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On Thursday, May 23, 2013 StartupIE is hosting a Meetup for entrepreneurs to learn about legal formation options for their new companies. Sean Varner, Varner & Brandt, is the featured speaker and will be discussing the differences between an S Corp, LLC, C Corp and much more in the overwhelming legal world that small businesses owners have to face. 

Photo source: www.meetup.com/startupie

Meetups are an increasingly popular option for like-minded individuals to connect, get together and learn, do or share their common interests. StartupIE  is helping to bring together the burgeoning tech startup community of Inland Southern California. In addition to hosting the monthly Meetups, StartupIE was also a key partner in Riverside’s first Startup Weekend held earlier this month.

If you are interested in tech entrepreneurship, have an idea for a startup company, want to work at a startup, or just want to network with people, StartupIE organizers invite you to join their group.

The May 23rd event will be held at 7 p.m. at the CE-CERT building in Riverside. To register, click here. For more information about the featured speaker, Mr. Sean Varner, click here.

Photo source: www.PortofLosAngeles.org

In  an effort to provide local businesses with an up-close and personal look at how port operations can make or break their importing or exporting endeavors, the Riverside County Office of Foreign Trade hosted a tour of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Fifty-eight business owners from throughout the county attended the tour, which included a briefing on port activities and economic impacts, as well as the opportunity to meet with Federal SBA representatives. While Riverside County is located approximately 60 miles from the Ports, these U.S. entry-points are the lifeline to exports of billions of products manufactured or grown in Riverside County.

The event was yet another part of Riverside County Office of Foreign Trade efforts to educate the business community and business owners on the opportiunes to grow their business by exporting products made in the county or by bringing goods in the county that are assembled here. The close proximity to the Ports, the county’s four Foreign Trade Zones, its Ex-Im Bank  partnership, and nation-leading number of EB 5 Regional Finance Centers are significant incentives for retention and attraction of businesses in the region, and is one of the many reasons why Riverside County has emerged as an international commerce destination and national export leader.

For more information on this and other international trade programs, a special presentation will be made during the afternoon session of the May 14, 2013 City Council meeting, including highlights on Riverside’s EB-5 program, local Foreign Trade Zones and the Sister City program. Also, don’t forget to mark your calendars for the Riverside County World Trade & Investment Summit to be held on June 6, 2013 from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

On May 19th the nation’s largest retail conference and trade show, RECon, kicks off in Las Vegas, Nevada, and members of Riverside’s Office of Economic Development will be there to promote the city’s opportunities to prospective retail, restaurant and entertainment tenants.

RECon is the world’s largest gathering of retail real estate professionals and provides the opportunity to network, make deals and learn from industry experts. No other retail real estate convention attracts a worldwide audience of over 30,000 attendees.

“The City of Riverside economic development team has been attending the ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers) national trade show for over a decade,” explained Larry Vaupel, Economic Development Manager. “This large-scale event is characterized as the ‘dance’ with prospective retail tenants and developers, and we need to be there to promote Riverside’s opportunities as well as support our developers and property owners that have invested in Riverside.”

One of the key tools that Riverside utilizes for the event is their international award-winning ‘Retail Opportunities Map’. Providing an overview of the key demographics on which retailers base location decisions, including average household income and local traffic counts, the map has proven extremely effective in retail promotion efforts and is highly regarded by local real estate partners. Team members will have copies available at the trade show, or you can download and preview the map here (Adobe 9.0 or later is required).

The conference and trade show takes place May 19 through 21, 2013. Brokers, retailers or developers interested in scheduling an appointment with a City of Riverside team member can email Sherry Shimshock or Greg Lee.

Riverside Recognized for Prioritizing Play for Children

With research proving play is critical to the overall well-being of children, Riverside earned recognition from national non-profit KaBOOM! as a 2013 Playful City USA community for our efforts to give children the childhood they deserve by providing ample opportunities for play.  This year, 217 cities and towns were recognized.

Today’s generation of children play less than any previous generation despite the vast benefits. The Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics reports that play is essential to the social, emotional, cognitive and physical well-being of children. 

Sponsored by the Humana Foundation, Playful City USA is a national program from KaBOOM! that celebrates and promotes local policies that increase play opportunities for children and is a key platform in combating the lack of play among children.

“Active living is the Riverside Way” said Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey.  “This community understands the important role of connecting with others – and that begins with ‘Play’ during childhood.  We are a Fit Fresh & Fun city and we are proud to be recognized by KaBOOM as a Playful City USA.”

