JEDC News, December 2015

2016 Innovation Summit Early Registration Open Until Jan. 4

Early registration has officially opened for the 5 ^th annual Innovation Summit and will last until January 4th. Over 200 leaders in business, government and education will meet in Juneau, February 8-9, 2016. The Innovation Summit will feature national and international experts, Alaskan political and business leaders and in-depth panel discussions in a collaborative forum meant to spark new thinking around Alaska's economic future. The award-winning conference recently received a 2015 Innovation Award from the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) Research Foundation .

Key supporters of the Innovation Summit include Haa Aani , Juneau Hydropower , Alaska Airlines , Alaska Communications , Avista , Wells Fargo , AK Litho , University of Alaska Southeast School of Management, The Nature Conservancy and many partnering individuals and organizations.

For more information, please visit www.jedc.org/innovation.

Innovation Summit Sponsorship Opportunities Available

Sponsorship opportunities are still available! Please click HERE for more information or contact Dana Herndon at [email protected] or 907-523-2324.

Juneau Robot Jamboree a Huge Success

And the Champion's Award goes to... A2Z from the Juneau Community Charter School. Congrats!

28 teams from around Southeast Alaska gathered in Juneau for an energetic, all day competition that focused on creating innovative solutions for making and maintaining trash with this year's Trash Trek theme. The competition doubled its size since the previous year!

The Champion's Award was given to A2Z from Juneau Community Charter School. Other awards included:

Robot Performance: Coffman Cove from Howard Valentine Coffman Cove School
Core Values: Unibears from Juneau Community Charter School
Robot Design: Trash Talkers from Skagway Schools
Project: Mindstorm Masters from Raven Correspondence Juneau
Judges' Award: The Scare Bears from Floyd Dryden Middle School, Juneau
Judges' Award: RoboRovers from Riverbend Elementary, Juneau

All award recipients are invited to the State Championship in Anchorage in January 2016.

FIRST LEGO League is a program facilitated by the JEDC that develops robotic competitions for fourth through eighth graders around the entire state of Alaska.

To view the full album click HERE.

To view the Juneau Jamboree results click HERE.

Juneau Makerspace Kickstarter Campaign -- Support it now!

Juneau Makerspace is a nonprofit organization and has collaborated with other organizations, such as JEDC, around Juneau to promote science, engineering, and technology literacy.

Juneau's first Makerspace has surpassed its initial Kickstarter goal and now has 45 hours left to reach its new goal that will allow them to equip the makerspace for community use.

A makerspace is a community operated workshop that provides tools and work space for hobbyists and professionals that would not otherwise have access to those resources. Juneau Makerspace is more than a place to use tools. It's a community for sharing knowledge, innovation, and creativity.

Juneau Makerspace started in early 2015 and has been gathering materials and preparing a community space in the Lemon Creek area.

Help them reach their $8,000 goal on Kickstarter today!

For more information:

Juneau Makerspace email: [email protected]

Juneau Makerspace Facebook group

Jr. FIRST LEGO League Partners with the Juneau Public Library

JEDC is pleased to announce its partnership with the Juneau Public Library for its Jr. LEGO League program. The Jr. League season starts on February 16, 2016 and will be held at the Valley Public Library from 6PM-8PM every Tuesday. The 8-week program will go until April 5, 2016. The 2015-2016 WASTE WISE Challenge will look at trash in a whole new way. From reducing, to recycling, and beyond, find out what making trash really means. The teams will create a poster based on research and will learn basic programming.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! Coaches will be working with a group of four children at a time, grades Kindergarten through Third grade. No experience with LEGO League or computer programming is necessary!

For more info, please visit HERE. Please contact Courtney Weiss if interested at [email protected].

Download the 2015 JEDC Economic Indicators Report

Our most recent Economic Indicators report is out! Download the full report online here or come by our downtown Juneau office to pick up a copy.

Featured Economic Indicator:

Where the Jobs are in Juneau: Wage, Salary, Self-Employed and Active Duty

To get a complete picture of the diversity of Juneau's workforce, the chart below combines salary, wage and self-employed jobs. Employment in Juneau is heavily dependent on state government, which provides just over 20 percent of jobs (4,269 jobs). Retail (2091 jobs) and local government (2004 jobs including Tribal government) together provide another 20 percent of jobs. With the addition of tourism jobs in leisure and hospitality and transportation, we can account for more than half of the employment in Juneau. These statistics and more are available in JEDC's recent publication:

2015 Juneau and Southeast Alaska Economic Indicators and Outlook. It is available for download on the JEDC website at http://www.jedc.org/economic-indicators .

Thank you ConocoPhillips Alaska!

JEDC wants to thank ConocoPhillips for its ongoing support.

"ConocoPhillips believes that providing educational opportunities for young Alaskans t o learn, grow, innovate and achieve will strengthen our state, our economy and its people. To that end, about 50 percent of our annual contributions have historically supported educational opportunities, projects and programs for Alaska's youth. The FIRST Robotics program is a hands-on, engaging venue for children to have fun as they discover, innovate and learn. ConocoPhillips Alaska is proud to be a community investor in this important STEM program." - Portia Babcock, director of philanthropy and public affairs.

About ConocoPhillips:

Helping improve the quality of life in the communities where we live and work is a fundamental value of ConocoPhillips Alaska and our employees. We do that by funding worthy causes, by lending a helping hand where it's needed most, and by working diligently to build inclusive, honest and respectful relationships with our stakeholders. ConocoPhillips Alaska is proud to invest in events, projects and programs throughout Alaska that enrich the quality of life for all Alaskans.

Invest in Juneau!

Become a JEDC Investor and show your support for the work we do to forward Juneau and Southeast's economy. The investor program gives supporters unique access to comprehensive community research, promotional activities, and networking. Most importantly, it helps JEDC deliver services to help make our economy strong and sustainable.

Learn more and invest today!