Featured Stories

Since its formation in 1982, Brunswick-based Inflatable Images has quietly carved out a niche for itself as the largest maker of inflatable products in the United States.

Killer tornadoes. Severe thunderstorms. Floods. Are we seeing more catastrophic weather these days, or just more news about it? hiVelocity asked Seth Binau, science and operations officer for the National Weather Service's Forecast Office in Wilmington, for his views on that and how new technology is changing the way we learn about threatening weather conditions.

He's appeared on "Lopez Tonight." He was a phone-in guest on "The Doctors." He's doing two to three interviews with local and national media each week. It seems everybody wants a piece of Hart Main, who's built a nationwide business selling candles that smell like fresh cut grass, baseball mitts and bacon. Pretty good for a 13-year-old Marysville kid who's going into the ninth grade.

Since its inception in 2009, the Dayton Region-Israel Trade Alliance has been working to build business relationships between aerospace and high-tech industries in Dayton and Israel. Uri Attir came aboard as DRITA's business development director in Israel in 2010. From his office in Haifa (Israel's third-largest city and one of its many centers of aerospace technology) Attir shares the key strategies that have led to DRITA's success -- and explains how Dayton is setting the trend for other mid-sized American cities by using global partnerships in technological development to enhance its local economy.

Dayton's Teradata, a spin-off of NCR that stayed behind when NCR left for Atlanta two years ago, represents the new face of job growth in the region -- educated and high tech. As Teradata continues to lead in its marketplace, Dayton hopes to reap the benefits as more high tech companies notice and want to get in the game.

In late February, Dean Monske was named president and CEO of the Regional Growth Partnership, the Toledo-based nonprofit development corporation that serves northwest Ohio. Since then, Monske -- a former RGP vice president who left for a year to serve as Toledo Mayor Mike Bell's deputy mayor for external relations -- has hit the ground running. Last month, the RGP announced two new field offices in, of all places, China.

What began with the establishment of Columbus's Metro Early College High School in 2006 has grown into a statewide network of STEM schools that turn the traditional classroom on its head. While STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math, the schools take a broader view, instead working to impart ALL 21st century skills needed for our economy and our communities. One key element in the evolution of Ohio's STEM schools is the partnership between business and education.   

In 2006, Battelle, in partnership with The Ohio State University and KnowledgeWorks, opened Ohio's first STEM school, setting the stage for what became the Ohio STEM Learning Network. hiVelocity spoke to Steve Krak, Battelle's program manager for the network, about OSLN and the business case for STEM learning.