KaBOOM!, the national non-profit organization dedicated to giving kids the childhood they deserve by bringing play to those who need it most, created Playful City USA in 2007 to help local governments address the lack of play and it is through mayors, city council members, parks and recreation departments, school districts and community leaders that the program succeeds in benefitting children.

“Kids need to play actively, every day, at home, in school and in their communities, yet play is disappearing,” said Darell Hammond, Founder and CEO of KaBOOM! and author of The New York Times Best Seller KaBOOM!: A Movement to Save Play. “Children spend nearly eight hours a day in front of a screen; almost half of all poor students are deprived of recess; and to make matters worse, only one in five children live within walking distance of a park. Playful City USA communities like Riverside are creating innovative programs and initiatives and deserve recognition because of their efforts to give kids the childhood they deserve and best prepare them for their future.”

Each of the 2013 Playful City USA communities demonstrated creative commitments to addressing the lack of play among children. Playful City USA celebrates and highlights these unique initiatives developed by communities across the country. A primary goal of Playful City USA is to encourage cities and towns to share ideas, concepts and programs in an effort to increase play opportunities for children. City initiatives include:

KaBOOM! also selected Riverside for its outstanding dedication to play. Riverside’s partnership with ARC of Riverside County has raised awareness of the universally accessible playground at Fairmount Park and increased the opportunity for children with disabilities to play and interact with their peers.

The 217 Playful City USA communities are now eligible for $15,000, $20,000 and $30,000 grants via Let’s Play, a community partnership led by Dr Pepper Snapple Group to get kids and families active nationwide. Grant recipients will be announced in the fall. 

For more information on the KaBOOM! Playful City USA program, including Let’s Play grants and applications for 2014, visit www.playfulcityusa.org. 

About KaBOOM!

KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to giving kids the childhood they deserve by bringing play to those who need it most. Children today spend less time playing outdoors than any previous generation, a fact that is having disastrous consequences on their health, achievement levels, and overall well-being. Social entrepreneur Darell Hammond founded non-profit KaBOOM! in 1996 in Washington, D.C. with a vision of creating a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America because children need to play actively every day at home, in school and in their communities. Since then, KaBOOM! has mapped over 90,000 places to play, built more than 2,200 playgrounds, and successfully advocated for play policies in hundreds of cities across the country. KaBOOM! also provides communities with online tools to self-organize and take action to support play on both a local and national level. Hammond chronicles the founding of the organization and the importance of the cause of play in his The New York Times Best Seller KaBOOM!: A Movement to Save Play, now out in paperback. The book details how businesses and communities can work together to save play for children across the country. All author proceeds support KaBOOM!. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., KaBOOM! also has an office in San Mateo, Calif. For more information, visit www.kaboom.org.

About the Humana Foundation

The Humana Foundation was established in 1981 as the philanthropic arm of Humana Inc., one of the nation’s leading health care companies. Located in Louisville, Ky., the site of Humana’s corporate headquarters, the Foundation’s mission is to promote healthy lives and healthy communities. The Foundation’s key funding priorities are childhood health, intergenerational health, and active lifestyles. For more information, visit www.humanafoundation.org.

Humana and the Humana Foundation are dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility. Our goal is to ensure that every business decision we make reflects our commitment to improving the health and well-being of our members, our associates, the communities we serve, and our planet.

In less than three days, nearly 100 people helped create 10 new businesses that could call Riverside their home. 

Teams worked to create new businesses in less than three days.

Startup Weekend Riverside organizer and founder of Riverside.io, Benjamin Mueller, described this past weekend’s event as “Amazing,” adding that of the four Startup Weekends he has attended in the past, this one was at the top in terms of the quality of each project – “clean development process and strong product types.”

Startup Weekend is a global program that brings 54-hour events to select cities where “developers, coders, designers marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products and create startups.”  Typically half of the event attendees have technical backgrounds while the other half have business backgrounds.

Attendees listen to other teams pitch their business idea and plans to event judges on Sunday evening.

Not only are Startup Weekends known for bringing jobs and investment to a community, but according to Mueller, they “Inspire and ignite a passion in the younger, less risk-adverse generation – and that demographic in your startup scene tends to attract more outside investors.”

When Mueller, who is not a native Riversider, was asked why he and his team decided to lead this effort in Riverside, he explained that these endeavors cannot just be built by one person or organization, it really takes a cross-collaboration of leaders from throughout the community that are passionate about entrepreneurialism and startup businesses. He added that, “The way that the City approaches economic development was also key. They don’t try to dictate how businesses should operate, but rather they provide resources and helpful information that enable [businesses] to be successful.”

