Beckie’s March 2019 Message

Spring is coming, we promise!  Don’t forget that our April events are mixed up for April Fools. No joke, we are having Business Before Hours on our usual breakfast date (Thursday, April 11, 7-9AM) at Fishbones and Breakfast for Dinner on our usual Business After Hours night (Thursday, April 18, 4:30-7PM).

And just to get you prepared to be off schedule, the March Business After Hours is one week later than usual on Thursday, March 28 at Side By Each, our newest LA Metro brewery. This event is the night before the Magnetize Maine Summit sponsored by Uplift LA.  Please send young professionals from your business or organization to this important conversation about Maine’s economic future, click here for more information.

And just in case there is more snow in our future, our friends at MDOT show us how to save our mailboxes from destruction click here.

KUDOS to our local educators!

Jim Horn from Edward Little High School has designed a 2-year aviation program partnering with UMA beginning this September. Nine area high schools are invited to participate. The EL videography class is doing video promotion to send to schools and air on local public access stations.

New Ventures Maine, in collaboration with Lewiston Regional Technical School, Central Maine Community College (CMCC), and other community planning partners, are offering a hands-on, half-day conference designed to encourage girls to consider careers in fields traditionally populated by men. The Totally Trades Conference will bring together over one-hundred ninth-graders from particular schools in Androscoggin County on Friday, May 17.

Maine International Trade Center is hosting the New Product GlobalShowcase at Maine International Trade Day. This annual event – with over 300 attendees including Maine business professionals, investors, government officials, R&D groups, representatives from foreign trade and consular offices, and media – provides excellent exposure for entrepreneurial, innovative companies.

Does your company have a new product or service? If so, enter today! The New Product Global Showcase is open to all Maine companies and industries. To be eligible, the product or service:

This is a juried process, and participation is limited. Questions? Contact Tom Conley at 207-553-7708. LEARN MORE

You are invited to a Climate Round Table at the Chamber on Thursday, March 21.  Small businesses have a big part to play, and a lot to gain, in efforts to improve Energy Efficiency throughout Maine. Join the Maine Climate Table, business leaders, service providers, and others committed to promoting energy efficiency in our state for a convening that will explore opportunities, challenges, and resources for small businesses seeking to improve energy efficiency in their operations. The day will include facilitated discussion sessions, a resource panel, and a networking lunch. Registration required click here.

As part of the Francophone Francophile Network, Museum LA has secured an intern from Quebec from March 25 to June 14 to complete our cultural heritage trail to link to the international network of trails.  We need housing for her stay. She speaks both French and English. If you know anyone who may have a room where she could also have access to cooking, or a furnished apartment, or camp (she has a car) please be in contact with Rachel Desgrosseilliers at rachel@museumla.org.

This year, the Maine Tourism Association will be hosting its 98th Annual Meeting as the tourism reception at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism on April 9 & 10, 2019. The opening reception will be held at the Governor Hill Mansion in Augusta. This reception includes hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar and networking with tourism professionals across the state.

It’s time to update your free 2019 event listings on VisitMaine.com! The VisitMaine.com website is a key resource for the Maine Office of Tourism marketing and PR teams for information to use in response to inquiries from Travel Media, and in selecting events to feature in social media posts @VisitMaine with 200K+ combined FB and Instagram followers, and in MOT’s consumer email distributed monthly to approximately 390,000 potential visitors.Visit the PartnerLogin page at MOTPartners.com for instructions on how to manage your VisitMaine.com listings.

The Retail Association of Maine is the host state this year for the annual Eastern States Retail Executive Conference in July. Each summer, the states from Maine to Virginia get together to discuss legislative issues of importance to the northeastern states. You are invited to join them! The event will take place at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, ME from July 14-17. For registration click here.

The SBA’s Emerging Leaders Program will take place at TechPlace facility on Brunswick Landing in Brunswick this year! They need your help to recruit interested small businesses.The SBA Emerging Leaders Initiative is a federal training initiative that specifically focuses on executives of businesses poised for growth in historically challenged communities. This initiative provides these executives with the organizational framework, resource network, and motivation required to build sustainable businesses and promote the economic development within underserved communities.

This training is for established business owners and is not for start-ups or people who are thinking about starting a business. The Emerging Leaders Initiative advanced training series is open to small business owners and executives that:

Please encourage interested businesses to apply at https://www.interise.org/sbaemergingleaders or contact Brad Currie at Bradley.currie@sba.gov or 207-248-9040.

Make Shift Coffee House is an initiative to get people from all walks of life to get together for food, coffee, music and conversation about what are often divisive issues. https://makeshiftcoffeehouse.com/  There is a Make Shift Coffeehouse coming up on Friday, March 22 at USM LA College in Lewiston. Click here for the flyer.

MaineCanDo was founded last year to help individuals, employers, and investors prevent future #MeToo incidents in the workplace. #MaineCanDo and Pan Atlantic Research have teamed up to conduct the first comprehensive survey of sexual harassment and workplace culture issues in Maine in the #MeToo era. This data will be used by organizations such as #MaineCanDo and the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault to understand and raise awareness of the level of workplace sexual harassment in Maine. This brief, confidential survey seeks observations and experiences in the workplace around this critical topic. https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/4839517/MANP. Responses from both employers and employees are strictly confidential. No identifying data will be collected, and all data that is collected will only ever be analyzed or reported at the state and county level – not by individual organization. Employee responses will never be matched to their employing organization.  If you’d like more information about how the data will be analyzed, please contact Jason Edes, Director of Research at Pan Atlantic Research at jedes@panatlanticresearch.com.

Applications are now being accepted for the 2019-2020 classes of the Maine Development Foundation’s Institute for Civic Leadership (ICL) and Leadership Maine classes. Now in their 27th year of bringing diverse groups of proven professionals together for powerful, experiential development, both programs have widespread impact on individual growth and the enrichment of entire communities.Register at https://mdf.wufoo.com/forms/ql86toh12xqrsf/