Are you a budding Martin Scorsese or Quentin Tarrantino and love livin' in Ypsi? As part of Ypsi's Open House, Concentrate presents the I Love Ypsi Video Contest. Local film auteurs who can translate their community crush into a two minute YouTube masterpiece stand to earn cash and prizes. Details inside!
Ypsilanti is making its voice heard in the vegan movement thanks to two bloggers taking part in the 3rd annual Vegan Month of Food, commonly referred to as VeganMoFo.The event is a virtual gathering of 350 bloggers, twitters and other assorted authors of the World Wide Web. They are posting at least five days a week about eating vegan throughout October in an effort to spread the word about consuming non-animal products."I tended to rely on online news sources for suggestions and substitutions for my cooking," says Jennifer Albaum, an Ypsilanti resident who is participating in VeganMoFo this year through her blog Scrumpdilly. "It's just a big resource for me today."Albaum points out this sort of virtual idea sharing is key because veganism isn't as prevalent in most of the Midwest, especially in small towns like Ypsilanti, which doesn’t have vegan-dedicated restaurants. Her blog and fellow Ypsilanti resident Mark Dickson's blog, Irreverent Vegan, are taking part of the event.An alphabetized list of all participating blogs can be found here and a link to the public RSS feed here. The original blog for the event organized by vegan chef and cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz can be found here.Source: Jennifer Albaum, author of the Scrumpdilly blogWriter: Jon Zemke
Systems in Motion isn't wasting any time breaking into the Ann Arbor-area market.The newest darling of the Silicon Valley IT start-up world chose Ann Arbor to make its first major investment earlier this fall. Today it will hold an information session about its Entry Level Training Program for the IT industry at Ann Arbor SPARK's East Incubator in downtown Ypsilanti, 215 W. Michigan Ave.The program is working with Michigan Works! To help people who have been laid off, are about to lose their jobs or in households making $40,000 a year or less to get a foot in the door in the growing IT industry. The training sessions will be held from November through January and they come with a good likelihood of future employment."They're basically recruiting with the understanding that the people going through the training will more than likely be hired," says Elizabeth Parkinson, vice president of marketing and communications with Ann Arbor SPARK.Systems in Motion is investing $15 million over the next five years to create a new IT support center in Ann Arbor. The IT firm expects to create 1,084 jobs with the investment. It is also evaluating investing in other marquee college towns, such as Austin, Texas and Durham, North Carolina.The California-based firm is only 3 months old but has already been able to lock down some venture capital funding and hire 20 people. Systems in Motion plans to create the next generation of IT infrastructure and workers by setting up IT support center at college towns across North America. The combination of the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University and Washtenaw Community College made the Ann Arbor area a prime target for Systems in Motion.For information on the IT information session, call (734) 484-7247 or send an email to amy@annarborusa.org.Source: Elizabeth Parkinson, vice president of marketing and communications with Ann Arbor SPARKWriter: Jon Zemke
Have a great idea... or two... or too many to remember ...or where you put the scrap of paper you wrote it down on? That is much less of a problem with Ideamine.The downtown Ann Arbor-based firm creates software that acts similar to a electronic personal assistant, organizing and prioritizing information ranging from emails to thoughts typed on a word processor. The 6-month-old company is getting its start at Ann Arbor SPARK's Central Incubator and plans to begin hitting the market with its product next year.This isn't the first start-up for Ideamine founder Eric Hass, but it's the first one he is quarterbacking on his own. Hass is bootstrapping the idea with his own money for now, but is open to some outside investment in the near future. He wants to stay in Ann Arbor or the Midwest, but admits that it's "tough to shake money out of the Midwest.""We'll go where the money takes us," Hass says.And he think Ideamine is going places fast. It currently employs two people and throws work at four independent contractors. He expects to grow his staff to 20 people by the end of next year.Source: Eric Haas, founder and president of IdeamineWriter: Jon Zemke
