Connecticut Public Accounting Firms Reach National Rankings

The largest Connecticut-based public accounting firm, BlumShapiro, earned the #54 position in the nation’s top 100, according to the publication Inside Public Accounting.  It is one of a handful of Connecticut firms to make the annual top 300 list, in addition to regional firms with offices in Connecticut. BlumShapiro is the largest regional business advisory firm based in New England providing accounting, tax and business consulting services. The firm serves clients from six offices offices in Connecticut (West Hartford and Shelton), Massachusetts and Rhode Island. BlumShapiro ranked #53 last year. 

Noted among the nation’s top 200 public accounting firms is Hartford headquartered Whittlesey & Hadley.  The firm, ranked at #155 this year, up from #178 a year ago, and #192 in 2014, has two additional offices, located in Hamden, CT and Holyoke, MA. The firm provides a comprehensive array of accounting, auditing, tax, and advisory services to a broad range of businesses and individuals.

Ranked #285 is Reynolds & Rowella LLP, which maintains offices in Ridgefield and New Canaan.  “We are proud to be counted among the top-ranked accounting firms nationwide on a list that includes Deloitte, PwC, Ernst & Young and KPMG,” Frank Rowella, Reynolds & Rowella’s managing partner, told the Fairfield County Business Journal. “The IPA list is known as one of the most thorough and accurate sets of rankings in the accounting profession. Our inclusion reflects our determination to provide the very best quality compliance and financial services solutions to our valued clients.”

At #296 is Glastonbury-based Fiondella Milone & LaSaracina.  FML was founded in 2002 “for the purpose of providing professional auditing, tax and business consulting services to a wide range of clients and industries throughout the Northeast,” the company’s website indicates.  After working together at Ernst & Young, the firm’s founding partners, Jeff Fiondella, Frank Milone and Lisa LaSaracina launched FML.

Inside Public Accounting (IPA), founded in 1987, is published by The Platt Group. The Platt Group publishes both the award-winning Inside Public Accounting newsletter and the award-winning National Benchmarking Report.

Beginning in 1994, INSIDE Public Accounting’s Survey and Analysis of Firms and the resulting national benchmarking report on the nation’s largest accounting firms has served as a barometer of the overall health, challenges and opportunities of the profession, according to the publication.

Annually more than 500 accounting firms across the North America complete the in-depth financial and operational survey. The data is then used to compile the annual ranking of the nation’s largest accounting firms, which is unveiled in August of each year. The annual IPA rankings are considered to be among the longest-running, most accurate and up-to-date for the nation’s largest accounting firms.

Leading the list nationally were Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCopers, Ernst & Young, KPMG, RSM, and Grant Thornton.  Ranked at #11 is New York based CohnReznick, which has offices in Hartford.  Marcum LLP ranked #16, Citrin Cooperman & Company, also based in New York and ranked #21, has offices in Fairfield County.

“State of Innovation” Specialty License Plate Is Latest to Join List of Choices

Connecticut, with more than 50 special license plates featuring everything from animals to war survivors, now has one more available for purchase by state residents. At the fifth annual Westport Mini Maker Faire earlier this year, it was announced that a new “State of Innovation” license plate was being developed by a non-profit organization, Remarkable STEAM.   The organization has now announced that their design has been approved, and sales of the new plate are underway.

Individuals can transfer an existing plate or obtain a vanity plate.  A portion of the proceeds goes to Remarkable STEAM, Inc, a 501(c)(3) not for profit corporation, best known for the Westport Mini Maker Faire.  Remarkable STEAM initiatives support job creation and educational programs.

State law allows the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue of special background plates on behalf of non-profit organizations. The organization must be non-profit, must submit a copy of the organization's charter or by-laws, provide a letter of good standing from the State of Connecticut Secretary of State’s Office (if required) and supply any Internal Revenue Service ruling on their non-profit tax exemption status.

The logo production and cost incurred will be the responsibility of the organization. The logo prototype design, preferred in PDF format, must be submitted to the DMV. The logo can be no larger than 2 inches wide and 3.5 inches high. DMV has final approval on all the plate and logo designs.

A liaison for the organization must be appointed. This individual will be responsible for all communications with the DMV as well as certifying and authenticating (by signature) each member’s application, submitting the logo design to DMV for approval, submitting 400 applications with the required fee prior to the manufacturing of the special background plates, and submitting a Special Interest Plate disclaimer.

Many organizations in Connecticut offer license plates to their members and the general public.  General categories include animals, colleges, environment, organizations, police and fire, cities and towns, and recreation.

