Category Archives: Business

Florence, Colorado, September 16, 2021: The Upper Arkansas Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership recently announced the expansion of outreach and engagement efforts to include small businesses, chambers of commerce, and other stakeholders in Lake, Chaffee, and Custer Counties. With the majority of the Sector Partnership’s initial efforts being focused on developing a localized strategy specific to Fremont County, Engagement Coordinator Kevin Mahmalji and his team are hoping to expand on early successes such as the recent launch of a hyperlocal job board and online career center. 

“We’re seeing some progress, but there’s still plenty of work to be done. Our message of accelerating economic growth through workforce empowerment is resonating with employees and employers alike,” said Mahmalji. “With upskilling and reskilling resources such as Career Readiness Bootcamp, Customer Service & Sales certification, and more, the Sector Partnership welcomes the opportunity to strengthen alliances within the Arkansas Valley region.”

To kick-off the next phase of outreach and engagement efforts, the Sector Partnership recently unveiled a promotional video – which will help raise awareness while expanding their digital footprint. Following the launch of the digital campaign, the Sector Partnership is hitting the road for a four county tour to promote a new online job board and career center as well as upskilling and reskilling opportunities. 

“Small businesses across the Arkansas River Valley, regardless of their best efforts, continue to struggle with staffing issues so they’re desperate for help. That’s why it’s imperative for the Sector Partnership to utilize the resources at our disposal to create a pipeline of skilled labor,” added Jeremy Boswell, Vice President of Park Operations, Royal Gorge Bridge and Park. “While it’s easy to speculate what the driving forces behind the labor shortage are, we’re focused on providing tangible solutions to re-energize our local economy – this starts with putting people back to work.” 

In addition to networking opportunities to grow their professional and personal connections, the series of after hours mixers will provide attendees a brief presentation about the work of the Upper Arkansas Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership across the region. 

1. Custer County (Westcliffe) 

Location: Silverwest Feedstore

When: Monday, September 20, 2021

Time: 4:00PM – 6:00PM

1. Fremont County (Florence)  

Location: Pour House 

When: Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Time: 5:00PM – 7:00PM

1. Fremont County (Canon City) 

Location: World’s End Brewery 

When: Friday, September 24, 2021

Time: 4:00PM – 6:00PM

1. Chaffee County (Buena Vista)  

Location: Eddyline Brewing Company 

When: Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Time: 5:00PM – 7:00PM

1. Chaffee County (Salida)  

Location: Amicas Pizza and Microbrewery 

When: Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Time: 4:00PM – 6:00PM

1. Lake County (Leadville)   

Location: Tennessee Pass Cafe 

When: Friday, October 1, 2021

Time: 4:00PM – 6:00PM

The Upper Arkansas Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership works in collaboration with Pueblo Community College, Colorado Workforce Centers across the region, and the Colorado Workforce Development Council, to promote resources and training for individuals currently employed in, or recently displaced from the tourism and retail industries to up-skill through the Lives Empowered Training Academy – which has been made possible by a $4.1 million grant from Walmart to the Colorado Workforce Development Council.

For press inquiries, please contact Diana Armstrong, [email protected]

Upskilling a Top Priority for Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership 

CAÑON CITY, Colo., July 1, 2021 (Newswire) – Fremont Economic Development Corporation, a 501c6 private not-for-profit focused on economic development in Fremont County and central Colorado, today announced the creation of an online job board and career center to connect local employers with prospective employees. The project was launched as part of the Upper Arkansas Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership, also known as “TOR,” which consists of Fremont, Custer, Lake, and Chaffee Counties.

“By offering businesses the ability to post and promote hyperlocal job openings within the communities they serve, we hope to create a pipeline of perspective employees who will have access to free upskilling and reskilling resources such as Career Readiness Bootcamp, Customer Service & Sales certification and more,” said Kevin Mahmalji, engagement coordinator for the sector partnership. “This will ensure that those entering the workforce for the first time, re-entering the workforce, or simply changing careers will have the skills they need to succeed within the region’s tourism, retail or food service industries.”

