Our Year of Innovation

In 2016, Prairie Business will roll out some new things and put a new twist on some old ones. Our editorial calendar features some added topics throughout the year, including banking and finance, small business and the return of our Community Profile sections.

These profiles are a chance for us to pull our chairs up to the conference table alongside city leaders, chambers of commerce, economic development corporations, business owners, event planners, university presidents and many others to discuss sectors or companies achieving impressive growth in their communities. We’re pleased to once again present these unique glimpses into individual business environments.

Of course, 2016 also will boast our long-standing and most popular elements, including 40 Under 40, Top 25 Women in Business and 50 Best Places to Work. Stay tuned for more big developments in the works for 2016.

This year’s first issue of Prairie Business covers a topic increasingly important to businesses of all sizes in the Upper Midwest: cybersecurity. Companies in our region are being targeted, and some IT experts speculate it’s because we have the reputation of being trusting and nice. Hacking and phishing are common and most of us have experienced it, even in our personal lives. I know I’m not the only one who has gotten that email from a foreign prince who wants to give me $1 million and needs my bank account number to deposit it for me.

But in some instances, the scam is more cleverly disguised. In the information technology feature beginning on page 26, Staff Writer Kayla Prasek delves into some of the threats out there and what business managers need to know to protect their companies. IT can be outsourced to multiple firms that help maintain a secure network, even when scams evolve — and they do. We’ll discuss the first steps in ensuring security and the biggest mistakes in losing it.

This issue also focuses on energy, featuring some interesting waste-fueled systems in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. Some involve landfill gas or wastewater treatment effluent. Some involve partnerships with neighboring companies, on-site energy use or sale of power to the grid. Engineers, project developers, waste producers and users seem to agree that incorporating certain aspects into a waste-to-energy project will guarantee success. Read more about how these systems function, beginning on page 30.

Page through Prairie News to learn how one university is promoting business in China among its students, and get an update on a major South Dakota parking ramp project.

We’re starting 2016 with an issue full of useful advice, compelling trends and modern initiatives. I’m looking forward to our year of innovation here at the magazine and I hope you have some new things planned for your businesses this year, too. I’d love to hear about them.

KORRIE WENZEL, Publisher

LISA GIBSON, Editor

KAYLA PRASEK, Staff Writer

BETH BOHLMAN, Circulation Manager

KRIS WOLFF, Layout Design, Ad Design

Sales Director: JOHN FETSCH

701.212.1026 jfetsch@prairiebizmag.com

Sales:

BRAD BOYD western ND/western SD 800.641.0683 bboyd@prairiebizmag.com

NICHOLE ERTMAN eastern ND/western MN 800. 477.6572 ext. 1162 nertman@prairiebizmag.com

Prairie Business magazine is published monthly by the Grand Forks Herald and Forum Communications Company with offices at 375 2nd Avenue North, Grand Forks, ND 58203. Qualifying subscriptions are available free of charge. Back issue quantities are limited and subject to availability ($2/copy prepaid). The opinions of writers featured in Prairie Business are their own. Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, artwork are encouraged but will not be returned without a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

Subscriptions Free subscriptions are available online to qualified requestors at www.prairiebizmag.com

Address corrections

Prairie Business magazine

PO Box 6008

Grand Forks, ND 58206-6008

Beth Bohlman: bbohlman@prairiebizmag.com

Online www.prairiebizmag.com