Grand Opportunities Pending

At stake is the state’s capacity to attract new businesses, and for businesses to attract and retain employees. “Back in the days when I was at Honeywell, the joke was, it is almost impossible to get someone to move here, but when they get here, it is even harder to get them to move away,” McElroy says. “That’s evolved, too, as the world gets flat. The population coming behind us is a lot more mobile. There is an understanding that they are going to move, so retention is a challenge.

“It is important that people realize that this is a good place to start and run a business. It is also a great place to live,” he adds.

And to visit: Tourism accounts for $9.2 billion in gross sales for Minnesota’s economy. That business, and the state’s position in the lucrative convention marketplace, could also be hampered by a bad image.

That 2003 Meet Minneapolis study did contain a silver lining, according to Mona. It turns out the old joke at Honeywell wasn’t so far from the truth.

Future Brand found a huge difference in perception of the Twin Cities between people who had actually visited here and those who hadn’t. In virtually every category, the metro area was much more highly regarded by people who had visited here. Think of the Republican convention as a chance to take an enormous number of business decision makers through that conversion experience.

U.S. Senator Norm Coleman says he experienced the effectiveness of this first-hand during the Twin Cities site visits of both the Republican and Democratic national committees: “A lot of those folks have never spent much time here—they absolutely fell in love with the beauty of the cities and the can-do spirit of the people who live here.”

Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak also sees great potential in the convention. “Big events can change the image of a community,” he says. “We learned that with events like the Super Bowl, the Final Four, and the NBA All-Star game. I knew a national political convention was one event we had to get. This is the biggest single opportunity we’ll get to tell our story, short of the Olympics.”

“This is not about partisanship,” Rybak adds. “It’s about getting exposure to our region. We have to tell our story.”