Grand Opportunities Pending

To understand the urgency that local civic marketers feel about seizing this opportunity, you have to go back to a study commissioned by Meet Minneapolis, the city’s visitor and convention bureau, in 2003. The large sample of business executives nationwide who were interviewed dismissed the Twin Cities as, essentially, a “cold Omaha.”

“It was devastating,” says Dave Mona, chairman of the Minneapolis office of PR firm Weber Shandwick and outgoing board chair of Meet Minneapolis.

At stake is the state's capacity to attract new business, and for businesses to attract and retain employees.

Minnesota’s bad showing was both wide and deep in the results of the study, which was conducted by Future Brand, a brand development firm out of New York. When compared to the attributes of some half dozen cities including Austin, Denver, Seattle, and Chicago, the Twin Cities ranked dead last in “dining and restaurants,” “theater and arts,” “vibrant downtown and nightlife,” “style and fashion,” “diversity and multiculturalism,” and “livability.” It also ranked last for being “flourishing and vibrant,” and “youthful,” and brought up the rear in being “sophisticated,” “creative and artistic,” and “unique.” It was a blow to local boosters who like to believe that winters are the Twin Cities’ biggest image problem.

It wasn’t just a case of wounded pride, though. “When people make a business decision, it isn’t just about the money,” says Dan McElroy, commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development. “They think about, ‘Where would it be cool to run a business?’ It is important to appeal to the psychic right-brain side of entrepreneurs and business executives.

“The fact that the Twin Cities is the most vibrant area between Denver and Chicago is an important reason that we are found by groups like MarketWatch to be the best metropolitan area in the country in which to run a business,” he adds. “It is not just dollars and cents.”