Organization vanity plates include Amistad, Benevolent & Protective Order of the Elks, IUOE Local 478, Grand Lodge of Connecticut, Knights of Columbus, Olympic Spirit, P.T. Barnum Foundation Inc., Preserving Our Past CT Trust for Historic Preservation, Red Sox Foundation, Lions Eye Research Foundation, Special Olympics, Federated Garden Clubs, Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, Keep Kids Safe, New England Air Museum and the U.S.S. Connecticut Commissioning Committee.

All fees established and collected pursuant to the United We Stand plate (except moneys designated for the administrative costs of the DMV) shall be deposited in the United We Stand commemorative account.  Funds are directed to the United States Department of State Rewards for Justice program and is used solely to apprehend terrorists and bring them to justice. The account will also be distributed to the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management for the purpose of providing financial support and assistance to the former spouses and dependents of persons killed as a result of the acts of terrorism committed on September 11, 2001.

When individuals purchase a Keep Kids Safe plate, a portion of the fee goes to the Keep Kids Safe Fund, which “makes many worthy projects happen for youngsters.”  The fund awards grants to schools, hospitals, municipalities and other non-profit organizations working to make all Connecticut children safer from severe and preventable injuries, according to the DMV website.

In most cases, remake of a current plate is $70; a new vanity plate is $139, a new series plate is $50.  For others, including the UConn Huskies plate, the price tag is somewhat different.  Off-the-shelf license plates cost $55, remake of a current plate is $75, a new vanity plate costs $144, according to the DMV website.

The Support Our Troops plate sends a portion of the fee to provide funding for programs to assist Connecticut troops, their families and veterans. When you buy a Red Sox plate, a portion of the fees support and help fund academic scholarship programs in Connecticut.

Also included are 17 varieties of military specialty plates, including Disabled American Veteran, Gold Star Family, Iwo Jima Survivor, Korean War Veterans Association, Marine Corps League, Laos Veterans of America, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Pearl Harbor 1941, U.S. Submarine Veteran, National Guard Association of Connecticut, First Company Governor’s Foot Guard, First Company Governor’s Horse Guard,

Colleges with designated plates include Central Connecticut State University, Penn State Alumni, University of Hartford, University of Connecticut, and University of New Haven.  Cities with available plates include Meriden, Norwich, and Stafford.

Organizations interested in launching a new special plate, should contact the DMV Special Plate Unit at (860) 263-5154 for further information.

CT Residents Concerns About Health Care Affordability, Job Prospects Increase; More Expect to Leave, Even as Optimism Grows

Nearly two-thirds of Connecticut residents are concerned about the affordability of health insurance, a jump of 12 percentage points in just the past year, and the highest level since the quarterly Inform CT Consumer Confidence Survey began 18 months ago. And slightly more than 4 in 10 Connecticut residents now say it is likely that they will move out of the state within the next five years, reflecting concerns about a lack of jobs, declining business conditions and health insurance costs. Yet, many residents continue to say that Connecticut is a good place to live and raise a family, and some optimism is evident in consumer spending expectations.  The survey found that:

• 41% say it is likely they will make a major consumer expenditure (for furniture or other products) during the next six months.
• 31% say it is likely they will purchase a car in the next six months.
• 71% indicated they expected to take a vacation outside of Connecticut in the next six months.

All are the highest percentages since the quarterly survey began in 2015.

The quarterly survey is released by InformCT, a public-private partnership that provides independent, non-partisan research, analysis, and public outreach to help create fact-based dialogue and action in Connecticut.  Administered by researchers from the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, Inc. (CERC) and Smith & Company, the analysis is based on the responses of residents across Connecticut and addresses key economic issues, providing a glimpse of the public’s views.

Despite qualms about the state’s economy, residents are increasingly optimistic about their own financial circumstances.  One-third (32%) say they are better off now than six months ago, and 42 percent believe they will be better off six months from now than they are today.  Both numbers are 5 percentage points higher than they were a year ago.  The overall view of the state’s fiscal picture differs:

• A year ago, 40 percent of those surveyed disagreed with the statement that the Connecticut economy is improving. That percentage has now climbed – one year later – to 49 percent, nearly half the state.
• The percentage who believe that the state’s economy is improving has dropped from 29% a year ago to 23% during the second quarter of this year.
• Residents of New London and Fairfield County most strongly believed that business conditions had improved over the previous six months, with Middlesex, Windham and Litchfield more likely to say that business conditions had worsened.

Increasingly, residents believe that jobs are “very hard to get” in Connecticut compared with six months ago (from about one-quarter to one-third of those surveyed in Q2 2016 versus Q2 2015), and are, in growing numbers, saying they would rather leave than stay.

