Hope, entrepreneurship and innovation driving US economic recovery

Economy is up but jobs are scarce

By Wan Suhaimie Saidie 0

CHASING THE AMERICAN DREAM: Hope, entrepreneurship and innovation driving US economic recovery, writes Wan Suhaimie Saidie

 

It appears that the United States economy is improving. In Boston, where I have been based for the past nine months, things appear to be better. 

However, in spite of my tendency to look at the bigger picture, I observe that finding decent-paying jobs can still be a struggle even for new graduates from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Although their chances of landing a better-paying job are higher than their non-Ivy League counterparts, some may have to temporarily settle for less demanding and relatively low-paying jobs in restaurants, sales or tutoring while waiting for their dream jobs to come by.

Due to the current economic environment, the wait could even take longer.

Case in point: While shopping for an Ipod for my son at an Apple Store in Boston, I was attended by an African American named Mariam. The friendly store front sales manager told me she had been working at Apple for more than a year.

But more surprising was that she has a Master's degree from Harvard. Clearly, it was not the ideal job that she was hoping for.

Graduated in the midst of the US financial crisis and its highest unemployment level in more than 20 years, Mariam is still hoping to get a job in the education sector.

"I'm still waiting ... I want to contribute to education," she said.

Mariam is one of many who implicitly fall victim to US government spending cuts, which left crucial sectors including education in dire need of more funds and talent to undergo reforms.

Then there are the risk-seekers who hold strongly to the "American dream", venturing into start-ups or small businesses in spite of the high probability of failure in this current economic environment.

Justin Moore, a co-founder of Tap.Me, is one example. He graduated from MIT with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Finding no career that interested him, he ventured northwest to study at Tribeca Flashpoint Academy; a digital-age vocational school in Chicago founded by entrepreneur and turnaround whiz Howard Tullman.

Moore told Inc. magazine that in Tribeca, learning was more hands-on, like "How do you organise and get people together to actually execute?" instead of "How do you formulate solutions to problems?" which MIT is famous for.

While the micro picture appears to be mixed, depending on which of the 50 states you are in, in the bigger picture, things are looking less dire.

To a certain degree, it has turned more promising.

Based on the findings of an Associated Press survey of leading economists last month, the US economy appears to be improving faster than anticipated.

In fact, it has been steadily improving since late last year.

Industrial output jumped in January after surging in December at the fastest rate in five years.

In spite of the rising fuel prices, auto sales are still booming.

And consumer confidence has reached its highest point in a year.

Even the housing market is showing signs of turning around.

More jobs have been created, which explains why US consumers are spending more and consumer confidence has risen over the past couple of months.

According to the ADP National Employment Report, the private sector added 216,000 jobs in February, higher than economists' estimate of 208,000.

The bulk of the gains, with an increase of 108,000 jobs, came from small businesses while medium-sized firms added 88,000 new positions followed by big companies, which created 20,000 jobs.

It has become apparent that the 2009 stimulus is showing some positive results and is estimated to have saved 1.6 million jobs, according to a conservative estimate.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that, by the end of this year, the stimulus will have prevented as many as 7.1 million people from joining the ranks of the unemployed.

Though the unemployment rate has abated to 8.3 per cent in January this year from its peak of 10.1 per cent in January 2010 or 16 million Americans, there are still about five million more jobless than there were at the start of 2007. This does not take into account those who have given up looking for work.

The writer is  an economist who is taking a year’s break  in Boston

Read more: Economy is up but jobs are scarce - Columnist - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnist/economy-is-up-but-jobs-are-scarce-1.65183#ixzz1q2TsTSLF

TRIBECA FLASHPOINT ACADEMY and TAP ME! FEATURED ON MYFOX CHICAGO

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THANKS TO TERRY HOWERTON FOR ALL HIS KIND COMMENTS.

TAPME - New Approach to Ads in Games

New Approach to Ads in Games


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304231204576403403508609600.html

By JENNIFER VALENTINO-DEVRIES

As the number of people playing videogames on smartphones surges, two new companies are touting a way for advertisers to reach the potential customers—without annoying them.

The start-ups, Kiip Inc. and Tap.Me Inc., are moving beyond the familiar mobile banner ads, letting marketers sponsor rewards or extra tools within the game. The idea is that users will then associate the brand with a positive experience.

As the number of people playing videogames on smartphones surges, two new companies are touting a way for advertisers to reach the potential customers-without annoying them. Jen Valentino reports on digits.

When a player on a game that uses Kiip (pronounced "keep") hits a certain milestone, a message pops up saying that the person can also get a real-world reward—like a six-pack of soda free or a coupon for flowers on Mother's Day. The person can redeem the reward then or later, or email it to someone else.

"It's the moment where you feel like you've accomplished something. We match it with something that's branded," said Kiip's 20-year-old founder, Brian Wong.

Kiip uses algorithms to decide when to offer the deals, so weaker players can still get rewards and people won't be conditioned to expect prizes at certain times.

Chicago-based Tap.Me, on the other hand, lets brands sponsor in-game tools and rewards, but only if players choose them. With Tap.Me, advertisers can enter keywords and be matched to suggested tools and games they should sponsor.

For example, a restaurant chain that wants to tout its value menu might sponsor a tool that helps players get coins in the game. Once players choose that tool, the brand can send other rewards, like coupons, to the player's inbox.

Tap.Me signed its first official customer in May with Coinstar Inc.'s Redbox DVD kiosk service. Other brands, including the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., are in discussions with the start-up, which is on games with 5.7 million players now, including the popular "Charmed." It expects to reach more than 40 million players by the end of the year. The companies said they were still working out details of what the brands would offer in the games.

