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The Year At a Glance BUSINESS GROWTH, RETENTION AND ATTRACTION Led the state in Business Retention & Expansion with 110 Grow Minnesota! visits 121 commercial and industrial building projects totalling $83.6 million in 2017 Fulfilled 115 (5+ per month) requests for critical business information Generated 54 (4+ per month) new business development and existing business expansion requests for proposals and
submitted 33 proposals A virtual tours website, moremankato.com was launched in November with a robust marketing plan supporting it to attract and retain talent as well as visitors.
An estimated total of 24,267 hotel rooms booked Represented the region at the Select USA Investment Summit with DEED; secured 3 follow-ups with companies
86 conventions and sporting events assisted or confirmed by Visit Mankato
$12.5 million estimated economic impact from conventions and sporting events with which Visit Mankato assisted
CCP partnered with the City of North Mankato for the Belgrade Master Plan
The first ever City Center Marketplace Analysis was published and recognized as a
best practice; was also distributed by 16 volunteers to 53 City Center businesses as part of the CCP business walk program 45 City Center businesses participated in Shop Small in the City Center on Small Business Saturday Worked with Australia, Brazil and Canada’s Foreign Development Investment teams on ag-related investment consideration
TALENT GROWTH, RETENTION AND ATTRACTION Leadership Institute graduated 43 students its 34th class, and now boasts more than 870 alumni 45 Greater Mankato Leadership Institute students are enrolled in the 2017-18 program Held 24 Greater Mankato Young Professionals events
Young Professionals program increased its return on value with 2 cohorts of the Mentor program that included participation from 64 YPs and 8 local business mentors 236 Young Professionals, representing 115 different businesses were enrolled in the Greater Mankato Young
Professionals program More than 250 community and business leaders attended two Talent Summits organized by through the Greater Mankato Growth Talent Initiative GMG, Inc. Board appointed the first ever Executive Talent Council
Launched the GreenSeam Talent Exchange in response to the workforce shortage GreenSeam has been instrumental in developing, with MN State University, Mankato a new class, “Ag Biz in the Modern Economy”
REGIONAL LIVABILITY Songs on the Lawn and Alive After 5 continued to see record crowds, drawing a total of 5,500+ The 8th annual Mankato Marathon was named a 2017 Top 20 Half Marathon and as having one of the most Beautiful On-Course Scenery in the country by The BibRave 100
Mankato Sports Commission and GMG, Inc. launched an initiative to provide support for regional recreation facilities and the extension of the local option sales tax as a “last dollar in” funding mechanism to support the expansion of existing and development of new facilities
In 7 years, the CityArt Walking Sculpture Tour has accounted for the display of more than $2 million in public art and the permanent installation of 18 pieces Hockey Night in the City Center continued to rally fans to celebrate Maverick Hockey
An additional 3 traffic signal cabinets were transformed with original murals as part of CityArt On the Go, bringing the total to 22 Visit Mankato launched Gather in the GreenSeam as a promotional campaign to promtote ag in our region during harvest season
ADVOCACY OF THE MARKETPLACE PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Hosted 7 key issues forum series events Held the third annual Journeys of Leadership event featuring former Governor Tim Pawlenty Successfully secured legislative passage of the local option sales tax extension
Endorsed and actively supported the passage of the operating levy referendum for the Mankato Area Public Schools
A delegation of businesses leaders represented the area for the first time on the Minnesota Chamber D.C. fly-in event
Hosted 125 business and civic leaders at a revamped Greater Mankato at the Capitol
Called upon numerous times by our elected officials for input on multipple topics as the local, state and federal levels
Blog posts on key public affairs issues received nearly 3,000 pageviews
COMMUNITY MARKETING: Cost of Living Index, accessed more than 1,123 times City Center Mankato was recognized as the eighth Designated Minnesota Main Street Community 328 news articles mentioning GMG, Inc. business units ran in local and state media