• A year ago, 32 percent of those surveyed said it was very likely or somewhat likely that they would move out of Connecticut within the next five years.
• A year later, that percentage has climbed by 10 points to 42 percent.

At the same time, about half of those surveyed say that “Connecticut is a good place to live and raise a family” – a number that has remained consistent for the past year and a half.  Only 1 in 4 disagree.  More than half of 18-21 year-olds and 22-25 year olds say they are likely to leave in the next five years; in all other age categories it is less than half, with those age 56-65 the least likely.

Concerns about having “enough money to retire comfortably” have remained steady for six consecutive quarters, with about less than 1 in 4 expressing the opinion that they anticipate having sufficient funds. And 1 in 4 now say it is likely that they will refinance their home or purchase a new home in the next six months, the highest percentage since the quarterly survey began.

With increasing calls for regional support of Hartford and regional approaches to tackling budget challenges, the survey found that an increasing number of residents in Connecticut believe that a range of services “could be effectively delivered regionally.”

Forty-three percent, an increase from 40 percent in the year’s first quarter, answered “all of the above” when asked if education, libraries, public health, public safety and animal control could be provided regionally.  Among those services individually, there was slightly greater support for a regional approach to public safety, slightly less for each of the others.  The largest increase was for “all” of the services.

The question of what residents in the region consider to be the “best way to grow the economy” saw a preference for investing in schools and community features over recruiting companies, by an increasing margin.  In this year’s first quarter, the margin was 52% to 48%. In the most recent quarter that margin had grown by 9 percentage points to 61%-39%, from just over half to more than 6 in 10.

Childcare Costs Continue to Outpace Inflation, Low Income Families Hit Hardest; CT 6th Most Expensive

One of the more notable aspects of the latest data on consumer prices provided this month by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is the striking increase in childcare and nursery school prices.  That data, along with statistics that reflect the impact of those increasing costs on families ability to afford such care, highlight the struggles and disparities that continue to exist, in Connecticut and nationwide. Over the past 25 years, childcare and nursery school costs have risen 177 percent, while prices more generally have risen just 77 percent.  Childcare and nursery school costs have been outpacing general inflation for at least 25 years (the data do not go back any further than 1991);  this is putting a significant strain on the budgets of low-income families.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research points to an August 2014 study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that found a two-parent, middle-income family (those making between $62,000 and $107,000 per year) will spend an average of $245,000 (in 2013 dollars) on their kids between the ages of zero and 17.

Significantly, due to rising income inequality, poor families are finding it harder to give their children the same opportunities afforded to rich children, the study points out. At present, families in the top fifth of the income distribution spend seven times as much on their children as families in the bottom fifth.

“This inequality can also be observed for paid leave: about 23 percent of workers in the top tenth of the wage distribution have access to paid family leave, compared to just four percent of workers in the bottom tenth,” the findings show.

Child care in Connecticut, the Economic Policy Institute points out, “is expensive.” Connecticut is ranked 6th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia for most expensive infant care.

• The average annual cost of infant care in Connecticut is $13,880—that’s $1,157 per month.
• Child care for a 4-year-old costs $11,502, or $959 each month.

Childcare is also “unaffordable” for a large percentage of Connecticut famiies.  The Economic Policy Institute indicates that infant care for one child would take up 16 percent of a typical family’s income in Connecticut, noting that according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), child care is affordable if it costs no more than 10% of a family’s income. By this standard, only 28.1% of Connecticut families can afford infant care.

A minimum-wage worker in Connecticut would need to work full time for 36 weeks, or from January to September, just to pay for child care for one infant. And a typical child care worker in Connecticut would have to spend 63.6% of her earnings to put her own child in infant care, according to the data.

CEPR points out that other costs for raising children have increased as well, also outpacing the inflation rate. For instance, elementary and high school tuition and fees have risen 3.2 percent over the past year (four times the overall inflation rate of 0.8 percent); college tuition and fees are up 2.7 percent. At the same time, infant care in Connecticut costs $3,752 (37.1%) more per year than in-state tuition for 4-year public college, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), public expenditure on pre-primary education and childcare is just 0.4 percent of GDP in the United States; this is far lower than the rates of spending in Denmark (2.0 percent of GDP) or Iceland and Sweden (1.6 percent). By this measure, the U.S. comes in 33rd out of the 36 countries surveyed by the OECD, according to the CEPR report.

