October 17, 2016 EditionEdition

Acadia National Park's celebration of its 100th birthday, along with favorable weather, are two top reasons cited for a surge of visitors and business activity this past summer. Another contributing factor has been a marketing push by the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce, begun four years ago with the hiring of a publicist.

As editor of Mainebiz, I get the opportunity to meet businesspeople from, we like to say, Kittery to Fort Kent. Recently, Mainebiz held the fifth of its “On the Road” series of networking events and roundtables, this time in Farmington.

Thousands of seasonal visitors and summer residents have discovered a growing slate of cultural happenings in recent years in Rockland, with the transformation of a forlorn waterfront with an influx of businesses such as MBNA, succeeded by Boston Financial Data Services.

Despite the $80 million in funding expected in 2016 — the Bar Harbor-based lab has 19 grants awarded through the first three quarters of this year — there's still a dire need for more.

SaviLinx has been growing quickly and expects revenue to rise to more than $10M this year, up from $4.3M last year. The 30,000 square feet of space at Brunswick Landing is filling up quickly.

A while back, I caught up with a former employee. During our conversation he said, “I'm not even sure why you took so much time with me.” Caught off guard, I replied, “Because it's my job to help my employees be the best they can be.” Over the years he and I had a few “uncomfortable” conversations but, despite the discomfort, we made a lot of progress together.

Eating and savoring a tasty fish taco with chips and unsweetened ice tea at the Appalachian Trail Cafe in downtown Millinocket a couple of weeks ago, my head was aswirl with questions about how the newly designated Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument could possibly help a local economy devastated by paper mill closures in recent years.

The Project Management Institute defines a Project Management Office as a “management structure that standardizes the project-related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools and techniques.”

New hiresCBRE|The Boulos Co., a real estate firm in Portland, hired Jonathan Rizzo as an associate. Rizzo...

Isle au Haut, six miles long and two miles wide, is one of 15 year-round island communities in Maine, yet is among those with a tenuous hold on year-round sustainability. It faces many of the issues faced by small towns throughout Maine but magnified by the fact that its entire year-round population would fit in a typical small-town diner.

Ethan Hipple is about six months into his job as parks director for the city of Portland, and already he's been part of settling the controversial redesign of Congress Square in the city's downtown.

U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, has joined 11 Democratic senators in calling on the U.S. Department of Energy to put the brakes on expanding liquefied natural gas exports.