Explore the job board here: https://jobs.fremontedc.com/

Established in 2005 by the State of Colorado, Sector Partnerships facilitate collaboration between business leaders from the same industry within a shared labor market region. In return, business leaders and other stakeholders work with academia, workforce development, economic development, and community-based organizations to empower our workforce while addressing other competitiveness needs of each sector.

“As some businesses within the region continue to struggle with staffing issues, there’s an obvious need for workforce development,” Rob Brown, Fremont Economic Development Corporation (FEDC), Executive Director, said. “The small businesses in our region rely on employees to perform a wide variety of tasks. Cross-training and upskilling are very valuable both to the employees and the companies they support.”

The Upper Arkansas Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership, in collaboration with Pueblo Community College, and Colorado Workforce Centers across the region, have partnered with the Colorado Workforce Development Council to promote resources and facilitate training for individuals currently employed in, or recently displaced from the tourism and retail industries. The partners are concentrating on up-skilling through the Lives Empowered Training Academy – which has been made possible by a $4.1 million grant from Walmart to the Colorado Workforce Development Council

The Upper Arkansas Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership will utilize a variety of cloud-based tools including Zoom, Basecamp, and Slack – a communication tool used by more than 700,000 organizations around the globe – to promote the job board and career center across the four-county region.

About Fremont Economic Development Corporation (FEDC): Fremont Economic Development Corporation is a professional economic development organization focused directly on business attraction, retention and expansion in Fremont County, Colorado. With an established and growing network of business, academic and governmental partners, we directly assist companies with competitive locations or expansion projects by connecting them with the right people, the appropriate resources and the most meaningful and relevant information. 

FEDC directly manages or assists in supporting multiple sector partnerships across the Upper Arkansas region of Colorado, serving Fremont, Custer, Chaffee, and Lake Counties. www.fremontedc.com

For media inquiries, please contact Kevin Mahmalji, [email protected] 

As small businesses operating within the tourism and retail sectors ramp-up to accommodate the droves of tourists who descend upon the Arkansas River Valley for rafting, hiking, and other outdoor activities the region is known for, Region 13 Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership is working to empower our local workforce through reskilling and upskilling. 

Take a few minutes to review the resources below and register for the FREE certifications to take the first step toward your next career! 

Career Bootcamp – Learn the fundamentals for all professions. From learning about communication skills and organizational planning to using core technology tools and understanding professional etiquette, the Career Readiness Bootcamp program provides the skills you’ll need to stand out in any job.

Hospitality – Show your Colorado pride by demonstrating your knowledge about our breathtaking state and enrich each of your interactions with visitors this summer by becoming certified through the Colorado Concierge Program – an online hospitality training.

Retail – Retail Industry Fundamentals is a 10-lesson program from the National Retail Federation Foundation’s RISE Up initiative that allows you to explore the business of retail, customer service, sales, and merchandising.

Customer Service – Those who earn their Customer Service & Sales certification will master their ability to engage customers effectively, close sales, assess customer needs, and demonstrate other vital customer service and sales skills. 

Business of Retail – This course covers best practices for planning your career path and advancing your professional career.The Business of Retail: Operations & Profit program will teach you about revenue generation, marketing, store operations, and workplace safety to ensure you have the tools you’ll need to be successful. 

TOR Slack Channel – Every Wednesday between 8:00 – 9:00AM, Region 13 Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership hosts a free-flowing discussion about workforce empowerment, the need to attract and retain local talent, and the importance of upskilling/reskilling to accelerate economic recovery. Create a FREE Slack account to join the conversation!

WorkLife Partnership – Founded in 2009, WorkLife Partnership is a nonprofit organization that’s focused on creating economic equity and thriving workplaces across the country. WorkLife deploys its Resource Navigator benefit inside of businesses to provide personalized, immediate, one-on-one assistance when workers need it most.

