Last week the Bureau of Economic Analysis released the 2014 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures for Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs).  GDP is the value of all the goods and services produced in a certain area.  The Mankato-North Mankato MSA, comprised of Blue Earth and Nicollet Counties, 2014 GDP was $4,570,000.

[caption id="attachment_256" align="alignleft" width="300"]Luncheon with Kocherlakota Narayana Kocherlakota, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis[/caption]There are still seats available for the October 8th luncheon event with Narayana Kocherlakota, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, hosted by Greater Mankato Growth. With all of the buzz surrounding the Federal Reserve and whether it will raise interest rates, you won't want to miss this truly unique event to interact with one of the nation's most influential economic policy makers.

In a recently released report from IBM, we are facing a transitional period for development that relies less on brick and mortar and labor and more on interconnectivity, agility and development of different skills.Spawned by businesses, politicians and academics, the new industrial revolution will move from using IT and electronics to  automate manufacturing into developing cyber-physical systems. loosely defined as using electronics to manage mechanical systems. It develops a Smart Factory where machines talk to one another. It can predict failures and perform preventative maintenance functions. It also can standardize manufacturing from machine to machine in faster timelines. In other words, we move from plug and play to plug and produce.

[caption id="attachment_234" align="alignleft" width="300"]FAM Tour Group FAM Tour Group meeting at Profinium Place in downtown Mankato[/caption]Yesterday I had the pleasure of introducing a national site selector around the Greater Mankato community. The day was part of the Minnesota Marketing Partnership’s Fam Tour event. Ten site selectors from across the country came to Minnesota to learn more about our development opportunities and the business climate.

We're fortunate to live in a vibrant and attractive region; but our success didn't happen by accident. What we have today was built by engaged and passionate citizens who set a vision for what the Greater Mankato region could be and purposefully set about making that vision a reality. We now have an opportunity to contribute to updating that vision going forward as the cities of Mankato and North Mankato look to make our region an even better place to live, work and play.

[caption id="attachment_211" align="alignright" width="300"]YP 200 member celebration Young Professional Membership Committee Co-Chairs Dianna Lyngholm and Jaci Sprague celebrate reaching 200 members![/caption]This past week we celebrated our 200th Greater Mankato Young Professionals (YPs) member.  In fact, today we reached our 204th YP member and the numbers just keep climbing.  Why is this important to members of Greater Mankato Growth and to our community as a whole?  It's important because the growth in the YPs is not just a number -- it's indicative of the energy and excitement that is growing among those who have recently entered our workforce and have chosen to live and work here.

[caption id="attachment_199" align="alignleft" width="640"]Steering Committee Visit The Project ABE Steering Committee Visits New Sweden Dairy[/caption]Yesterday, the Project ABE Steering Committee headed to rural Nicollet County for it's quarterly meeting.  Mitch Davis of Davis Family Dairies hosted the group at their flagship location:  New Sweden Dairy.  New Sweden isn't just a flagship facility for the Davis Family, but for the entire Dairy Industry.  What makes this dairy different from others?  It produces more than just milk, it produces talent.

[caption id="attachment_119" align="alignright" width="300"]Grain Millers Inc. Visit Pictured Left to Right: John Considine, Jim Santori and Sam Ziegler of Greater Mankato Growth[/caption]During a heavy down pour Jim, John and I jump out of the truck to dash for the front door of a yellow warehouse looking building back a week and half ago. We only had fifty feet to dash to make it inside, as we wipe the water from our face we were greeted by two staff from Grain Millers Specialty Division here in St. Peter, MN. Once we signed in we spent some time in their conference room getting a briefing on the company which was quite impressive, they have food processing plants in a number of states and a couple in Canada.
soSomali