Our roundup of the latest news from metro Detroit and Michigan businesses as well as announcements from government agencies. To share a business or nonprofit story, please send us a message.
2024 Traverse City Comedy Fest Adds Headliners, Events
More headliners and events have been announced for the 2024 Traverse City Comedy Fest, Jan. 31-Feb. 3, adding to a previously announced roster of national performers including Rory Scovel, Zainab Johnson, Joe List, Dwayne Kennedy, and Norm Stulz.
Headliners Chad and JT and Sahib Singh have been added to the lineup, while free stand-up and improv workshops and a meet-and-greet with comics have been announced for this year’s festival.
More than 100 performers will appear at 30-plus shows across seven venues in and around the downtown Traverse City area. Tickets for the second annual Traverse City Comedy Fest — presented by Traverse City Tourism — are on sale now at TCComedyFest.com.
Chad Goes Deep (Chad Kroeger/Tom Allen) and JT Parr use their digital platforms to raise awareness to important causes in pop culture and beyond. They will perform on Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. at the City Opera House and on Feb. 3 at 9:30 p.m. at the Traverse City Comedy Club.
Sahib Singh is a rising star from the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. stand-up scene. He will perform on Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. at the City Opera House and at 9:30 p.m. at the Traverse City Comedy Club.
Multiple free stand-up and improv workshops will take place during this year’s festival to help both seasoned and aspiring comics of all ages — including newcomers — hone their skills. Conducted in the ballroom at Hotel Indigo, the lineup of stand-up workshops this year includes “The Basics of Stand-Up” (Feb. 2 at 10 a.m.), “The Do’s and Don’ts of the Business,” (Feb. 2 at 11:30 a.m.), “So You Think You Can Produce a Comedy Show” (Feb. 3 at 10 a.m.), and “Marketing Yourself to Success” (11:30 a.m.).
Improv workshops — to be conducted at Old Town Playhouse — will include “Improv Workshop for Adults” (Feb. 2 at 1 p.m.) and “Improv Workshop for Youth — Ages 13-17” (Feb. 3 at 11 a.m.).
A meet-and-greet with comics also will take place for festival goers on Feb. 2 from 3-6 p.m. in the Hotel Indigo ballroom. This event is free for festival attendees, and a cash bar will be available.
Comerica Bank’s Michigan Index Rebounds in October Despite the UAW Strike
The Comerica Michigan Economic Activity Index rose 7.2 percent annualized in the three months through October, reversing a drop in the prior three months. Nonetheless, the Index was still down 0.4 percent from a year earlier and declined in those terms for most of 2023.
Reflecting the effects of the United Auto Workers strike, employment in the Great Lakes State fell 13,000 in October and 13,700 in September. Similarly, continuing claims for unemployment insurance and the unemployment rate rose further in October. The Michigan labor market is likely to recover to its pre-strike condition in early 2024, since the strike ended before 2023’s holiday shopping season.
Auto and light truck assemblies slumped by 1.6 million to 8.9 million annualized units in October. Industrial electricity use also fell. The timeliest data on auto production, which are not yet incorporated into the index, largely rebounded to pre-strike levels in late 2023.
Housing starts rose by 8.5 percent in October, the fourth consecutive monthly increase, but were still down 1.3 percent from a year earlier. Despite the gains in the past few months, housing starts through October 2023 were 14.1 percent down from the same period of 2022.
With listings tight, house prices rose sharply for the eighth consecutive month and now have more than reversed their decline from mid-2022 to early-2023. Seasonally adjusted hotel occupancy declined on the month and also from a year earlier. Sales tax receipts, adjusted for seasonality and price differences, were also lower on a monthly and annual basis in October, indicating that consumer spending softened during the strike.
Michigan’s real GDP grew by 1.6 percent in 2022, below the national average of 1.9 percent. The state’s economy grew at a more subdued pace in the first three quarters of 2023 compared to the same period of the prior year and lagged behind the national growth rate.
Michigan’s economy likely will slow along with the national economy in late 2023 and into 2024. High interest rates will slow output and sales in credit-intensive sectors, such as housing, manufacturing, and commercial real estate. Carmakers’ margins will likely be pressured by the combination of higher labor costs and increasing pricing competition amid many new EV models coming to market.
Netsmart, NorthStar, Hospice of Michigan Unite to Advance Innovative Technology
Netsmart, a Kansas-based health care technology provider, has announced a strategic collaboration with NorthStar Care Community in Ann Arbor and Hospice of Michigan in Detroit to support the mission of continually improving end-of-life care.
