FEBRUARY 2017
TOM ENRIGHT IS JUST TRYING TO
Allegro Group: Recruiting Rock Stars
Giving Hearts Day Turns 10
Cindy Graffeo Thinks Moorhead Is a Blank Canvas
CONTENTS COVER STORY
FEBRUARY 2017
ADDITIONAL CONTENT
Introducing Cindy Graffeo, the newest member of the Fargo INC! board
talk to DMF President Pat Traynor about the evolution of the event and some local organizations who are going #MatchyMatchy this year.
11
65
Meet the members of the Fargo INC! Editorial Advisory Board and the organizations they represent.
This month's guest writer from Kilbourne Group is Courtland Miller, who fills us in on an experiential learning collaboration between the commercial developer and a local middle school.
10
Editor's Note
Fargo INC! Editorial Advisory Board
15
Spotlight Media February 2017
See what Spotlight Media's other publications have in store for February.
34
Behind Chamber Day at the Capitol
FMWF Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Craig Whitney previews the Chamber's upcoming "Chamber Day at the Capitol"
36
Recruiting Rock Stars
Allegro Group isn't your typical recruiting firm. They're on a mission to match the best-of-the-best candidates with the best-ofthe-best companies.
42
Event Recap: 1 Million Thanks
20 8
FEBRUARY 2017
We recap Emerging Prairie's 1 Million Thanks and who took home which award.
50
Moorhead Is a Blank Canvas
TOM ENRIGHT IS JUST TRYING TO BE GOOD
How can a light bulb be more than a light bulb? That's the question Fargo entrepreneur and founder of GoodBulb Tom Enright started asking himself after a series of personal tragedies. He found his answer in a commitment to giving back to others—to his customers, to his employees, to anyone in need of a little "good."
When Cindy Graffeo took over the Moorhead EDA last year, all she saw was potential. She gives us a look at what she has in store for the city in the coming years.
57
Giving Hearts Day
The premier fundraising day in the region turns 10 years old this year! We
Downtown Fargo as a Classroom
69
Office Vibes: Bytespeed Take a tour of Moorheadbased custom computer manufacturer Bytespeed and see why they think virtual reality is the future of education.
78
The Startup Journey: A Blog
Codelation Founder Josh Christy has started a number of companies so he understands the blood, sweat and tears that come with it. With his blog, he's hoping to help other startups find their way and their why.
82
February Business Events Calendar
Giving Hearts Day, the ADDY Awards, Chamber Day at the Capitol and many more great business events you can't miss in February!
FM Career Finder 88
High-tech Innovation
From the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) comes a look at how technology innovation is shaping North Dakota.
92
Top Jobs
Check out two full pages of positions at some of the best local companies to work at!
EDITOR'S NOTE
Cindy Graffeo Executive Director Moorhead Economic Development Authority (EDA)
WELCOME TO THE BOARD
T
his month, I wanted to use this space and opportunity to introduce readers to the newest member of the Fargo INC! Editorial Advisory Board, Cindy Graffeo. Graffeo is the executive director of the Moorhead Economic Development Authority and will be replacing Mayor Del Rae Williams as a voice from the east side of the Red River. To learn more about what Graffeo has in store for the city of Moorhead, see inside for the article she wrote for the magazine this month. As always, thanks for reading!
Nate Mickelberg Editor, Fargo INC!
What do you see as your niche on the Fargo INC! board?
Cindy Graffeo “I'd say the entire city of Moorhead with a primary focus on Moorhead business. I think we have a lot of hidden gems and some wonderful businesses currently, as well as an underrated business climate. That's really the story I’m looking to tell. "So often, we hear that with the different regulatory environment or the different tax structure, Moorhead is harder to do business in. And I think that narrative gets overplayed. It’s been repeated so often that it’s almost at the level of urban legend, and people think it applies to everyone. "We have industries, sectors and businesses that would be better off on our side of the river. We have some strong competitive advantages and we need to do a better job of getting that word out.”
What are some of those competitive advantages?
Graffeo “Arts and culture, for example. We have amazing resources at the state level. Minnesota considers arts and culture to be one of its priorities, and I think we can win that comparison any day of the week. “Our industrial park is outside of the 500-year flood plain so we’re very safe when it comes to flood protection. Also, we have no sales tax on clothing so there are retail opportunities. We have niches and want to see businesses come to Moorhead not in spite of Fargo but because of what Moorhead actually has to offer.”
You're a woman, a young professional, and a mother. What unique perspective do you think that can bring to the board?
Graffeo "When we talk about workforce issues and the kinds of things that are impacting our business community, we talk about these strategies to overcome our workforce development. We talk about trailing spouses, we talk about people who are voluntarily opting out of the workforce. We hit all of these kinds of things, and it’s interesting for me in this role now because I was every one of those things. "When my husband and I moved to Fargo-Moorhead, I was seven months pregnant. So I made lemonade out of lemons and I stayed at home with my daughter for a year and a half. “I was a trailing spouse who moved here because of my husband’s economic opportunities and then I opted out of the workforce. And then I ran into the same issues that everyone else in the community is running into— one being finding infant daycare in this town. I was at my new job for three or four months when my daycare couldn’t find workforce, and the last ones in are the first ones out. So I had six weeks to find infant daycare in a city where waiting lists are six months long. "My husband and I are sitting at the dining room table saying, ‘Okay, which one of us is going to quit our job?’ Because we can’t find daycare. So a lot of those issues that people in the metro are facing, I am a walking, talking case study. "When I approach my role, I understand we need to get creative and we need to understand that our workforce issue isn’t just a workforce issue. It's a daycare issue, it's a transportation issue, it's all these other things that impact it, too."
Fun Fact: Graffeo was born in New Orleans and spent her childhood split between the Midwest and Louisiana. She says she's a "diehard Saints fan and has the tattoos to prove it."
nate@spotlightmediafargo.com 10
FEBRUARY 2017
NateMickelberg
linkedin.com/in/natemickelberg
Fargo INC!'s
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD We at Fargo INC! want to make sure our content is unbiased, accurate, and reflects the views and opinions of the FM business community. That's why we meet regularly with our seven-member editorial board to discuss area business issues and trends and ensure that we are living up to our stated values.
CRAIG WHITNEY
President & CEO FMWF Chamber of Commerce
ANNA HANSON
President Moorhead Business Association (MBA)
GREG TEHVEN
Executive Director & Cofounder Emerging Prairie
PAT TRAYNOR
President & CEO Dakota Medical Foundation (DMF)
JOHN MACHACEK
SVP, Finance & Entrepreneurial Development Greater Fargo/Moorhead Economic Development Corporation (GFMEDC)
BRITTANY SICKLER
Economic Development Specialist US Small Business Administration (SBA)
CINDY GRAFFEO
Executive Director Moorhead Economic Development Authority (EDA)
MEET THE
TEAM
MIKE
TANK
ANDREW
TRACY
BRADY
BRITTNEY
JENNY
NATE
PAUL
LUKE
JOE
ERICA
RYLEE
SARAH
RYAN
HEATHER
NICOLE
SAM
ETHAN
PAUL
Meet Spotlight Media's other magazines
Intrigued by their character and creativity, we asked three local architects to give us a personal tour of their lives beyond the drawing board. See inside their stunning homes, meet the family, and learn why art and science are interwoven with drawing our dream homes.
The NDSU Bison football team's loss to James Madison in the playoffs was bittersweet. On one hand, NDSU's run of five consecutive national championships had ended. On the other hand, the loss allowed fans, players and coaches to reflect on the most successful half-decade of football in the history of college athletics. The February Collector's Edition of Bison Illustrated immortalizes that run of success.
From drone technology to virtual reality, February's issue of Fargo Monthly dives into a few popular sectors of the technology industry that are quickly growing and being developed right here in our region. And you may not know it yet, but it impacts people like you, the average consumer, in more ways than one.
To learn more about Spotlight Media, go to spotlightmediafargo.com
february 2017 Volume 2 Issue 2
Fargo INC! is published 12 times a year and is available at area businesses and online at fargoinc.com
Publisher Mike Dragosavich
drago@spotlightmediafargo.com
CREATIVE
Editorial Director Andrew Jason
andrew@spotlightmediafargo.com
Editor Nate Mickelberg
nate@spotlightmediafargo.com
Graphic Designers Sarah Geiger, Ryan Koehler, Brittney Richter
Photography J. Alan Paul Photography, Paul Flessland
Contributors Craig Whitney, Andrew
Jason, Jared Stober, Mike Allmendinger, Josh Christy
Copy Editors Erica Rapp, Sam Stark, Andrew
ADVERTISING
Jason
Senior Account Manager Tracy Nicholson
tracy@spotlightmediafargo.com
Marketing/Sales Paul Hoefer
paul@spotlightmediafargo.com
Tank McNamara
tank@spotlightmediafargo.com
Jenny Johnson
jenny@spotlightmediafargo.com
Lucas Albers luke@spotlightmediafargo.com
Business Operations Manager Heather Hemingway Administrative Nicole Houseal
CIRCULATION
Mitch Rapp, Hal Ecker, Nolan Kaml
Fargo INC! is published by Spotlight Media LLC. Copyright 2017 Fargo INC! & fargoinc.com. All rights reserved. No parts of this periodical may be reproduced without written permission of Fargo INC! Fargo INC! & spotlightmediafargo.com will not be held responsible for any errors or omissions found in the magazine or on fargoinc.com. Spotlight Media LLC., accepts no liability for the accuracy of statements made by the advertisers.
Spotlightmedia
Spotlight Media Inc. 15 Broadway N, Suite 500 Fargo, ND 58102 or info@spotlightmediafargo.com ADVERTISING: 701-478-SPOT (7768)
TOM ENRIGHT IS JUST TRYING TO
How one man realized his company had to be more "Be good, Tommy." Tom Enright's dad never missed a chance to remind him, from his earliest days growing up on the South Side of Chicago well into his adult years. It was a daily reminder to him and his four siblings to not just be good but to do good. Now, decades later, Enright is putting his father's sage advice into action with his online light bulb business, hoping to inspire his customers, his employees and his fellow business owners to also "be good."
20
FEBRUARY 2017
By Nate Mickelberg Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography, Paul Flessland & courtesy of the Enright Family Special thanks to Rylee Wznick 21
Tom Enright Founder & President GoodBulb
It was a "say yes to everything" moment for Tom Enright. Fresh out of college in the late '90s and starting an elementary school teaching job in six months, the founder of Fargo e-commerce company GoodBulb was waiting tables in his native Chicago when one night, while picking up a customer's bill from the table, he got more than just a tip. "Out of nowhere," Enright recalls, "this guy says to me, 'I want to offer you a job. I think you're a salesperson.'" Surprised by a job interview he didn't know he was at but intrigued by the opportunity, Enright thought, "Teaching will always be there. Maybe I'll give this a shot." He insisted to himself that it would be temporary—a way to pass the time and satisfy his curiosity for a while—but after spending nine months working for his new boss and bouncing around to a few other sales jobs, he knew he'd found his calling.
22
FEBRUARY 2017
As Enright explains it, he didn't find light bulbs. Light bulbs found him. After responding to a suspiciously vague classified in a Chicago paper for a "sales position with unlimited income," he was offered and accepted a job at a commercial lighting products firm that he'd end up spending the next decade of his career with. "I was an independent contractor working on straight commission, living and working at my parents' house," Enright says. "I was selling light bulbs business to business, door to door in the Chicagoland area and I got pretty good at it." And for four years, that's what he did. He sold and he sold and he sold. And when he wasn't selling, he was traveling the country teaching other guys at his company how to sell like him. "It was my only goal," recalls Enright, who was making a good amount of money moving lighting supplies and lamps. "Sell a ton of light bulbs. And it was easy."
