USA Today Article - Population drop-off vexes Maine residents

By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news
October 31, 2010

CAMDEN, Maine — Trendy Brevetto Kitchen & Wine Bar is bustling on a recent Thursday, but not with a typical happy hour crowd. Less rowdy and mostly professional, the men and women wearing name tags are not here to hook up but link up.

They're members of Midcoast Magnet, one of several regional groups working to halt a population slide in one of the USA's most picturesque states.

Maine was one of three states whose population declined from 2008 to 2009 (Michigan and Rhode Island were the others). For the first time in 209 years, neighboring New Hampshire has more people than Maine, according to Census estimates.

The drop in Maine stems mostly from young people leaving for school and jobs and the birth rate dropping as those left behind age. Maine's median age (half are younger, half are older) is 42.2 — oldest in the USA.

YOUTH POPULATIONS DROP: Down in Northeast, Midwest
CENSUS: Slow growth in states

Maine traditionally has been divided between natives — "Mainers" — and those "from away," but this time, both are reaching out to bridge the gap.

Young and old at the mixer pause for small-group exercises. That night: How can you use your skills and connections to help someone else in the group?

The networking is keenly significant for hundreds of small Maine towns struggling to hang on to people and stave off declines in the tax base, the labor force and investment.

"Midcoast Magnet's mission is to attract, connect and retain talented people," says Amber Heffner, a "from away" who now heads the mostly volunteer organization. Heffner, 42, moved from Chicago, married a lobsterman and founded Little Harbor Technology, a Web design and database company in nearby Rockland.

Skip Bates, the former head, is a Mainer. The Bangor Savings Bank officer rattles off efforts to attract people and business: an initiative to bring high-speed Internet to rural Maine, a venture capital fund, grants to help new technology ventures and a "Juice 2.0 Conference" "powering the creative economy."

An aging state

People flock to Maine's spectacular coastline, steeped in tradition and dependent on lobstering, shipbuilding and tourism. Many out-of-staters who stay are retired and older. Maine, 95% white, has drawn few immigrants.

"We project that in 20 years, a quarter of our population will be of retirement age or higher," says state economist Michael LeVert. "We have to make sure that when folks in Boston or New Jersey think about starting a family or starting a business, they think of Maine," LeVert says.

Two-thirds of the state's 1.3 million people live in the lower third. The timber and paper mill industries that supported rural northern counties near Canada consolidated, and thousands of jobs disappeared.

"Clearly, the place has been grappling for 25 years with massive restructuring," says Mark Muro, director of policy for the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program.

Maine's self-reliance and local autonomy, rooted in New England's tradition of direct democracy and town hall meetings, may have stymied efforts for statewide and regional cooperation, but resistance wanes as the state shrinks and ages.

"The sheer impact of the Great Recession took some very comfortable communities and made them rethink their future," says Dan Bookham, who runs the Camden-Rockport-Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce.

'Let's all get out of here'

Frank Pavalkis, 24, who grew up near here, describes a common refrain of Maine's high school seniors: "Let's all get out of here."

He did and went to Boston's Northeastern University but eventually returned. He studies medical technology at the University College at Rockland and hopes to be hired by Pen Bay Healthcare, the large medical system in the area.

Among current efforts to revitalize Maine:

•The Council on Quality of Place works at turning the state's assets — natural and man-made — into jobs, products and services.

•The Ocean Energy Institute in Rockland is researching offshore wind energy research.

•Old paper mill equipment now makes molds for handbags and soccer cleats manufactured in China.

Young people "love the lifestyle ... the quality of place ... the scale of the community," says Laurie Lachance, president of the Maine Development Foundation. "We can shine the light on those things."

Youth is sprouting in the state Legislature. At 34, Hannah Pingree is the youngest woman in the USA to be a state House speaker. When she was first elected at 25, there were seven legislators age 40 or younger. Now there are 25.

Bettina Doulton was a hard-driving mutual funds manager at Fidelity in Boston — until she bought the Cellardoor Vineyard in Lincolnville. She says she has found the change of life she was seeking. "This area is a petri dish for entrepreneurs," she says.