Public expenditure on pre-primary education spending is 0.3 percent of GDP in the U.S. but averages 0.5 percent in the other OECD countries; even more shockingly, public expenditure on childcare is just 0.06 percent of GDP, well short of the 0.4 percent average from the rest of the OECD. Nor do differences in GDP make up for the latter gap.  In 2011, public expenditure on childcare was $794 per child in the U.S., less than one-third of the OECD average. By contrast, public spending on childcare is $7,100 per child in Finland, $6,400 in Norway and Denmark, $5,900 in Sweden, and $5,700 in Iceland — despite the fact that the U.S. is substantially richer than all those countries except Norway.

In a separate survey, the OECD found that just 14 percent of all public spending on children in the U.S. went to children age five and under — dead last among the 32 OECD countries in the sample. In the United States, 14 percent of all public spending on children goes to children ages zero to five; 41 percent goes to children ages six to 11; and 45 percent goes to children ages 12 to 17. For the other 31 countries (data were not available for Canada and Turkey), 26 percent of all public spending on children went to children ages zero to five; 35 percent went to children ages six to 11; and 39 percent went to children ages 12 to 17, the Center for Economic and Policy Research explained.

Prompted by Economy, Only Half of Nation's Millennials Plan to Work for Same Company Next Year, Gallup Survey Says

Millennials are entering the workforce in increasing numbers, and are the intense focus both of governments – including Connecticut – and businesses seeking to attract and retain them.  As Connecticut’s economic ranking among the states continues to hover near the bottom, the job choices of millennials become increasingly important to future economic vitality. Even amidst less than favorable comparisons in recent rankings, Connecticut has managed to achieve recent employment figures that show improvement. Last month, the state added some 3,000 jobs in the private sector and wages have also risen slightly in recent reports after a period of stagnation, WNPR reported recently.

Heather Ziegler, managing partner for Deloitte in Stamford, told WNPR that in her view the state is doing some things right, like encouraging high technology industries and fostering entrepreneurship. "But what I think is most effective, and one of the challenges at the same time," she told WNPR, "is getting individuals with the right skill sets interested in staying in the area and staying in Connecticut, versus moving on to the larger metropolitan areas that we are right between."

Millennials are already in a tough situation – they’re better educated, yet earning less than their counterparts in 1990, points out Christine Schilke of Young Energetic Solutions (YES CT), a statewide initiative seeking to empower young people to create a vibrant Connecticut.  She indicates that “while 28% of millennials hold bachelor’s degrees compared to 24% in 1990, only 67% are employed, compared to 74% two decades ago.  Those who are working earn an average $40,849, versus $46,569 by their predecessors.”

“Today’s millennials,” Schilke adds, “are also burdened with college debt, and are less likely to be married, live alone or drive. Adding to these challenges is the fact that Connecticut has some of the highest homeownership and rental costs in the nation (6^th and 8^th most expensive, respectively), creating a tough living environment for today’s young adults.”

Nationwide, according to a recent Gallup poll, six in 10 millennials say they're open to different job opportunities, and only 50% plan to be with their company one year from now. Millennials are cracking under the weight of too much debt, according to Merrill Lynch's 2016 Workplace Benefits Report, which points out that only 24% of millennials surveyed say that they are in control of their finances.

Technology is the primary facilitator of millennials' job research: 81% of millennials indicate that they view the websites of organizations they're interested in, and a majority (62%) report that they conduct a general web search to learn about job opportunities, Gallup reports.

Not surprisingly, “millennials are extremely digitally connected, and smartphones have become a ubiquitous accessory for them.” Gallup found that 91% of millennials owned smartphones in 2013, compared with 83% of those in older generations. And compared with other generations, millennials are:

• almost 40% more likely to say they sent or read email messages "a lot" within the past day
• 2.5 times more likely to say they posted or read messages on Facebook, Instagram or another social media site "a lot" within the past day
• 11 times more likely to say they used Twitter, including posting or reading tweets, "a lot" within the past day
• more than 2.5 times more likely to say they sent or read text messages "a lot" within the past day

To attract the best workers, Gallup suggests, “organizations need brand strategies that account for millennials' motivation and ability to find the best employers -- especially considering that millennials currently make up 38% of the U.S. workforce, and some estimate that they will make up as much as 75% of it by 2025.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkOmyg5lJbQ

Two CT Companies Among Inc. 500 As Fastest Growing Private Businesses; 40 in State Reach List of 5,000

Two companies with Connecticut addresses are among the 500 fastest growing private companies in America, cited in the annual survey published by Inc. magazine in their September edition.  Saatva, which sells “America’s best priced luxury mattress” exclusively on-line, is ranked at #316 and Discover Video, a video hardware and software company that works across multiple industries, is ranked #428. They were the only two companies to earn a slot in the top 500.  An additional 38 Connecticut companies were listed on the Inc. 5000, also announced recently.

