January 11, 2021 Edition

Professional services

🔒Ask ACE: How to get creative energy back in your video meetings

A contributor from the Association for Consulting Expertise helps out a reader whose remote meetings need a jolt of creative energy and productivity.

Marketing & Media

🔒2021 forecast for Maine’s broadband industry: Poised for rural expansion

Remote technology has its limitations in a state like Maine, where a broadband connection simply isn't available in some rural areas. The state is scrambling to fill the digital divide.

Banking & Finance

🔒2021 forecast for Maine’s banks and credit unions: A year of further growth, competition

Financial institutions in Maine were growing and expanding as the pandemic began, and have been able to maintain some of that momentum. Much of their work in 2021 will focus on helping Maine businesses get back on their feet.

News

🔒From the Editor: After last year’s turbulent ride, what’s ahead for 2021?

While last year was a year we’ll never forget, no one seems quite certain what this year...

News

🔒From the Publisher: Closing a door, but opening a window

Publisher Donna Brassard, who will be transitioning from Mainebiz in the months ahead, pens a note to readers, friends and the business community.

Cannabis

🔒No one saw 2020 coming, and yet … some businesses thrived

A year ago, Mainebiz asked 20 business leaders for their outlook for 2020. Most painted a picture...

Fisheries & Marine

🔒2020 in review: A Belfast shipyard benefitted when pandemic ‘pushed people outdoors’

This marine services and shipbuilding company weathered the storms of 2020, especially after sales of new vessels went off the charts.

Professional services

🔒2020 in review: ‘A perfectly fine year,’ says a financial planning firm

Financial services seemed to cope with 2020 better than many industries. "The fact is that people need guidance with their money," says one financial planner.

Retail & Food Service

🔒2020 in review: The hospitality workforce still matters

Workforce development was a key priority for the Maine's hospitality industry as 2020 began. After it lost 30,000 jobs, the priority remains.

Fisheries & Marine

🔒2020 in review: Lobstering sees a major shift in buyers

Harvesting dipped in the early days of the pandemic, but Maine's lobster industry rebounded in an unexpected way.

News

🔒Challenges and expectations for 2021

After a year of adaptation, business leaders are better prepared After the challenges of 2020, when business adapted...

Agriculture

🔒2021 forecast for Maine’s agriculture sector: Farmers count on local food demand

Farmers and producers had to deal with the twin challenges of COVID-19 and drought during 2020. They'll likely continue this year, but agribusinesses look at the pandemic-spurred demand for local food as a bright spot.

Banking & Finance

🔒On the Record: Jeff Fuhrer, former Boston Fed analyst, looks at 2021 after a turbulent year

The former senior policy analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is again keynoting the Mainebiz "Five on the Future" discussion on Feb. 25. But first, he chats about 2020, and what may lie on the horizon in the year ahead.

Banking & Finance

🔒2021 forecast for Maine’s health care industry: An embattled system faces more battles

Maine's hospitals, clinics and other health care organizations have been ground zero of the pandemic. Even with the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and the widespread adoption of remote technology, the industry will be hard pressed in 2021.

Higher education

🔒2021 forecast for Maine’s higher education field: Grooming resilient grads

Colleges and universities learned how to make learning work amid a global catastrophe. Leaders of Maine's schools are optimistic that their students will take that adaptability and tenaciousness with them as they enter the workforce.

Retail & Food Service

🔒2021 forecast for Maine’s hospitality sector: Facing another inhospitable year

The industry has lost 41,000 jobs because of the pandemic, and recovered fewer than half of them. The coming year doesn't look good either, although there may be some improvement in the third and fourth quarters.

Manufacturing

🔒2021 forecast for Maine’s manufacturers: The word of the year is ‘persist’

When the pandemic struck, manufacturers of all types turned on a dime to produce PPE and other critical supplies. Now the goal is to keep them coming.

Fisheries & Marine

🔒2021 forecast for Maine’s marine industries: Shipyards will continue to grow

The two largest yards in the state have been steadily growing despite the pandemic, and have a stream of work and facility upgrades lined up for the year.

Nonprofits

🔒2021 forecast for Maine’s nonprofit sector: More need, more challenges in year ahead

The pandemic sent demand for the services of many nonprofits skyrocketing, and that trend is likely to continue. Nevertheless, groups are adapting and aiming to be resilient in 2021.

Real Estate & Construction

🔒2021 forecast for Maine’s real estate sector: Residential, industrial sales will stay hot

After a surprisingly strong year, with many transactions driven by the pandemic, the market for Maine properties is expected to be "vibrant." But a lack of inventory could put a damper on it.

Retail & Food Service

🔒2021 forecast for Maine’s retail businesses: ‘Long haul’ in store, but maybe a silver lining too

Prospects for one of the industries hardest-hit by the pandemic won't even become clear for another month, says the head of the Retail Association of Maine.

Subscriber Only

🔒2021 forecast for Maine’s transportation sector: Portland eyes port improvements

A long-planned cold storage facility on the Portland waterfront and a pending sale of the state's largest railroad are on the horizon, demonstrating that the pandemic has slowed but not stopped changes in the transportation and logistics field.

January 11, 2021 EditionEdition

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