content. Volunteers developing these social networking capabilities host this
oriantation on how to use these virtual tools for collaboration -
please join us all at the Peter B. Lewis building as we focus on
collaboration

Location

Dan Cuffaro, CIA IDSA Industrial Design Chair - for this last presentation in the "Young Artists Series", Dan speaks on "Innovations in Art and Design". Dan
explains he graduated from CIA in 1991 and, after working here until1994
(including for Greenlee-Hess), he spent 10 years in Boston, where he worked
up the Industrial Design industry to design director - his job then
included hiring young designers. In 2003 he was hired back to Cleveland as CIA
ID Chair, and he is redesigning the program to prepare students to thrive in
the design world he knows from the inside and out, in NEO and beyond.

You are invited to attend an air quality
workshop at the offices of the Northeast Ohio Areawide
Coordinating Agency (NOACA) to begin the public participation process for the
Ozone and Particulate Matter State Implementation Plans (SIPs).

As you
may already know, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA)
designated the counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina,
Portage, and Summit as in nonattainment for the new 8-hour ozone standard. The
USEPA designated Ashtabula (partial), Cuyahoga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage,
and Summit as in nonattainment for the new fine particulate (PM2.5) standard.
These designations require that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, with
local input, submit SIPs to USEPA that would bring Northeast Ohio into
attainment for both of these pollutants.

Please join us for a free,
public informational event that will include presentations on the air quality
issues that Northeast Ohio faces, talks by affected industries, discussion of
the Ohio EPA SIP development process, and an overview of potential attainment
strategies. Continental breakfast and lunch will be provided.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005
9:00
a.m. until 2:30 p.m.
NOACA Board Room
1299 Superior Avenue
Cleveland,
Ohio 44114

Please RSVP by e-mail
to Pam Davis at pdavis [at] mpo [dot] noaca [dot] org
or by calling (216) 241-2414, Extension 284. Your participation is appreciated.
We look forward to talking with you. 

Location

American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) and Michael Wyatt, Director of Training and Tracy
Rohrbaugh, Associate Training Coordinator for Matco Tools.  Topics include: Capturing the stake holders; Understanding your companies planning and budget cycle; Developing a 1 year and 3-5 year implementation plan; The role of continuous improvement in training. $25.00 members $35 nonmembers. Registration 440-835-3579 or email at astd [at] apk [dot] net

Location

We the Region: Fund for Our
Economic Future Annual Meeting

Monday, February 28, 8 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
at National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron - The Ohio Grantmakers Forum is
hosting speaker Manuel Pastor, who will offer an analysis of why regional action
is so essential in today's global economy. Representatives from the Gallup
Barometer Study will report on citizen perceptions of NE Ohio, and case study
highlights of regional initiatives--BioEnterprise, JumpStart, NorTech, and Team
NEO--will be provided. Tickets: $50. Reservations: 216.861.6223 or www.ohiograntmakers.org.

Location

Pinker is best known for his books on language: The Language Instinct (1994), How the Mind Works (1997) and Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language. In 2002 he published The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, which explored the political, moral and emotional colorings of human nature. The Distinguished Lecture series is designed to bring prominent

Location

The State of NanoBusiness in the U.S. Today

For more information, visit

http://nanobusiness.org/

Location

You might not think of a public library as the "in" place to be, but some teenagers do! The Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago reports on ideas being developed for new roles that public libraries can play in developing our youth. Here's what they say: "With growing numbers of teenagers visiting libraries to socialize, do homework, and use computers as well as the Internet, libraries have found themselves pressed to address the needs of this group. Although nearly a fourth of library patrons are teenagers, libraries traditionally have devoted less of their space, personnel, and financial resources to services for teens than to any other age group. An evaluation of the Public Libraries as Partners in Youth Development, a nine site demonstration project funded by the Wallace Foundation, suggests that communities should take a closer look at the role that public libraries can play in strengthening the skills of teenagers, building the capacity of libraries as institutions, and connecting libraries more closely to communities. The study suggests that library-based youth programs, especially in low- income communities, can teach teens specific job skills at the same time that they make libraries more visible assets in the community." Click to read New on the Shelf: Teens in the Library

Learn how other regions have been successful in creating ready-to-go,
pre-permitted properties for development. Cleveland Neighborhood
Development Coalition, Shorebank and Westside Industrial Retention and

Location