City, Chamber Recognize Kent's Best in Business

Annual Tree City Awards held in the Kent State University Ballroom Balcony

Several area business were recognized for their contribution to the Kent community on Thursday night at the Tree City Awards and Annual Dinner, sponsored by the city of Kent and the Kent Area Chamber of Commerce. Eleven awards were given to businesses that supported retention, investment and new development in the area in 2011. The winners were as follows (you can see their photos above): Tree City Awards • Anderson Aerospace • Dominick's • MAC LTT Mayor's Awards (city keys) • Cass and Bob Mayfield • Lori Wemhoff IMMY Awards from the Chamber of Commerce • ACS Industries, Inc. • Kent State University Libraries Small Business Person of the Year • Mike Crawford of Advanced Display Systems, Ltd. President's Award • Roger Di Paolo, of The …

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Anderson Aerospace Gets JumpStart Grant

Two-man firm gets first major outside investment

Paris Air Show Gives Boost to Kent Business

Anderson Aerospace returned from world's premiere air show with important leads. Turning those leads into orders is the next challenge.

The Paris Air Show, held every June, draws the biggest names in the aviation and aerospace industries. Start-ups from Ohio rarely make an appearance, but this year one from Kent did. Thanks to a partnership with Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI), Anderson Aerospace President Richard Anderson and Senior Vice President Matthew Flannery attended the 2011 show. "For a start-up to go to that show is kind of unusual," admitted Rick Anderson, founder of Anderson Aerospace, which is located in business incubator office space managed by the Kent Regional Business Alliance (KRBA) on Martinel Drive. The "unusual" move proved a smart step for the company, which has designed an aerospace antenna to allow TV and Internet service on jets in flight. "We made…

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Trip to Paris Air Show Puts Kent Business in the News

Anderson Aerospace marketing their satellite TV antenna for aircraft

A trip to the Paris Air Show for two men running a small Kent business put Anderson Aerospace into the headlines last week. Matt Flannery and Rick Anderson, the founders — and sole employees — of start-up Anderson Aerospace, took their show on the road this week from their small shop at the Kent Regional Business Alliance Martinel Incubator to Paris. They're at the aerospace industry's premiere trade show to market their version of a microwave antenna that would allow airplane passengers to watch satellite TV during their flight. We talked with Flannery and Anderson in February about their plans to go to Paris. But area media recently picked up on the story with their own coverage: The men started their own company after working for a firm…

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