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Feature Article-Seeding the Prairie-Minnesota Technology Magazine Online, Summer 2002 Page 2 of 6 involved, as was Tom Kieffer, CEO of Agiliti Inc.; Joe Stoebner, CEO of AVI Systems; Jim Smiley, recently retired CEO at U S West's operations in • Minnesota and South Dakota (and now a partner at Mason Smiley Larson, Ltd., a St. Paul-based public relations firm); and Scott Thiss, CEO of S&W Plastics, a high-tech manufacturer based in Eden Prairie. "There were a lot of high-tech businesses in Eden Prairie, yet no one really knew why," says Nick Eian, CEO of Endurant Business Systems, an Eden Prairie-based consulting firm. Eian also joined the group of business owners, and now serves as president of its brainchild, a cooperative venture called Habitat for Technology. The premise of the organization is simple: Pull together all of the players in Eden Prairie to encourage the development and growth of high-tech companies. Partners include the city, the Eden Prairie School District, Hennepin Technical College, the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce, and a number of local businesses. As one of its first initiatives, Habitat for Technology has set up an intern program to place high school and technical school students and teachers in area businesses. The internships are designed to nurture young talent and to connect local schools with the business community. In addition to the intern program, Habitat is creating a database of the city's more than 2,200 businesses, about half of which are small companies or startups with one to four employees, many of them in high-tech fields. It also is developing a marketing program to sell Eden Prairie to potential business owners. "One of the things we did was ask people why they had come here," says Eian. "The top reason was the schools. Second, it's a good place to live-you'll find that many of the CEOs of companies based here also live here. Finally, we found there was a high percentage of people connected to • the Internet at high speeds, yet we are still under the capacity [for high-speed connectivity] that we have in the city." Building on the city's potential connectivity is a significant goal for Habitat, Eian says. With that in mind, the organization recently unveiled a Web portal for Eden Prairie companies. "There are two ways to do economic development," says Don Uram, the City of Eden Prairie's director of economic development and financial services. "You can go out and recruit new businesses, which is extremely difficult. The other way is to make existing businesses as healthy as possible. The plan behind the Web portal is to get people to do business with each other." Habitat for Technology has encouraged a new spirit of cooperation in the city. According to Uram, the the organization's high-profile membership also is making it easier to convince entrepreneurs that Eden Prairie is a good place to do business. "I could sit at my desk all day trying to find companies to come here, but Nick,just by being in the business community, has many more contacts," he says. Building the economy, one business at a time For Mark Jenson, CEO of Cymbet, a high-tech startup based in Elk River, the presence of a tech incubator in the city made"the difference between my company being here and not being here. I'm a technical guy and I did not have a clue about how to get my company going." Fortunately, Jenson, an electrical engineer by training, noticed the Elk River incubator during his daily commute to Honeywell in Minneapolis from his home in Princeton. He approached the city with an idea for a new company. • Elk River's economic development agency started the incubator in 1997, with the idea of nurturing small technology firms. The program provides companies with space at a substantial http://www.minnesotatechnology.org/publications/magazine/2002/Summer/feature_seeding.at... 8/16/02