Category: Business/Technology

Issues of ethics in journalism, thrust into the spotlight by recent scandals, will soon have a more prominent place at the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, thanks to a $1 million gift from former Wisconsin State Journal Publisher James Burgess.

Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? A drug-delivery patch took first place and $10,000 in the G. Steven Burrill Technology Business Plan Competition, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s annual contest for student entrepreneurs.

Pedrus Pharma, a University of Wisconsin-Madison spinout that has sped to the finals in the Governor’s Business Plan Contest, may put a stop to the annual flu vaccine hoopla, among other things.

Cities across the country have taken steps to stop doing business with firms that deal in goods made in sweatshops, and Madison needs to join the coalition of conscience.

District 8 Ald. Austin King, fresh from his landslide re-election in April 5 local voting, wants the city to set a standard that says no public funds will be used to purchase “goods made under the deplorable, inhumane conditions of a sweatshop.”

A total of $22,000 in prize money is available in an annual competition at UW-Madison showcasing student entrepreneurs’ innovative business ideas.

Fourteen teams of UW-Madison students will compete in the G. Steven Burrill Technology Business Plan Competition in Grainger Hall, 975 University Ave., on Friday. The event is open to the public with the winning team, which will receive $10,000, announced at 5:45 p.m.

Janet Jackson nearly took down the newspaper that made Madison famous.

During a University of Wisconsin-Madison campus lecture Monday night, former Onion Editor in Chief Robert Siegel said the singer nearly took the satirical newspaper to court after a crude 1990s story about a boy who was supposedly being granted a wish by the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Sweeping changes starting this fall in the UW-Madison evening MBA program have it geared more toward international perspectives and concerns.

Along with major curriculum revisions, a big addition is an international trip in the second year of the three-year program, said Linda Uitvlugt, director of operations for the program.

Beginning next year, most students in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s evening MBA program will take an international trip as part of their studies.

“One of my dreams is to take a year off and sail around the world,” says Charles Hoslet, Director of the UW’s Office of Corporate Relations (OCR). “I’m certainly not at the point where I’m going to check out for a year, but it’s definitely on the list of things I want to do,” the UW Exec says. In the meantime, Hoslet is at the helm of the UW–Madison office designed as the link between business needs in the Badger State and the resources on the UW-Madison campus. Still in its infancy, OCR will celebrate its second anniversary in July.

In a word, Michael Knetter is impatient.

When he took the reins of the UW-Madison Business School nearly three years ago, he made improving the quality and reputation of the school’s graduate program his top priority.

As the regional economy continues its recovery, a growing number of economic development organizations are working together to foster a new generation of Wisconsin startups that they hope will fuel the state’s economic growth.

“Rather than look at it as there are all these different groups that are doing all these different things, instead we’re starting to really bring people together,” said Joe Kremer, director of Wisconsin Angel Network, a nonprofit group aimed at connecting local businesses with regional investors.

Kremer was one of a handful of panelists who addressed about 80 representatives from the professional services industry Tuesday at University Research Park.

Yikes.

What to make of the new report that young people are leaving Madison in droves?

…the report raises some interesting questions about whether Madison is as hip and cool today for young people as it was for the Vietnam era Baby Boomers. The numbers seem to suggest it isn’t.

In two decades in venture capital and investment banking, John Hoffmire developed a specialty in employee stock ownership. From that vantage point, he observed the interplay between worker wealth and business growth. Now Hoffmire is committed to apply those lessons on low-wage employees at businesses in Wisconsin and beyond. As director of the new Center on Business and Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hoffmire is on a mission to study and demonstrate how employers and their low-wage workers can prosper together when workers make the most of the benefits they’re offered.

Young people are fleeing Dane County in record numbers, despite the area’s ranking as one of the top places to live, work and play in the nation.

A report issued today details the county’s “brain drain” problem and urges community leaders to focus efforts on retaining and attracting talented individuals.

To keep him from being hired away by competitors, the UW Board of Regents on Friday approved a $50,000 raise for UW-Madison Business School Dean Michael Knetter.

Madison’s principal downtown advocacy group is stepping into the political arena and endorsing City Council candidates for the first time.

….Downtown Madison Inc.’s 460 members include representatives from the business community as well as such entities as the city of Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.