An apology to anyone that viewed our site over the Easter break.  For several days during the break the site had been hacked and I didn’t discover it until Friday afternoon.  Still being in Florida on break, I had to sit by the pool to recover the site, and thankfully the hacker was even more of an amatuer than I was.  A couple hours of stumbling around to find the affected files and getting them repaired, and we were back in business.  I will have a better backup next time, but all that ends well…..  Anyway, if you came to the site during that time you might have seen article links, perhaps some popups, and wondered what the h__ was going on, but all is well now.

Detroit stands second to none when it comes to Techno!  From the beginning, Techno was invented by Detroiters, and the former Techno Festival this year will feature over 75 of the worlds leading electronic artists.  This event is known all over the world - I could start naming names, but essentially everyone is here!  Now dubbed Movement 2007, Paxahau, the event’s principle promoter has established a website with the amazing lineup for this 3 day weekend!  If you are into electronic music, this will be your event this year.  If you are into parties, besides all the entertainment there are a series of pre and post events guaranteed to keep you in the spirit!  Check the site for more details, and be there May 26, 27 & 28!

From 9 until 11:30am at The Parade Company, Josh Linkner, CEO of ePrize, will discuss how to create an entrepreneurial and innovative culture in the ‘D’. Best part - it’s FREE!! Click HERE to register, HERE for more info, or contact Jon Kreger .

Sponsored by

I know that human nature being what it is, we always tend to gravitate toward the worst in life, the train wrecks, and then we dwell on them. Media being what it is, ratings are dependent on what people want to know about, so we get what we want - lots of focus on the negative. All the newspapers have been flooded with one catastrophe after the next hitting our automobile manufacturers and their labor forces. The most recent of which is of course the announcement that Daimler Chrysler is making more cuts, and that it may even be up for sale. This is certainly not reason to celebrate. And I certainly don’t want to try to put frosting on a dog turd, but there really is some perspective to put on this. The auto industry is of course going through a major transformation, and on a broader scale, all of manufacturing world wide is going through massive change. But our auto brethren are not alone. Back in September, a giant in another major industry, semiconductors, and specifically CPU’s, Intel, cut over 10,000 jobs as a part of their restructuring. Yet no one is claiming the end of American dominance in CPU’s, computers or their related industries. More and more chip production has moved off shore, yet the design and the leadership stay here. There are many more examples of these changes to the world economy that are reflected in job cuts in a variety of industries, each highlighted primarily by the communities that they most affect, and each part of the rapid transformation and globalization of those industries.

But if you are a subscriber to the Great Lakes IT Report, to Model D, Metro Mode or other newsletters that shine the light of perspective into the darkness, then you know that there is also opportunity here in this rapidly changing Detroit economy. We are seeing unparalleled real estate development in Detroit, we have several creative and technology sectors that are booming, and we have leadership in the region that are committed to making our economy successful in this new century. It is important to keep a balanced perspective and try to share it with those that are getting hit with these changes.

I am confident that as a community we can find ways to empower this newly freed talent pool to engage in our new economy.

At the Rattlesnake this evening I got to bump elbows with the rock stars of the GM auto design world, people like Wade Bryant, Design Manager for Concept vehicle interiors (and other cool interior work), Therese Tant, Lead Designer for the new Cadillac Escalade and interior design team member of the hottest concept car at the auto show this year, the GM Volt.
But the real headliner, the lead designer for the Volt is a soft spoken native of Nigeria and ‘94 alumni of CCS, Jelani Aliyu. Jelani was excited and tired at the same time, having just completed a 10 month marathon sprint to bring the Volt to the show floor in time for the auto show.

The marathon started with tough competition amongst 8 designers and their concepts that were developed in 2 short months, with 7 of the 8 scale model concepts reviewed and eliminated.  Jelani’s model was selected to develop for the show.  Then the real work began with less than 8 months until showtime.  His design incorporates many design elements to complement the electric technology driving the car as well as his love of nature and the ergonomics of a vehicle one can enjoy nature in.  In that short time the diverse team took the original scale model to the well detailed series of full scale concept units and frame cutaways that are in the GM area of the show now. (more…)

I got a tour of the OnStar Command center tonight, located on the 12th floor of the Renaissance Center, and guess what was right next to it? An XM Radio Station broadcast booth! Why, you ask? Well, for one because they have obtained fabulous exposure from guests using the booth ranging from ESPN during last year’s SuperBowl to Dr. Laura, and each of them get to experience the Control Center in a personal way while there.

The President of OnStar, Chet Huber is the definition of the creative business man. The Broadcast booth is just one of dozens of innovative, nontraditional approaches Huber has used to steer OnStar through a decade of treacherous technology years and has it centered now for the final launch to reach a stable orbit - defined as 10 Million subscribers annually by 2008 - one unit on every GM car sold. Another is the monthly email update that millions of OnStar subscribers receive with maintenance and repair information, including current mileage and emission test results on their vehicles. Being originally from GM’s locomotive division, Huber claims he has no technology background and gives credit to the dynamic staff he brought on board, like Cathy McCormick, who ran an emergency response support center before coming to work with OnStar. Yet the energy Huber brings to any conversation on the product let’s you know this is much more than a job to this man. Their focus remains the same as ten years ago when the company started, Huber says - safety, security & piece of mind.

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An incredible website you have to check out is detroitcity.com. Jeff Daniels just signed up on the site today and has uploaded a song tribute to the Tigers that you have to hear. Dave Vanz, the brains behind DetroitCity, is an avid Detroit fan and one of the virtual ‘regulars’ of the site. The site is focused on the music industry, with different areas for artists, promoters, venues and listeners. You can create your own music list to hear while you are signed on to the site, you can connect to others with similar musical tastes or interests, and you can participate in live chat, leave messages, or just check out all the excellent musical talent showcased on the site.

 

Today’s announcement by Google and Governor Granholm (read the Detroit News Article here) of 1,000 new jobs is welcomed news for Detroit’s creative class. From the Detroit Free Press article (read full article)

“The jobs will vary in skill demands and pay. The average salary for new hires is expected to be $47,000 a year.

“This is a huge, huge, huge, huge thing,” Granholm said Monday. “It’s a tremendous statement about Michigan having a cutting-edge workforce.”

David Fischer, Google’s director of online sales and operations, said Monday that the company’s focus is on hiring bright, motivated people.

“We worry less about experience than raw talent. We’ve had tremendous success hiring people straight out of universities, with majors from engineering to art history.”

While tax incentives and government assistance are crucial to attract major investments by such companies as Google, “raw talent” is mentioned as one of the deciding factors to locate this new facility in Ann Arbor. This is further proof that talent attracts investment by new economy companies. If we are to become and remain competitive in the global economy attracting and retaining talent to our region must be the number one priority.

Our region is in a painful but ultimately necessary time of transition. With tremendous losses in manufacturing in our state we continue to push forward with gains in knowledge-based jobs. While smaller in number than the thousands of reported job losses in manufacturing, the gains in “creative class” jobs are vital and yet often go unnoticed. Hopefully Google’s announcelment today will be an encouraging sign of an upward trend to potential creative class workers considering relocating to or from the Metro Detroit region.