Economy
Creating a high-tech vending machine, to dispense local art
Chips, Cheetos and peanuts are all things you might expect to find in an airport vending machine. Local art … not so much. But in one vending machine in the Kansas City Airport, you can expect to find locally made art, jewelry, T-shirts and the like. You swipe your credit card and out comes an…
President Obama: Gigabit access could unleash innovation
When President Obama visited Cedar Falls, Iowa, yesterday to talk about the potential benefits of local communities building their own broadband networks, community and tech leaders from around the country were already gathered at the Gigabit City Summit here in Kansas City to discuss the exact same issues. In Cedar Falls, residents can get gigabit-speed…
How do you build the ‘gigabit city’?
Nearly four years after Google Fiber announced service to the Kansas City area, some key questions remain largely unanswered — particularly questions about how the city will use gigabit-speed internet to grow and thrive. This week in Kansas City, the Gigabit City Summit, organized largely by KC Digital Drive, is assembling representatives from Kansas City…
An entrepreneur, taking on a hidden need – the diaper gap
A child in diapers uses an estimated 6 to 10 diapers per day. That means the average family spends $18 per week or $936 per year on diapers for each child. The costs add up quickly. And because of this, the National Diaper Bank Network estimates that one in three moms in the United States…
Bridging the gap between military and business
Bob Ulin joined the Army in 1959; he was just 17 years old. He was a private in Germany when the Berlin wall went up. Later, he joined the National Guard in California and volunteered to go to Vietnam for two years. He served in the military until 1992, when he retired as a full…