Wallingford-based Discover Video provides software and hardware to corporations and educational institutions that seek to improve their communications through the use of video. The company ranks #428 on the Inc. 500, is ranked #5 among America’s fastest growing media companies, and #2 in Connecticut. The company has grown 893 percent in the last three years.

“We are thrilled to be recognized” said Rich Mavrogeanes, Discover Video CEO. “We provide great products, love our customers, and have a fantastic team. Our customers take comfort in our financial stability and long term prospects, and this award certainly demonstrates that.”

Founded in 2009, Discover Video, LLC provides “powerful and affordable video streaming and digital media solutions to organizations of all sizes in three ways: Products, Services and Expertise,” according to the business website. Clients include the Emmy Awards, the National Association of Broadcasters and the White House, according to the company.

Ranked at #316 on the Inc. list, Saatva’s three year growth is 1,220.9 percent.  The company constructs and sells luxury mattresses.  The company’s administrative mailing address is Wright Street, in Westport; another administrative office is located in Austin, TX.  The online Inc. summary indicates they are a Connecticut company; the magazine’s print edition lists the company as based in New York City, where back-office logistics emanate.  The business has 18 factories around the country; the CEO is Ron Ruzdin.

The seven-year-old Saatva was named to Forbes Top 100 "America's Most Promising Companies" last year, and was ranked the 8th fastest growing e-tailer in the Top 500 Guide for 2015 by Internet Retailer.  The company sells exclusively online and does not have showrooms. Saatva provides “nationwide in-home delivery and set-up,” and highlights it’s mattresses’ “individually wrapped coils, edge & lumbar support, steel coil support base, organic cotton cover, and euro pillow top with a memory foam enhancement in the lumbar area.”

Also reaching the Inc. 5000 were Saffron Road Foods, a consumer products and services business (American Halal Company) based in Stamford, at #703; Votto Vines Importing, a food and beverage business in Hamden, at #786, and Continuity, a New Haven software company, at #955, launched in 2008.

Saffron Road is the culmination of Founder and CEO Adnan Durrani’s life’s work.  Right after the turn of the 2000 millennium, the natural food pioneer first envisioned a halal food brand which also embodied ethical consumerism: halal, sustainably farmed, authentic, anti-biotic free, and 100% vegetarian fed, all harvested on family-owned farms, the company’s website explains.

Votto Vines is a family-operated business focusing primarily on the importation and wholesale distribution of fine wines produced by leading boutique vineyards around the world as well as high-profile private label and wine licensing transactions.

Continuity provides a combination of technology, expertise and leadership “designed to make compliance a seamless part of how your institution does business,” providing compliance management solutions.  By combining regulatory expertise and cloud technology, Continuity provides a proven way to reduce regulatory burden and mitigate compliance risk. In addition to its New Haven headquarters, the company has an office in Boston.

Connecticut-based fast growing businesses on the first-half of the list of 5,000 nationwide also include HPC Wireless Services (#1,033), InterMerchant Services (#1,392), Charles IT (#1,631), Northeast Private Client Group (#1,786),eEuroparts.com (#1,912), Clarity Software Solutions (#,2108), Johnson Brunetti (#2,380), Square 9 Softworks (#2,387), and DGDean (#2,436).

The full list of Connecticut companies is at http://www.inc.com/inc5000/list/2016/state/ct/

CT's Economy Among 10 Worst States But Rising, Governor's Approval Rating is Nation's Second-Worst

Connecticut’s economy is among the ten worst states in the nation, but that is an improvement from three years ago, when the state ranked 49^th out of the 50 states.  Now the state ranks 42^nd in a ranking of overall economic performance by Governing magazine, with results that show a connection between a state's economic performance and its governor's approval ratings. The approval ratings for governors of the top 10 states averaged 62.1 percent, according to the publication, while the gubernatorial approval ratings for those in the bottom 10 averaged 50.8 percent. No governor in the top 10 states had an approval rating lower than 54 percent, while six of the governors in the bottom 10 states had approval ratings below 50 percent and one -- Connecticut's Dannel Malloy, a Democrat -- had an approval rating as low as 29 percent, Governing’s analysis showed.

In 2013, Connecticut’s economy ranked 49^th, and Governing said this: “Gov. Dan Malloy is a Democrat in a solidly blue state and has won plaudits for his handling of the Newtown school shooting and for his leadership during several weather emergencies. However, his poll numbers from Quinnipiac University are mediocre -- a 47 percent to 47 percent split in job approval, with only 44 percent of voters saying he deserves re-election, compared to 46 percent who say he does not.”  Malloy was re-elected, but his poll numbers have plummeted in the nearly two years since, as Connecticut has remained mired in the nation’s 10 worst performing economies.