Founded about a year ago, Kiip began testing ads on games in April and has handled campaigns from Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc., beauty product store Sephora USA Inc. and 1-800-Flowers.com Inc., among others. The company, which is based in San Francisco, says it has more than 12 million active players on 15 games.

Kiip is still testing the response to its ads and hasn't yet disclosed the games it is using. Eventually games using the start-up's system will say "Kiip enabled" as a selling point, Mr. Wong said.

Both start-ups are in talks with game makers to get on more games and share a percentage of revenues.

The effort to capture gamers' attention comes as mobile games become a popular pastime. According to measurement firm Nielsen, 74% of people who have Apple Inc.'s iPhone played games on the phone in the past month, and 66% of those with phones running Google Inc.'s Android system had played.

Advertising has long been present in regular videogames, but mostly as "product placement" such as messages that appear on billboards in a driving game. Traditional gamers have balked at seeing any ads at all in expensive console games, but that isn't the case in cheaper mobile apps, said Noah Elkin, a principal analyst at research firm eMarketer.

Also, unlike traditional videogames, mobile games appeal to women as well as men—thus drawing interest from brands that wouldn't have ordinarily advertised in a game. "Casual games are perennially popular especially with women, and you can reach an older audience as well," said Mr. Elkin.

But mobile advertising is still a nascent field. EMarketer estimates that in the U.S., spending on mobile ads will be about $1.1 billion this year, a small number compared with the more than $150 billion expected to be spent on advertising in general.

Mr. Elkin said that the trend on mobile devices is to move beyond banner ads, in an effort to get people to engage more with the advertising. "Most advertisers are still spending the bulk of their display dollars on traditional banners, but if you look at where the steeper growth is, it's at the richer end of the media: video, interactive," he said.

The start-up founders all believe that many people either ignore banner ads or are bothered by them—particularly in games, if they hit an ad by mistake and it takes them to a new screen.

"Something that we discovered very early on was that ads needed to take advantage of the natural game design" and not interrupt the game, said Tap.Me Chief Executive Joshua Hernandez.

"Mobile advertising is growing by leaps and bounds, but the manner in which brands connect to consumers is the real key" when it comes to making mobile advertising successful, said Bob Rupczynski, global director of interactive marketing at Wrigley, which has been in discussions with Tap.Me.

The advertisers evaluating the in-game advertising technology said they hope associating themselves with pleasant parts of the game and offering rewards will provide that connection.

It's still too early to tell whether the strategy will work. Kiip says its tests show that 30% to 50% of people take advantage of the rewards. Likewise, Tap.Me says it's too early to have hard numbers on its effectiveness, although its tests show that users engage with sponsors about 15% of the time.

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http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/special_segments&id=7319691

March 8, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- The Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center is kicking off a new program to mentor local entrepreneurs. The program is designed to create or save 2,000 jobs.


In 2004, Greg O'Neill and Ken Miller opened up the specialty cheese and wine shop Pastoral in Lakeview.

"We're at a crossroads with our business right now," said O'Neill.

After expanding to shops in the Loop and at the Chicago French Market, Pastoral's co-owners are trying to figure out their next step.

"There's a great opportunity for us to take something that we've shown to Chicagoland and really expand it," said Miller.

Pastoral is part of a new stimulus funded mentoring program called the Cluster Acceleration Program or CAP. Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center president David Weinstein says the grant will be used to help local businesses with high-growth potentials make more money and hire more people.

"We have found that they need the certain types of advisors and mentors to help them navigate around the blind turns that entrepreneurs face running their businesses," said Weinstein.

Wheaton Warrenville South High School junior Erica Filarski is using Captain U, a local company in the CAP program to help her with the college soccer recruiting process.

"I think it's giving a lot of people a lot more opportunity than they had because before, you had to be the top player on the top club to get noticed," said Filarski.

"What we're trying to do is kind of disabuse a lot of the misconceptions that people have about how the whole recruiting process works by showing them a better way," said Avi Stopper, CEO, Captain U.

Started at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Captain U creates online profiles so athletes can interact with college coaches.

In addition to Captain U and Pastoral, the eight businesses in the new program range from healthcare to alternative energy to Internet companies and are expanding into new and growing industries.

"We make videogames to research how to make money with videogames," said Joshua Hernandez, CEO, Tap Me Games.

The co-founders of one of the CAP companies, Tap Me Games, created a racecar driver-like sponsorship system for players and a platform for embedding ads in their mobile games.

"Now with mobile devices in everyone's pocket, everyone's connected all the time. So mobile is a part of life now," said Jason Moore, co-founder, Tap Me Games.

Through the program's mentoring, Tap Me Games plans to grow and hire people right here in Chicago.

"President Obama put it best when he said the entrepreneurs are going to drive the economy and drive these new job creations, and they're investing towards that," said Hernandez.
The CEC program is designed to help these businesses become ten million dollar companies over five years. Next year, 20 businesses statewide will be involved.

Captain U (IT- New Media) - www.captainu.com
Ecomobil (Alternative Energy) - www.ecomobil.us
Evive Health (IT - Health Care) - www.evivehealth.com
In Context Solutions (IT- New Media) - www.incontextsolutions.net
MANA Food Bar (Consumer Products) - www.manafoodbar.com
Pastoral (Consumer Products) - www.pastoralartisan.com
ProOnGo (IT- Financial Services) - www.ProOnGo.com
Tap Me Games (It- New Media) - www.tapme.net

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