Blogs
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
"I speak the language of Main Street, Ann Arbor USA." Some refer to Ed Vielmetti as the Kevin Bacon of Ann Arbor. But chances are there's less than six degrees of separation between you and he. Ed has spent over 20 years building, teaching, and adapting Internet services to community and local needs. In 2006 he was recognized by
BBC News as one of the pioneering users of the World Wide Web. Ed will be writing about the power of wiki's and blogs.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Bob Guenzel is the Administrator for Washtenaw County. A U-M Law School graduate and resident of Ann Arbor, Bob has been deeply involved in local community organizations, sits on several boards and is currently the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for Ann Arbor SPARK. He will be writing about the potential opportunities our current economic downturn provides us, as well as leadership and literacy in Washtenaw County.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Adrian Pittman is co-founder and CEO of
Velocity Matters and
SOMTU MMS. An Ann Arborite, Adrian has more than 15 years of high-tech marketing and brand development experience. He will be writing about entrepeneurship, innovation and why he lives and works in Ann Arbor.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Nancy Shore is the Director of Ann Arbor’s getDowntown program. A graduate of U-M (M.S. Social Work in Community Organizing), she is resident of Ann Arbor and a committed advocate for sustainable transportation. Nancy will be blogging about why Curb Your Car Month matters, the need for public transportation in SE Michigan and more.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Mark Maynard publishes the magazine
Crimewave USA, puts out records,
draws comics, and
blogs when others sleep. He is one of the founders of Ypsilanti's popular
Shadow Art Fair, co-chair of
YpsiVotes, and a member of Ypsilanti's 2020 Task Force on the future of the city. He has a keen interest in economic development and will be writing about why he's enthusiastically chosen to live in Ypsilanti.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Concentrate wants to change the conversation about Washtenaw County. It's very easy to criticize what's wrong. But we believe it's just as easy to learn from what's right. So, who are "we?" Over the next week this blog will introduce you to the people and ideas behind Concentrate.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Mahendra Ramsinghani, our guest blogger this week asks: "By attracting a few entrepreneurs, a lot of economic challenges could be addressed. But could a bumper sticker attract the right entrepreneurs?" Read his final post to learn the answer.Ramsinghani is with
Plymouth Venture Partners in Ann Arbor. Check back here weekdays for more posts.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Thomas Meloche has been an entrepreneur for as long as he can remember. A native Detroiter and U-M grad, he co-founded, managed, and sold nine different start-ups in Michigan over 20 years, including the professional service firm, Menlo Innovations LLC. He is currently President of Procuit (pronounced Pro-Q-It) Inc. Thomas will be writing about untapped Michigan potential, and more importantly, how to tap it!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Ryan Rybolt is the COO of Infintech (Innovative Financial Technologies), a Cincinnati based company providing consultative payment processing solutions, product technologies and services to merchants, banks and non-profit organizations in nearly every industry throughout the nation. Beyond work, Ryan spends his time as the co-founder and director of Give Back Cincinnati, a 2000+ member social volunteering organization. Ryan was recently recognized as one of Cincinnati's top 100 Creative People and offered a position on the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce's Regional Leadership Forum.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Newcombe Clark is 27 years old and a partner in Ann Arbor -based Bluestone Realty Advisors, a commercial real estate brokerage and consulting firm. A U-M grad, he sits on nine different boards, is a published playwright and columnist and is currently in development of his first animated cartoon. He will be writing about all things living/working/playing in Metro Detroit as a member of the creative class. Just what do we have to offer to this important demographic and what do we still need?
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Mike is president and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK. A passionate advocate for the transformation of Michigan's high-tech economy he also managed the MEDC’s $1 billion Michigan Life Sciences Corridor initiative between 2000 and 2002. Mike will be wriing about who's making a difference in the Michigan and why.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Co-founder and vice president of Motawi Tileworks, Karim Motawi is half of a brother-sister team that turned their custom tile garage startup into a $2 million business. An entrepeneur and innovator, Karim explains how new ideas can bring small start ups big help.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Richard "Murph" Murphy is a computer geek turned urban planner living and working in Ypsilanti. He is also a seasoned blogger, having maintained his own site,
Common Monkeyflower since 2001, and contributed to
Arbor Update since 2004. Murph writes about the role of urban centers in a rapidly changing post-manufacturing economy. Join the conversation on our new interactive blog!
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Dr. Ron Suarez is our guest blogger this week. Ron is a serial entrepreneur and Arbor City Councilmember who recently founded Promovuz, offering digital music promotion, statistics and sales. He is also a Media Futurist at and the president of Object Insight, Inc., a software engineering firm. Ron uses his Ph.D. in Cognitive Science for his work with User Experience and Object Oriented Design.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Our guest blogger for this week is Tracy Koe Wick. Tracy is Principal of
The Kirkwood Group, a real estate consulting firm that markets and promotes new mid-rise and high-rise condominium and loft communities.