24
FEBRUARY 2017
"He told me I was nuts and that the only way to sell light bulbs was door to door and over the phone."
When a promotion to a managerial role brought him to company headquarters in Fargo in 2004, Enright wasn't sure what to expect from his new home. "Even though my friends and family thought I was crazy," he says, "I was excited for the new adeventure." He quickly fell in love with the city and its people—meeting his eventual wife, Tammy, only two weeks after moving to town. But while the company thrived and his personal success grew, he says he knew it was all just a matter of time before his industry—and many others like it—would feel the disruptive force of the internet. He was convinced that if his company didn't embrace the new technology, their competitors would. So he took an idea to the owner and remembers well the brief conversation they had: "I went to him and told him what I thought: We need to be selling light bulbs online. He told me I was nuts and that the only way to sell light bulbs was door to door and over the phone." Even though e-commerce was in its infancy at the time, Enright knew his boss was wrong. "Even back then, I was so sure it was going to be huge," he says. Maybe it was frustration or maybe it was the restlessness that accompanies a Midwest winter, but something in Enright made up his mind for him right then and there. If his company wasn't going to join the 21st century, he'd do it himself.
Enright with his son, Chase.
"I didn't know much about e-commerce," recalls Enright, who says he learned very quickly that good ideas and good companies are two very different things. "I just knew I had to build an online light bulb store. I didn't realize how much it would take to truly build an e-com business. Back then, I actually did just think that I could build an online light bulb store and I would start to see results." While the allure of big commissions delayed the process a bit, he eventually "just did it" and launched his new startup, Northern Lights USA. "It took 90 days to take the leap of faith and quit my other job," says Enright, who, unbeknownst to his bosses, had been building the Northern Lights website at home for months. "I had a nine-month-old baby. I'd work 8-5, come home, spend time with my wife and daughter, and get online until three or four o'clock in the morning manually inputting every single product onto that site. I did that for six months." Despite a ferocious work ethic and ample enthusiasm, Enright says the realities of entrepreneurship quickly caught up with him. "I didn't have a customer base I could go after anymore because I had a non-compete, and so it didn't take long at all before everything started
26
FEBRUARY 2017
to fall apart," he remembers. "I was quickly running out of money, and so I went back to what I knew, which was selling lightbulbs door to door." With little more than some pluck and a good pair of walking shoes, Enright built up a healthy clientele in Fargo-Moorhead the old-fashioned way—even hand-delivering his customers' orders across the metro. It wasn't long until he'd outgrown the one-man operation, and within just a few short years, he'd hired a small staff, relaunched the company as LightBulbs247, and moved the entire operation online just like he'd always wanted. With momentum on his side, Enright was ready to take his business to the next level. Life, of course, had other plans.
"It didn't take long at all before everything started to fall apart."
When Enright and his wife welcomed their second child—a son named Chase—he seemed to be a relatively healthy baby. When Chase turned four months old, though, he started showing several strange symptoms. He was constantly projectile vomiting, he would wimper and water would pour from his eyes— even though he wasn't crying.
"It was a lot, but you just do it." 28
FEBRUARY 2017
When he was old enough to sit up, his head started dropping so hard in one direction that he would completely tip over. "We kept taking him to different local doctors, who gave us several misdiagnoses," Enright recalls. "They told us, 'Oh, it's just acid reflux. It's just a tear duct issue. It's a nodding disorder. It's nothing.' But my wife knew something was wrong." Then, in the middle of the night one night, Tammy's suspicions were confirmed. It wasn't a nodding disorder. It was a seizure— right there in between his parents in their bed.
Enright with his family today—a healthy Chase second from left.
For two months, they saw more local doctors, who misdiagnosed the type of seizures and prescribed the wrong medications. Out of frustration, they sent his symptoms to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and, within a day, got a call back telling them they needed to be there by the end of the weekend to prepare for the week of appointments Chase was due to have. "We dropped everything and went to Mayo," Enright says. "And they diagnosed him right away. "There was a team of about six to eight doctors who came into the room, and they told us how grim the diagnosis was. They told us he had West Syndrome and that he was going to have learning disabilities because it was diagnosed so late and because of the amount of brain damage that had been done by the seizures." The doctors all but guaranteed Chase would have trouble speaking and learning, and there was even a chance of death if the seizures didn't stop. The Enrights' world was upended. "There was actually a point during this process," Enright says, "where Chase had zero normal brain
activity. There was a point where he didn't move. He'd just lay on the carpet." For months, Enright and his wife traveled back and forth to Rochester with Chase, trying different treatments, drug combos, hoping against hope that something would work. Enright was at one point even looking at apartments in Colorado, hoping cannabis might be the solution. "It was a lot," says Enright, who was trying to keep his new venture afloat while his wife juggled her own duties as a business manager. "But you just do it. My wife, my kids, the people who were with me at the time, everybody was counting on me to be successful." And then, one day, the seizures stopped. "The doctors still today don't understand it," says Enright, adding that it took Chase two years of subsequent intense therapy to learn to eat, play with toys again and speak. "They don't know if it was just the right combination of medications or what, but by some miracle, the seizures stopped." As the symptoms subsided and Chase slowly started to become a normal, little boy again, Enright could feel himself changing, too.
If Chase's miraculous recovery was a sign for Enright, the next couple years would be a flashing neon billboard. One spring night in May 2014, just months after seeing Chase for what would be the last time, Enright's dad was taking out the trash, his heart stopped and he died. The following year, his father-in-law passed away unexpectedly during a hunting trip. "At both of those funerals, hundreds of people came up to us and told us stories about how our dads impacted and truly made a difference in their lives," says Enright, recalling how influential this time period was to his understanding of what his business could and should be. "There were kids my dad had coached on sports teams throughout the years, local people in the community—he was a police officer and a K-9 cop—and with my wife's dad, who was a handyman, it was all these people who told us how much our dads helped them in different ways. "And so I'm laying in bed one of those nights and thinking: What is my gravestone going to read? 'He was a good dad, a great husband and he sold a ton of light bulbs'? That's when I started asking myself: How can a light bulb be more than a lightbulb?"
WHY PACKAGING IS A PRIORITY Packaging is one of the most important things in retail right now, Enright says. "It needs to tell the story," he explains. "When somebody sees a GoodBulb LED, they need to be able to tell three things from the box: 1) That this is a quality bulb 2) That they're getting a good bulb for a very good price 3) That they've made a difference by buying the product"
30
FEBRUARY 2017
"I realized pretty quickly that in order to make a difference," Enright says, "the number one thing we had to do was help others. We had to find a way to help others because we were so blessed." So for the second time, Enright decided it was time for a change. This time, though, it had to be more than just a name change and a facelift. It had to be a whole new company. "I'm on the phone with my branding guy in North Carolina," Enright says, "and one of the first things he says to me is, 'Your name, LightBulbs247, it sucks.' And I was like, 'I know it sucks.' And we keep talking and keep talking and all of a sudden he says, 'How about GoodBulb?' And before we'd even hung up the phone, I'd bought the domain." Enright says he was drawn to the simple strength of the name and its message. "We had to continue doing what we were good at," he says, "which was selling quality bulbs at a fair price, but always be asking ourselves, 'How can we inspire others to be good?' "I always tell my children to be good—just like my dad did to me—but when was the last time you told one of your friends or someone in Hornbacher's? Because that's what GoodBulb is. It's being good to your neighbors, being good to your coworkers, being good to everyone."
31
Enright and his team presenting a check to One Million Lights
On paper, the differences between GoodBulb, which Enright officially launched in November 2015, and Enright's previous ventures are subtle. He and his team of 10 are still selling lamps and lighting products online, but as Enright explains, now they're doing it with more purpose. "We're building a culture for people who want to work for a company that wants to do more than just sell a product," says Enright, who spent most of 2016 transferring inventory to GoodBulb and launching the website. "That means donating time with local organizations, helping different charities however we can. It's important that everybody who's part of our team is donating time and energy." And despite being such a young company, GoodBulb's already putting their money where their mouth is. Last February, Enright and his team donated thousands of blue light bulbs and raised nearly $8,000 to allow people all over the region to
commemorate the life of fallen Fargo police officer Jason Moszer. This past November, they helped raise $2,000 for the North Dakota Veterans Warrior Foundation. And in December 2016, they sent a check for $5,000 to One Million Lights, a nonprofit that helps distribute solar lights in underdeveloped areas around the world. "One of our major causes is to actually use light to make a difference," Enright says. "There are 1.3 billion people around the world who don't have electricity, and so they're forced to rely on kerosene. "Kerosene is extremely dangerous due to the potential fire hazard, it causes respiratory disease, is inefficient and is responsible for three percent of the world's CO2 emissions. And the people who are using kerosene lanterns are spending anywhere from 30-60 percent of the small amount of money they do make for fuel for these lanterns.
"People who are using these are living in very remote villages, and so with a solar-powered LED lantern, you're solving some of those problems. You're giving them light so that children can read and learn. It makes a difference." Enright says his hope is not just for consumers to identify with his company's "for profit, for cause" mission but his fellow founders as well. "I was quoted in another article several months ago saying that I had no intention of changing the world and that I simply wanted to make a difference," he says. "And I realized shortly after that, that I wasn't thinking big enough. "We really can change the world by inspiring others through our actions." Be good, Tommy. Be good.
GoodBulb GoodBulb.com 4211 12th Ave. N, Fargo 701-205-4953
33
BEHIND CHAMBER DAY at the Capitol
A By Craig Whitney Portrait by J. Alan Paul Photos courtesy of FMWF Chamber of Commerce
dvocacy is one of the Chamber’s four main areas of focus, and we take our work in public policy and advocacy seriously. We strive to provide strong representation on behalf of our more than 2,100 member firms as local and statewide leaders make important decisions that can greatly affect businesses and employees. From operational regulations to tax policy, we have worked on a wide range of issues. One of our most important and interesting advocacy events is Chamber Day at the Capitol. Over the past two legislative sessions in North Dakota, we have organized a day trip for our members to attend and participate in the legislative process. We depart from Fargo and head west to Bismarck. There, attendees have the opportunity to observe committee meetings, where legislative committees
34
FEBRUARY 2017
will review bills and hear testimony from North Dakota citizens. Chamber members sit in on the afternoon sessions and have the chance to sit with a legislator as bills are brought to the House and Senate floor where they are debated and voted on.
