From Greening of the Great Lakes on News/Talk 760 WJR: There are cool things going on at the MSU Student Organic Farm.

From MSU News on Impact Radio: A student business incubator and an entrepreneurship certificate program will help anchor MSU ENet, a new program connecting university and community resources into an innovation ecosystem for entrepreneurs.

“It’s not just for students, but for anyone in the community,” says program director Bryan Ritchie, a professor in MSU’s James Madison College and co-director of the Michigan Center for Innovation and Economic Prosperity. “This program itself is entrepreneurial. We don’t have a new center –– we are linking existing centers, courses, faculty and students into a flat organizational structure and network, connecting MSU and community service providers and firms into a just-in-time access point.”

Students also now can seek funding up to $5,000 to take such experiential learning from idea to prototype, thanks in large measure to a $600,000 endowment from the Gerstacker Foundation.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Conversation 6:41 – 3.8 mb mp3

From MSU Today on Impact Radio: MSU alumnus Derek Mehraban is the CEO of Ingenex Digital Marketing and co-creator with Rick Cole of MSU’s wildly successful New Media Driver’s License course.

“The evolution to digital marketing and public relations was very natural,” says Mehraban. “We’re packaging information differently because people are getting their information differently.”

Ingenex delivers marketing solutions for a digital world by focusing producing results through social media marketing, web design, SEO, SEM, internet marketing, digital public relations, and web analytics.

The New Media Driver’s License course “is for any student who wants to learn to be digitally savvy,” says Mehraban. “We’re empowering students to get jobs or become more valuable at their current jobs because they can put these skills to use for companies right away.”

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Conversation 14:34 – 8.3 mb mp3

From MSU Today on Impact Radio: MSU alumnus Ryan Vartoogian is the President, CEO and Founder of Spartan Internet Consulting. He founded his company as a sophomore at MSU.

“The Internet has evolved so much from something people were doing just to be there to a huge revenue driver for most companies,” says Vartoogian. “And in many cases it’s now the core of how they do business and generate revenue from their customers.”

Social media gives people and companies a democratized view of the Internet where they can easily publish content.

“Social media today is very much like where the Internet was back in the late ‘90’s,” Vartoogian says. “Most organizations are thinking about just being on Facebook to be there because they know enough about it to know they’re supposed to be there.

“We see the future of social media being more on the application development side. More rich experiences will engage people in a more effective way than the conversation that takes place today.”

The transition to mobile will continue to evolve.

“You’ll always need a desktop to do things like long term research,” Vartoogian says. “But I think over the years we’ll start to see a shift in how our mobile devices interact with more traditional computing devices.”

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Conversation 15:53 – 9.1 mb mp3

From MSU Today on Impact Radio: MSU alumnus Erik Qualman is the author of Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business. Socialnomics made Amazon’s #1 Best Selling List after only three weeks of publication and has been in the Top 100 Best Selling Business Books List consistently since its launch in August.

“Most people are familiar with word of mouth; I’m talking about world of mouth,” Qualman says. “Word of mouth has been a pretty efficient way to get marketing out cheaply.

“But with world of mouth when you think about posting something on Twitter that immediately goes to a hundred million folks and the communication doesn’t get changed over time like in a kids’ game of telephone, in a social media world those messages are passed along digitally and are less likely to have their meaning changed.

Qualman says the main message of Socialnomics is that we should all have fun and common sense and that we should have plenty of both in the social media world.

“In social media you need to do rather than deliberate,” says Qualman. “You need to fail forward, fail fast and fail better. You’re not going to get it right the first time so make sure you get out there and just learn better and fail better.”

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Conversation 16:57 – 9.7 mb mp3

From MSU Today on Impact Radio: Jeff Mason is Executive Director of Michigan’s University Research Corridor.

“The URC is a collaboration between Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University to really try to leverage the strengths of the three institutions to grow and diversify Michigan’s economy,” Mason says.

Michigan boomed because of innovators like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, S.S. Kresge and W.K. Kellogg. How can Michigan reinvigorate that innovative spirit and who are today’s Edisons? And what exactly is innovation, anyway?

Michigan’s University Research Corridor and WWJ Newsradio 950 will gather leading innovators at the MSU Management Education Center in Troy on Thursday, April 29 to discuss that.

“Destination Innovation is an opportunity to bring together thought leaders to talk about innovation and what it is and why it’s important and how it can guide a new trajectory for Michigan’s economy,” says Mason.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Conversation 12:58 – 7.4 mb mp3

From MSU Today on Impact Radio: MSU senior Lindsay Allen is the dynamic president of the MSU Entrepreneurship Association.

The group was started in the Spring of 2007 by a group of MSU business students who wanted to start an organization that would promote entrepreneurship throughout MSU.

“We’re there for anyone who has considered entrepreneurship or who wants to learn more about it,” Allen says. “We help people feel more comfortable about becoming an entrepreneur, and we offer connections to resources for existing entrepreneurs who want to expand their businesses.

“We work to educate, aide, and inspire students of any age to create, nurture, and follow through with their entrepreneurial ideas and to take advantage of opportunities.”