To facilitate trainings, certifications and committee communication across Fremont, Custer, Lake and Chaffee Counties, Region 13 Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership utilizes a variety of cloud-based tools including Zoom, Basecamp, and Slack – a communication tool used by more than 700,000 organizations around the globe. Through these courses participants will also gain a better understanding of how to build a stand out resume, learn best practices for interviewing and exploring career paths, and more! 

About Fremont Economic Development Corporation (FEDC): Fremont Economic Development Corporation is a professional economic development organization focused directly on business attraction, retention and expansion in Fremont County, Colorado. With an established and growing network of business, academic and governmental partners, we directly assist business leaders by connecting them with the right people, the appropriate resources and the most meaningful and relevant information available.

Prior to joining Exabeam, I was a private contractor, attached to a special operations team, doing surveillance and providing behavioral analytics to the team. Delivering analytics via drone surveillance did not share much in common with modern-day security information and event management (SIEM) platforms or the level of analytics they provide. At that time, SIEMs generally gave static-based rules and were incapable of providing the level of flexibility and context as I would have, doing my surveillance.

So, what do I mean by that? In the surveillance world, I was assigned an asset (which is a person, building, vehicle, or geolocation), and my responsibility was to monitor everything associated with that asset, to determine normal behavior or when things deviated from normal patterns. Some examples are, how many people does person X associate with each day, how many different compounds does person X visit each day, what clothing do they wear, what vehicle do they drive, what paths do they walk, what are their driving patterns, etc.

If any one of these things deviated outside of normal, it wasn’t cause for alarm unless that one thing was so significant, it warranted escalation to the team. Things that warrant escalation and heightened observation levels were mass deviations from several key aspects of an asset, and they were never expected to be in any recognizable order. However, if an asset was seen driving a different vehicle, or following different walking paths, and visiting new compounds, or dressing differently and behaving in any other possible options, we would direct resources towards this asset.

The problem with non-linear behavior

In real world analytics like this, you don’t expect to see changes in behavior in any particular order, such as A happened, then B happened, then C – and if they didn’t happen in order, do not trigger an alarm or notification.

Unfortunately, this is exactly how most legacy SIEMs operate. Analysts are somehow expected to know the appropriate order of operations on how an operation will be compromised. This would be equivalent to me providing surveillance to the team but not making them aware of a potentially bad situation because a person’s behavior didn’t change in an exact, expected order.

Stitching together a timeline from non-linear events

SIEMs must evolve to provide baselines of all user and machine behavior and create profiles for an environment. Attacks can then be identified by anomalous behavior, regardless of the order in which it occurs. For example, if a profile deviated x amount from normal, it would trigger an alarm based on a risk threshold that a user defined.

Some SIEMs only create baselines around authentication data, which can leave gaps in the attack chain and leave an organization susceptible to threats that fly under the radar. Some solutions do baseline a wide range of fields to provide a holistic profile of “normal” across things like badge access, email activity, database activity, asset logon and access, account creation and management, user agent strings, web traffic and more. When a profile begins to deviate across these fields in any order, risk is applied to the session. Once enough risk has been applied, the user or asset will be flagged for the security team to investigate.

Importance of understanding nonlinear events in a military setting

During a given day, doing surveillance, I would be asked to create a timeline of a user’s activities. These timelines would be used to compare against previous activities to see if there was deviation from standard behavior. Telling someone that Asset A went into compound B at a specific time lacked context unless you knew the previous timelines of when Asset A typically went into compound B, so creating these timelines were crucial in providing context.

The same goes for creating timelines for users and machines in an organization. If User X logged onto the network at 3 a.m. and I was to trigger an alarm for this behavior, it would lack context unless I was able to show what time this user typically logs onto the network.

A typical SIEM alert would be laid out as such:

User X logged in after hours: Fire Alarm A

User X logged in after hours and hit a critical server: Fire Alarm B

User X logged in after hours and hit a critical server and created a new local account on the asset: Fire Alarm C

These have traditionally been the types of rules an analyst would have to create and predict the pattern of how they would be compromised.

With behavior analytics, the baselines would let us know if it is normal or not for that user to log in after hours, hit critical servers and create local accounts. And if the deviation from normal was great enough, it would trigger one alert for the analyst to investigate, not numerous ones that you have to try to piece together.

