Rise: Ann Arbor Summer Festival
The popular annual event is making format changes - like longer weekend hours, but no Monday programming - to keep it viable. It’s a sign of “doing more with less,” organizers said, preserving the essence of the event, including Top of the Park performances, while adding necessary fund-raising to the mix.

Fall: Lycera
The University of Michigan spinoff took a big step by hiring an experienced East Coast pharma executive as its first CEO, but it’s disappointing to see that the headquarters of the company will move to his location in Boston. William Sibold may be the best person to take the drug discovery firm forward - less than a year after it scored $36 million in financing - but we’d like to see the power center of Michigan-launched businesses remain here.