LOWELL
CITY COUNCIL
James L. Milinazzo
MAYOR
Kevin P. Broderick
VICE MAYOR
Edward "Bud" Caulfield
Franky D. Descoteaux
Rodney M. Elliott
William F. Martin
Joseph M. Mendonça
Rita M. Mercier
Patrick O. Murphy
OFFICE OF THE
CITY MANAGER
Bernard F. Lynch
CITY MANAGER
Adam Baacke
ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER/
DPD DIRECTOR
Theresa Park
DIRECTOR OF
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
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MARK YOUR
CALENDAR
| | January 18, 2011 Networking on the Threes 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Helping Hands Family Chiropractic 30 Gorham Street Lowell, MA Greater Lowell
Chamber of Commerce: January 20, 2011Energy Cluster Breakfast Roundtable: Energy Sustainability in Technology Companies, Setting the State for 2011 and Beyond 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM Foley Hoag 1000 Winter Street Waltham, MA eventbrite.com January 26, 2011Merrimack Valley Venture Forum New Year Launch
& Networking 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Holiday Inn Tewksbury/Andover For more information: sferrara@mvvf.org January 27, 2011Annual VC Outlook Dinner-Boston TiE-Boston (The Indus Entrepreneurs) 6:00 PM-9:00 PM Burlington Marriott 1 Burlington Mall Road Burlington, MA boston.tie.org January 27, 2011Networking after Hours 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM Heritage Real Estate 1201 Westford Street Lowell, MA Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce February 10, 2011Dale Carnegie -- Public Speaking Mastery Performance Training Associates 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM 1400 Main Street Waltham, MA For more info contact: DZ@dalecarnegie.com March 30, 2011 Building a Complete Lean Enterprise
8:00 AM - 4:00 PM Lean Enterprise Institute One Cambridge Center Cambridge, MA lean.org IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN! Lowell's 11th Annual WinterFest Celebration is right around the corner! 
Come celebrate with family and friends with festivities including live entertainment, arts & crafts, kid's activities, outdoor ice skating, soup bowl competition and the National Human Dogsled Championship! 
The National Human Dogsled Championship is the perfect opportunity for Lowell businesses to compete and win the title of "top dog!" More than 32 six-player teams will race down 200 feet of icy tundra to the finish line. If your company is interested in participating visit the WinterFest website.  Do you have
an event coming up
that would be of interest to our readers?Let Us Know!Send an email with your event and contact information toNewsletter@LowellMA.Govto be included in our next issue. |
| Join our list |  | | | | CITY OF LOWELL WELCOMES DIAGNOSISONE | | DiagnosisONE, a clinical decision support and analytics company has relocated their headquarters from Nashua, New Hampshire to CrossPoint Towers in Lowell in December. The expansion to a larger space in CrossPoint was a significant move for DiagnosisONE due to aggressive growth plans for the next few years. To their current staff of 30, they plan to add some two hundred to meet the demands from their growing roster of customers worldwide. DiagnosisONE's clinical decision support and analytic solutions improve patient care and enable healthcare providers to reduce costs, increase revenue and improve medical outcomes. The company's customers include doctors' offices, hospitals, health plans, electronic medical record vendors, system integrators and government entities.
On December 20, 2010, Polaris Medical Management announced that it had selected DiagnosisONE as the exclusive provider of clinical decision support for their electronic health record deployments. Polaris is a management service organization formed by Rhode Island physicians to provide independent practices with the support and expertise needed to effectively operate in today's healthcare industry. Polaris chose DiagnosisONE based on their flexibility, their ability to deliver personalized clinical support, and their leading-edge CDS technology which will allow clinicians to make informed, evidence-based treatment decisions.
The company recently secured $5 million in venture funding to expand their sales, marketing, and development efforts, which will allow them to continue to grow and expand their customer base. To learn more about DiagnosisONE please visit diagnosisone.com. |
| IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURSHIP MATTERS | | Throughout Massachusetts immigrant entrepreneurs have been driving forces behind neighborhood revitalization, innovations in science and engineering, and increases in the local presence of transnational businesses. On November 17th, 2010, The Immigrant Learning Center held the Statewide Conference of Immigrant Entrepreneurship at Babson College. The conference brought together over 100 immigrant entrepreneurs, researchers, experts, and community- and economic-developers to network and learn ways to accelerate immigrant entrepreneurship for economic and job growth throughout Massachusetts.
From left to right: Richard Herman, Sridhar Iyengar, Alvaro Lima, Yumin Choi, Anne O'Callaghan, Rodrigo Cerveira, Saul Perlera
Immigrant entrepreneurs have long had a significant economic impact on the Commonwealth. Their remarkable contributions were clearly evidenced by the breadth and quality of the presenters, including some twenty immigrant entrepreneurs and researchers. Among the many presentations, topics included the role of immigrant-owned storefront businesses in helping to revitalize communities by providing needed goods and services, which increase the level of foot traffic, thus resulting in safer neighborhoods.The conference also highlighted the amount of revenue and jobs immigrant-owned businesses bring in a year to the Commonwealth; in 2006 alone 25.7% of biotechnology firm were immigrant owned and generated 4,000 jobs and $7.6 billion in revenue. It also addressed what municipalities, non-profits, and other organizations can do to support immigrant entrepreneurs.