Craig Whitney President & CEO FMWF Chamber of Commerce
The afternoon is spent hearing from speakers, including majority and minority leadership in both the House and the Senate, the governor, and key Cass County legislators and department heads. The event finishes
off with a reception held for event attendees and legislators from across the state. With the state facing a tighter budget, the conversations at this year’s event will shift as leaders have to take a look at and truly evaluate programs and requests from across the state. We look forward to hearing from these leaders to hopefully catch a glimpse into what their plans are for balancing the budget. We will be following many issues closely as the session moves forward. Key to those are legislation facing higher education, workforce, dollars for a military-base retainer, tax incentives, and, of course, the FM Diversion. If you are a legislative veteran or a newcomer with an interest in public policy, I encourage you to join us! This year’s event will be the third
Chamber Day at the Capitol and will be held on Thursday, February 9. We depart from the Fargo-Moorhead Convention and Visitor’s Bureau at 7:30 a.m. and will return that evening. It’s an honor for us to host events such as these for our members and community. Having an educated and informed group of people only strengthens our metro, and it will remain a priority to offer educational events to engage businesses and employees. We invite you to get involved! If you have any questions or would like to register for the event, please contact Elly Peterson at epeterson@ fmwfchamber.com or 218-233-1100 TAKE
AC
TIO N
FMWF Chamber of Commerce fmwfchamber.com 202 1st Ave. N, Moorhead 218-233-1100
35
Allegro Group
Recruiting Rock Stars Kara Jorvig Founder & CEO Allegro Group
36
FEBRUARY 2017
I
f Kara Jorvig's decade and a half in the recruiting industry has taught her anything, it's that a lot of people don't like recruiters.
"I'm in the business of breaking the negative stereotype around what a recruiter is and the experience and service level they bring to the table," she says. So a little more than a year ago, she turned down an opportunity at a corporate executive position and plunged headfirst into the waters of entrepreneurship.
Q&A Let's start with why you decided to leave the safety of a day job to start your own business. Kara Jorvig "I think that as I tenured in recruiting and had exposure to different roles and different businesses, I saw that there was a gap in the market. "There are a lot of great, growing businesses in Fargo and North Dakota, but there aren't always enough people. Everyone's drawing from the same talent pool.
Focusing on mid- and senior-level talent—industry "rock stars," as she refers to them—Jorvig and her team have quickly found success matching candidates and clients that often have difficulties finding one another. We recently sat down with Jorvig to learn a little more about the unique, highly customized search process that Allegro Group uses.
What's in a Name?
By Nate Mickelberg Photos by Paul Flessland
"As certain industries take off—whether it’s engineering, IT or medical—the question is how these growing businesses are going to manage their organizational goals but then also manage some of their succession planning. That’s really why I launched Allegro Group is to partner with businesses on those two key things: 1) Growth initiatives 2) Succession planning “We wanted to figure out how to partner with a business to understand not just a job description but what their organizational goals truly are. A lot of our work requires
doing outside market analysis and trying to promote people who are here. And I can say with confidence that we bring something unique to the market because I've spent time doing things differently than how we do them here."
We should mention that while you started the company more than a year ago, the Allegro Group name is the product of a rebrand you recently went through. Why'd you decide to do that? Jorvig "While we initially made the decision to license a name, I've always been very passionate about having my own business
Allegro Group Jorvig explains that "allegro," which is a musical term meaning "at a brisk pace," is a nod to her dad, who was a music teacher and who passed away unexpectedly a few years ago. "When your life changes so instantly like that," she explains, "it definitely changes your mindset to: Don't wait. If you have a dream or a passion, go for it. She says it's also indicative of the culture they want to continue to build. "We go slow, we go deep and we work at a pace that’s comfortable for everybody," Jorvig explains.
37
and building a brand underneath my umbrella.
The Allegro Guarantee “We have a guarantee on our candidates," Jorvig explains. "What’s hard in our business is that our product is people, and there’s no way to demo a human being. That’s why an evaluation process is so important. You have to be accurate in matching. “We’re not the cheapest in town, and when you provide a premium service and an experience, you want to make sure that people are satisfied with the job you did. And that doesn’t mean just the business, that also means the candidate. We're committed to staying in touch. We're not transactional. We're in business to build longterm relationships with both companies and candidates."
BUSINESS
WISDOM
"I also want us to grow and add more people to our team, but I want them to feel very connected. And having a team that feels like they can have their own business underneath my brand is important to me. I think they just feel a different level of engagement.”
Allegro's niche in the recruiting market is mid- and senior-level talent and executive transitions. What does that mean? Jorvig "We're more specialized in the market. A lot of executive search firms are what you might refer to as headhunters—and let me tell you this: “Like any industry, there are a lot of people who set the bar and there are a lot of people with whom you have a negative experience, but I want people to know that we are truly, genuinely connected to the best employers in town and that we’re not those badgering salespeople who are trying to
FEBRUARY 2017
"I’m very intent on making that distinction because not everybody enjoys working with a recruiter—both on the candidate and client side. And not everybody respects it and values it. So I am holding this brand, myself, and my team to the highest standards by investing in a process; working with integrity and representing our values; and making sure that we stay on top of the absolute best training the industry has.”
Who are your clients? Jorvig “We’re not a fit for everybody and we’re not in this business of matching job descriptions to résumés. The candidates we work with are in the top 15 percent of their industry, field, or technical skill set, and that number is based on our evaluation process. "Usually they’re a referral from somebody who will reach out to us and say, ‘Hey, you guys should talk to this rock star.’ “The only way we really engage
with a candidate, though, is if they’re positioned for growth. They have to have a genuine motivation for wanting to advance their career. We’re not in the business of breaking up happy homes or selling jobs that are connected to more money. Someone has to have a genuine reason to really want to advance their career. "We don’t do the typical interview either. We have a very detailed, in-depth process. It’s not, ‘Send us your resume and we’ll chat with you on the phone.' We do a lot of on-site. There’s a thorough process that we take our candidates through, and it's more or less twofold: 1. We want to know how strong they are, technically. We want to know the scope of their position, and our techniques to do that are very different. 2. The other piece that’s important is understanding what a candidate’s search criteria are. What is it they want to do? Where are they at today, but where do they want to be? And making sure that they and
“The real challenge is that founders in the Midwest are taking dinner-party etiquette, applying it to business conversations and then wondering why no one pays attention.” PAUL SINGH Chief Hustler, Results Junkies
38
sell jobs. That is not what we do.
We're not those badgering sales people trying to sell jobs. That is not what we do.
we stay genuine to that. "What we want to do is provide a 360-degree look at who a candidate is and have that relationship, trust and understanding before we start slinging résumés." Give readers some idea of the
positions and industries you're dealing with most often. Jorvig "Typically, mid- to C-level positions. Most headhunters are very specialized by industry, but we can't really do that because we are so committed to North Dakota. "Some of the industries we’ve had success in thus far are engineering, accounting and finance, IT and technical positions, human resources and really anything that’s management-related. It could be a CFO or CEO position, it could be operations or it could be project management. We've also done some work in oil, manufacturing, construction, ag and sciences.”
BUSINESS
WISDOM
You have a very specific, five-step process that you use in a search. Can you give us a condensed version of what makes it different?* Jorvig “What would be typical for us is that a business has a challenge. Maybe it’s growth, maybe they want to expand, maybe they want satellite offices, maybe they want a certain type of talent. “Through trust and relationshipbuilding, I’m invited to the table and work with senior leadership and all the hiring decisionmakers. They’re not just sending me job descriptions. "We’re going a lot deeper than just understanding what the
job is or what the gap in the organization is. Rather, it's: What’s going on here? What are the organizational goals? What are you trying to achieve? What are you trying to accomplish? “And while it might sound kind of corny, I do believe that your business is only as good as your people. And people here realize that. The issue is that there’s a huge technical gap in this market, and we’re all drawing from the same talent pool. "There’s a lot of organic growth in North Dakota, which is great. I respect and appreciate that. But I think businesses, too, are challenged with, ‘I need somebody who has experience or expertise in this. How do I find them?'
“Once a person has decided something is intentional, it’s virtually impossible to get them to consider that there’s another truth.” JOHN TROMBLEY Consulting & Training Manager, Village Business Institute 39
In Sickness, in Health & in the Office
One unique aspect of the Allegro Group office is that Kara Jorvig shares it with her husband, Brian. Brian, the director of operations for the company, joined the team last summer to serve as a Jack of all trades and help out as Allegro began to take on more clients and grow. While Kara concedes that it's probably not for everyone, she says it's not a lot different from how the pair has always done things. "Regardless of what professional position Brian or I have had," Kara says, "we’ve always worked together at home in support of what the other person was doing. I think we understood our career passion and interest, and we’ve always kind of partnered up informally in some way, shape or form." Brian agrees, adding that it's the yin and yang of their skill sets that makes it such a good fit. "It works really well," he says. "Some days are easier than others, but I really couldn't ask for anything better–the way things have fit together. It’s very complementary. "We've helped each other grow through our careers over the years, and now we just get a chance to build our own thing together."
40
FEBRUARY 2017
There are a lot of great, growing businesses in Fargo and North Dakota, but there aren't always enough people." “We go on site and spend as much time as we possibly can with a company and the business leadership group to truly understand the organization, understand where the gaps are and set a strategy in order to meet their needs.
professionals because I’ve been one, but I also understand the business side.
You mentioned that you think it's a big advantage being based in Fargo. Why is that?
"I understand the bottom line and financial details, but I also get how people play into everything."
"We have some trade secrets in our techniques and how we build relationships, but essentially what we’re doing is targeting what a business needs, driving industry conversations, and performing market analysis so that we can help consult on pay and accessibility—in terms of what type of talent you might get to the area, as well as what kinds of challenges come with a position.
*For a more detailed look at Allegro Group's five-step process, check out allegro-group.com/unique-recruitingprocess
Jorvig "I’m very passionate about North Dakota and our growing business community, and when you’re here, you just have different skin in the game versus an executive search firm out of Chicago. And I think that’s what’s made us take off and what’s really contributed to our success.
“It’s a very consultative-type approach, but I think the biggest difference is that we have really strong relationships with human resources, as well as executive teams. I’ve been in the chair of being a recruiter and I’ve also been in the chair of being with a group of management. I have tremendous respect for HR
Your team interviews and vets candidates before your clients ever learn about them, but what happens when your client starts the interview process? Do you sit in on those, too? Jorvig “We can. Our process allows for such a different level of conversation from the get-go because we're facilitating it. We try to limit surprises, we try to limit negotiations, and we try to limit questions or uncertainty."
"It’s easy to say you’re connected to a community and understand it, but it’s a whole different thing to actually be there. It’s just different when you raise your kids there, you go to church there, and you’ve been active in the Chamber and with different commitments around town." TAKE
AC
TIO N
Allegro Group allegro-group.com 701-353-5858 3523 45th St. S, Fargo
Jake Joranstaad, CEO of Myriad Mobile, addresses the crowd at 1 Million Thanks
42
FEBRUARY 2017
EVENT RECAP
BY Andrew Jason PHOTOS BY Paul Flessland
T
he foolish/ brave entrepreneurs who are risking it all were celebrated last month at Emerging Prairie’s 1 Million Thanks. The nonprofit whose mission is to celebrate the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the community brought more than 200 attendees to the Sanctuary Events Center to honor recipients who did great things with their company in 2016.
“Emerging Prairie believes it’s important to celebrate both the entrepreneurs and the community of folks who support them,” says Greg Tehven, executive director and cofounder of Emerging Prairie. “1 Million Thanks was a great way to collectively bring everyone together to honor that growth.” So, without further ado, we present the winners of the 2016 1 Million Thanks.
READ MORE 43
SOCIAL IMPACT AWARD Winner: Folkways Awarded for their celebration of culture creators, Folkways was honored with the social impact award. Folkways founders Joe Burgum and Simone Wai took the stage to thank everyone and talk about the Red River Market, Co.Starters and their numerous other projects. Learn more: folkways.co
A YEAR AT EMERGING PRAIRIE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR Winner: Max Kringen of Tellwell In the space of a year, Tellwell has added seven team members to this social media agency. Kringen recently graduated and moved out of the Prairie Den to their new office at 320 5th St. N. Ste. 202, Fargo. The company is a content agency that produces videos, design and other stories for companies.