Creative Economy - An article from 2000

This article is fr0m August 28th, 2000. Predictions for the Creative Economy. Interesting to see how it's progressed as predicted or not in 10 years.

The Creative Economy
Which companies will thrive in the coming years? Those that value ideas above all else

Adam Smith, the arch-capitalist, didn't like corporations. He wrote in 1776 in The Wealth of Nations that they breed ''negligence and profusion'' and ''scarce ever fail to do more harm than good.'' In his day, governments handed out corporate charters rarely and grudgingly. But a century later, as the required scale of enterprise grew, corporations came to the fore. They built railroads, steel mills, refineries, and other businesses of unprecedented size. In so doing, they played an indispensable role in what University of California at Berkeley economist J. Bradford DeLong calls the ''central fact'' in 20th century economic history: the greatest increase in material wealth ever.

Now the Industrial Economy is giving way to the Creative Economy, and corporations are at another crossroads. Attributes that made them ideal for the 20th century could cripple them in the 21st. So they will have to change, dramatically. The Darwinian struggle of daily business will be won by the people--and the organizations-- that adapt most successfully to the new world that is unfolding.

This Special Double Issue is an attempt to peer into the future to describe the look and feel of 21st century corporations. We draw on the insights of CEOs, venture capitalists, academics, consultants, and, of course, the cubicle dwellers who do the work. We look at management via the Web, the workplace of the future, the battle for talent, the ecosystem in which corporations will exist, job titles of the future, and much more. Our aim is to provide readers with insights that could help their own companies thrive in the decades ahead.

VIRTUAL VALUE. Let's start with the most important force of all: the growing power of ideas. In Adam Smith's time, most people worked on farms. Later, industry was ascendant. But the advanced economies have gotten so efficient at producing food and physical goods that most of the workforce has been freed up to provide services or to produce abstract goods: data, software, news, entertainment, advertising, and the like. You can see it in the statistics. The share of U.S. capital spending devoted to information technology has more than tripled since 1960, to 35% from 10% (chart). Fields such as biotechnology are booming. The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office hands out 70% more patents--about 170,000 last year--than it did just a decade ago.

People are cranking out computer programs and inventions, while lightly staffed factories churn out the sofas, the breakfast cereals, the cell phones. The physical content of the gross domestic product seems to be vanishing like Lewis Carroll's Cheshire cat. Although the U.S. is still often called an industrial economy, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by 2005, the percentage of workers employed in industry will fall below 20%, the lowest level since 1850. And the long lull in productivity growth seems behind us. If productivity increases 3% a year--below its recent rate--the average output per hour of work will double in 25 years. That will translate directly into higher living standards.

The turn of the millennium is a turn from hamburgers to software. Software is an idea; hamburger is a cow. There will still be hamburger makers in the 21st century, of course, but the power, prestige, and money will flow to the companies with indispensable intellectual property. You can see it already. At the end of last year, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), with just 31,000 employees, had a market capitalization of $600 billion. McDonald's Corp. (MCD), with 10 times as many employees, had one-tenth the market cap. Or take Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO)--a virtual place in a virtual medium, the Internet. Although far below its peak price, Yahoo trades at more than 40 times book value. If USX Corp.'s U.S. Steel Group (X) traded at the same multiple to book as Yahoo, its market capitalization would be nearly $90 billion, instead of less than $2 billion.

In an economy based on ideas rather than physical capital, the potential for breakaway successes like Yahoo is far greater. That's because ideas, like germs, are infectious. They can spread to a huge population seemingly overnight. And once the idea--say, a computer program--has been developed, the cost of making copies is close to zero and the potential profits enormous.

With the possibility of gargantuan returns, it's no wonder that idea-based corporations have easy access to capital. The pool of investable money has been swollen by the rising tide of wealth around the world, coupled with a new culture of investing. U.S. companies received nearly $50 billion in venture capital last year, 25 times as much as in 1990. The amount of money raised in U.S. initial public offerings last year, nearly $70 billion, was 15 times the amount in 1990. Both records are certain to be broken this year.

