News

ELLISVILLE – With the desire to start their own business and be their own boss, nearly 150 high school students heard from some of the Pine Belt’s experienced business leaders.  This workshop opportunity, which is designed to stimulate the creative process and guide students into business, was offered through the Southern Entrepreneurship Program and...
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LINDEN, AL – “This presentation was the most needed, best prepared, long term thinking, demonstration I’ve ever seen; it is every small town’s dream,” said Tim Collins, a Linden resident and Georgia Pacific employee. Collins was referring to the charrette presentation Cheryl Morgan, Director of the Auburn Urban Studio, presented to a standing room...
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MERIDIAN – Niche enterprise opportunities, important news for entrepreneurs, interactive blog discussion forums, an improved registration process, and enhanced infrastructure and database systems highlight upgrades to the innovative MyBiz.am website.  “We want MyBiz to be the preferred web source for Mississippi and Alabama Entrepreneurs,” said Bill Crawford, director of the West Alabama – East...
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TUSCALOOSA – Experience matters in developing and motivating future entrepreneurs. “After working as a sales manager and then a general manager for a company in Atlanta, I decided to take the plunge and open my own company here in Tuscaloosa,” said Peter Gerkin.  “My eleven years running this business has given me the broad...
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HEIDELBERG – About 80 residents of Heidelberg turned out to begin the steps to revitalize their town.  “Incredible,” was how Randy Wilson, the principal architect of Community Design Solutions, based in Columbia, S.C., described the meeting. Wilson facilitated the planning charrette, or community design process and was impressed with the group.  “The people in...
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MERIDIAN – Mike Anderson must be doing something exciting at Meridian Community College (MCC).  Even his daughter is interested in his new “How to Start and Operate a Business” class. “Eighty percent of all businesses in the United States are small businesses – the backbone of our nation’s economy,” said Anderson.  “To grow our...
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  James Boyd Mickey White O.L. Robinson   By Suzanne Monk Director of Public Information East Mississippi Community College ARTESIA – When East Mississippi Community College established a Workforce Development program in 1993, Holcim Cement of Artesia was one of its first community partners. Plant manager James Boyd was president of the EMCC Workforce...
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Guided by hands-on experience and input from employers, the WAEM Alliance has modified its innovative M3 Credential.  The M3 Credential serves as a cornerstone strategy of the WAEM Regional Initiative.  Two stackable credentials, M3 Production Level and M3 Advanced Production Level, have now become three:  M3 Production Level I, M3 Production Level II, and...
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MyBiz now links services across Mississippi and Alabama “Economies are blind to state lines. Workforces are blind to state lines,” says Christian B. Reed, director of entrepreneurship development programs at the Montgomery Institute. “As institutions we have to remove the barriers to entrepreneurs and give them the resources and tools they need to launch,...
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The WAEM Region of West Alabama and East Mississippi is one of the great forest production areas in the U.S.  However, the current economic downturn is causing it to be one of the most devastated, too.  A “green” gold rush to biomass energy may lie in the near future. These and other points came...
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