Several successful Lansing-area businesses are putting their brains, talent and money together to help one lucky business develop a new communications strategy.

AOS, Citadel Broadcasting, NuWave Technology Partners, the Greater Lansing Business Monthly, the Small Business Association of Michigan, TDS Metrocom and Vision Creative have put together a comprehensive communication package worth $100,000 for an unnamed small business.

The package will include assistance with business identity, brand management, technical support, Web presence and advertising, among other things.

“Microsoft has done this on a national level,” says Camron Gnass with Vision Creative. “It’s a pretty obvious promotion for their business, but it’s more along the lines of community businesses helping community businesses, and I haven’t seen or heard of anything like this around here.”

Small businesses have to fill out a very basic entry sheet on the “The 2008 Communication Transformation” Web site by May 31, explaining why they think they deserve the transformation. The organizations providing the assistance will choose a winner and announce it June 19 at SBAM's annual meeting.

Source: Camron Gnass, Vision Creative

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.

While some businesses haven’t even gotten their heads around the fact that it’s 2008, the Publicom Inc. marketing communications firm has already won four prestigious awards and welcomed a new president.

The East Lansing-based firm won four ADDYs at the 2008 ADDY Awards ceremony in February. The awards are given to outstanding national and international advertising firms.

PublicomInc. received a gold award for the newspaper campaign it developed for Lapeer Regional Medical Center; a gold award for its newidentity/stationary package; a silver award for a holiday card created for the Doctors Medical Center in Modesto, California; and a silver awardfor a radio spot developed for the YMCA of metropolitan Lansing.

The company is also adding two to three employees over the next 12 months, and saw revenues grow 28 percent from 2006 to 2007.

Andif that’s not enough to pack into the first three months of 2008, Lisa O’Connor, who was a former principal of Publicom Inc., purchased the company from her business partner Jim Wardlaw, and assumed the role of president.

“The people here are authentic,”says O’ Connor. “They are connected to their families and to thecommunity. And as the Capital City, things happen here. In fact, Publicom has been fortunate to attract talent from several markets. We currently have people on the team who commute from Novi, Royal Oak, Jackson and Kalamazoo.”

Source: Carolyn Snider, Publicom Inc.

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.

Michigan State University’s (MSU) student-run radio station, the Impact,is nationally known as one of the best college radio stations in thecountry and was named the college radio station of the year by theMichigan Association of Broadcasters and Broadcast Music Inc.

This is the eighth time in the last nine years that the Impact has won the Association’s Gold Record Award.

GaryReid, professional general manager of the station, says that whenstudents attend a great school like MSU, they expect to have goodclasses, good faculty and good facilities, but they should also expectto have a good radio station.

But students aren’t the only ones listening to the Impact. The average age of Impact listeners is 30.

“Rather than just being a campus station and being limited to students, we say,‘Why not just be a plain radio station, and just be as good as we can be?’” he says.

Out of more than 13,000 radiostations in the country, the Impact was the 132nd overall, and the first college station to begin broadcasting the new HD digital signal in October of 2004. The Impact can be found at 88.9 FM.

Source: Gary Reid, Michigan State University

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.

Michigan State University (MSU) dolled out $21,250 to the University of Iowa (UI) for 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide credits through the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) program.

MSU bought the credits to increase its efforts to reduce energy consumption and speed up the use of alternative fuels at MSU's T.B. Simon Power Plant.

The CCX is a voluntary program that gives an allotment of credits each year based on a market-based cap and trade program. MSU agreed to reduce use by 25,000 tons in 2007, but didn’t meet that goal because the campus was growing and therefore used more, not less, electricity.

UI burned enough biomass to reduce its carbon emissions beyond its CCX requirement, so it had extra credits in its registry. Selling the 5,000 tons to MSU gives MSU a chance to meet its goal, says Ferman Milster with UI.

“It’s a good thing to help another fellow institution,” he says.

Source: Lisa Mulcrone, Michigan State University

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.

A new Mid-Michigan investment group is getting ready to bestow $1.5 million on area start-up companies.

The newly formed BlueWater Angels is a group of 25 investors who want to support Mid-Michigan entrepreneurs while getting a return on their investment.

“MidMichigan Innovation Center got involved in establishing an angel investment network because capital was always the top issue facing our tenant companies,” says Brent Case with the MidMichigan Innovation Center.

“Having the BlueWater Angels in our backyard makes helping current tenant companies and attracting new companies to the region more feasible. Now, mid-Michigan companies do not have to go out of state or to other regions in Michigan to secure capital.”

Most of the BlueWater Angels have entrepreneurial or corporate backgrounds. The BlueWater Angels listen to companies present their ideas and then decide where to invest their money.

Source: Brent Case, MidMichigan Innovation Center

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.

Community members and public figures in Lansing, Kalamazoo and Detroit are auctioning off $45,000 worth of merchandise to help support the ART of Leadership Foundation.

The ART of Leadership Foundation provides leadership retreats and coaching classes, workshops and community service projects for young leaders.

“We’re not saying they’ll be leaders later, they’re leaders now,” says Denise Demers Stein about the kids who join the program.

This is the first year the ART of Leadership Foundation has held an auction. Stein expects the auction to bring in at least $23,000.

Items donated by Lansing citizens will support Lansing-based leaders. Anyone who successfully buys an item can specify which of the three communities gets the proceeds. Local items include lunch with Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero and round trip airfare for two from Lansing's Capital City Airport to Orlando, Florida on Allegiant Air.

The auction starts March 2 and runs through March 16. Click to visit the auction.

Source: Denise Demers Stein, ART of Leadership Foundation

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.

The East Lansing-based nanotechnology company, Nanobrick, is on the verge of commercializing a series of interactive toys that teach kids of all ages about nanotechnology.

Nanobrick uses hands-on “toys” to show kids what nanotechnology is and how it works as a system. For example, rather than just explaining why electricity makes a person’s hair stand up, Nanobrick allows kids to experience the process that creates static electricity by using a Lego-based, hand-held electric generator called the Van de Graaff Generator.

“Instead of an end result, they see how it all goes together,” says Nanobrick's president, Zahida Aslam.

High school and undergraduate students can design different configurations of the generators to study materials, computer science and engineering, mechanical engineering and microsystems engineering.

Nanobrick’s prototypes have already been used at Okemos High School. Michigan State University (MSU) undergraduate and graduate students also find the technology useful. Nanobrick is working with a toy company to commercialize its products.

Source: Clarke Anderson, Nanobrick

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.

Michigan State University (MSU) and News/Talk 760 WJR have created a Web site that brings information about conserving the Great Lakes under one umbrella.

The “Greening of the Great Lakes” Web site is a comprehensive, on-line resource for anyone interested in learning about the Great Lakes and environmental issues effecting the Great Lakes.

“The goal is to bring the resources together that will bring awareness of the environmental issues impacting the Great Lakes,” says MSU’s Russ White about the project.

The Web site is divided into several categories and sub-categories including Agriculture, Biobased Technologies, Companies Contributing, ECO/AGRI Tourism, Energy, Green Building, Green Careers, Green Facts, Green Products, Public Policy, Recycling, Transportation and Green Events and Water and Land.

Source: Lisa Mulcrone, Michigan State University

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.