The sheer abundance of capital could be bad for the capitalists themselves, including ordinary investors in the stock market. That's because the commodity they supply--money--is no longer scarce. What's scarce are the good ideas. Thus, shareholders are likely to lose some power in the 21st century, while entrepreneurs and idea-generating employees gain it. Huge bonuses and option grants to key employees are early evidence of the trend. Raghuram Rajan, an economist at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, says it may be time to rethink the conventional wisdom that shareholders are entitled to all the profits of a corporation. Charles Handy, the British author of The Age of Unreason, even suggests that some corporations might become more like voluntary associations, run for the benefit of their working ''members.''

''FIGHTING ISSUE.'' The rising importance of ideas creates all kinds of difficulties for corporations. Books, music, and software are devilishly difficult to create--and diabolically easy to copy. China, for instance, is a counterfeiting machine. And now so is the Internet, thanks to services that enable people to download music, movies, and software for free. The legal battle over the biggest of the music piracy havens, Napster Inc., is a sign of things to come.

Theft of intellectual property is lethal to innovation. Yet overly strict enforcement of intellectual-property protections can dampen innovation as well by letting the property owners get lazy. Chuck D, the lead rapper for Public Enemy and a supporter of Napster, complains that record companies often buy rights to songs and then let them languish. To keep the Creative Economy growing, governments will have to strike a delicate balance: enforce patents, copyrights, trademarks, and noncompete clauses to preserve incentives to create, but not so much that it suppresses competition. ''Intellectual property is going to be the big fighting issue'' of the coming decades, predicts Lester C. Thurow, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist.

In the Creative Economy, the most important intellectual property isn't software or music or movies. It's the stuff inside employees' heads. When assets were physical things like coal mines, shareholders truly owned them. But when the vital assets are people, there can be no true ownership. The best that corporations can do is to create an environment that makes the best people want to stay.

Of course, not everyone will benefit equally from the shift to an information-based economy. High school grads' median weekly earnings are 43% less than those of college grads, far worse than the 28% gap in 1979. And education is likely to become even more essential to prosperity in the future. The five fastest-growing occupations in the U.S. are all computer-related, according to projections of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Corporations faced with a shortage of skilled help are likely to respond through a combination of training, exporting work offshore, and looking for ways to ''de-skill'' certain jobs. Fast-food cashiers, for instance, punch buttons for food items rather than keying in prices.

A NEW MIX. A chronic shortage of skilled help will be accompanied by a change in the mix of people in the workforce. The long-term trend toward earlier retirement has recently been reversed, with more older people looking to stay at work or return. Overall, a record 67% of the adult population is employed or looking for work, mainly because female participation in the labor force has jumped to 60% from about 50% two decades ago. And the ethnic mix of the workforce is changing, partly because the great American jobs machine is sucking in immigrants. The Census Bureau projects that by 2050, 53% of the U.S. population will be non-Hispanic whites, down from 74% in 1995.

The corporations that thrive will be the ones that embrace the new demographic trends instead of fighting them. That will mean even more women and minorities in the workforce--and in the boardrooms as well. Ted Childs, who runs IBM's (IBM) global diversity program, claims there are 350,000 unfilled jobs in the U.S. information-technology industry. ''I believe we're in a war for talent,'' he says, ticking off various IBM projects to develop talent among women, blacks, Asians, homosexuals, and other groups. ''None of this is charitable.''

The 21st century may see the emergence of a kind of ''welfare capitalism,'' in which corporations try to recruit and retain employees by providing services that in another era were provided by government agencies or families: assistance with child care and elder care, valet services, and so on. Their employees will handle more personal matters at work, and more work matters at home: The man in the gray flannel suit is becoming the man in the gray flannel shirt. Even floor plans are going New Age at places like SEI Investments Co. in Oaks, Pa. Computer linkups drop from the ceiling, and employees move from place to place as their assignments change.

While some freelance workers will jump from job to job like hired guns, companies like IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) want to have a core of careerists to provide continuity. ''Enduring relations with employees become an enormous asset, because those employees are what connects the company to its partners,'' says James N. Baron, a professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.