2016 was a successful year for Emerging Prairie. They launched new programs such as The Possibility Symposium on Social Business, Cart Summit, and The League, and 1 Million Cups, TEDxFargo and DroneFocusCon continued to grow. There will be a lot of new additions to Emerging Prairie in 2017, including the Prairie Capital Summit, Meetup Leader Gathering, a podcasting studio and more.
Learn more: wetellwell.com
A YEAR IN NUMBERS at Emerging Prairie 44
FEBRUARY 2017
247
articles on emergingprairie.com
25
TEDxFargo videos
BELIEF AWARD Winner: Bethlehem “Betty” Gronneberg of UCodeGirl Born in Ethiopia, Gronneberg moved to Fargo in 1998 and has a masters of science in software engineering and was selected to the prestigious Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship. She started uCodeGirl to get more women interested in the tech industry. Learn more: ucodegirl.org
TEAM PLAYER AWARD Winner: CoSchedule Justin Walsh and Garrett Moon, the founders of CoSchedule, brought their whole team on stage to accept the Team Player award. The online content marketing calendar was originally founded in Bismarck, N.D., but has since actively dove into the Fargo entrepreneurial scene. Learn more: coschedule.com
BUSINESS
WISDOM
“Fashion is an attitude, not an age or size." MICKEY QUINN President & CEO, Vanity
46
FEBRUARY 2017
KICK-ASS AWARD Winner: Kirk Anton of Heat Transfer Warehouse and Ashley Morken of Unglued There was a tie in this category. Anton was recognized for his quiet giving. He supports numerous entrepreneurial events and volunteers his time throughout the community. Unglued was created to support the creators and makers in the community, and that’s what this little shop on Broadway does with its eclectic mix of handmade goods created by local artists. Morken is also big on events with the Unglued: Craft Fest and workshops throughout the year. Learn more: heattransferwarehouse.com & ungluedmarket.com
STARTUP OF THE YEAR Winner: National Day Calendar Marlo Anderson, founder of nationaldaycalendar.com, talked about the success of his website that has become one of the top 2,500 websites in the world. Out of their office in Mandan, N.D., they currently track 1,500 national days and have more than 18,000 submissions a year for national days. Learn more: nationaldaycalendar.com
A YEAR IN NUMBERS at Emerging Prairie 48
FEBRUARY 2017
199,627
views on emergingprairie.com
512,070
TEDxFargo view count
MOORHEAD BLANK CANVAS IS A
and We're Going to Paint it 5 Things I'm Focused On
BY Cindy Graffeo PHOTOS BY Paul Flessland
50
FEBRUARY 2017
M Moorhead has challenges, and Cindy Graffeo understands that.
"We're a different state, a different regulatory environment, and we have a different tax structure," says Graffeo, the executive director of the Moorhead Economic Development Authority (EDA) who was hired a little more than a year ago. "We need to figure out what we're good at, focus on what we're better at and do a better job of telling that story."
Moorhead Economic Development Authority (EDA) Executive Director Cindy Graffeo stands at the site of the Grove project, an apartment complex being built along First Avenue North in Moorhead. The site could eventually house mixeduse commercial and residential space.
Graffeo, who was part of a team that helped transform downtown Eau Claire, Wisc., into a thriving city center, is hoping to do the same in Moorhead by helping it find its niche and work "collaboratively but competitively" with its larger, more prominent neighbor to the west. 51
1
NO.
Downtown Development
For me, Downtown is priority No. 1 because there’s so much potential and low-hanging fruit, and we have some great success stories that we can build on. I see a lot of people point fingers to Fargo and say, "Why can’t we be that?" Yes, historic buildings are fabulous. You can renovate those buildings and easily hang your hat on that charming old downtown. But the next-best thing to historic buildings is blank space. Moorhead has plenty. We are a blank canvas. We're only
limited by our imagination and what we want as a community. So don't look at Moorhead's empty lots and abandoned buildings and feel disappointment and failure. Look around and see nothing but potential. I think Downtown Moorhead is right at a tipping point. We’ve had some great success stories and developments, the area over by Moxie Java being one example. And we have three major projects that could be getting underway in 2017. Downtown Moorhead’s going to look a lot different.
3 Upcoming Projects
10
1st Ave N Main Avenue 9th Street
10
The Grove
Knights of Columbus
What It Was: Aggregate Industries What It Will Be: The Grove apartment complex & potential mixed-use building
What It Was: Knights of Columbus hall What It Will Be: Three-story apartment building
The way you attract businesses is by creating rooftops, and I think the Grove project— Phase I and II are apartment buildings, and then Phase III has potential for either another apartment building or mixed-use—is a large, attractive development. It's also a great example of state and local incentives coming together and making a project feasible that otherwise wouldn’t have been, due to the nature of the site.
Developing Industrial Land A lot of Downtown Moorhead is former industrial land, and so we have contamination issues and brownfields. Anytime you have solvents, gases, basically any pollution that gets down into the ground, when you’re digging into dirt and have things that are coming out into the groundwater or air, you need to protect the people and do what’s best for your city. And that can be a major undertaking.
52
FEBRUARY 2017
At the Knights of Columbus Hall, they found contamination on the site, but between state-level deed grants and local-level incentives, that same kind of recipe/magic mix is going to be coming forward on the Knights of Columbus Hall as well.
For a business, it’s a lot easier to say, ‘I’m going to buy this greenfield that’s never been developed so I know that it’s safe. I’m not going to run into any environmental surprises halfway through the dig.’ That's why you need the incentives and tax-increment financing (TIF) and those mechanisms to make it attractive and worthwhile for a business to take on the risk of a contaminated site.
8th Street
Main Avenue
8th & Main What It Was: Tesoro gas station What It Will Be: TBD - soon going out for RFP (request for proposal) The 8th & Main property is a City of Moorhead-owned parcel. The city acquired the former Tesoro gas station and the building right next to it to put in that turn lane as part of our downtown road project last summer. We've torn down the buildings and are prepared to go out for RFP for redevelopment of that site. I’m really excited about this project because it really does have the potential to be the welcome mat of Downtown, and whatever we put there could be there for the next 150 years. So we want to make sure we’re doing it right.
NO.
2
Industrial Park
• Moorhead has two industrial parks. The original one, located near 25th Avenue and Southeast Main Avenue, is home to companies such as Personal Touch Embroidery and A-1 Automotive. Moorhead owns more than 500 acres of land dedicated to future industrial growth. • The MCCARA Industrial Park is located south of I-94 and is home to companies such as RDO, Pactiv and many more.
• There are shovel-ready parcels to accommodate a variety of business needs–whether it's interstate visibility or rail options. Unserviced land is leased out to area farmers for agriculture. • In 2016, six parcels of land in the industrial park were sold or put under control.
3
NO.
4
NO.
Entrepreneurial Services
Support from State Legislature
For 2017, the City of Moorhead has three legislative goals, which have been consistent for the past two years. First, Moorhead is requesting more than $40 million in bonding for the 20/21st Street grade separation (underpass) near the high school. The intersection is a public safety issue and is the top priority. Funding for this underpass was included in the failed bonding bill last year, and so we hope to see it stay on the table for 2017. In addition, if legislation allow, we would love to see funding for preliminary engineering and environmental work on the potential 11th Street Downtown underpass. I believe this could be a boon for economic development in the area.
Second, Moorhead is seeking permanent and continued funding for our Border Cities program. This appropriation supports a variety of programs that help level the playing field between Moorhead and our friends to the west. The 2016 tax bill included $3 million in Border Cities funding but was vetoed. Our goal in 2017 is for the tax bill to not only include an appropriation but for it to be a permanent one.
When you have two sets of train tracks that run the parallel of your Downtown, people will take the underpass or just about any other route. We'd love to have another Downtown underpass so that there's no reason to avoid driving in our downtown.
FEBRUARY 2017
One of the things we’re working on is the feasibility of a business incubation center. We have a student group from Dragon Consulting at the MSUM College of Business that is going to be helping us with that research. Prairie Den fills their specific niche, but there’s a wide spectrum of business incubation centers, and what I picture the Moorhead one to be is, "I need a desk for 20-40 hours a week." It's about seeing whether or not that's still needed. 10 years ago, an entrepreneur really needed a desk and an internet connection and a computer. And if you gave them those tools, that’s all they needed to succeed. That’s kind of the question we’re asking: Is that still the formula?
Lastly, we would love for Moorhead to have more local discretion when it comes to building codes. This would help with minimizing the differences that local builders face in building codes between Moorhead and Fargo. 54
One group economic developers like to pay lip service to is entrepreneurs. We like to talk about how we need to be supporting them as much as possible, but we haven't done enough of that in the past on the Moorhead side of the river. We need to do more.
Everyone carries a computer in their pocket these days so is that really the barrier to entry anymore? And if not, what do we need to do? What can we be doing to better support entrepreneurs in our community than we do right now? And we're looking into that question.
5
NO.
Digital Communication
The EDA is working to do a better job of communcating with our business community and prospects.
and representing ourselves to prospective businesses, as well as doing a better job to have the digital footprint we were lacking.
When I started, the EDA had a Facebook page, but the only thing being posted was public meeting notices. We've been focused on launching our e-newsletter, being active on social media, and launching an electronic survey component to our business-retentionand-expansion program.
The strategy I have, specifically for the EDA's social media, is to try and position the EDA to be that great connector and a resource for information—to be the first call when a business is looking at expanding or locating. We also want to provide professionaldevelopment information and get the right people to the right table at the right time to make things happen.
It's about making sure we’re getting out and talking to the current businesses we have Commercial Facade Loan Program
One thing the EDA (Economic Development Authority) has done is in the last year is launch the Commercial Facade Loan Program. The Facade Loan program allows for up to $25,000 interest-free for businesses to do awnings, signage, lighting, really whatever they need to give their building a facelift. Learn more about the Facade Loan program other City of Moorhead incentive programs here: cityofmoorhead.com/business/incentive-programs
TAKE
AC
TIO N
Cindy Graffeo Executive Director Moorhead Economic Development Authority cindy.graffeo@ci.moorhead.mn.us 218-299-5302
A Decade of By Nate Mickelberg Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography
giving Giving Hearts Day Turns 10! When Dakota Medical Foundation's Giving Hearts day started in 2008, not even its founders could've imagined what it would become. With the region's largest single-day, charitable-giving event turning 10 years old this year, we caught up with DMF President Pat Traynor and a few local organizations who plan to #GoMatchyMatchy on February 9. 57
q&a Dakota Medical Foundation What has the evolution of this event been like, on your end? Traynor "In the first year, 2008, we had a little less than 40 charities that participated and 1,500 contributions. Last year, we had more than 325 charities involved and more than 35,000 Pat Traynor contributions. That is President & CEO tremendous growth. Dakota Medical Foundation
"On top of that, about 25-30 percent of donors, on average, are brand new to a charity on Giving Hearts Day. If you're in sales and you get that many new customers, that's huge! And what's the fuel for nonprofits? Volunteers, money and people. If you have 100 contributions and 30 of those are brand new? That’s a really big deal. "The more friends that charities have, the greater good they can achieve in the community. We are so proud because it’s the charities that make this day happen. If they’re not implementing proven techniques to engage people, it doesn’t work. "We always want to deflect and make sure that the credit goes to the charities that are doing a great job with marketing, branding, engaging and crafting their stories. "We’re incredibly proud of all the charities. It’s been a real blessing to watch them become spectacular at generating new revenue and new ideas for how to do Giving Hearts Day. A lot of them astound us with the creativity. “We've seen polar plunges, people jumping on trampolines, people suspending themselves on the roofs of buildings. There’s some cool stuff that goes on. There's so much good that happens as a part of this day. You have kids learning, you have charities building their capacity to serve and you have givers who are experiencing the joy of giving. And that’s addictive.”
