A slew of businesses have popped up to help match students with internships, charging hundreds to thousands of dollars to help them write résumés, identify potential employers and find summer housing.

University of Dreams uses its staff’s personal contacts at 500 companies to get students internships with employers they couldn’t otherwise get into, said CEO Eric Lochtefeld. For interns, that’s better than sending in a résumé and hoping, he said.

“Does any college student really, sincerely believe that their résumé will stand out or get better consideration than an actual introduction would provide?” Lochtefeld said.

In four years, the company has placed 1,800 students in companies such as Paramount Pictures or MTV Networks, both divisions of Viacom Inc. It has slots this summer for 850 students, he said.

Students pay from $6,499 to $8,999 to have the company find them an eight-week summer internship, plus housing in dorms at universities, some meals, transportation to work and activities for a summer. Financial assistance, including loans, grants and full scholarships, is available.

An admissions team reviews applications and makes an offer. Students who are accepted pay a deposit of $500 to $1,000. Then they work with a placement agent, who finds a matching company.

They’re guaranteed an internship in the field of their choice or their money back. Most of the internships are unpaid, but University of Dreams arranges for college credit through universities.

rockymountainnews.com

The Small Business Administration and the Postal Service have co-created a video-on-demand resource for entrepreneurs with advice and inspiration from successful business owners, the agencies announced Wednesday.

Delivering Success, which is available online at http://www.sba.gov/deliveringsuccess, provides a video library of interviews with successful entrepreneurs sharing their experiences and insight into business plans, financing, business promotion, planning, and research, among other issues.

Other videos cover reality checks for business, start-up tips, and how to take a business to the next level, the agencies said.

Successful selling at trade shows depends upon two things. One is your products and personnel: How good are your products and services, and how well do your people represent them. The second has nothing to do with you at all. It has everything to do with secrets.

Not all attendees are the same, and not every buyer on the floor shares these secrets. But most do, whether they’d like to admit it or not. These secrets are strong unifying factors that influence their buying decisions. If you, as a smart and savvy trade show exhibitor, know what these secrets are and tailor your exhibit appropriately, you’ll come away with higher sales numbers every time.

If you could hear your attendee’s deepest, most secret thoughts, they might go something like this:

• We’re impatient
• We’re lazy
• We’re Egotistical
• We hate math
• We liked to be pushed

businessknowhow.com

Now with the social networking websites such as YouTube and MySpace, coupled with the advances in video online technology the time required to reach a tipping point has accelerated.

While Madison Avenue advertisers are looking for new ways to break through the noise smaller companies are using their creativity and low-budget production to stake out a national and even global piece of the online marketing pie. Case in point Terrence Kelleman the inventor of a creative jewelry line who used YouTube videos to launch his company Dynomighty Design onto the national marketplace with his mesmerizing video, “magic magnetic”.

Before long, your cell phone will also be your wallet, keys, and garage-door opener. These mobile applications transform cell phones into life management devices.

www.fastcompany.com

A Pennsylvania entrepreneur has developed technology that gives you all the battery juice you need directly from the air.

How much money could you make from a technology that replaces electrical wires? A startup called Powercast, along with the more than 100 companies that have inked agreements with it, is about to start finding out. Powercast and its first major partner, electronics giant Philips, are set to launch their first device powered by electricity broadcast through the air.

It may sound futuristic, but Powercast’s platform uses nothing more complex than a radio–and is cheap enough for just about any company to incorporate into a product. A transmitter plugs into the wall, and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device’s battery at a distance of up to 3 feet.

Picture your cell phone charging up the second you sit down at your desk, and you start to get a sense of the opportunity. How big can it get? “The sky’s the limit,” says John Shearer, Powercast’s founder and CEO. He estimates shipping “many millions of units” by the end of 2008.

For years, electricity experts said this kind of thing couldn’t be done. “If you had asked me seven months ago if this was possible, I would have said, ‘Are you dreaming? Have you been smoking something?’” says Govi Rao, vice president and general manager of solid-state lighting at Philips (Charts). “But to see it work is just amazing. It could revolutionize what we know about power.”

money.cnn.com

Engineer turned stay-at-home-dad creates a simple tool to help tired new parents remember the basic details of baby care.

When a new baby arrives, mom and dad’s brains seem to turn to mush; lack of sleep makes it challenging to remember the simplest things. Greg Sheldon learned this two years ago when he and his wife Kris became parents for the first time. He found that they were asking each other the same questions over and over: “How long has it been since his diaper was changed?”, or “How long ago did you feed him?” Sheldon, an engineer turned stay-at-home-dad, decided there had to be something more effective than scribbling on a notepad at 2:30 in the morning, so he invented the ITZBEEN Baby Care Timerâ„¢.

When Sheldon’s son was three months old, he decided to put his engineering career on hold to be more involved with his new baby. However, it wasn’t long before his inventive nature had him looking for ways to make the job of parenting a little easier. Sheldon created a simple, cell phone size device with four timers that allowed he and his wife to recall how long ago they changed a diaper, fed the baby, put the baby down to sleep, or gave the baby medication. Whenever they performed a task, like changing a diaper, they simply pressed the correct [diaper button; that timer would reset to zero and start counting up again. At anytime, day or night, they could look at the display and always know how long ago something was done. His timer proved to be so useful, that he filed for a patent and turned it into a real product.

Sheldon’s new company, Coast Innovations, introduced the ITZBEENâ„¢ to the juvenile products industry last September at tradeshow in Las Vegas, NV. “We were very happy with the industry response,” says Sheldon. “We were told by more than one retailer that the ITZBEENâ„¢ was the best new product at the show.” The ITZBEENâ„¢ hit the shelves in January, and it is now available in over 65 stores and websites across the US, Canada, Australia, and Panama. Suggested retail price for the ITZBEENâ„¢ is $24.99.

eMediaWire