Mueller credited StartupIE and Riverside.io as the driving forces behind Riverside’s successful inaugural Startup Weekend. His partners, Mike Kennedy and Conley Read, each played integral roles securing the space, sponsors, coaches, food and all other details that made the event a huge success. Participants rewarded their efforts with rave reviews and excitement to continue working on their new business ventures.

Looking ahead the team anticipates organizing two Startup Weekends in Riverside per year, each time adding more elements that build on its special and unique atmosphere. For the next Startup Weekend, which Mueller hopes to take place as early as this fall, the team is focused on bringing in more resources from outside of the area, such as judges, to increase Riverside’s exposure and build credibility.

For more information on the Riverside Startup Weekend, visit their official website at riverside.startupweekend.org.

Each year, the U.S. Department of Commerce designates May as World Trade Month as a way to recognize the importance of trade to our nation’s economic well-being.

Throughout the month, events and observances that will take place throughout the country include:

• National Travel and Tourism Week, a celebration of that industry’s contributions to the U.S. economy, will take place from May 4-12.
• On May 16, the Small Business Administration and Denver U.S. Export Assistance Center will co-sponsor the 40^th Annual World Trade Day.
• May 19 will bring the start of World Trade Week, a tradition dating back to 1927 and marked by a Presidential proclamation.
• During that week, the President’s annual “E” Awards will be presented to leading U.S. exporters.

In addition, Twitter chats throughout the month will offer chances to learn about exporting and pose questions to government agencies involved in President Obama’s National Export Initiative. You can also follow hashtag #WorldTradeMonth for more trade and event updates.

Locally, the City of Riverside in partnership with the Riverside County Office of Foreign Trade work everyday to create opportunities for local businesses to benefit from exporting goods or attracting foreign investment. A special presentation will be made during the afternoon session of the May 14, 2013 City Council meeting on Riverside’s EB-5 program, local Foreign Trade Zones and the Sister City program.

Look for more updates on these efforts throughout the month of May and mark your calendars for the Riverside County World Trade & Investment Summit to be held on June 6, 2013 from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

For the fifth year in a row, the Greater Riverside Chamber, Greater Riverside Hispanic Chamber, Bank of America, The Press-Enterprise, the City of Riverside and the County of Riverside Workforce Investment Board, will present the Riverside Small Business Resource Expo on Thursday, May 23 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Municipal Auditorium.

The goal of the Riverside Small Business Resource Expo is to enable the growth of the small business community by providing attendees with free workshops and an opportunity to connect with representatives specializing in finance, utilities, human resources, government, business services and health care. It is essentially a one-stop opportunity to efficiently gather free, valuable information from over 50 exhibitors tailored to the needs of small business.

For more information, visit the event’s official Facebook page, or contact the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce at (951) 683-7100, ext. 210 or 218.

On May 3, 2013 creative minds will flock to Riverside’s first Startup Weekend to take advantage of the training, synergy and mentoring that occurs in just over two days, providing an incredible opportunity for local entrepreneurs and inventors. Attendees can come as teams or individuals, but they must bring with them an idea or product in the research or concept phase.

Startup Weekend is a global program that brings 54-hour events to select cities where “developers, coders, designers marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products and create startups.”  Most events have about 75 attendees, half of which have technical backgrounds while the other half have business backgrounds.  In 2012 alone, Startup Weekend had 512 events in over 380 cities representing over 100,000 attendees with many of them leaving and starting their own companies.

Startup Weekend Riverside organizer and founder of Riverside.io, Benjamin Mueller, was recently featured on the Explore Riverside Weekly radio show and explained the upcoming event as a Hackathon – a hacking marathon that engages developers, designers and entrepreneurs in a “full frenzy” to build a new product or business from scratch. On Friday night, event attendees will pitch their ideas in an effort to “win” the chance for their project to be one worked on by teams over the weekend and presented to a panel of judges on Sunday evening.

In order to host a new Startup Weekend, organizers must have attended a past event in an effort to keep the high level of quality, flow and energy. Although members of the Startup Weekend Riverside team have attended several of these in the past, it was the group’s participation in the Irvine StartUp Weekend and their first place finish and Organizers’ Choice Award, that enabled them to bring this event to Riverside.

For more information on the event, or to register for Riverside’s Startup Weekend, visit the official website at  Riverside.StartupWeekend.org.

On April 23, 2013 Economic Development Manager Larry Vaupel provided the Riverside City Council with an update on the current Economic Development Action Plan, as well as outlined proposed priorities to include in 2013-2014.