58
FEBRUARY 2017
$30.9 million Total dollars raised on Giving Hearts Day since its inception
What do you see as the role of the FM business community in Giving Hearts Day and how can it get even more involved going forward?
$270,000+ Incentive prizes given in 2015
Traynor “First, there have been a few businesses that have been instrumental— SCHEELS with their SCHEELS Challenge, where they challenge 20-some local charities to get 100 percent of their board to give $10 or more, and if they do, SCHEELS gives each organization a few thousand dollars. "Gate City Bank, of course, has been a huge supporter, and they've gone above and beyond in terms of creativity and how they get their whole team involved. Emerging Prairie has engaged a ton of tech businesses around town. "DMF doesn't have the staff to engage every business in town, and so we want to help employers that want to be involved look for ways that make sense for them to be involved. And we're not just going out to hit them up for money. We're trying to engage them in the idea of volunteering and giving and supporting any kind of charity. "It's about being a charitable champion and being a business of choice for people who want to do business with an employer that cares about the community. Same with the employee side. In today's tight labor market, you want to be an employer that's seen as community-minded and that encourages employees to be involved in things like charity."
326 Charities that participated in Giving Hearts Day 2016
19% Increase in donation from 2015 to 2016
90% Donations that come from N.D. & Minn.
some 2017 participants Hatch Realty Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Red River Valley As a nonprofit, what do business-nonprofit relationships mean to your organization?
Melanie Lee Hatch Realty
Jill Christopher Ronald McDonald House
Christopher “In terms of Giving Hearts Day, I think the part that’s cool Jill Christopher is that there are so many Executive options Hatch Realty Director could choose. And so Ronald for them to choose us, McDonald House Charities of the it really means a lot that Red River Valley they’ve connected to our mission and that they really understand the difference that these partnerships make to the families we serve. To see that support in the community and for people to believe in your mission is really fantastic.” "The day really creates an awareness that really reminds people that their donations make a difference and that there’s a family on the other side that sees the benefit of everything."
Erik Hatch Hatch Realty
200+ 53 Communities across N.D. & Minn. that participate
60
FEBRUARY 2017
Local charities that have learned to better tell their story
2011 First year Giving Hearts Day donations exceeded $1 million
$148.46 Average gift in 2016
Why does Hatch Realty think it's important to be involved in charitable giving? Lee "I really see it as an opportunity to open the door and connect. Giving Hearts Day is a perfect opportunity to do just that. We talk all the time about how we Melanie Lee can multiply our giving Hatch Alumni and multiply our impact. Director Yes, we’re already doing Hatch Realty things, but there's so much more we can do. It's about not having a limited mindset. "I think this is an opportunity for us to get more involved, learn more about organizations that maybe we didn’t know existed, build more relationships and then maintain those relationships. It’s not just a one-day thing. “It's about getting to know an organization and then actually getting involved. As a team, we volunteer once a month at the Dorothy Day House and we want to do more things like that. One of our agents is a mother of a one-year-old, and she just contacted a local nursing home and she and her son are going to go into a nursing home and volunteer weekly. They couldn’t believe she wanted to take her one-year-old into a nursing home every week, but it's something we prioritize."
#GoMatchyMatchyWithHatchy As one of six scheduled events in 2017, on Giving Hearts Day, Hatch Realty will be hosting an event at their office that is open to the public at which people can stop by, enjoy pizza and drinks, and be entered into a drawing to win $500 to donate to a charity of their choice. Leading up to February 9, Hatch invites you to help them promote Giving Hearts Day with the hashtag #GoMatchyMatchyWithHatchy
Melanie, in the spirit of Giving Hearts Day, tell readers about the creative way a Hatch team member recently helped out a local nonprofit.
Lee "So one of our agents and his girlfriend posted a status on Facebook on behalf of the YWCA, and in his own sense of humor, he said, ‘The YWCA had a pipe burst. They're out of diapers. There are a lot of bare baby booties out there. For every share of this status, my girlfriend and I will donate a box of diapers for every share and a diaper for every 'like.’' (See above)
37,139 Individual donations in 2016
$8,309,559 Amount raised in 2016
“Well, the status ended up with like 500some shares and something around that, too, for 'likes.' So it ended up being more than 10,000 diapers that they ended up buying out of their own pockets. They called Costco and let them know, borrowed a big truck from Habitat for Humanity and brought them over to the YWCA. “We still have people mailing us diapers or ordering them on Amazon and shipping them to our office." Christopher “It's stuff like that that gives people ideas. You don’t have to just write a check. You can motivate others to give as well.” Lee “Especially to reach younger generations. We're all about that—having some creativity. It's about: How can we think outside the box? We firmly believe that playing small doesn't do the world any favors.” 61
Kim Meyer Gate City Bank
10% Donations that come from outside N.D. & Minn.
$20,000 Donation dollar per minute during peak giving hours
Erin Prochnow YWCA
Gate City Bank Cass Clay
YWCA
What does it mean to have an organization like Gate City Bank behind you on Giving Hearts Day?
Erin Prochnow Executive Director YWCA Cass Clay
Prochnow "It takes all of us in the community to make our organization function and work. We know that it costs $43 a day to provide a night of shelter to a woman or her child. That’s what we’ve calculated our services to be just for emergency shelter services.
“Philanthropic organizations like Gate City Bank are just gems in our community. I would tell you that having had their support since the 1980s at our organization and building on that support over the course of time has been tremendously helpful. They’ve not only invested in our work. They’ve put boots on the ground, in terms of employee volunteers. 62
FEBRUARY 2017
“They've invested in shelter with their time and their talent but also in our supportive services—our education employment program, our shelter-faith community nurse program, our supportive housing program. And so they understand what we do, and I believe that they have invested because they, like us, believe it’s important to provide safety and opportunity for women to move forward.” How does the relationship go beyond Giving Hearts Day? Prochnow "Ironically, Kim (Meyer) was on our board of directors and hired me almost nine years ago. She was the chair of the hiring committee. We have continual involvement from Gate City Bank, from people who serve on committees to events at different points in the year. “We had 15 Gate City Bank Santa hats done at the shelter in December, helping make Christmas a little brighter. But it goes beyond holidays and big events. We know that they are a supporter and have a belief in providing the best for women and children and
providing an opportunity for people who face horrific circumstances and challenges but at the same time understand that there can be transformation, hope and inspiration.” What's the history of the relationship between Gate City Bank and the YWCA? Meyer “We know it’s important to have healthy, vibrant communities. Our CEO, Steve Swiontek, is a big part of how our relationship started with the YWCA. It was Steve Kim Meyer who saw a need at the EVP, Director of shelter more than 10 Retail Banking years ago and started & HR with the “Building Hope” Gate City Bank campaign with a lowinterest loan. And then it just blossomed from there. “Like Erin said, whether it’s security, the nurse, or transitional housing, we now have a Gate City Bank economic-enrichment wing at the YWCA that helps women to be gainfully employed. You can’t find a job these days without a computer, and so we helped get them a great computer lab there.” How is Giving Hearts Day important to getting your employees involved with these types of causes beyond the day itself? Meyer "I look at Giving Hearts Day as an offshoot of the bank’s “Acts of Kindness” program, which we do 365 days a year. And it’s part of our culture. It’s part of our culture to give back. We’re all about a better way of life for our communities, our customers, our
Gate City Bank on Giving Hearts Day In 2016, will give $55,000 total throughout the state of North Dakota This year, will donate 22 $2,500 gifts to organizations nominated by the public and Gate City customers—nominations can be done at Gate City branches or online In last three years, Gate City Bank has given more than $150,000 on Giving Hearts Day
employees, and this is just one more way to do it. “Whether it’s DMF or it’s the YWCA, they have the same mission we do, and it’s about making our communities better.”
360 N.D. & Minn. charities to choose from
Both your organizations have been involved with Giving Hearts for a number of years. What's it been like watching the event grow? Prochnow “We’re just appreciative of the opportunity to participate in Giving Hearts Day and the enormity of what the event has become.
$325,000 Amount raised in 2008, the event's first year
“It's incredible how the community has wrapped their arms around something, an opportunity of giving and philanthropy,that DMF has provided. And we’re just incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it. And they’ve made it fun. Meyer “To see the progress is just remarkable, in terms of the steps DMF has taken and all the new organizations they’ve brought in—statewide and into Minnesota as well. Prochnow “And to make it fresh and real and different each year. This year’s theme is really fun and energetic, and an organization like ours that deals with some of the things that we do, it can be more emotional and difficult to talk about, and yet we still fit in. We can tell that emotional story and talk about the trials and tribulations that people have faced but also talk about hope and opportunity to change and better their lives.”
$2,440 Average number of online donations per minute
TAKE
AC
TIO N
To get involved with Giving Hearts Day 2017, visit ImpactGiveback.org 63
By Courtland Miller Photos courtesy of Kilbourne Group
DOWNTOWN FARGO CLASSROOM AS A
A
t Kilbourne Group, we have a deeply held set of values. We believe in respect for the past and gratitude for the present but also in inspiration for the future—that curiosity and knowledge-sharing can lead to even brighter days ahead. We also believe in community and that being an active citizen and valued neighbor is something worth striving for every day.
Courtland Miller Market Research Analyst, Kilbourne Group kilbournegroup.com 210 Broadway N, Fargo 701-237-2279
Fargo Public Schools (FPS) is another organization with a defined vision and set of values. As an educational institution, inspiration for the future is their primary export, and they’ve committed to that by stating, “Graduates will possess sound character and the 21st century skills in communication, critical thinking,
collaboration, and creativity necessary to participate in an ever-changing and culturally diverse world.” FPS is also aware that community support is critical to fostering those 21st century skills and “is committed to excellence through a student-centered learning environment supported by positive collaborations with students, staff, parents, school and community.” With vision and values aligned, Kilbourne Group is proud to partner with FPS’s historic North Fargo middle school, Ben Franklin. The partnership is exciting because it instills a sense of community collaboration and, more importantly, because it creates a valuable, real-world, project-based learning opportunity for the leaders of tomorrow.
65
Project-based learning is an important advancement in education because it builds the skills of communication, critical thinking, collaboration and creativity. Rather than encouraging students to memorize endless facts that can be looked up quickly and easily on any smartphone in a realworld environment, project-based learning gives students the skills that they will need as they enter the fast-paced, constantly evolving economy in a few years time. Project-based learning takes students outside the classroom walls and into the actual boardrooms, studios and laboratories where they can begin to cultivate a passion. Within the living classroom of Downtown Fargo, Kilbourne Group has guided Ben Franklin students through one project
successfully, has begun the process of a second project and is grateful to have been invited to partner on a third. The first project was based in research and technology. Students listened to a presentation from Kilbourne Group and toured the Downtown Loretta Building, then dug into the history of various Downtown buildings using online resources, in-person tours, and discussions with community historians and building experts. Students then created and narrated a video for each building, published the video using Quick Response (QR) codes and demonstrated their project to community members at an unveiling event in Downtown Fargo’s historic Fargo Theatre.