The City of Lowell, given its long history of immigration resulting in a diverse mix of ethnicity, seeks to support immigrant entrepreneurs as a critical part of its economic development strategy. Its importance is supported by a study conducted by The Massachusetts Association for Community Action (MASSCAP), which clearly recognized the role of small businesses in Lowell neighborhoods as a first stepping stone for employment for immigrants. Further, a 1998 study by UMass Lowell Center for Family, Work, and Community researchers found that Lowell had over 300 immigrant businesses in operation.
As the conference highlighted, these immigrant entrepreneurs are engines of economic growth and job creation in Massachusetts and in their local communities. Through the ongoing support of local policy makers and community and economic developers, immigrant entrepreneurship can continue to flourish in Massachusetts and be a model for other states.
To learn more about the Statewide Conference on Immigrant Entrepreneurship held by The Immigrant Learning Center visit ilctr.org.
To learn more about resources available from the City of Lowell call 978-446-7200. |
| GLOBE EDITORIAL HIGHLIGHTS LOWELL | | Beginning November 29th, 2010, The Boston Globe published a five-part editorial on Gateway Cities -- a group of 24 former Massachusetts industrial cities that once enjoyed economic success but have since struggled to compete as the state shifted toward the information economy. Boston has become the focal point of that economy and the Gateway Cities have continued to lose ground on key measures including job creation, knowledge-industry employment, educational attainment, and incomes.
The editorials advocate state policy changes to support economic growth in these once-successful Gateway Cities, including Lowell, Lawrence, Worcester and Haverhill. The editorials highlight reforms that need to be made in such areas as transportation, housing, and economic development. Throughout the series, Lowell was prominently featured for being one of the more successful of the Gateway Cities, going so far as to acknowledge Lowell as an inspiring model for others. Lowell's success can be attributed to strong partnerships between the public and private sector and the strength of local institutions, such as The Lowell Plan, that continue to foster partnership between the city's various stakeholders. This series of editorials acknowledges the fact that these Gateway Cities could, as they once were, be economic engines for the Commonwealth with the necessary policy changes and the right partnerships.
To read the articles visit boston.com and to learn more about the MassINC's Gateway Cities visit massinc.org.
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| DESHPANDE FOUNDATION PREPS "MERRIMACK SANDBOX" | | On December 9th, 2010 the Deshpande Foundation launched a new initiative to spur entrepreneurship and innovation in the Merrimack Valley. In partnership with the region's educational institutions University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Middlesex Community College, Northern Essex Community College, and Merrimack College, the "Merrimack Valley Sandbox" initiative seeks to help organization s to become innovative and build the systems to grow and succeed, work with existing non-profits and new social entrepreneurs to identify scalable solutions to societal challenges, and create a large cluster of for-profit entrepreneurs and startups based in/creating jobs in Merrimack Valley. The initiative was announced at the first-ever Merrimack Valley Development Dialogue at the UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center in the presence of over 300 business representatives, government officials, local entrepreneurs, and educational officials.
The Merrimack Valley Sandbox will be one of only three of its kind in the world and follows Deshpande Foundation's two earlier initiatives at MIT and Northern Karnataka, India. The sandbox will be based at the Merrimack Valley Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UMass Lowell, which will be located at the Wannalancit Mills. Services such as leadership training, seed funding and capacity building support to organizations and individuals in the region will also be available.
The Deshpande Foundation believes in pursuing economic development by promoting innovation, entrepreneurship, and scale and has committed $5 million over the next five years to the initiative in hopes of significant growth of entrepreneurship throughout the region. They also hope to raise $10 million more through various funders. To learn more about the Merrimack Valley Sandbox and the Merrimack Valley Development Dialogue visit deshpandefoundation.org.
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| MANAGER TO VISIT LOCAL BUSINESSES | |  Over the next several months, the City Manager plans to visit a different local business each week to get a sense of what's happening in our community and highlight our vibrant local businesses; from our unique eateries to high tech firms and everything in between. Reports on these visits will be posted on The Blog from the Office of the City Manager. |
| SPECIAL PRICE FOR 2011 "STREETWISE MBA" | | | The non-profit organization, Interise, is excited to announce that they are offering a one-time "recession-buster" discount of $1,000 off their regular $2,500 program fee for their Lowell 2011 'StreetWise MBA'™ program. The 'StreetWise MBA'™ Program is a six-month business development program for the owners of established small businesses. It includes access to new markets, capital, resources and knowledge through management training, peer-to-peer learning, and networking opportunities. Interise's 2010 report card shows that the average CEO who completed their 2009 program, grew their annual revenue by $356,000. For the second year in a row, Enterprise Bank is offering one $1,500 'StreetWise MBA'™ scholarship to a Southeast Asian immigrant business owner, located in the greater Lowell area, who is a customer of the bank, and has demonstrated a commitment to the community of Lowell. Classes meet twice a month in the evenings and begin on February 2nd. Space is limited to 15 participants. To learn more, please contact Beecher Grogan at (978) 204-8734 or bgrogan@interise.org. |
| SMALL BUSINESS MATCHING GRANT PROGRAM | | | On January 5th, 2011 the Massachusetts Life Science Center launched its FY11 Small Business Matching Grant (SBMG). The Small Business Matching Grant will provide "matching" grants capped at $500,000 per company. This round of the program has an investment of $3 million. The basis of this program is to provide grants to commercialization-ready life sciences and technology companies that have reached production stage and will create jobs throughout Massachusetts. The center will be holding an information session for the Small Business Matching Grant Programs in Lowell on Wednesday, January 19th, 2011 at 9 a.m., 600 Suffolk Street. To find out if you meet the program criteria and to learn more, visit masslifesciences.com. |
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