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December 2006

Five Small Towns Blandin Broadband Project

The Five Small Towns have been busy with the following:

• Articles and announcements are written and submitted weekly to three papers in the Five Small Towns area. Some of these articles can be found on the Blandin Foundation website.
• Handouts are produced and distributed within the Five Small Towns to make use of Hot Websites offered through the Get Broadband Project. The fall handout featured “Searching for Ideas for Home!”

1. Introduction to eCommerce training was offered in Fertile in November.
2. A team of students from Win E Mac School are developing business websites for four small towns.
3. City websites are being initiated in four of the small towns. The Five Small Towns Broadband Project is partnering with Northwest Regional Development Commission to provide development of websites and training in FrontPage to each of the city clerks.

Fosston

As part of its Get Broadband project, the City of Fosston held a Technology Fair in October.  The Fosston Civic Center was Grand Central Station the day of the Technology Fair with a total of 26 local and regional vendors, and approximately 550 people in attendance.  Attendees were able to see the latest and greatest gadgets and technology available. 

Adding to the excitement were four, brand new, Dell Celeron computers with 17” flat-screen monitors given away as door prizes.

According to Get Broadband Project Coordinator, Michelle Landsverk, “I hoped that giving away the computers would boost attendance, but this was really amazing.  To see 550 attending an event in a community with a population of 1,575 was incredible.” 

Exhibits showcased what businesses are doing with available technology and included how easy it is to live in a rural community and earn a college degree by taking online courses, the ease and security of online banking and the latest satellite technology that is dramatically changing the face of agriculture today.

In addition to the exhibits, there were three different workshops offered every hour so attendees could pick and choose what was of interest. 

The broadband excitement has been building throughout the project year, which began in January, 2006.  The Technology Fair was really the culmination of all the marketing, training and other project activities that have taken place over the course of the year.

Marshall
Ten $1000 grants were awarded to Lyon County businesses. The intent of the grants was to encourage e-commerce and upgrades to broadband technology. Nine of the ten recipients finished there business plans.

Marshall’s PNCluster has sent out the final $500 payments to those businesses that attended the e-commerce training and expanded their broadband capacity. The following are a few comments from grant recipients:

• Kathy Bartz Prairie Events Center said, “The grant gave me the opportunity to try out wireless internet, and motivated me to create a webpage to market the event center.”
• From the Tracy Chiropractic Center, “This broadband connection has been useful in communication between our two offices in Tracy and Westbrook, the faster connection has definitely proven its worth in our healthcare setting.”
• Bonnie Van Moorlehem on the value of her development of an Artist website, “My paintings have received exposure since I have developed the site. Individuals from 41 different countries have viewed my paintings, the most frequent users are, South Korea, Australia, China, Jordon and Canada. From the first three in February to the 578 hits in June, thank you for your support.”
• Finally Susan Schreier used the grant to develop The Note Gallery an online music store in Minnesota. “The classes that I attended last year helped her understand what the programmer was trying to do. After years of frustration and disappointment of not having printed music available or easy to obtain, her company was created to make shopping for music a quick and easy process. The upgrade to 1.5 mbps has helped immensely.
  (Learn more about The Note Gallery, from Marshall’s newspaper, The Independent.)

PNCluster plans on a final Technology sharing event in the Marshall where participating businesses can share experiences to encourage broadband technology investments keep development on the front burner for rural businesses.

Mankato

Greater Mankato SourceLink is designed to match questions to answers, stimulating business growth and economic development in the region.  SourceLink provides a marketplace for industry, as well as industry and education, to connect and exchange needs, expertise and resources.  Think of it as having your own personal research assistant at your fingertips that can answer questions such as:  Where can I find experts in lean manufacturing to stimulate production and growth for my business?  Where can I find an expert in microbiology to speak to my 10th grade class?  Where can I find a copyright attorney in the southern Minnesota region?