In prelude to the presentation, City Manager Scott Barber reported that at a recent event he had provided Mike Rossi, Senior Jobs Advisor for California’s Office of the Governor, with the numbers that Riverside had achieved in Business Attraction and Retention.  In response, Rossi referred to the team in Riverside as “Rockstars”.

Recent successes highlighted by Vaupel included the expansion of Riverside Community Hospital expansion (creating over 400 new direct medical jobs and hundreds of construction jobs) and the recruitment of Hayneedle.com and World Kitchen (adding a combined 300 jobs and future sales tax revenues). In total, projects in which the Office of Economic Development assisted have retained or attracted over 2,300 jobs and helped to fill over 1.2 Million square feet of commercial space.

Vaupel also noted that the technology industry has grown over 18% in last ten years, earning Riverside the recent title of #2 Tech Hot Spot in the nation by Forbes. Other successes included an expanded web presence and increased exposure in the media, helping to tell Riverside’s story and provide businesses with important information, updates and resources that will help them create jobs for our community.

Over the next several months, the greater Riverside team (includes its strategic partners) will continue efforts to intelligently grow the local economy. Organized by the four pillars of the Seizing Our Destiny vision (Intelligent Growth, Location of Choice, Catalyst for Innovation and Unified City), the plan will provide initiatives in marketing, business attraction & formation, and business retention & expansion. Some of the priorities to be included in the 2013-2014 Economic Development Action Plan noted by Vaupel were:

• Continue work to develop a business incubator in collaboration with local universities;
• In partnership with StartUpIE, help to establish a co-working space for start-ups, entrepreneurs and freelancers;
• Develop a business attraction plan to capture the spin-off activity from UCR’s new School of Medicine;
• Continue to market Riverside as a Location of Choice, capturing the future opportunities enabled through the completion of the Riverside Convention Center expansion, as well as Riverside’s other world-class facilities;
• Develop a new Strategic Marketing Plan for the City;
• Continue real estate broker outreach;
• Increase focus on foreign trade and investment;
• Identify local sourcing resources to help companies find vendors and suppliers in Riverside; and
• Promote the “Business First” philosophy and establish a renewed focus on customer service and frontline training for personnel.

“We don’t believe our best days were before the recession in 2007,” stated Vaupel. “We believe that our best days are before us and this plan and these initiatives will help us create a greater and more prosperous future for the city of Riverside.”

The final plan is anticipated to go before City Council for review and subsequent approval in late May.

To watch the full City Council Workshop presentation, click here (Item #4).

(photo credit: Forbes.com)

On April 24, 2013 Forbes published ‘The 10 Happiest Cities for Young Professionals” based on research conducted by online career site, CareerBliss.com. Riverside earned an impressive 6th* place ranking, putting it in the company of San Jose, San Diego, Chicago and Washington D.C.

“The new generation of young professionals not only finds happiness at work important–they demand it,” says CareerBliss chief executive Heidi Golledge. “If a company wants to find and retain the best talent, they need to work on building a culture of happiness within their organization.”

According to the article, ‘more than 45,000 young professionals, defined by CareerBliss as employees with less than 10 years’ experience in a full-time position, were asked to evaluate ten factors that affect workplace happiness. Those include one’s relationship with the boss and co-workers, work environment, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, company culture, company reputation, daily tasks, and control over the work one does on a daily basis.’

California took home four of the top 10 spots. San Jose (#1), San Francisco (#2) and San Diego (#5) all proved the Golden State to be a place young professionals not only find a higher quality of life, but rewarding career opportunities as well.

“California is home to some of the best universities and largest technology companies in the world,” says Matt Miller, chief technology officer at CareerBliss. “In the fast and competitive world of technology, we see more and more companies hiring young talent right out of school. Jobs for software engineers and designers are in high demand and have helped fuel this trend. In addition, tech companies are investing in young talent in an effort to have employees grow and develop with the company.”

To Riversiders, the ranking is probably not much of a surprise. Organizations such as The Pick Group have been working diligently over the past several years to grow and engage young professionals as leaders in the community. Through Seizing Our Destiny, an Education Roundtable was formed that brings leaders of Riverside’s primary and secondary schools and its four colleges and universities together specifically to create new approaches to ensuring that Riverside has extensive opportunities for lifelong learning. Riverside area chambers of commerce, nonprofits, youth organizations, businesses, government, faith-based and neighborhood groups have all made nurturing and supporting our young talent, and making Riverside a place they want to live, a top priority. 

(*Note: The Forbes’ article content states Riverside’s rank as No. 7; however, both the pictoral slide show of the Top 10 and CareerBliss.com’s ranking has Riverside at No. 6 with a score of 3.84.)