The top-ranked state is Massachusetts, where Republican Governor Charlie Baker has an approval rating of 72 percent.  Also earning a slot in the top 10 are Oregon, Delaware, Colorado, California, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Utah, Virginia and Maryland, where Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has a 71 percent approval rating.

The worst-ranking state economy is in West Virginia, followed by Alaska, and Wyoming – all states where the Governor has an approval rating exceeding 60 percent.  Most others among the bottom 10 states have approval ratings in the 40’s – the lowest by more than 12 points is Malloy’s 29 percent approval rating.

The only Governor in the nation less popular than Malloy is Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, with an approval rate of 26 percent.  Michigan’s Rick Snyder (R) at 32 percent, Kentucky’s Matt Bevin (R) at 33 percent, Illinois’ Bruce Rauner (R) at 34 percent and New Jersey’s Chris Cristie ( R) with a 36 percent approval rating are the others at the low end of the survey, conducted by Morning Consult, weighted using the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, and published in Governing.

Louisiana, just behind Connecticut at number 46, like other states on the bottom 10 list has been heavily influenced by a decline in the energy sector. In addition to Louisiana, today's bottom 10 includes such energy-dependent states as Alaska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wyoming. In fact, two of these states -- Alaska and West Virginia -- actually ranked in the top 10 in 2013, before the full force of the energy decline was felt, Governing reported.

Among state economies in the Northeast and New England, Massachusetts, Delaware and New Hampshire ranked in the top 10; New Jersey was number 24, Vermont number 25, Maine number 28 and New York number 29.  Rhode Island was ranked 35^th.

Olympic Coverage Starts in Rio But Reaches Us Through Stamford, Connecticut

The 2012 London Olympic Games, the most watched event in U.S. television history with 217 million viewers, is so four years ago.  NBC Sports, with the epicenter of its operations in Stamford, is looking to break its own Olympic and world record with coverage from Rio. So far, it seems to be working.

Just over three years ago, NBC Sports launched a new state-of-the-art 300,000 square foot facility headquartered in Stamford, on a thirty-three acre campus (formerly the home of Clairol). The facility brought NBC Sports, NBC Sports Network, NBC Olympics, NBC Sports Digital, and NBC Regional Networks all under one roof. Connecticut’s First Five program, providing financial incentives to major business entities to relocate to the state, helped get the deal done. At the ribbon cutting for the facility in July 2013, just off exit 9 along I-95, NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus said it was “built for every conceivable media platform, known today or yet to be built or conceived.”

This month, much of what we see of the Olympics in Rio, across a range of media platforms, has come through Stamford.

NBC reports that over the past six nights, the network’s primetime Olympics coverage has averaged three times more households watching than the other television networks combined, across the ten NBC owned and operated stations – including NBC Connecticut.  Digital viewership is outpacing the numbers achieved during the London Games, and has grown in recent days mirroring the Olympic achievements of American athletes.

All the video coverage comes to Stamford from Rio and then is relayed to a variety of NBC Universal platforms — the NBC broadcast television network; cable channels, such as the NBC Sports, MSNBC and CNBC; plus websites and apps.  Telemundo and NBC Universal are narrating events in Spanish and focusing on sports popular in Latin America, Paul Janensch, a former local newspaper editor, noted recently. A total of 6,700 hours of content are being televised and streamed, with much of it live. NBC is telecasting Rio events on five cable channels, compared with two for the 2008 summer games in Beijing.

“Naturally, due to the volume of events and sports and amount of talent and employees, it's a vast challenge,” said Kaare Numme, NBC Sports’ at-home coordinator producer for the Rio games, told the Stamford Advocate, before the Games began. “This will be our largest single event happening.” Lazarus has called the Rio Olympics the “biggest media event in history.”

Published reports indicate that the number of employees and other personnel involved in the Stamford operations for the Olympic games has grown to nearly 1,400.  That is nearly double the routine staffing levels, and considerably higher than the approximately 1,000 people involved in coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics. It is virtually a 24 hour-a-day operation (and some days may indeed be round-the-clock) with 6 AM to 2AM the regular work day for the duration of the Games.

There has been some pushback on NBC’s coverage, some from a generation more accustomed to viewing-on-demand and watching commercial-free.  And NBC announcers have had some unforced errors, which are commonplace these days largely due to the pervasiveness of social media.  In addition, ratings from the Opening Ceremonies on NBC television were down substantially from the London Games.  But that seems to have been the floor, not the ceiling, for viewership levels.