And just as companies want to hang onto a core of permanent employees, they'll want to retain some key business functions in-house as well. Forget the vision of the entirely ''virtual'' corporation in which nearly everything is outsourced. Clayton M. Christensen, author of The Innovator's Dilemma, points out in an essay written for this issue (page 180) that outsourcing won't work for cutting-edge products whose specifications are in flux.

Still, corporations in the 21st century will evolve new forms of close interaction. Silicon Valley is the exemplar of a new kind of interdependence: Skilled engineers jump between companies as easily as switching desks, and as they do, they spread ideas. ''In some ways, Silicon Valley performs as a large decentralized corporation,'' Philip Evans and Thomas S. Wurster of Boston Consulting Group Inc. write in their new book, Blown to Bits.

THE REAL ASSET: IDEAS. In the same way that the economy is losing weight--software instead of steel--corporations are getting lighter, too. They're able to generate lots of revenue and profit off a small base of assets and employees. Despite the merger wave of the 1990s, the most valuable companies in America aren't bigger by employment than the most valuable companies of a decade earlier. Comparing the 100 U.S. companies by market cap in 1989 with the corresponding group in 1999, the number of employees fell 3%, while the collective market cap rose 500%, according to data supplied by The McGraw-Hill Companies' Standard & Poor's.

Some of these trimmed-down businesses may emerge as more powerful than any corporations ever have been. In the industrial past, there were natural limits to the power of a strategically placed corporation. A corporation was restricted in how many businesses, or customers, or suppliers it could draw into its sphere of influence because there were natural limits on how many could be granted access to its crucial asset--say, a railroad terminal.

But in the Creative Economy, the power to exert influence is nearly unlimited because there's no ceiling on how many people can be made to depend on idea-based assets, notes the University of Chicago's Rajan. An example: America Online Inc.'s instant-messaging system. Companies will exercise power by sharing--or withholding--crucial intellectual property.

Global corporations will try to take advantage of their transnational status to operate beyond the control of national governments. They can play governments off one another through their decisions about where to locate factories or research labs. And many use unrealistic transfer prices to shift income from high-tax jurisdictions to low-tax ones. Last year, a General Accounting Office study reported that from 1989 to 1995, an outright majority of corporations, both U.S.- and foreign-controlled, paid zero U.S. income taxes.

For all the talk of a brave new world, nation-states aren't going away in the 21st century. So it's a good bet that there will be repeated clashes between corporations and the countries--and people--that play host to them. In response to the globalization of business, governments may coordinate their efforts to regulate corporations on issues ranging from taxation to pollution.

Of course, corporations have always been easy to hate. In 1612, British jurist Sir Edward Coke complained that they ''have no soul.'' In the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. warned of the alienation produced by ''gargantuan industry and government, woven into an intricate computerized mechanism.'' The past year's outcries against globalization spell trouble for transnationals ranging from Coca-Cola Co. (KO) to Exxon Mobil Corp. (XON), and there's no sign they're diminishing.

Still, corporations have a way of flourishing under changing circumstances. While some will go down with the dinosaurs, the corporate form itself has a good deal of flexibility. Many corporations have already begun to adjust to the new realities of the Creative Economy--by allowing power to tilt from the sources of capital toward the sources of ideas, by embedding themselves in fertile corporate ecosystems, and by adopting codes of social responsibility to win the trust of a wary public. Legally, a corporation is a person--a person who is potentially immortal. Let's see how these ageless characters handle the next 100 years.

By PETER COY

To read a letter to the editor about this story, click here.
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Eli's World

Written By Skip Bates

That’s another great thing about Maine. It’s not that life imitates art; it’s that art really illustrates life. Maine is the way life should be. The Wyeth’s lived in Cushing. You might recognize Christina’s World, by Andrew Wyeth, shown to the left.

Christina’s world is the Olson House, which is located in Cushing. The building is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, is open to the public and is part of the Farnsworth complex. But it is also just down the road from my friend Eli’s farm. Eli might just have the Wyeth’s topped. While the Wyeth’s are on their third generation, Eli is the fifth generation of Ellis family to live on the family homestead, known as Brookfield Farm.

