Mayors R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis and Chris Coleman of St. Paul are in Chicago today at a conference talking about business planning and ways to help start-ups.
They’re at the Brookings Institute’s Global Metro Summit, which is looking at new ways to grow the economy, and is focusing on models that are export-oriented, low carbon, innovation-fueled — ways that we “export more and waste less, innovate in what matters, produce and deploy more of what we invent, and deliver an educated and skilled workforce.”
Coleman and Rybak will talk about such efforts in place here.
“From the Regional Council of Mayors to the Itasca Project, we are seeing conversations on regional development take place across the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metro. By unifying the efforts of public and private partners to promote our region, we will not only create economic growth in Saint Paul, but in every city throughout the region,” Coleman said in a pre-conference statement.
“We will be drawing partners’ and policy makers’ attention to the need in our region to establish an Entrepreneurship Accelerator, which is a key focus of our business plan,” Rybak said. “It will address critical gaps in our entrepreneurial ecosystem, accelerate innovation and lay the groundwork for propelling us to the next level of economic prosperity through strategically planned, long-term growth in key sectors.”
Organizers say the mayors will be discussing these ideas:
- An Entrepreneurship Accelerator that strategically invests in start-up projects in our region. Providing entrepreneurs with the backing they need to turn good ideas into reality will create good-paying jobs and attract talent in the years to come.
- The Corridors of Opportunity Initiative, designed to improve access to regional opportunities by advancing transit systems and maximizing community benefits along the Central Corridor through a new public/private model.
- The Regional Economic Development Partnership (REDP), a private-public initiative that will integrate the activities of forty regional economic-development organizations to provide a more effective model for recruiting, retaining and growing business in the region.
- Thinc.GreenMSP, a green-purchasing and job-creation partnership that will create green-building standards and attract green manufacturers while branding Minneapolis-Saint Paul as great places to develop or grow green businesses.
- The Regional Competitiveness Project, a collaborative initiative of Urban Land Institute (ULI) Minnesota/Regional Council of Mayors, the University’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and the with BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota to establish a network within the region’s medical sector.