The collaboration marks “a significant milestone” in the standard of post-acute care, using the powerful combination of innovative technology and best practices to advance value-based care delivery.
“When we first started down the path with Netsmart, we developed a pioneering spirit to start leveraging technology at the bedside, expanding services and thereby enhancing the quality of care and communication with patients and families,” says Patrick Miller, president and CEO of NorthStar Care Community. “When the community comes to us with an unmet need, technology is often part of the solution. Leveraging our expertise in both technology and care delivery, we strive to innovate and set a standard that can assist other organizations in advancing their end-of-life care.”
The goal is to unite industry leaders leveraging a variety of solutions and services of the CareFabric platform including myUnity, an ONC-certified electronic health record for hospice, home care, and palliative care. The myUnity solution unifies care settings into a single patient record and integrates the capabilities needed to support value-based payment models into a single platform.
Additionally, NorthStar will use referral management, clinical decision support, and the Netsmart network and Carequality interoperability framework to share and exchange data with health information exchanges and providers across the health care ecosystem.
U.S. Customer Satisfaction at Record High
In 2023, gross domestic product (GDP), labor markets, consumer spending, household income, productivity, and the stock market all improved at a healthy rate. The rate of inflation dwindled close to its long-term average and customer satisfaction surged to an all-time high, according to the Ann Arbor-based American Customer Satisfaction Index.
This is very different from two years ago when U.S. customer satisfaction, following years of decline, reached its lowest point in 20 years due to COVID-19, supply chain obstacles, high inflation, product shortages, and poor customer service.
Over the past six quarters, there have been substantial improvements in customer satisfaction. In the final quarter of 2023, the ACSI rose by 0.9 percent to a record score of 77.8 (on a 100-point scale).
In part, the increase is due to the impact of more contemporaneous data, made possible due to larger samples. A total of 212,512 survey questionnaires were completed in 2023 (about 53,000 each quarter). As a result of near real-time updating, ACSI is now more precise and more likely to detect rapid changes in customer assessments of quality, value, service, satisfaction, and more.
Many of the problems caused by COVID-19, supply chains, and uneven service quality have dissipated. There also has been a return to traditional competition among sellers, and fewer shortages of product and service personnel. Another change is a drop in consumer expectations. While small, it does lower the bar for creating satisfied customers.
Some of the greatest beneficiaries of these improvements have been gas stations, hospitals, social media, and personal computers. They are among the businesses that have seen the greatest increase in customer satisfaction. As far as individual companies are concerned, there are several in other industries that stand out with both high levels of and major improvements in customer satisfaction: Macy’s, Hyatt Hotels, Amazon Prime Video, and Avis Car Rentals.
“There is one remaining economic anomaly, however,” says Claes Fornell, founder of the ACSI and professor emeritus at the University of Michigan. “As evidence of a well-functioning economy, companies with superior customer satisfaction usually have superior stock returns. The relationship between strong customer satisfaction and positive abnormal stock returns has yet to recur. It is not that the stock returns on customer satisfaction have been weak, but they have not outperformed the market the way they did in the past.”
For more information, visit theacsi.org.
Detroit Business Experts Publish Book on How CEOs Create Exceptional Cultures
Business experts Tom Willis and Brad Zimmerman have dedicated their careers to business coaching, training, and unleashing personal and organizational growth. They have poured more than 30 years of experience into a new book, “The Great Engagement: How CEOs Create Exceptional Cultures.”
In it, the two experts outline their proven method of transforming how people see themselves, their team members, and their purpose in the world.
“In today’s post-pandemic landscape, where two-thirds of U.S. workers feel disengaged and 74 percent of them are actively seeking new opportunities, the consequences are profound,” says Willis.
The book sheds light on the serious repercussions of employee disengagement, including the negative impact on productivity and profitability.
“Many companies grapple with reaching their full potential,” says Zimmerman. “Leaders struggle to comprehend the reasons behind it. ‘The Great Engagement’ addresses the frustration felt by these leaders and offers proprietary methods to ensure that every team member feels fully engaged at work.”
The book went on sale Tuesday. For more information, visit thegreatengagementbook.com.
Forgotten Harvest Schedules Feeding Detroit Together Event for April 12
Forgotten Harvest in Oak Park has announced its new signature fundraising event to the metro Detroit community — Feeding Detroit Together — will take place from 6 p.m.-midnight April 12 at the MGM Grand Detroit in Detroit.