Same peninsula, same early 19th century architecture, same values. Inspired by Maine’s beauty like the Wyeth’s, Eli became an artist, crafting beautiful woodwork to make a living, and creating a beautiful life in which to live. Eli still remembers the words of one of his high school teachers, who said, “Before you pick a profession, you have to pick a lifestyle.” Eli picked his early on, deciding to live close to the land.

He and his wife, Aura, were married under an oak tree on their property by the shore of Muscongus Bay. They raise most of their own vegetables, sell fresh eggs, and occasionally raise a pig or two (the last pair, named “Tender” and “Roaster” were particularly well fed). Eli’s grandmother lives in one half of the house. Aura’s grandmother, mother, sisters, cousins, nieces and nephew all live nearby. The families are connected to the earth and connected to each other. Eli’s world is a good one. .

Some people come to Maine as tourists, hungry for culture, taking in museums and concerts. Other people come to Maine as artists, making a living by illustrating the world for others’ consumption. But when they are finally ready, the people who live in Maine are a breed apart. Mainers are those who have chosen to make their life their art.

Giants in the Sky

Written by Skip Bates, Midcoast Magnet Board Member

Maine is famous for its natural beauty and its cultural heritage. Sometimes we experience culture by going to a museum and studying paintings by famous artists. If it’s a rainy day, what better place to take in some culture than in Rockland, home to the nationally renowned Farnsworth Art Museum? The Farnsworth is famous for its collection of three generations of the Wyeth family, including N.C., Andrew, and Jamie, whose works are all on display. I particularly love N.C. Wyeth’s heroic illustrations for early 20^th century novels including Last of the Mohicans, Treasure Island, and Robinson Crusoe, since they perfectly capture my still naïve young adult imagination.

I just love The Giant. If you ever visit Sand Beach in Acadia, Lucia Beach in Owls Head, or one of Maine’s other great (but virtually secret) sand beaches, you can practically relive the moment depicted in the painting by building castles with your own kids. Here’s a quick clip of some youngsters doing just that…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOg_HRjb3xM&feature=related

Or, for a slightly different perspective on Maine beaches, check out these skim boarders. Why don’t more people do this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wViAYFrgrtk&feature=related

¢ Sense for Life ¢

Written By: Skip Bates - Former Midcoast Magnet President

Midcoast Magnet’s goal is to attract, connect, and retain talented people in Maine. We foster projects that promote livability, sustainability, and economic vitality. Maine is a fabulous place to live, if you have a sense for good living. It can also be a great place to do business, if you have a sense for value. Making money and living well are not mutually exclusive ends.

One of the best kept secrets in the State: Maine’s Seed Capital Tax Credit Program. Want to make a guaranteed 60% return on your investments? Try putting your money in a Maine business! Think I’m kidding? Check it out at www.famemaine.com. Investors can take advantage of tax credits equal to 40-60% of their investment by investing in Maine companies engaged in either 1) manufacturing; 2) sale of goods or services with 60% of revenue derived from outside the State; 3) advanced technologies; or 4) attraction of significant permanent capital into the State.

Why send your money to Wall Street when you could put it to use on a Maine street?

Midcoast Magnet... Who, What, Why, How

Midcoast Magnet develops leaders in support of innovative projects that foster creativity, livability and economic vitality.

We're a non-profit organization of people dedicated to vibrant culture, entrepreneurship, and socially and professional networking.

Juice Conference: The Juice Conference is bi-yearly conference held in Camden. Juice is a forum for the exchange of ideas, the sharing of success stories, and the development of strategies for Maine’s future. Juice connects leaders of the creative economy to foster growth and prosperity. By weaving together the arts, technology, and entrepreneurship, Juice inspires innovation by bringing talented people together from widely different backgrounds to build on Maine’s traditions. Juice 3.0 November 11-12, 2011 www.juiceconference.org

Pecha Kucha: Pecha Kucha Night is an internationally recognized event based on a unique presentation style in which artists, designers and other creative individuals share twenty images, or each image. Pecha Kucha Night Rockland spans the midcoast, from Thomaston to Belfast, and strengthens community by bringing people of all ages together to consider ideas and images presented by various creatives in our area.