Allen also candidly discusses her recent bipolar disorder diagnosis.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Conversation 13:57 – 8 mb mp3

MSU Today on Impact Radio: The job market for college graduates has bottomed out – falling some 40 percent in the past year– as the market undergoes a colossal shift that demands graduates be flexible and entrepreneurial in the rapidly evolving global economy, according to Michigan State University’s latest Recruiting Trends survey.

Job growth in electronic commerce illustrates this shift. Employers are hiring critical-thinking graduates with the skills to capture more Internet business and help the company continually redefine its operation, says Phil Gardner, director of MSU’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute, which conducts the annual study.

“Employers want to be much more flexible; they want to be agile,” Gardner says. “They’re bringing in employees who can slide in multiple directions depending on what transpires over the next year. And that opens the door for students from a variety of academic backgrounds.”

Ultimately, while many employers tell Gardner they hope to see the economy rebound, he says folks need to understand things will not return to “normal” – that is, a labor market in which college graduates have their pick of high-paying jobs. The recession, combined with increasing global competition, means graduates will continue competing for fewer jobs with lower salaries and benefits.

Kelley Bishop, MSU’s career services director, says it’s imperative that students get aggressive about their futures early in their college careers by networking with prospective employers, landing internships and developing critical thinking skills. He said this cuts across all majors – from engineering to liberal arts – because employers are worrying less about a student’s major and more about whether they can solve problems and think outside the box.

“The premium is being placed on flexibility and adaptability,” Bishop says, “because this change in the labor market looks like it’s permanent. And those who can quickly adapt are the ones who are going to survive through this and prosper through this.”

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Conversation 22:13 – 12.8 mb mp3

From MSU Today on Impact Radio: Jeff Mason is Executive Director of Michigan’s University Research Corridor.

“The URC is a collaboration between Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University to really try to leverage the strengths of the three institutions to grow and diversify Michigan’s economy,” Mason says.

Mason discusses a November visit to Ann Arbor by representatives of the National Institutes of Health.

“The URC is helping to bring NIH representatives to Michigan to spend time with university faculty and entrepreneurs to help them understand how to access NIH funding,” Mason says.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Conversation 5:37 – 3.2 mb mp3

From MSU Today on Impact Radio: C. Leslie Charles is a lifelong Lansing area resident and MSU alumna who has enjoyed a long career as a professional speaker with an impressive list of satisfied clients throughout North America.

The author of seven books, Leslie’s acclaimed, “Why Is Everyone So Cranky?” thrust her into the media spotlight for over two years.

She discusses what it’s like to “make a living with your mind and your mouth.”

Leslie outlines the advantages of refining one’s public speaking skills, and how effective self-expression can enhance one’s career.

Charles talks about the benefits of the Toastmaster’s organization, too.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Conversation 13:30 – 7.7 mb mp3

From MSU Today: Kay Koplovitz, founder of USA Network, television’s first advertiser-supported basic cable network, and the first woman network president in television history, was the speaker at MSU’s fall commencement ceremony in December 2006. Before addressing the graduates, she told us about how the birth of her idea to beam television programming around the world via satellites came to her during her stay at MSU, where she earned a master’s degree.

She also talks about her mentors, her goal of raising capital for women entrepreneurs , and what advice she has today for MSU women seeking careers in communications.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 16:36 – 9.5 mb mp3

Hear Koplovitz’ address to the graduates, where she touches on Arthur C.Clarke, the “Thrilla in Manila” and encourages the class of 2006 to vigorously pursue their passions:

Hear the Show 17:48 – 10.2 mb mp3

Victory Enterprises and VictoryStore.com lead the field in incorporating new media in the political messaging arena. Situated on the banks of the Mississippi river, the companies have become preeminent, both in the campaign arena and as one of the top Internet marketing firms in the world. Victory’s track record of successful campaigns would make an NFL coach envious and the on-line entity has reinvented the design and order process to put the creation of everything from T-Shirts to bumper stickers at the client’s fingertips. Victory founder and CEO Steve Grubbs talks about the genesis of his companies, the keys to creating a winning political campaign and how Google Ad Words and other interactive tactics are redefining the paradigms of political marketing and messaging.

Hosted by Scott Westerman

Hear the Show 23 Minutes 11mb mp3

What are the factors that create an environment for entrepreneurship? Where are the creative people gravitating these days? Are habits of entrepreneurship teachable? We find out from Rich Sloan, one half of the brother team that founded Startup Nation, an organization that provides expert advice on all aspects of starting a business. Fast Company magazine named the Sloan brothers’ brand one of the top 10 and their book, website, radio program and podcast are treasure troves of information for the person who wants to turn their passion into a career.

Rich talks about his varied adventures from raising Arabian horses to the invention of the Battery Buddy. He articulates the winning combination of traits and resources that are part of the successful entrepreneur’s inner circle. He answers the question, “can passion be taught,” talks about how companys like Jet Blue are turning customer service representatives into entrepreneurs, and how “life plan” trumps “business plan” every time.

Hosted by Bill Castanier and Jeff Smith

Hear the Show 36 Minutes 17mb mp3