As part of the expansion for the Olympic coverage, NBC Sports built two new control rooms and brought in another portable center in Stamford, the Advocate reported. It also installed an additional 13 announcing booths to bring its total to 18, nearly double the quantity used to telecast the London games four years ago.

In a section of the facility dubbed The Highlights Factory, about 200 highlights and features packages will be produced each day during the games, Eric Hamilton, NBC Sports’ director of digital Olympic video production, told the Advocate. “You might be able to watch one of seven different streams of gymnastics on the first day of gymnastics,” Hamilton said. “You can really channel surf in a big way.” Scores of edit rooms and graphics suites fill the sprawling center.

There is more to come in Stamford.  In addition to a range of sports programming throughout the year, NBC Sports owns the rights to the Olympics through the 2020 Summer Olympics, at which point the network will have presented 12 consecutive and 17 total Olympic Games, the most for a U.S. media company in both categories.

https://youtu.be/rXO5zRj6rFg

Metro Hartford Progress Points Report Looks at Promise in Communities Amidst Considerable Challenges

First, the bad news.  The Metro Hartford region “has not produced meaningful job growth in the past 25 years, despite having advanced industries that offer a family-sustaining wage and having residents eager to work.”  The region’s spending on local schools continues to increase, even as enrollment declines, and the region “retains the fewest four-year graduates of any metro region in the country – with 60 percent of recent graduates citing jobs as their primary reason for leaving.”  Even in the region’s traditional strength in advanced industries, such as aerospace manufacturing and computer systems designs, “our competitive advantage may be eroding.” If the goal of the latest edition of the Metro Hartford Progress Points report, driven by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, is to push a region-wide conversation that spurs progress, the data highlighting five key issues impacting the region’s 38 communities may have just enough unsettling news and rays of hope to do just that.  “The need for systemic change,” the report indicates, “requires leadership and more regional coordination and integration.”

The third annual edition of the report is the result of collaboration between nine stakeholders representing local government, businesses, nonprofits, academic and philanthropic institutions and organizations committed to making long-term progress in the region.

The 2016 report focuses on five related themes: attracting and retaining a skilled workforce; better connecting people to opportunity; aligning workforce and economic development strategies; ensuring a quality education for all despite scarce resources and building collaborative leadership and civic engagement to create long-term progress.

The data suggests that the region may be poised for greater success, but not without accelerated efforts, noting flatly that “more is needed.”

The report notes that the beginnings of “meaningful change” is evident, with towns creating walkable areas near transportation through transit-oriented development along the CT Fasttrak corridor and the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield rail line, expanding transportation options to meet the needs of today’s population and employers, an expanding presence of colleges in downtown Hartford, and regional collaboratives creating career pathways and bridging the divide among differing aspects of the education system from middle school through the workforce.

Local and regional organizations and associations, such as the MetroHartford Alliance’s HYPE, reSET, United Way’s Emerging Leaders and the Urban League’s Young Professionals “engage and connect millennials” and offer “business advisory services and other supports to help small businesses thrive,” the report explains, providing “a great start” on what needs to be done.

The report notes that “regional thinking is not new to Metro Hartford, even if successes have been intermittent. Without regional government, we must rely on informal, voluntary collaboration among leaders to address regional challenges.”

Among the findings:

• Most job openings in the future will be in either high-wage jobs that require advanced degrees (27 percent) or low-skill jobs with wages that cannot sustain a family (72 percent).
• While school enrollment in our region has declined by 7 percent since 2001, amounting to 29,000 additional empty seats in our region’s classrooms, education expenditures have increased 25 percent.
• Millennials are projected to be the largest workforce segment by 2025, but who are they? Nearly half (43%) of the region’s 18- to 34-year-olds live in households that don’t earn family-sustaining wages.
• Millennials and those aged 45-64 are moving out of our state in large numbers, along with those with post-secondary education, and are taking $912 million of their income with them. Overall, college graduates, individuals with advanced degrees and older residents are moving out of state, while younger and less educated people are moving in.

Regarding economic growth – or the lack thereof – the Hartford region ranks at the bottom of the list among Cleveland, Buffalo and New Orleans over the past quarter-century.  Topping the list are Austin, Las Vegas, Orlando and Raleigh.

