Buzz

Miles Mendenhall represented the Twin Cities visual art scene to the world this summer on Bravo's reality-TV competition "Work of Art." He didn't win, but in a postmortem Q&A with New York magazine, Mendenhall explains why he's staying in Minneapolis rather than relocating to New York:

"Could you see yourself being a part of the New York art world one day?

"'I think I'd participate in it from afar. I love Minneapolis. I think Minneapolis, for me, really works. It's a beautiful community, and it's small enough but still has a lot of networking and connections that are actually fruitful and official rather than kind of just superficial...I got a show in New York in a week--I don't think I'm allowed to say where yet. And a solo show back here in April. I just finished curating a show here in Minneapolis to raise money for the BFA scholarship program at University of Minnesota. It went really well in terms of the community really coming out to support young artists, learning and everything. The show has gotten really good reviews.'"

Read the entire article here.

Minneapolis innovation guru Uri Neren has a post on the Harvard Business Review blog about the Mayo Clinic's track record of successful innovations and the conditions that helped it occur:

"[I]n the case of The Mayo Clinic, the right conditions were in place at the very beginning. While the word 'innovation' has not always been attached to its work, the habit of developing better ways of treating patients and running its operations has been a signature trait since its founding in 1889 by brothers William and Charles Mayo."

Neren goes on to write that three key factors that have enabled innovation at the healthcare center have been diversity, connectedness--and, perhaps surprisingly, limited resources.

Read the entire Harvard Business Review post here.

The Twin Cities Thursday Happy Hours blog is soliciting nominations for the 25 Most Connected Twin Cities Business Professionals. Here's what founder Jeff Nolan has to say:

"I have been thinking a lot lately about the collaborative business environment we have here in Minneapolis/St. Paul and wanted to reach out to my network and beyond to find the 25 Most Connected Twin Cities Business Professionals."

Nolan asks readers to populate the comment section with the names of Twin Cities professionals who are constantly open to connecting, helping and developing relationships.

Read the TCTHH post and nominate here.

Jeff Pesek at Tech.mn checked in with Shane Reiser, who is organizing Startup Weekend in the Twin Cities Sept. 17-19. The event challenges up to 100 participants to build a startup in 54 hours.

Speakers confirmed so far include Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens, Jon Dahl, co-founder of Zencoder, and MixMobi co-founder Lisa Foote (whom we checked in with a few weeks ago.)

Reiser tells Tech.mn that he's seeing more early interest in Startup Weekend in the Twin Cities than any other city where he's organized the events, including New York City.

More details over at Tech.mn.

Xcel Energy announced the other week that an experiment at its wind farm near Luverne, Minn., proves that batteries can be used to store wind power.

Whether the solution can scale is another question.

Greentech Media takes a closer look at the Xcel Energy's battery trial. The utility integrated an 80-ton sodium sulfur battery into the 11-megawatt wind farm in October 2008. It's shown promising results, the company says.

Batteries are seen as an important piece of the nation's clean-energy solution because wind and solar are intermittent energy sources that often deliver the most power at times of the day when it isn't most needed.

"'This is critical technology,' Forbes Black, a battery technology and energy storage systems engineer, said of Xcel's work. 'We're going to have to figure out ways to store energy for when renewables are not generating and this sounds like a really good step in that direction.'"

Read the Greentech Media article here.

An "�ber-creative collaborative space," a daily blog, and creative awards for jobs well done are a few of the quirks that set Fast Horse apart from other marketing agencies, Minnesota Business magazine writes:

"'It's little programs like that that we're constantly using to keep our talent happy, and to push each other to try new things,' says [founder J�rg] Pierach, 'because that type of innovation ultimately moves the whole vision forward.'"

Read the Minnesota Business article here.

Simple, Good, and Tasty followed the Chef Shack around for a look at a day in the life of a Twin Cities street food vendor.

Writer Sarah Rykal woke up early to follow chefs/owners Lisa Carlson and Carrie Summer for an 11-hour day that starts before dawn.

Among her observations: "[W]hat I experienced today was more than just the business of food preparation. It was also the business of building community through awe-inspiring dedication and ridiculously hard work."

Read the Simple, Good, and Tasty article here.

AgencySpy takes a look at the Twin Cities advertising scene and finds plenty of reasons for optimism: growth, the ascendancy of a new star, and the resurrection of a giant.

"Minneapolis is just now starting to see some movement after the layoffs and lock down that was 2009," writes Kiran Aditham. "Linkedin profiles are updating. Job boards are posting. Recruiters are calling."