Also, with behavioral analytics, you can get away from time-consuming tasks such as maintaining lengthy whitelists for users that you would typically see doing these tasks. As they take new roles in the organization or leave the company, these lists need to be updated, but with behavioral analytics the data models will let you know when the operations being performed are normal or not.

This type and level of profile building is what was expected of me when I conducted surveillance as a contractor for our military units. This level of comprehensive intelligence should be what we expect from the SIEMs that are designed to protect our organizations. The level of detail, clarity, flexibility and insight regarding organizations’ users and machines can and should mimic the human intelligence provided by military contractors, keeping our companies and our customers safe from cyberattacks.

About Keith Buswell
Keith Buswell serves as a senior sales engineer at Exabeam and has been with the company since 2018. Prior to joining the technology sector, Keith worked in the Air Force and was attached to a special operations team, doing surveillance and providing behavioral analytics to the team.

This article was originally posted on October 15th, 2019, by Keith Buswell, and is reposted courtesy of Homeland Security Today.

Photo credit, https://unsplash.com/photos/Q44xwiDIcns

Calling all entrepreneurs and accredited investors: The Southern Colorado start-up ecosystem is gaining momentum.

The Southern Colorado Angels Group (“SoCo Angels”) is a newly established network of accredited investors that make investments in early-stage technology companies.  The network was created by a group of experienced entrepreneurs, business professionals, and supporting organizations located in Southern Colorado.  The SoCo Angels are looking to foster and develop new businesses, new ideas, and new entrepreneurs located in Pueblo, Fremont, and El Paso Counties and the surrounding areas.

Entrepreneurship in Southern Colorado has a rich history that dates to the mid-1800s.  Notable entrepreneurs include Charles and William Bent, who built a trading post on the Santa Fe Trail in 1833, John Thatcher, who founded the First National Bank of Colorado in 1871, and John D. Rockefeller, who invested in the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in 1903.  The SoCo Angels are looking to continue in this pioneering spirit by supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs.

The SoCo Angels will host a variety of events, including company pitch nights, local networking events, educational workshops, and will act as a feeder for locally run accelerators and incubator programs.  The group will assist early-stage companies by providing them access to information, advisors, and capital.  The club is open to accredited investors (that can be located anywhere) interested in meeting unique, early-stage investment opportunities.  The club has already hosted some great companies in 2021 including: ActiveArmour, Barn Owl Drone Services, MODL Outdoors, Laborjack, Bravrr, and F3tch.  

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or to inquire about getting involved as an entrepreneur or an investor by visiting the website or email listed below.

https://socoangels.com/

[email protected]

Photo Credit: https://unsplash.com/photos/OlSGcrLSYkw

Starting on Tuesday, March 9th,  Southern Colorado Innovation Link (SCIL) and Fremont Economic Development Corporation, ran a 7 week Business Accelerator Boot Camp hosted at the Emergent Campus in Florence.

The planned outcomes focused on strategies for success in the participants’ business ventures.  This included a focus on strengths, customers, business fundamentals and networking.

Over 20 people participated in the Boot Camp, representing 7 businesses, Barn Owl Vision, Spile, Fire Age Design, Trustio, GuestNav, Vitalscape Design, SoCo Eats. Each session was kicked off by a notable entrepreneurial keynote, including 3 time TEDx speaker, Jason Sosa, CoinStar co-founder, Aaron Finch, and Cory Finney, Greater Colorado Venture Fund. The keynote recordings can be viewed on the FEDC TechSTART YouTube channel, here.

Starting and running a business is always a challenge in small town, rural America. Even more so in the Covid era. This Boot Camp was meant to help and provide strategies to meet some of those challenges.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Sector Partnership Launches Initiative to Support Talent Development Network

Talent Acquisition Through Upskilling a Top Priority for Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership 

Florence, Colorado, April 15, 2021: The Region 13 Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership (“TOR”), which is comprised of Fremont, Custer, Lake and Chaffee Counties, recently announced the expansion of engagement efforts to include Kevin Mahmalji of Two Rivers Consulting – to shore up support for initiatives aimed at talent acquisition, and retention through upskilling.