The report includes a timeline of past efforts aimed at addressing the region’s long-standing challenges, “not to be disheartening, but instead to highlight where positive changes have been made” and how collaborative efforts can “create opportunities for all Greater Hartford residents.” The report also indicates that:

• While net job growth in our region has been flat, the region’s smaller and locally-owned businesses have increased employment by 23 percent between 1995 and 2013. Unfortunately, larger and employers headquartered out of state have decreased employment by 10 percent during this same time period.
• New and proposed rail, bus and highway projects offer the promise of access to jobs, housing and amenities that can spur economic growth.
• Many of the region’s residents – of all ages – would like to live where they can walk to shops, restaurants and other amenities, compared to where they lie today. That is true of 60 percent of those ages 18-20, and more than 40 percent of other age demographics.

The Metro Hartford region consists of 1 million people living in Hartford, New Britain and the 36 surrounding communities.  The partners in the initiative expressed the hope that the latest edition of the Progress Points report creates the “sense of urgency necessary to address shared regional challenges.”

The Metro Hartford Progress Points Partners are: Capitol Region Council of Governments, Capital Workforce Partners, City of Hartford, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Hispanic Health Council, MetroHartford Alliance, Trinity College Center for Urban and Global Studies, United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut, and Urban League of Greater Hartford.

https://youtu.be/0zTQjsbNlw0

CT Launches Entrepreneur Learner’s Permit to Cut Start-Up Fees

Connecticut’s Entrepreneur Learner’s Permit program, operated by CTNext, is underway.  The two-year pilot initiative, which reimburses first-time entrepreneurs for filing, licensing, and permitting fees associated with starting a business, is aimed at giving certain businesses a boost on the bottom line. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Connecticut Innovations, CTNext is Connecticut’s innovation ecosystem, designed to build a more robust community of entrepreneurs and accelerate early-stage growth by providing access to talent, space, industry expertise, services, skill development, and capital to foster innovation and create jobs in Connecticut.

The Entrepreneur Learner’s Permit program, signed into law earlier this year, allows owners and executives of businesses in the information technology, bioscience, and green technology industries to receive reimbursement up to $1,500 for state and municipal business startup fees.

The Entrepreneur Learner’s Permit legislation sets a funding cap of $500,000 in Fiscal Years 2017 and 2018, equaling $1 million for reimbursable fees for entrepreneurs in the state.

Eligibility in the three industries has been defined by CTNext as the program gets started this month:

Bioscience: Defined as the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, medicines, medical equipment, or medical devices and analytical laboratory instruments, operating medical or diagnostic testing laboratories, or conducting pure research and development in life sciences.

Information Technology: Defined as software publishing, motion picture and video production, teleproduction and post-production services, telecommunications, data processing, hosting and related services, custom computer programming services, computer system design, computer facilities management services, other computer related services and computer training.

Green Technology: Defined as the production, manufacture, design, research or development of clean energy, green buildings, smart grid, high-efficiency transportation vehicles and alternative fuels, environmental products, environmental remediation and pollution prevention.

Glendowlyn Thames, director of Small Business Innovation and CTNext at Connecticut Innovations, recently told Hartford Business Journal that “Starting and running a business in its earliest stages can be a massive undertaking, no matter the location. This benefit does more than cover fees — it is another step the state has taken to help create a more active ecosystem and assist entrepreneurs when they need it most. Entrepreneurs scrutinize every cost, so while the fees may not deter a company from coming to Connecticut, removing those fees can certainly serve as a benefit.”

The Connecticut Business and Industry Association has described the program as “a pro-small business, solid stepping stone toward paving the way for Connecticut to become a much more business friendly state.”  The legislation establishing the program was authored by State Rep. Caroline Simmons-D-144 and State Sen. Scott Frantz-R-36, the Stamford Advocate reported.

“Our vision is to attract new businesses to Connecticut and to encourage entrepreneurship and job growth in our state,” Simmons told the Advocate. “This is a pro-business, bi-partisan bill that will benefit Connecticut's economy.”

The legislature’s Office of Fiscal Analysis (OFA) estimated the program will cost the state $27 million annually in lost fee revenue; other agencies like transportation and banking will lose $7 million annually. OFA assumes 25,000 startups launch in Connecticut every year.

CTNext, described as Connecticut’s innovation ecosystem, is tasked under revisions to the state’s economic development structure approved by the state legislature to “equip startups and entrepreneurs with resources, guidance and networks to accelerate growth and success.” CTNext launched in 2012, and has worked with more than 1,100 companies.

Companies need to certify that they are eligible for the Entrepreneur Learner’s Permit program, and after filling out a very brief online application, a “CTNext team member will reach out to you to collect receipts for reimbursement.”  At the end of the two-year program, CT Innovations is to evaluate its effectiveness and make a recommendation to the legislature regarding whether it should be continued, concluded, or revised.

https://youtu.be/U0vyYsDrl10