In early August, Butte-Silver Bow Chief Executive Matt Vincent announced Round 2 of the city-county’s Economic Gardening Project, providing an invaluable opportunity for businesses located in Silver Bow County. Economic Gardening represents a new way of thinking about supporting growth for local businesses.
In partnership with the National Center for Economic Gardening, the Butte-Silver Bow Community Development Department has established a countywide network to provide virtual access to teams of specialists that are matched with selected companies. Using private conference calls and a secure online workspace, the teams will interview the companies to identify their specific growth issues. The teams devote about 36 hours to each company over the course of a few weeks as they work to quickly deliver action-oriented information.
The selection committee, comprised of Karen Byrnes, Rick Edwards, Mick Ringsak, Pete Akey, and Tim Kober, is encouraged by the number of local businesses that have shown an interest in this opportunity. A total of 16 companies have expressed interest in the program to date.
Three new companies were selected to participate in Round 2 of the project: New Horizon Technologies Energy Services, LLC; UDAP Industries Inc.; and Synesis7 Corporation. Previous project graduates entering for a second engagement include Empire Office Machines; E.A.S.E.; Water & Environmental Technologies PC; MSE Inc.; and the Port of Montana.
The companies accepted into the project will now embark on an intensive three to six week program with the National Center for Economic Gardening. This program addresses strategic growth challenges such as developing new markets, refining business models and gaining access to competitive intelligence. To do this, teams of highly skilled research specialists mine sophisticated databases and leverage a number of high-end tools related to search engine optimization, social media marketing and geographic information systems.
Northwestern Energy has partnered with Butte-Silver Bow to provide a quantitative analysis of the results of the Economic Gardening Project.
Please contact Butte-Silver Bow Community Development Director Karen Byrnes at 406-497-6467 or kbyrnes@bsb.mt.gov for further information, or visit the Butte Economic Gardening Network website butte.nationalcentereg.org.
For more information on community-oriented projects and programs, visit the Community Development page.