One of the leading photography accessory manufacturers calls Whitmore Lake home, and continues to grow in the small lake town just north of Ann Arbor.VANGUARD USA has just hired two new people for its local U.S. headquarters, expanding its payroll to 21 people. It plans to hire a handful more people within the next year as it continues to revamp and upgrade its product portfolio."It appears to be nothing but growth on the horizon," says Jody Lamb, marketing manager for VANGUARD USA.The company got its start in 24 years ago when Anne Lee, a native of Taiwan, began making tripods and ball heads for cameras. One of her colleagues had ties to Ann Arbor and persuaded to open up her U.S. office in Dexter shortly after she started the firm. A few years later it moved to Whitmore Lake and expanded its portfolio to include more photography equipment, such as camera bags.The company went international in the 1980s, expanding into the Japanese and European markets. It even started offering hunting/outdoors equipment in 1997. Today VANGUARD USA employs 3,000 worldwide. The company recently overhauled its product line, causing it to focus more on advertising and getting the word out about its new products. That has prompted the recent expansion of the Whitmore Lake office."There has been a great need to focus on marketing and customer outreach," Lamb says.Source: Jody Lamb, marketing manager for VANGUARD USAWriter: Jon Zemke
The Green Economy is nothing new to ACES InternationalThe downtown Whitmore Lake-based firm has made its money around an ethos of sustainability since 1997. That includes everything from installing alternative energy-generating systems (solar panels and wind turbines) to weatherizing homes. It's now looking to break into the lithium-ion battery improvement game."For anything to be sustainable you need to be diverse," says Tina Greenough, president and CEO of ACES International.She had climbed corporate ladders in the engineering and IT sectors for 13 years before striking out on her own with ACES International. "I thought I learned enough that I could do it myself," Greenough says.Today ACES International employs 14 people and has job openings for six more, specifically those in the trades that can help make buildings more energy efficient. The company has been able to double its staff in the last year as government spending has taken a greater interest in all facets of sustainability. ACES International is also looking at opening a New Jersey office and moving into a bigger building in downtown Whitmore Lake.Source: Tina Greenough, president and CEO of ACES InternationalWriter: Jon Zemke
Community High School's student newspaper, The Communicator, is up for a big award from the National Scholastic Press Association. It's up for News Magazine of the Year Award, which is the equivalent of the Pulitzer for high school newspapers. Community High School is located in Kerrytown and commonly referred to as Commie High. It's known for its academic excellence and the academic flexibility it gives its students. More about the award and Commie High's chances can be found here.
Main Street, Ann Arbor is a known quantity of vibrancy not only locally, but nationally now, too.Excerpt:South Main Street is downtown Ann Arbor's center of activity and community gathering place. The continuous rhythm of detailed masonry building storefronts right at the sidewalk's edge contributes to an exciting pedestrian environment. The City of Ann Arbor's continuous efforts to preserve these buildings — most housing locally owned businesses — ensures that the street's unique appearance and character remain intact.Read the rest of the story here.
Both of these cities can't thrive without the other.Excerpt:Detroit, meet Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor, meet Detroit.Sounds simple, but information technology executive Bruce McCully says it’s critical to his business.McCully, founder and CEO of Ann Arbor-based IT consulting firm Dynamic Edge, believes that southeast Michigan can’t fully recover from its economic disaster without Ann Arbor and Detroit joining forces.Read the rest of the story here.
What's the tie that binds Ann Arbor Sioux Center, Iowa? Movies.Excerpt:In many cases, the cultural differences in our communities stand out the most – more than economic or political differences.This week, we are traveling with PBS’s “NewsHour” to what may be two of the most culturally different communities in our breakdown: Ann Arbor, Mich., a young and collegiate “Campus and Careers” locale, and Sioux Center, Iowa, a rural and agricultural “Tractor Country” site.But using at least one cultural marker, we find that the cities share something in common – or they appear to: a love of the movies. We analyzed a 2006 survey from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and found interesting similarities in moviegoing habits between “Campus and Careers” and “Tractor Country.”Those two community types have the most avid moviegoers, according to the survey. About 14 percent of the people polled in each type say they attend the movies once a week or more. That’s far more than the average of about 5 percent.Read the rest of the story here.
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