Build Green Maine: Build Green Maine was originated by Midcoast Magnet with the intention of connecting practitioners in the various areas of green building and renewable energy with each other and with homeowners and other stakeholders in Maine’s. BGM is currently going through a transformation. To learn more about it contact George Callas.

Juice Boxes: We want to keep the conversation moving in the creative economy and between Juice conferences. In support of this effort we will be producing quarterly events, called “Juice Boxes”. Each Juice Box will be crafted with specific sectors of the creative economy in mind, at least two sectors, bringing them together, having speakers, panelists, a dialogue or theme to be continued from Juice, the ability to walk away with a new or improved skill, and ample time to network. The sectors focused on, but not limited to, are: the arts, entrepreneurship, investment, fundraising, networking, technology, and innovation.

Wanna Social Network… In Real Life?: We held some focus groups last year and it became apparent to us that the 20/30 demographic in Midcoast Maine wants to be more involved. We have designed some events to bring them together to socialize, network and tell them more about the events we have coming up. We had the kick off event in March at Billy’s Tavern and it was a great success! We will be having more. These events are not meant to exclude, but actually the opposite – they’re meant to include! Learn more on our website or facebook.

Monthly Networking Events: Midcoast Magnet will broadcast events happening within the community and invite interested parties to go to the event together. At least one of our board members will be there to welcome and network with you. The outings range from art walk nights, plays, techy gatherings, and more. Let us know if you have an event you would like to promote and we will add it to our calendar and put it in our newsletter.
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Many Ways To Get Involved...

• Start coming to events! Email info@midcoastmagnet.com to get on the list. You will receive updates on upcoming MM events, as well as other happenings in the Midcoast and beyond.

• Stay tuned for the new www.midcoastmagnet.com - we will be announcing it soon.

• Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/midcoastmagnet

• Join our board: The Midcoast Magnet board is always expanding and always looking for people that want to contribute. We would love to meet with anyone interested! Email Amber Heffner and come to our next board meeting.

• Join a committee: We welcome volunteers for all of our programs! You don’t have to be a board member to join a committee. Contact the Committee Chair for more information.

Pecha Kucha: mary.bumiller@bangor.com

Build Green Maine: georgemcallas@msn.com
Juice Boxes: kimberlycallas@mac.com
Monthly Networking: jasiecostigan@yahoo.com
Juice 3.0: aheffner@littleharbortech.com
Fundraising: skip.bates@bangor.com
Social Networking: jasiecostigan@yahoo.com

What Is The Creative Economy?

By: George Callas

The 2009 Juice 2.0 Conference: Building Maine’s Innovation Networks brought together a great cross section of Maine’s leadership under the banner of the Creative Economy. We at the Midcoast Magnet have been buzzing about the roles that creative types can play in developing our state’s future, ranging from gubernatorial candidates and legislators to artists, bankers to technologists, builders and preservationists to dancers, educators to social networkers and so on, The connections and hats worn vary and run the gamut.

The Creative Economy, like the weather, is something that everyone seems to have an opinion about. With vague notions about what it actually is, it is hard for individuals and organizations to coordinate activities and commit resources towards its advancement.

The first level attempt to define the creative economy is deciding who makes up the creative class; the economic agents of creativity. Right out of the gate, we tend to think of the artists, isn’t all of their work creative? But in the core, the artists are also joined by the scientists, engineers, architects, designers, and software developers, along with those in the entertainment, education and music fields. However, another tier to the creative class is the broader group of creative professionals in business and finance, law, government and healthcare. Anyone who has followed stories around hedge funds, Ponzi schemes or Enron has some idea just how creative people in these disciplines can be. Finally, the third tier to the creative class is one not typically associated with creativity at all; factory and service workers. We all can attest to circumstances and stories where people in these positions went above and beyond to create solutions to customer problems. Tapping the creativity of workers in repetitive task positions has helped many firms excel in productivity and profits.

