America's former industrial heartland, which includes Cleveland and nearby cities like Detroit, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, looks to reclaim its past through the attraction of foreign-born residents. 

This weekend, explore IngenuityFest, check out Walk All Over Waterloo, get cultured at International Cleveland Community Day at CMA, view short films at Ohio City Film Festival and more. 

An upcoming Global Cleveland event will encourage area companies to share best practices in hiring foreign-born brainpower.

The September events will celebrate the contributions of immigrants and entrepreneurs to their communities.

A new report shows that while some progress has been made in improving the schools, there is still a long way to go. The conditions are now right for faster changes, leaders say.

Urban, connected and on the move, the Campus District is poised to take off with more than $260 million pouring into this scant square mile of diverse territory.

Northeast Ohio has three organizations dedicated to getting fresh produce and sustainably-grown goods to consumers through online ordering.

The PRE4CLE program, which was recently recognized by the White House, is halfway to its goal of enrolling 2,000 additional four-year-olds in high-quality preschools in Cleveland.

As a small printing company in Warrensville Heights, Porath Print Solutions has seen its share of struggles and issues in the non-profits and small businesses the 16-person company has served since 1968. So this year, Porath chief problem solver Gerry Engelhart decided it was time to start sharing his knowledge with a bi-monthly seminar series.

“Our boss is a very community-oriented person,” says Porath’s Rachel Gordon. “We all kept seeing our clients, especially  non-profits, coming to us with printings and mailings and we realized we’re not giving them the bigger picture of what different organizations were doing to raise money. It could be much easier for them on the front end if they knew some things. ”
 
So Porath started a series of free breakfast seminars to educate organizations on how to organize fundraising campaigns. “The first two were just about fundraising – how to connect with your current donors,” says Gordon. “It’s so [much] less expensive to keep the supporters you have than to find new ones.”
 
Now, Porath will team up on Tuesday, June 30 with Simone Cameron of Cleveland Heights marketing firm the Annek Group to host another free seminar on social media. “Social Media: The Basics” will cover all the things Porath learned while implementing its own social media strategy. “A few months ago we didn’t have a social media presence at all,” says Gordon. “Then we connected with Simone and now we have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and an e-newsletter.”
 
Seminar attendees will learn about the importance of multi-channel marketing and how and when to use the different social media outlets. “For us, it was kind of a revelation,” says Gordon of Porath’s own foray into social media. “As we’re learning about this we realized there are definitely other people going through the same thing. There are basic questions that are overwhelming.”
 
Gordon says the seminar is just Engelhart’s way of giving back. “He’ll make time for anyone,” she says. “For us, it’s helpful because it just keeps us fresh and it keeps the ideas flowing.”
 
The free seminar is from 8 am to 9:30 am on June 30 at the Porath offices, 21000 Miles Parkway in Warrensville Heights. A light breakfast will be served. Register or call (216) 626-0060 for more information. Guests are encourage to bring a non-perishable food item to donate to the Cleveland Food Bank.

A key component of the Cleveland Plan for Transforming Schools is helping families choose the right school. Neighborhood ambassadors are charged with informing the community about school choices.

Mike Kister likes to look out for the little guy. As a veteran entrepreneur – having started four internet service, e-commerce and web companies – Kister’s latest venture, Acceleration Systems, offers faster internet speeds and enhanced bandwidth on a subscription basis to small companies that previously couldn’t afford such services.

With Acceleration Systems’ cloud-based tools, customers can see download speeds 10 times faster and uploads 17 times faster than a regular internet connection. “That’s a pretty dramatic kind of improvement,” Kister, president and CEO, says.
 
“Bandwidth optimization has been around for a while, but it’s only available in Fortune 1000 companies for the past decade,” says Kister. “With our cloud-based monthly subscription, now bandwidth optimization is affordable to small businesses.”
 
Kister and his team have been working on their technology for two years and filed patents in January 2013. A year ago, the group had its first working prototype. “We then went on a fundraising tour and two weeks later we were fully funded,” he says. “We took the prototype and had a working model in eight months.”
 
The company headquarters are in Northfield, just three miles from Kister’s home. Acceleration Systems also has offices in Philadelphia, R&D offices in Lexington, Kentucky and four sales offices throughout the eastern United States. The company recently hired two additional engineers to its team of 18.
 
“We’ll get them up to speed and then hire a couple of more,” says Kister of their recent hiring. “We’re just growing like gangbusters right now. We’re scrambling to keep up with demand. It’s a lot of fun.”  
 
Kister envisions Acceleration Systems’ software will eventually be in all sorts of computer devices. “Ultimately, this technology will be embedded in your cable modem, embedded in your smart phone,” he says. “We have additional twists we put on the problem – businesses with multiple locations can tie together through private cloud services.”

 

Christine Howey, a local theater critic, poet and actor, decided to live as the woman she knew she was when transgender individuals were not so visible.

A group of civic hackers explored how transparency can be used to monitor the new consent decree and address disparity.