Aditham notes the meteoric rise of Mono, whose fortunes we have looked at, as well as the return of a once-moribund Fallon to the top of its game.

"We all feared the mighty Fallon had fallen. Then they cleaned up at the local awards show, won Chrysler, traded it in for Cadillac and scooped up H&R Block with no pitch. It's safe to say Fallon is back."

Read the entire AgencySpy article here.

The Financial Times of London went looking for people struggling to achieve the American Dream and found Mark and Connie Freeman of Minneapolis. It's not a buoyant piece, but the Freemans are both employed, their house is worth more than they paid for it, and their refrigerator magnets are funny in an off-color way even if they aren't made by Minneapolis' own Magnetic Poetry.

"Every now and then the Freemans invite their neighbours round to their front porch, to watch the world go by, drink beer and eat Connie's justly renowned dish of �Minnesota wild rice. In the best American spirit, Mark and Connie are active neighbourhood people. They are the types who shovel your snow, volunteer for school events, and coach the baseball little league--Mark has done all three.

"It takes optimism to be like this. But in the past few years the Freemans have been running low on it. 'I guess the penny dropped in the last 18 months when we finally realised that it's always going to be like this--we are never going to be able to retire on our savings,' says Connie."

Read the full article here.

On the third anniversary of the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, CNN takes a look at its high-tech replacement:

"The new bridge, completed in September 2008, is expected to stand for 100 years.

"Three-hundred-twenty-three high-technology sensors dot the structure, spitting out a constant stream of data regularly analyzed by engineers at nearby University of Minnesota.

"At a total cost of about $1 million including wire connections and power sources, the sensors don't eliminate the need for visual inspections, but they do provide an extra layer of maintenance security.

"The sensors monitor corrosion, stress and the movement of the bridge from the constant traffic.

"'The fiber-optic strain gauge technology is fairly cutting edge,' said Phipps. 'A tiny beam of light is used to measure very small differences in the movement of the bridge when vehicles pass over.'"

Read the full article here.

The University of Minnesota's solar car team, which recently placed second in the American Solar Challenge race, got a mention on a White House blog last week.

The Office of Science & Tech Policy Blog notes a recent President Obama speech about the importance of getting students excited about education, particularly in science and mathematics:

"Well, there is no better example of how to generate that kind of enthusiasm--all the while helping to make renewable-energy vehicles more practical--than the recently completed American Solar Challenge," it continues. The post includes a photo of the Minnesota team's vehicle.

Read the entire White House blog post here.

Tech.mn has an announcement about an event called Startup Weekend, which is coming to the Twin Cities on Sept. 17-19.

The event will be held at CoCo and is open to 100 participants. The goal is to "vet, pitch, build, and demo new products over a single weekend."

Read the entire announcement at Tech.mn.

The Star Tribune profiles Pete McNerney, a Minnesota venture capitalist who is co-founder of a $375 million venture fund that invests in biotech, drug, and med-tech companies nationwide.

The portfolio of McNerney's firm, Thomas, McNerney & Partners, includes Torax Medical of Shoreview and Plymouth-based Atritech. Minnesota companies typically comprise about 20 to 25 percent of the fund's investments.

Read the Star Tribune article here.

Twin Cities Business magazine has a series of profiles on the 2010 Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year winners for Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas.

The winners range from a beer brewer and beef jerky maker to a fitness chain founder and TV parts recycler. The winners are now candidates for the national Entrepreneur of the Year awards, which will be announced in November.

Read the Twin Cities Business profiles here.

A proposed fee on new development in Minneapolis dedicated to funding parks appears to be on course to adoption this fall, according to the Southwest Journal. Discord between the park board and city council over the fee has been repaired, and the fee reduced:

"With some exceptions, the ordinance would require developers to create parks on new project sites or pay a fee for the creation or enhancement of nearby green space. The ordinance, similar to those used in many metro-area suburbs to develop new parkland, is meant to help the financially strapped Park Board meet the outdoor needs of the city's population as it grows....

"Fee collections would be placed in a special Park Board-managed fund and used solely for the acquisition, development and improvement of green space and park connections within the neighborhood the development is in or an adjacent neighborhood within a half-mile radius. 
 
"'The challenge is we are in very difficult financial times and any additional costs you want to make sure that they're not so great that they would limit any new development,' Erwin said. 'But the Park Board wanted to make sure that the support was enough that they could actually do something.'

"Developers of affordable housing projects would be exempt from the ordinance ..."

Read the full article here.