Creative Leadership : Innovation + Job News

A group of civic and business leaders announced an initiative Tuesday to try put Minneapolis-St. Paul on the map in the areas of creativity and innovation.

The nonprofit 4FRONT is made up of local business, education, arts, and government leaders who want the region to take its "rightful place on the world stage."

Executive director John Foley points to a recent ranking of innovative cities worldwide in which Minneapolis slipped to 45th overall from 33rd the previous year.

"Cities all over the world get it. They're working really hard at innovation and trying to figure out how to attract talent, and we're acting like we're not even in the race," says Foley. "We continue to compare ourselves to the likes of Sioux Falls and Mississippi, literally. It's like we don't get it. We're not there yet. We just don't understand the dimensions of this race, and we're missing the big picture that we're competing with Amsterdam and Paris and San Francisco" and other major cities around the globe.

The plan is for 4FRONT to attract, retain, and nurture talent in the areas of food, health, design, and the arts. The centerpiece will be an international symposium and awards event that they hope will annually attract more than 40,000 people.

The Twin Cities are in a global competition for talent, says Foley, and the hope is that the awards will be a way to identify talent and give them a connection to the region. The goal is for Minneapolis-St. Paul to be recognized as the world's premier center of innovation and creativity by 2015 in health, food, design and the arts.

The group is working toward holding its first major event in the summer of 2012, with an abridged event and awards ceremony to introduce the concept in 2011.

Source: John Foley, 4FRONT
Writer: Dan Haugen

One week after launching the state's new angel investor tax credit program, state officials had received 20 applications for certification as of Monday.

All businesses, investors, and angel funds must be certified before applying for a tax credit allocation. Officials have already received one application for credit allocation.

The statute says state officials can only release the names of businesses and investors that have been certified.

Six entities had been certified through Monday. They include:

    --OrthoCor Medical, Inc., a company that makes a device for treating knee pain

    --Investors Donald Schreifels, Sheri Aggarwal, and Charles Floyd

    --and the Twin Cities Angel II, LLC, fund

Spokeswoman Kirsten Morell said more applications are coming in every day.

Source: Kirsten Morell, Department of Employment and Economic Development
Writer: Dan Haugen

   
Thanks to a sort of American Idol for ideas, a Twin Cities woman gets $15,000 to implement her concept, and a Minnesota foundation gets an experience that could help change the way local institutions make decisions in the future.

Christine Tubbs of Stillwater was named winner Tuesday of the inaugural Minnesota Idea Open challenge. Her idea was culled from more that 400 submissions in an online contest that asked Minnesotans to submit their best ideas to encourage healthier eating and more active lifestyles.

All submissions were posted on the contest's website, where they could be viewed and comment on by other participants. Judges picked three finalists, which were then put to an Idol-style vote. Tubbs' proposal, to put on a series of youth-led activity field days, was selected as the winner by the nearly 5,000 Minnesotans who cast their votes on the website since early April.

The Minnesota Community Foundation had the web application built through a partnership with Ashoka Changemakers, which organizes similar international contests for social entrepreneurs. Major funding came from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The two-month contest showed how the Web can be used to get more people involved in public dialogue.

"We have been able to have conversations and get ideas from people from all walks of life, all across the state," said Jennifer Ford Reedy, the foundation's vice president for strategy and knowledge management. "We didn't reach everybody, but we reached people who were not usually a part of the conversation."

The local foundation now owns the web application and plans to make it available for other organizations in the state, as well as to sponsor one or two statewide contests per year.

Up next, though: helping Tubbs turn her idea into reality.

Source: Jennifer Ford Reedy, Minnesota Community Foundation
Author: Dan Haugen