“As small businesses operating within the tourism and retail sectors ramp-up to accommodate the droves of tourists who annually descend upon the Arkansas River Valley for rafting, hiking and other outdoor activities the region is known for, Region 13 Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership will work to empower our local workforce through reskilling and upskilling,” said Brad Rowland, Fremont Economic Development Corporation (FEDC).

Established in 2005 by the State of Colorado, Sector Partnerships facilitate collaboration between business leaders from the same industry within a shared labor market region. In return, business leaders and other stakeholders work with education, workforce development, economic development, and community-based organizations to empower workforce and other competitiveness needs of their industry.

The Region 13 Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership, in collaboration with Pueblo Community College and Colorado Workforce Centers across the region, have partnered with the Colorado Workforce Development Council to promote resources and facilitate training for individuals currently employed in, or recently displaced from the tourism and retail industries to up-skill through the Lives Empowered Training Academy – which has been made possible by a $4.1 million grant from Walmart to the Colorado Workforce Development Council

“There’s no question the economic restrictions imposed during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented challenges for businesses that depend on the annual influx of outdoor enthusiasts and other tourists who flock to the area,” added Jeremy Boswell, Vice President of Park Operations, Royal Gorge Bridge and Park. “With a renewed focus on opening our economy and the easing of government mandated restrictions, I welcome the opportunity to work with businesses across Region 13 Tourism and Retail Sector to attract and develop the talent our industries need to thrive.”

The Region 13 Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership will utilize a variety of cloud based tools to facilitate committee communication across the rural, 4 county region, including Zoom, Basecamp, and Slack, a communication tool used by more than 700,000 organizations around the globe.

About Fremont Economic Development Corporation (FEDC): Fremont Economic Development Corporation is a professional economic development organization focused directly on business attraction, retention and expansion in Fremont County, Colorado. With an established and growing network of business, academic and governmental partners, we directly assist companies with competitive location or expansion projects by connecting them with the right people, the appropriate resources and the most meaningful and relevant information. 

FEDC’s TechSTART program is an award-winning tech sector coworking community, creating an innovation catalyst for rural Colorado. TechSTART facilitates the Upper Arkansas Technology Sector Partnership, working to develop a public and private sector tech ecosystem in Fremont, Custer, Chaffee, and Lake Counties. www.fremontedc.com

For press inquiries, please contact Diana Armstrong, [email protected]

April 15th, 2021, marks the 100 year anniversary of the dedication of the historic Florence High School, located at 215 Maple Avenue, in Florence, Colorado.

When the Florence High School was constructed in 1921 it was the realization of a dream of a more modern Florence. Before the age of the internet, you had to physically “wow-impress” visitors with actual handsome-in-real-life buildings. Modern, attractive public buildings equaled a thriving successful city. Buildings were the physical representation of the hopes of the community, and the old High School was imbued with the dream of a common education and growing the success of each new generation. Citizens realized then that knowledge was crucial to a prosperous local economy. The Florence business community have always dreamed bigger than their little city and supported the construction of the beautiful high school, one of the very last Classical Era Progressive governmental buildings erected in Southern Colorado.

We were a little late to the game, but we arrived, nonetheless. By 1921 America was recovering from some difficult years, and the Arts and Crafts style had grown in popularity. Architecture moved in a new direction, but happily we were left with this gem of a school.  

Exactly 100 years later there is an economic and educational rebirth at the old Florence High School, and in many ways its foundations are the stately architecture of the school. The impressive schools of this era are in a sense, our American castles. As humans we flock to immense masonry buildings built with careful design and care. The Florence High School is a building you cannot help but be proud of. With its rebirth, a modern workforce can now work from home or anywhere, so where do they want to be? In cool historic buildings that have meaning, where they themselves are helping to create the new meaning of the building and community.