Their current project is focused on business acumen and creativity, where students again teamed up, received a presentation and tour from Kilbourne Group, and are now designing a business plan. In this case, the business plan is not for an imaginary scenario but rather for an alley retail space in the Roberts Commons project currently under construction in Downtown Fargo. The students are considering factors such as neighborhood context, target market, product selection, advertising channels, branding, and differentiation as they determine what business their team will pitch to a group of
community members and high school business students Ă la Shark Tank.
documentary, which will be submitted to the annual Fargo Film Festival in 2018.
The future project is a continuation of the first, diving further into art, technology and community engagement. The 2017 class of eighth graders at Ben Franklin will be researching and documenting how various Downtown properties have changed over time and will incorporate the use of one of North Dakota’s most exciting new technologies, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), to capture aerial footage and give perspective to the viewer. A video narrative will be developed and compiled into a short
Kilbourne Group is full of gratitude for this partnership with Fargo Public Schools and Ben Franklin Middle School. These projects represent fantastic opportunities not only to live our values but also to invest in the community we love. TAKE
AC
TIO N
Kilbourne Group kilbournegroup.com 210 Broadway, Suite 300 Fargo 701-237-2279
67
OFFICE VIBES: Bytespeed
Computer Architecture Something of a hidden gem in the FM business community, Moorhead-based custom computer manufacturer Bytespeed has built a loyal, national client base with a emphasis on customer service and a more personal level of support than larger vendors. Founded more than 15 years ago with a primary focus on building custom desktops
for schools, the company has since expanded into network services, mobile, and gaming, and can count clients in finance, healthcare, and government, among others.
Join BytesSpeed Sales Director and Fargo INC! Editorial Advisory Board member Anna Hanson as she gives readers a tour of the company's Main Avenue headquarters.
BY Anna Hanson PHOTOS BY Paul Flessland
69
Anna Hanson Sales Director Bytespeed
This area is a big part of our network services, which is newer to our group. We just started a few years ago doing more on the network side. Business has changed, and this has been a pretty exciting area for us. We’ve hired quite a few more engineers and are continuing to grow the customer base we have. They’re already buying desktops from us and they’re already buying servers from us. So now we’re able to provide switching, wireless, cache appliances, and security appliances, which are more and more important.
70
FEBRUARY 2017
This is our help-desk area. This is where systems come in and get repaired, and these guys are what we sell. All the equipment is the same. What we sell is our help desk, what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. For us, the imaging is huge. We preload all needed software on our customers' computers before they get them. A lot of companies say customer service really matters, but there aren't many places where you can come back to the same guy on the phone who’s been there for more than 10 years. So what you get is that consistency. People come to work for us and they stay. And you get to build relationships with them. So that piece in itself is huge. We've gotten a lot of customers from competitors because when they called and had an issue, we took care of it. And with technology, it’s not a matter of if you’re going to have a problem,
it’s a matter of when. And just knowing that the person on the other end of the line is going to take care of you is really nice. Everything's a commodity now in technology—PCs, servers, switching, wireless—and people are treating it like a commodity. They’re not providing that service. They just want to sell you the equipment and go away, and we stand for the opposite of that. We are about building relationships and being partners.
What we have here are actually desktops. They’re tiny, but that's the new thing. This is a very popular case. We put tons of them in schools and hospitals. SCHEELS uses a case that looks just like this. It’s called a Mini-ITX. We buy a lot of stuff with longer warranties so that when somebody calls in and says they have a bad stick of memory, we pay to ship it back here so that they don’t have to pay freight. We send them an advance replacement part, the bad part comes to us, and we test it and then send it back off for warranty so that we can keep our overhead down. This batch here is on its way to West Virginia. 71
We’re really picky about the components we put in our computers because we’re going to put such long warranties on them. Everything's top-of-the-line, name brand— Intel, Kingston, Sea Gate. And all of our stuff is open architecture.
This is our warehouse. Because of the fiveyear warranty, we have to stock parts until the end of time. And then even after warranty is up, if somebody calls us and says, "I’m looking for this little cover," we still want to support those machines. So we warehouse a ton. This is like Costco for techies.
Welcome to the gaming room! I know I mentioned everything's getting smaller, but our Gravity Gaming line is the exception to that rule. This space gets used a lot by our employees—these guys even come in and have tournaments on the weekends— but also by people coming through on tours. Gaming is something that's relatively new for us, but it's one of the only verticals that's growing in our world and in
crazy ways. There are now even scholarships out there for e-sports, and they're airing it on ESPN. We're really promoting gaming clubs because there’s this section of student who is unattainable to schools right now. They’re not going to be in speech and drama, they’re not going to be on sports teams, but we can pull them into the fold and actually teach them really valuable life lessons in a K-12 environment through gaming clubs.
What I think is so amazing is that, to me and you, computers and smartphones are technology. But to my twoyear-old, she’s been chewing on a smartphone since she was born. It’s nothing. So engaging students is harder than ever. If you’re a teacher, you can’t stand up in front of somebody on a whiteboard and write notes. Kids are asleep in the back of the room. But if they're playing a game to practice mathematics, they're much more likely to remember it versus watching somebody else tell them how to do it.
BUSINESS
WISDOM
“It’s easy to get behind someone when they’re successful. Founders often talk, though, about that first employee who believed in their vision or that first customer who bet big on them. It can mean the world to someone.” GREG TEHVEN Executive Director & Cofounder, Emerging Prairie 75
We have two VR (virtual reality) stations. The Oculus Rift (left) and the HTC VIVE (right). The Oculus is really promoted more in the classroom because you don’t need a lot of room for it, and the VIVE is more for a makerspace because it’s interactive. You can actually interact with your surroundings, but you need a 10-by-10-foot
Probably my main regret about the building is having an office right below our gym. It's nice to have, though. It gets used quite a bit. And as you can see, our president is an avid cyclist so we have the Tour de France stationary bike.
76
FEBRUARY 2017
area so it kind of limits what your options are.
Depression. The opportunity for engagement is amazing.
It’s the future of gaming, but we think it's also the future of education. To think that you can take a kid who grew up in Fargo and they can go tour the Louvre while you’re discussing World War II. You can bring somebody back in time down a main street in the 1930s during the Great
There are people learning how to operate on virtual hearts, real estate agents are taking people on virtual tours of what their home will look like once it’s remodeled. There’s no end to what this technology means, and it’s fun to be a part of it.
Something we're very proud of is the fact that we actually run anything we sell. We like to put our money where our mouth is. If we’re going to sell a switch, we’re going to use it. A lot of companies will sell anything and everything. Whereas, we pick what we think is best-of-breed and go with that product. And then we
tell our customers, "If you want to switch products, we think this is the best and this is what you should use. If you want cameras, this is what we think you should use. If you want a server solution, use this." That way, we’re able to actually support the product that we’re selling and use it internally, too.
MORE
I NF O
ByteSpeed bytespeed.com 3131 24th Ave. S, Moorhead 877-553-0777 77
By Josh Christy
The Startup Journey: A
B L O G
A
fter more than a decade working in design and software and founding multiple businesses and products, Codelation Founder Josh Christy understands one thing, above all else: The world of entrepreneurship is lonely, but it doesn't have to be.
TAKE
AC
TIO N
For more information about The Startup Journey (TSJ), visit: JoshChristy.com Codelation codelation.com 616 Main Ave., Fargo 866-572-6337
78
FEBRUARY 2017
That's why he started a blog—to not only help fellow CEOs and owners step around some of the holes he's fallen into but, perhaps more importantly, to help them discover (or rediscover) their "why." The "why," he believes, is what will keep you grounded during those highest of highs and what will pull you out of those lowest lows. Christy will be publishing new posts numerous times a month on his own website, and each month in Fargo INC!, we'll be sharing a couple of them with our readers. If the material is something you're connecting with and wanting more of, don't be afraid to visit joshchrsity. com/blog to subscribe and get them sent directly to your email. Portrait by Paul Flessland
!
New Years Goals, Planning & Action
Here we are. 2017 is in full swing, and most of us have set some lofty goals for the new year. "I want to lose weight." "I want to get up earlier." "I want to grow my business." But how many of us actually turn that desire into action? Even after eight years, I still struggle with the transition from planning to doing. Two things have helped me break through planning paralysis: 1. Do one focused thing every single day to grow my business.
2. Find a community of like-minded people to help drive me forward. Do One Thing Each Day So how do you know what to do each day and week to get your business moving? It boils down to having a strong process in place that helps you know where you're going. We currently have two big goals for the first quarter of 2017: 1. Work toward 75 percent retainer clients for our consulting business. 2. Grow JoshChristy.com from $0 to $15,000/month in recurring revenue. How will we get there? We set daily tasks to help hit our quarterly goals. For the consulting business, Codelation, I am meeting with at least three people each week for coffee or lunch. These would be people who we’ve done work with in the past to see if there are ways we can work together again. We are also sending emails to another five people who we haven’t done work with in the past but would like to. For JoshChristy.com, we are publishing at least one blog post each week and repurposing the content on Medium and LinkedIn, as well as in Fargo INC! Contentgeneration is a bit of a slow play, as it will take some time to grow readership. But it is great for brand awareness. Now, your goals will vary depending on where you are at in your process, but the idea is the same: Schedule one thing every single day that is first on your to-do list— nothing else gets done before it. Give it at least 30 days to see if it's providing any fruit. Too many people quit too soon. That’s why you need a community to help you keep going.
BUSINESS
WISDOM
Find a Community I’ve been fortunate to be connected to other entrepreneurs who are in similar places as we are. If nothing else, it's a great resource to get together for 30 minutes and just ask questions to for reassurance that I’m looking at things correctly. I almost treat it as therapy and a kick in the pants to get out there and get going again. The truth is that not many other people get what it takes to be an entrepreneur or business owner. Your spouse is there to support you but can’t help answer that business-process question. Your parents encourage you but secretly might want you to go get a “real” job. Over the last year, I’ve gotten hundreds of emails asking if I could get together to meet for 30 minutes so the person could “pick my brain” on a new idea they have or to get feedback on how to handle their situation. Some people know what they need to do and just need permission. Others need to be pointed in the right direction and given some resources.
the answer for you and the rest of the membership. • A monthly webinar with one of my experts on various topics, from building your business to branding to technology workflows. You tell us what you want to see, and we’ll make it happen. • And the most valuable new addition, which is something I’ve never done before: A monthly look at my business as I grow it. I’m going to give you a summary of everything I’m doing to grow JoshChristy.com and TSJ. How I’m getting my traffic, what problems I'm running into, and even what the revenues, expenses and profits were that month. You’ll get to look over my shoulder, see the numbers and watch me build a company from scratch. • A free bonus is access to our private Facebook group to be able to learn from others who are just starting and those that who have been there. It's a great resource to be able to start a conversation and find out what is working for another company, or even better, what isn’t. Invest in yourself this year. Your future self and career are depending on you.