While there are traditionally defined creative-types in the economy, virtually any person in any kind of job can help further the creative economy cause. The conclusion is that creativity is “the ultimate economic resource”, but it draws crucially on our ordinary abilities. In this light, perhaps the ubiquitous buzz from Juice was to be expected, everyone was excited in their own way about their own field.

The crucial point and question here is if Maine wants to redefine itself along the lines of the creative economy does that mean we have to create certain kinds of jobs? Well yes, and no. On the one hand, having more scientists doing more research certainly helps. On the other hand, cultivating the creative potential in people throughout Maine’s economy also helps. This is where the Juice Conference comes into play; if nothing else it keeps alive creativity by “frequent and random collisions of people and ideas.” But, it is more than that, during the Perfect Pitch competition at this year’s conference over 40 Maine start-ups connected with bankers and venture capitalists, while honing their presentation skills.

If the creative economy can be developed both by developing “creative” jobs and by actively cultivating the creative capacity of ordinary people, what then can help Maine distinguish itself? This gets to the heart of the Creative Economy question and the answer turns out to be a traditional one: Place. It turns out that creativity flourishes in socially stable environments that nonetheless provide opportunities for random inspiration and the display of quality work. While this tends to be more available in major metropolitan areas, where individuals can circulate through social circles and following veins of attraction or inspiration, many come to Maine because they want to be in Maine. It is harder here to move in quasi-anonymity, alone with inspirations, without running into several people you know.

From a classical Creative Economy perspective Maine may not be socially great for the creative type. But, this is where organizations like the Midcoast Magnet come into play. The Magnet brings together people in decidedly creative vocations around its core activities, we don’t just hang out, we do stuff. And the stuff we do! Pecha Kucha, that funky Japanese creative showcase has attracted over 1,000 participants thus far around the Midcoast region, introducing leading-edge creative economy practitioners in a wide array of fields. The Juice Conference provides a concentrated form of creative stimulation across many fields and regions, from both inside and outside of Maine. The Magnet’s Juice Box events represent a scaled down version of this function across specified vocational fields. And all these events inspire participants to more deeply plumb their creativity storehouse and actively cultivate that precious economic resource.

Perhaps here we practice a more mature brand of the creative economy. What we may lack in streetscape fluidity and anonymity, we make up for with landscape beauty and endurance of engagement among creatives. Perhaps being in relationship with people whose creativity is on the go and growing more than compensates for the chance to substitute friends and stimulations. While big investments to create decidedly creative jobs is a fine thing, growing indigenous creative networks will probably in the long run do more to remake the face of Maine’s future economy.

Submitted By: George Callas - Midcoast Magnet Treasurer and President of Build Green Maine

Wanna Social Network... In Real Life?

Wanna Social Network... In Real Life?

Social Network… In Real Life
March 16th at 5:30
Billy's Tavern, 1 Star Street, Thomaston

Midcoast Magnet held some focus groups last year and learned that people living in Knox and Waldo counties who are in their 20's and 30's want to get more involved, but they don't know how. They told us they want to meet each other, socialize, network and propel themselves in their personal and professional lives. They also mentioned that live music, and a good atmosphere wouldn't hurt either!

We went back to the drawing board and came up with a program "Social Network... In Real Life".

Do you find yourself wondering who else in Knox County is in their mid 20’s and 30’s?

Are you trying to find more business connections and to expand your resources in the Midcoast? Midcoast Magnet wants to help! Check out our first event, which will be a part of a series.

We’ll have appetizers and live music. Come network and socialize at the same time. For more information or questions contact info@midcoastmagnet.com

Are you on facebook? You can RSVP for the event.
Go to: www.facebook.com/midcoastmagnet and click on events

Midcoast Magnet Open House

The Midcoast Magnet Board invites you to an Open House on February 23rd in Rockland. Come mingle, network, learn more about Midcoast Magnet and meet the Midcoast Magnet Board.