The event will feature a gourmet coursed dinner prepared by chefs at MGM, silent and live auctions, a program highlighting the community, entertainment provided by comedian/speed painter Dave Santia, and dancing to music by The Killer Flamingos.
Proceeds from the event benefit Forgotten Harvest’s efforts to provide fresh, healthy produce that is too often unavailable or unaffordable to those in need through the organization’s farm, pantry partners, and grocery rescue efforts. Tickets begin at $150 and are on sale now.
For full event information and to purchase tickets, visit here.
Sponsorship packages range from $1,000-$50,000 and include multiple event perks and promotional benefits. For questions regarding sponsorship opportunities, contact Taylor Seifert at tseifert@forgottenharvest.org.
An online auction will take place in conjunction with this event on April 1-14. Along with the online silent auction, there will be a live auction during the event. For questions regarding the auction or information on how to donate an item, contact Mary Moore-Butler at mmoorebutler@forgottenharvest.org.
Digital Real Estate Closing Platform One Real Title Goes Live in Michigan
The Real Brokerage Inc. that the digital real estate closing platform One Real Title is live in Michigan and Wisconsin. With these additions, the platform built to empower real estate agents and their customers to experience a faster and more transparent closing process is operational in 12 states across the U.S.
“At One Real Title, our vision is to redefine the real estate closing experience through the seamless integration of industry-leading technology that brings efficiency and transparency to what many view as one of the most stressful parts of buying and selling a home,” says Christian Wallace, chief of integrated home services at Real Brokerage. “Agents and consumers in Michigan and Wisconsin now have the opportunity to experience a new way to finalize a home purchase — one that delivers a streamlined process and exceptional service that goes beyond a typical closing service.”
In addition to Michigan and Wisconsin, One Real Title is available in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah, and provides escrow services in California.
DTE Energy Plan Lays Out Vision for EV Adoption for Michigan Families, Businesses
DTE Energy in Detroit filed its Transportation Electrification Plan (TEP) with the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) earlier this month. The plan supports electric vehicle (EV) adoption for low- to moderate-income Michigan families and breaks down barriers for all communities with EV educational programs and resources while enhancing Michigan’s EV charging infrastructure.
The utility says it will achieve these goals through a proposal of more than $100 million in EV charger rebates over a four-year period (2025-2028) for residential, business, and public EV charger installations.
With DTE’s TEP, installing EV chargers should be more affordable and accessible for qualifying Michigan businesses and families, in some cases fully covering the cost of installing an EV charger.
DTE customers interested in starting their EV journey today will find programs, resources, and thousands of dollars in rebates to help them make the switch at dteenergy.com/ev and dteenergy.com/evbiz.
Jackson’s Consumers Energy Foundation to Award $50K to Three Small Towns
The Consumers Energy Foundation in Jackson is calling for entries in the annual Put Your Town on the Map pitch competition, which will provide $50,000 in grant funding for three projects to help small communities in Michigan grow and thrive. Communities with up to 10,000 residents can submit proposals through Feb. 15.
The Put Your Town on the Map competition seeks to reward innovative ideas that attract visitors to downtowns, advance housing, education or employment, cultivate community pride, and more. Community leaders can learn more and apply here.
The Consumers Energy Foundation and the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan (CEDAM) will select 10 finalists to make their pitches at the Small Town and Rural Development Conference in June. The top three winners will receive grants worth $25,000, $15,000, and $10,000, respectively.
Temple Shir Shalom to Host 11th Annual Chicken Soup Cook-Off Feb. 4
Temple Shir Shalom of West Bloomfield is supporting those in need with its 11th Annual Chicken Soup Cook-Off from noon-2 p.m. on Feb. 4. The event will take place at the temple located at 3999 Walnut Lake Road.
The event will benefit the Metro Food Rescue, CARE House, and the temple’s youth and young adult programming. More than 20 participants will be on hand cooking their versions of chicken soup. A silent auction and raffle also will be part of the festivities.
The Chicken Soup Cook-Off is sponsored by Stage Deli, Zoup, Market Square, Plum Market, and many other local merchants. The chicken soup recipes are from local delis, markets, and caterers as well as Temple Shir Shalom Rabbi Daniel Schwartz and other members of the congregation. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children.
Visit shirshalom.org for tickets and more information.