I spent the last few weeks thinking about how I can amplify these meetings and help more people start and grow in 2017. What I came to was: What if I could take what has been so helpful to me with my network and find a way to give that back to those who don’t have that resource? The result of this brainstorming is what we are calling The Startup Journey (TSJ). As a member of the TSJ community you’ll get: • Two video sessions where I’ll be answering questions submitted by you, the TSJ community. They could be website critiques, marketing reviews, business-model evaluations—you name it. You get to ask me any question you want, and I’ll produce
Some people know what they need to do and just need permission.
"I could be losing money every month as long as I have an idea." RANDY THORESON Principal, Global Development
79
!
Technology You Must Use in Your Business in 2017
Collaboration Tools We’re on the Slack bandwagon and have been using it for almost three years now. It is a great communication tool that allows our entire team to communicate no matter if they are on site or off.
As the end of the year looms over the horizon, it’s time to take a look forward and mull over the next big thing in 2017. Many of the articles being published right now about technology in 2017 are looking forward to the future of virtual and augmented reality, drones and autonomous driving. However, the technology I’d recommend you consider are cloud-based, or SaaS (software as a service), software solutions. If you are a small business, I don’t see a good reason to go out and buy a box of software from Office Max or even anything hosted within your office. SaaS products usually have a monthly recurring subscription cost to them, but the flexibility to upgrade and downgrade users and switch to a different package or even a different product altogether outweighs the premium that you might pay. There are a never-ending number of solutions to choose from, and it can be difficult to understand the differences between them. We’ve used a lot of different software over the last eight years, and here is what we are using going into 2017.
CRM Sales Tool Pipedrive is our customer-relationship management (CRM) tool of choice, and price and flexibility are the main reason. The fact that you can have multiple sales funnels set up for each of your business lines and set when a deal becomes stale are a couple of my favorites.
80
FEBRUARY 2017
Project-management Software
Being able to keep a project moving on time and under budget is at the core of our clients' happiness, as well as our own sanity. To keep things running smoothly, we use a combination of GitHub and Forecast by Harvest. Though to be fair, this is probably not a common combination unless you're in the software or web development space.
I'd also recommend taking a look at Trello. It's something we are going to add to the mix for our team this year. Github works great until we don’t have a development project, and so we’re exploring Trello for design and consulting projects.
You can also upgrade your account to have it listen to both inbound and outbound of an email address, and so you can capture every bit of the conversation with a potential client. They also have a developer application program interface (API) so that you can integrate it with other software tools, if needed.
Plus, the integrations are never-ending. We get a notification when someone has left a voicemail on our phone system, we hold a daily scrum standup meeting and are notified when we have a major issue with a site or an app. The best part is that the base service is free, and the paid version is only $5 per user per month.
Email Email is a pretty simple one. If you are going to pay for your email, which I recommend, you should give Google’s business-email service a try—G Suite for Business, formerly known as Google Apps For Business. It will cost you about $50 annually per email address but also includes some of the best cloud-based sharing and collaboration tools that we’ve come across.
Questionnaires & Surveys Typeform is an excellent way to collect questionnaires, onboard customers and automate mundane datacollection tasks. You can set up multiple surveys with unique styling to your brand and can cover almost any type of question. You can even accept payments with it. We use it to qualify consulting clients to find out if they are a good fit before taking the next step.
Phone System I'm a little biased, but at the office, we use Booth, which is actually one of our own SaaS products. You can redirect calls around the time of day or when you are busy on your calendar. I’ll keep it short, but check it out at trybooth.com
I’m not paid to promote any of the products listed here. I truly believe in them and what they’ve been able to do for my companies.
Time-tracking and Invoicing We started using Forecast earlier this year and have found it extremely helpful to block off projects over the course of the week and set maximum available time per team member.
Marketing We used to dip our toes into the marketing pond and used a number of email signup tools. It wasn’t until we started using Drip earlier this year, though, that we really saw the power of the workflow.
My tip is that you schedule team members at a half-day at minimum, as we’ve found that switching costs are too high to have them move from project to project more than once per day. Now this will depend on your line of work and has nothing to do with the technology, but I wanted to put it out there.
You can perform actions based on subscriber criteria such as if they click a link or didn’t open an email.
Forecast also integrates with the company’s core product, Harvest, to establish a project budget, and the software will estimate if you’ll be going over or under budget. Harvest is also what we use for invoicing as well. It makes moving the process all that much easier. Plus, Harvest allows us to accept payments from clients through Stripe or Paypal, which makes payments a breeze.
Plus, you can’t beat the pricing—It's free for the first 100 subscribers. If you are at all considering any sort of marketing for your site, you have to give Drip a serious look.
Accounting We used to use Quickbooks for a long time and then switched to the cloud-based version. There were some niceties, but after trying Xero out, we decided to make the jump for a couple of products. I’m looking forward to the full move here in 2017. Both products also have a payroll module to help make sure you are above board when it comes to tax filings and tax withholdings.
As the name implies, you can also send drip-email campaigns, and it integrates with a bunch of existing tools and websites.
FEBRUARY 2017
BUSINESS EVENTS
CALENDAR
February 2 BUSINESS AFTER HOURS
Thursday, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. Business After Hours continues to set records as the region’s largest networking event. Booth space is often sold out, and attendees can connect with their peers and exhibitors, ranging from cell phone companies to financial institutions and more. Join for a great time over apps, networking and fun! Be the Social Superstar! Bring your top Twitter, Instagram and Facebook games because we’ll be on the lookout for our favorite post from the event. Just post using #FMWFBAH at the event to be in the running for Social Superstar. The chosen post will be featured in the Chamber's "The Bridge" and online and gets exclusive bragging rights. Business After Hours is an FMWF Chamber members-only event, and participants must be 21 years of age or older to attend. If you're interested in having a booth, please contact Bobbi Jo Rehder at 218-359-0525 or brehder@fmwfchamber.com
February 3
LIVE UNITED LEADER OF THE YEAR
Friday, All day Is your company a great example of living united? Then nominate it for a United Way award! United Way of Cass-Clay is now accepting nominations for the 2016 LIVE UNITED Leader of the Year. The annual award is given to one organization to recognize outstanding commitment to United Way and an excellent workplace campaign. Visit UnitedWayCassClay.org for nomination information and a nomination form. Nomination deadline: February 3 Contact Taya Spelhaug TSpelhaug@UnitedWayCassClay.org 701-237-5050
82
FEBRUARY 2017
Registration (includes appetizer & two drink tickets) • $25 Registration prior to midnight the Monday before event • $35 All registrations received after the Monday before event FMWFChamber.com Holiday Inn 3803 13th Ave. S, Fargo
February 7 EGGS & ISSUES: A BRIEFING ON NORTH DAKOTA'S BUDGET
Tuesday, 7:30 - 9 a.m. Join to hear a full update of the budget for the state of North Dakota from Pam Sharp, director of the Office of Management and Budget for the North Dakota Office of the Governor. North Dakota is facing interesting times as a state economy that is dependent on commodities. Sharp will share where we are currently, what she sees coming out of the legislative session and what she sees on the horizon. Please join for this informative and detailed presentation. Registration (includes breakfast) • $30 Chamber members, in advance • $35 Chamber members, at the door • $40 Non-members, in advance • $45 Non-members, at the door FMWFChamber.com Courtyard by Marriott 1080 28th Ave. S, Moorhead Pam Sharp
#FMWFEggs
February 8 NEXT STAGE NETWORKING
Wednesday, 9 - 11 a.m. More than 90 percent of new business is gained through face-to-face interaction, but most people—even high-level executives—are awkward at networking. Learn how to take the fear and stress out of working the room in this high-energy, interactive session that will have you feeling confident next time you need to mingle. This training qualifies for two CPE credits for the ND CPA Society. Stevie Ray
#FMWFTraining
Please note: This is one of two sessions offered on February 8 with Stevie Ray. Please also consider joining for his afternoon session, Next Stage Communication. Registration (includes lunch) • $45 Chamber members, in advance • $55 Chamber members, at the door • $60 Non-members, in advance • $70 Non-members, at the door FMWFChamber.com Hjemkomst Center 202 1st Ave. N, Moorhead
About the Presenter Stevie Ray has been a nationally recognized speaker and trainer for more than 25 years, helping Fortune 500 companies and small organizations alike improve communication skills, teamwork, innovative thinking, leadership and customer service.
February 8 NEXT STAGE COMMUNICATION
Wednesday, 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. We've all been there—that awkward moment with a coworker or a stressful situation working with a different personality. Learn how to best handle every moment in this exciting course. Stevie Ray will energize the crowd with simple steps to take your communication skills to the next stage, improving your life and career. • Learn the secret techniques of "Whole-brain Thinking" so you can handle any on-the-spot situation with confidence. • Implement the "Five Steps of Persuasion"to get a "yes" and inspire action. • Discover the hidden "Approach-Withdraw Response" of the brain and how to turn resistance into acceptance. This training qualifies for two CPE credits for the ND CPA Society. Please note: This is one of two sessions offered on February 8 with Stevie Ray. Please also consider joining for his morning session, Next Stage Networking. Registration (includes lunch) • $45 Chamber members, in advance • $55 Chamber members, at the door • $60 Non-members, in advance • $70 Non-members, at the door FMWFChamber.com Hjemkomst Center 202 1st Ave. N, Moorhead
February 9 GIVING HEARTS DAY
Thursday You can get in on the excitement of Giving Hearts Day when you grab a friend or two and #GoMatchyMatchy. You’ve already found a charity to love. Now, tell the world why. People support charities for personal reasons. With 360 North Dakota and Minnesota charities to choose from, Giving Hearts Day is the perfect opportunity to support a cause dear to your heart. But isn’t everything always more fun with a friend? By choosing to #GoMatchyMatchy, you can tell the world why your charity is important to you, and give your friends the opportunity to do the same. It’s easy and fun! Here’s how: • Ask a friend to match your commitment to donate to a charity on Giving Hearts Day. You can each pick your own charity and dollar
amount or you can #GoMatchyMatchy all the way. • Post a fun matchy-matchy photo with your friend using hashtag #GoMatchyMatchy anytime from now until February 9 to show your support and help raise awareness for Giving Hearts Day. • Join the event on Facebook to be a part of the excitement leading up to Giving Hearts Day. Go to givingheartsday.org on February 9 to make your donations. What is Giving Hearts Day? Giving Hearts Day is the most generous day of the year. When we first launched the online drive in 2008, our region’s generous donors offered up $325,000. The day makes space for charities to share their stories, connect with new givers and become skillful in a proven "friendraising" system. It has become a gateway for people to connect to causes doing good work in areas they passionately care about.