While the Florence High School was aspirational at the time it was built and was probably a little larger than we needed, it was truly on par with buildings of school districts in much larger cities. These American castles are expensive and difficult to maintain community icons. The cost of maintenance of upkeep for our old Florence High School resulted in its matriculation from education, but luckily, it fell into a new chapter of significance almost immediately. It is rare to repurpose such large buildings into anything at all in rural America, and most are bound for the dump despite best efforts of the community. So, to have local business leaders willing to take it on, leveraging the building and history into new jobs, ways of working, and success for local people, that is truly remarkable.

When citizens originally heard about the ownership change to the old campus, they were most worried something would happen to the gorgeous façade. To help protect the historic architecture, it is with great pride that the City Council recently voted to assist the Emergent Campus getting listed on the national Register of Historic Places. With these next steps the building will be protected as a historic landmark and continue to be a source of pride for all children who learned how to be better kids and citizens at that school. The listing will also help to make certain that state grants are available to assist the owners in maintaining the building as a center of education and commerce in Florence. We believe the work and investment on this project will create new meaning for an entirely different generation for the next 100 years.

Guest contributor, Wade Broadhead, is the Planning Director for the City of Florence, Colorado, and has been a National Alliance of Preservation Commission (NAPC), Preservation Trainer, since 2013.

Region 13 Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership, in collaboration with Pueblo Community College and Colorado Workforce Centers across the region, have partnered with the Colorado Workforce Development Council to promote resources and facilitate trainings for individuals currently employed in, or recently displaced from the tourism and retail industries through the Lives Empowered Training Academy – which has been made possible by a $4.1 million grant from Walmart to the Colorado Workforce Development Council.

As a result of this cross-sector partnership, Lives Empowered and TalentFOUND, are hosting Reenvisioning Retail – a free, 3-day virtual event to facilitate discussions about equitable strategies for redeploying displaced workers through upskilling and reskilling to accelerate economic recovery. Click here for a special message from Keynote speaker Corinne Hancock, a globally recognized expert in building world-class leaders, effective teams, and cultural proficiency in chaotic environments.

Register Today: Reenvisioning Retail Registration  

With the expansion of its outreach and engagement program, and a strategy that focuses on intense collaboration and workforce empowerment, Region 13 Tourism and Retail Sector Partnership will continue to create economic opportunities through talent acquisition and upskilling.

Contact your event organizer with any questions you have about this event at: [email protected]

In 2017, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which established the framework for Opportunity Zones (OZs) – a federal designation that encourages investments in distressed communities across the country. In short, investors can defer taxes on profits from investments that are applied toward opportunity funds if they commit to community revitalization efforts for a minimum of 10 years.

As a result of the bill’s passage, 126 census tracts were designated as Opportunity Zones in Colorado. This includes portions of Fremont, Chaffee, Lake, Alamosa and several other rural counties. Looking at Colorado’s Congressional Delegation, support for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was a mixed bag.

In the House, Colorado Republicans Scott Tipton, Doug Lamborn, Mike Coffman and Ken Buck all voted in favor – while Democrats Diana Degette, Jared Polis and Ed Perlmutter opposed the bill. In the Senate, Senator Michael Bennet joined fellow Democrats in opposition while Cory Gardner fell in line with his Republican colleagues in support of the measure.

Of course there has been several changes to the make-up of Colorado’s Congressional Delegation since the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Most notably, Jared Polis who represented Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District, won his bid for governor in 2018 and Republican Cory Gardner, who was elected to the Senate in 2014, lost his reelection to former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Additionally, Mike Coffman who represented Colorado’s 6th Congressional District is now the Mayor of Aurora and Scott Tipton, who represented Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, lost his reelection to political newcomer Lauren Boebert during the primaries.

Click here to read more about the future of Opportunity Zones from The Pueblo Chieftain!

https://www.chieftain.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2021/03/18/op-ed-opportunity-zones-hot-topic-congress-plenty-debate/4754852001/

Kevin Mahmalji is the founder and principal of Two Rivers Consulting and currently assists Fremont County Economic Development Corporation with strategic planning and communications.