Event: Midcoast Magnet Open House
Date: Tuesday, February 23rd
Time: 5:30 - 7:30 pm
Location: Asymmetrick Arts
Address: 405 Main Street. Rockland, Maine

You can RSVP for the open house on our facebook page:
www.facebook.com/midcoastmagnet

Collaboration is Key

Written By Amber Heffner
From Little Harbor Technology's Blog

I had a meeting today in Augusta on behalf of Midcoast Magnet with our partners for Juice 2.0. This was our wrap up meeting to identify success but maybe better opportunities for improvement. The meeting started off with a bang with Donna McNeil from the Maine Arts Commission (MAC), a true whirling dervish of a force, said "we are in for Juice 3.0 with the same resources and financial commitment." What a great way to start our meeting.

In attendance was a good crew from Midcoast Magnet, also a good crew from MAC and then the Maine Development Foundation or more specifically Ed Cervone. We talked about what worked with Juice 2.0 and where were the opportunities to make the next Juice even better. We focused in on goals, opportunities, quality, and direction. Excellent points were made as to how to hone in and produce a better quality conference in 2011.

As much as I suspect we all need a break from Juice, the positive energy around the conference was such that we are all willing to jump on board now. That is amazing to me. And even if we don't each have the drive personally right this second, together Juice 3.0 will be more than amazing. That is energizing, rewarding, and something to look forward to.

Thanks to our Juice partners. Thanks to successful collaborations. Time flies, look for updates for November 11 & 12, 2011.

Juice 2.0 - A Statewide Success!

Creative economy focus of Juice 2.0 conference in Camden

By Abigail Curtis

BDN Staff

CAMDEN, Maine — If the enthusiasm and the crowds at the Juice 2.0 conference over the weekend were any indication, Maine’s creative economy is alive and well.

“We need creative people in our businesses to take the economy to the next level,” Skip Bates, chair of the Midcoast Magnet board, said Saturday evening at the Camden Opera House at the close of “Building Maine’s Innovation Networks.”

More than 800 people participated in some aspect of the event, which took place in several downtown Camden venues, Bates said. It included a “PechaKucha” Friday evening, in which artists, designers and other creative individuals shared 20 images, with 20 seconds for each image.

The Rockland-based networking organization comprises more than 500 graphic designers, architects, bankers, software programmers, dancers, musicians and engineers.

Juice 1.0, “Powering the Creative Economy,” took place in 2007.

The intervening two years have included a painful global recession, but Bates and other organizers and attendees believe that taking an innovative approach to traditional businesses and encouraging new creative endeavors are integral to the future of Maine.

Presenters at Juice included everyone from potters to politicians, from fishermen to digital media pioneers and from economists to entrepreneurs. Over the course of the weekend, communities shared their experiences in downtown revitalization, and the event wrapped up Saturday evening with bankers being encouraged to let their hair down with the help of the nationally known Liz Lerman Dance Exchange.

For graphic designer Monique Bouchard, of Old Town, Juice was an eye-opener.

“When you’re working, it’s like you’re walking and you’re always looking down, because you’re getting it done,” she said. “Something like this makes you stop and look up. It’s amazing, what I’ve seen when I looked up.”

Susan MacKay, president of clean technology start-up Zeomatrix in Orono, said she relished the chance to practice her “elevator pitch,” a five-minute presentation about her company, aimed at possible investors.

“The problem: Production of biofuels is too expensive,” she said in the Maine Clean and Green Technologies break-out session. “The solution: Reduce biofuels production costs.”

It was an easy entry to a scientific spiel about Zeomatrix’s “nano-filtration membrane,” which works to separate biofuel from biomass on a microscopic scale, she said.

The break-out session was moderated by Jake Ward, assistant vice president of research, economic development and government affairs at the University of Maine. He said there are about 1,000 clean-tech related companies in Maine, covering everything from research and development in renewable power to the creation of “green chemistry polymers” like those at Zeomatrix.

The creative economy is a “huge opportunity” for Maine, Ward said.

“In many ways, Maine was the original creative economy,” he said, citing the traditions for hard work and innovation.

“You may not have high per-capita income, but there are many opportunities in this state for people to carve their own niche,” Ward said. “I think of the creative economy as basically an individual’s opportunity to create their own destiny.”

http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/129550.html