Dakota Medical Foundation DakMed.org/Giving-Hearts-Day 4141 28th Ave. S, Fargo
83
February 9 CHAMBER DAY AT THE CAPITOL
Thursday, 7:30 a.m. - 7 p.m. 7:30 a.m. bus departure from the FargoMoorhead Convention & Visitor’s Bureau. Please mark your calendars for the FMWF Chamber's biennial event where they bring Chamber members to Bismarck for a day to connect with their elected leaders, observe the legislative process and share the priorities important to Chamber-member firms. Don’t miss this opportunity to represent the FargoMoorhead-West Fargo business community in Bismarck. • $45 Chamber members (includes transportation, breakfast on the bus, as well as appetizers and drinks at the reception) • $30 Already in Bismarck or want to meet them there? Join the Chamber at the Capitol and for the reception. FMWFChamber.com North Dakota State Capitol 600 East Boulevard Ave., Bismarck
February 15 ECONOMIC OUTLOOK FORUM
Wednesday, noon - 1:30 p.m. The annual Economic Outlook Forum offers a glimpse of the various factors affecting the regional economy: energy exploration, workforce availability, technology, entrepreneurism and healthcare. This year, the FMWF Chamber is pleased to announce that Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, returns for the keynote address, sharing trends in the national and international economies. Starion Bank’s Scott Green will also present on the results of the recent economic outlook survey from Chamber members. Registration (includes lunch) • $35 Chamber members, in advance • $40 Chamber members, at the door • $45 Non-members, in advance • $50 Non-members, at the door • $650 Corporate table sponsor (table of eight)
Jim Paulson
#EOF17
FMWFChamber.com Ramada Plaza & Suites 1635 42nd St. S, Fargo
Kirsten Jensen
February 23 DIGITAL HACKS TO SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE
Thursday, 3:30 - 5 p.m. (Social: 5 - 6 p.m.) Hacking doesn’t just refer to rogue programmers. “Life hacks” can also refer to changing the way you do things to make daily activities more efficient. In the book “Trust Agents” by Chris Brogen and Julien Smith, they define “hacking” as “changing the rules” or “using a system in a different way than it was designed.” This session will look at little hacks that make life easier. Whether it’s simply thinking about things differently, finding hidden functionality in tools most of us use every day, or downloading a new app, it’s about finding a way to transform an annoyance to a tiny source of daily joy. Kirsten Jensen, founder and digital strategist at Next Action Digital, will share her favorite digital hacks—tips, tricks and apps that you can use at work, at home, as a mom, as a volunteer, as a learner, in the kitchen or for your health—to simplify your life.
84
FEBRUARY 2017
#FMWFWC
What will you learn? • Practical tips and an action plan to simplify your life using technology and apps • How to make more of tools you already use • Find a new tool or app to simplify your life
Please consider bringing new or gently used gloves, mittens, and scarves for Fraser’s Stepping Stones Resource Center, which helps local young adults who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Registration • $25 Chamber members, in advance • $30 Chamber members, at the door • $35 Non-members, in advance • $40 Non-members, at the door FMWFChamber.com Sanctuary Events Center* 670 4th Ave. N, Fargo *Attendees may park in Sanctuary's lot to the south of the building or use on-street parking.
About the Speaker Jensen has worked at the intersection of technology and communication for more than 18 years. She worked in digital marketing at Sanford Health for 13 years and spent three years at Onsharp consulting with clients in a wide variety of industries, from higher education and nonprofits to construction technology and manufacturing.
February 24 ADDY AWARDS CEREMONY
Friday, 6 p.m. - 7 p.m. (social—hors d’oeuvres & live music), 7 p.m. (awards program) The American Advertising Awards is the advertising industry’s largest and most representative competition, attracting more than 40,000 entries every year in local AAF club competitions. The mission of the American Advertising Awards competition is to recognize and reward the creative spirit of excellence in the art of advertising. Conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the local ad club phase is the first of a three-tier, national competition. Concurrently, all across the country, local entrants vie to win ADDY Awards—recognition as the very best in their markets. At the second tier, local ADDY winners compete with winners from other local clubs in one of 15 district competitions. District ADDY winners are then forwarded to the third tier, the national stage of the American Advertising Awards. Entry in your local Ad Club competition is the first step toward winning a national ADDY. AAAF-ND.org/Addy-Awards Holiday Inn Fargo 3803 13th Ave. S, Fargo
DOWN THE ROAD GET A GRIP ON YOUR BUSINESS! Wednesday, March 8, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
FMWFChamber.com Ramada Plaza & Suites (Bach Room) 1635 42nd St. S, Fargo
CORPORATE CUP
Thursday, May 25, 3:15 - 8 p.m. FMWFChamber.com Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM) 1104 7th Ave. S, Moorhead
DRONE FOCUS CONFERENCE
Wednesday, May 31 Thursday, June 1
EmergingPrairie.com/DroneFocus-Conference Location TBD
MONTHLY MEETUPS* ··Bitcoin Meetup ··Cass-Clay Subcontractor Sales & Marketing Meetup ··Geek Meet FM ··Girl Develop It
February 24-26 RED RIVER VALLEY HOME & GARDEN SHOW Friday 2/24 3 p.m. - 9 p.m. 2/25 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 2/26 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
The 56th Annual Home & Garden Show is celebrating its 25th year at the Fargodome. The typical show draws in 8,000-9,000 prospects from as far as Bismarck, the Twin Cities and northeastern Minnesota. This unique event showcases not only diverse products and services available in today’s building industry, but it puts consumers in contact with professionals in the field, a nonexistent feature of online shopping. • $10 Tickets available at the door, days of event • Free for Children (Age 18 & under and when accompanied by an adult) Fargodome.com/Event-Calendar Fargodome 1800 University Drive N, Fargo
··Fargo 3D Printing Meetup ··Fargo Cashflow Game Night ··Fargo Entrepreneurship Meetup ··Fargo Virtual Reality Meetup ··Fargo-Moorhead Content Strategy ··The Fargo-Moorhead Real Estate Investing Meetup ··Master Networks – Fargo Business Referral Group ··Mobile Meetup Fargo ··Moorhead Entrepreneurship Meetup ··Prairie Dawg Drupal ··Red River Valley Big Data – Midwest Big Data Hub Meetup All meetups above (except Bitcoin Meetup) can be found at meetup. com/cities/us/58102. If interested in the Bitcoin Meetup, please contact alarson@myriadmobile.com
FM
Fargo INC!, Fargo Monthly and GoFargoJobs.com bring you a section dedicated to careers in Fargo-Moorhead Inside you'll find A REPORT ON HIGH-TECH INNOVATION IN ND + TOP JOBS
R E E R CA R E D N I F
87
High-tech Innovation
in North Dakota High-Tech Goods & Services
36.8% $1.45B 25.5%
15.6% $598M $351M
High-tech manufacturing exports
High-tech share of all manufacturing exports
*Report from Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). The full report can be found at itif.org/technation
Innovative Ideas 903
Patent Filers
2,103 7,704
Patents Filed
426 797 2,684
Public R&D funding
$141M $93M $726M
$5M
IT services exports
$35M $203M
0.5%
IT share of all services exports
3.1% 7.3%
Royalty and license share of all services exports
Royalty and license services exports
13.3% 20.0% 27.3%
$190M $142M $761M
High-tech Innovation
in North Dakota
Digital Infrastructure Broadband Coverage
Broadband Coverage
(25 Mbps or more)
Average number of providers per household
(10 Mbps or more)
85.6%
99.0%
94.6%
5.5 6.7
99.9%
76.8%
6.0
98.2%
Skilled Workforce 12.9%
49,038
22,721
23,683
5.8%
High-tech sector workers
6.9%
32,458
15,607 16,045
High-tech share of total workforce
8.5%
4.0%
STEM workers
4.7%
STEM share of total workforce
17,938
6,442 7,678
41.3%
49.2%
21,656
55.3%
2,931
Computer and math workers
90
FEBRUARY 2017
Computer and math share of STEM workers
5,785
Highly educated immigrant workers
24.6%
8.3%
12.6%
Immigrant share of highly educated workers
TOPJOBS Technology
Management Health Care
IT OPPORTUNITIES Thief River Falls, MN
ASSISTANT SITE MANAGER Fargo
Apply today to join Digi-Key’s innovative Information Technology (IT) team. From coding to project management, you will be tasked with keeping our internal systems running seamlessly by developing and improving systems to support our growing business needs. To apply, visit digikey.com/careers.
Goldmark strives to make a positive impact on the lives of others. An opportunity is available to serve those looking for or living in apartment homes we manage. We’re accepting applications for caring and dedicated candidates for full and part-time positions with opportunities for advancement. To apply, visit goldmark.com/careers.
How do I apply? HR SYSTEM ANALYST II
Fargo
B2B SALES MANAGER Fargo
Work as part of the IT digital applications team to enhance and support HR IT applications according to the company mission and culture and meeting the goals and objectives set forth the at board, Officers Council and executive morebyinfo SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM committee.
Your role is to close sales of our business solutions with merchants throughout the area. You will work closely with a territory manager to set appointments with business owners over the phone, face-to-face, through your network and via referral partnerships that you build.
Spotlight Media SOFTWARE APPLICATION DEVELOPER - DYNAMICS How do I apply? CRM
PROJECT MANAGER Fargo
Fargo
This position will focus on COTS products with primary emphasis on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 application development and integrations. Experience with Unified Service Desk CRM plug-in is a plus. Responsible for coding andinfo testing major enhancements and small new more at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM applications.
Oversees and manages construction projects from conception to completion to ensure a highly efficient project is completed on time and within budget.
Marketing/Advertising Digital Strategy Intern (Paid) PROJECT MANAGER Fargo Manage various productivity projects for the director of information technology from concept to delivery by driving completion, implementation and end-user consumption of deliverables for all entities supported by the IT department.
92
FEBRUARY 2017
Spotlight Media MARKETING MANAGER Fargo Assist the sales manager to sell on different platforms such as print, digital and social media. Responsible for researching trends in the marketplace and providing information to those who request it. Seeking a leader and self-starter to take our firm to the next level.
gofargojobs.com
TOPJOBS Healthcare How do I apply?
Sales
RESEARCH TECHNICIAN Fargo
DIRECTOR OF MARKET SALES Fargo
Perform clinical tasks including, but not limited to: venipuncture, performing vital signs, distributing meals and more fluids,info centrifuging samples, plasma, serum, and whole at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM blood processing, biomedical sampling and processing, source document completion and sample storage.
The director of market sales is responsible for planning and administering sales policies and programs to foster more info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM and promote hotel patronage for two or more properties in a single market area.
Digital Strategy Intern (Paid)
Digital Strategy Intern (Paid)
Human Resources DIRECTOR OF NURSING Fargo Administers the nursing program in a hospital, nursing home or other to maintain standards of patient care. Requires an advanced degree in nursing and is licensed as a RN. Responsible for the overall quality of care provided by the organization's nursing personnel.
Manufacturing Spotlight Media BUSINESS ANALYST How do I apply? Fargo
Analyze the sales, inventory and operations planning (SIOP) business process and needs and recommend and implement technology solutions, as well as support the back-end systems for the forecast process.
more info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM
How do I apply?
CORPORATE PAYROLL COORDINATOR Fargo Coordinate biweekly non-union and union payroll activities for American Crystal Sugar Company and Sidney Sugar Incorporated. Audit activities associated with nonmore info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM union timesheets and maintenance to ensure timely and accurate payments to employees.
Accounting/Finance Fargo, ND PROJECT MANAGER/ How do I apply? BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYST Fargo
Duties: Work across departments to translate association strategies and objectives into streamlined processes and technology implementation, lead department and teams to meet project requirements, and contribute to team goals and objectives by sharing knowledge and information.
Digital Strategy Intern (Paid)
E-Commerce
Spotlight MANUFACTURING Media ENGINEER & OPERATIONS How I apply? Westdo Fargo
Fargo, ND MANAGER PROJECT Fargo
The primary responsibility is to oversee production and manufacturing operations within the EPG division. Develop and implement new and/or improved methods and processes to ensure that safe, efficient and profitable manufacturing practices are being followed.
How do I apply?
Responsible for the overall direction, coordination, implementation, execution, and control of specific projects, ensuring consistency with company strategy, commitments and goals.
more info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM
94
FEBRUARY 2017
gofargojobs.com