Posted by Christopher Stevenson
Last year at CUES Nexus Conference, I announced that a big change was coming for the conference. I alluded to some of cool stuff we had in mind--visits to innovative businesses, the best speakers in the industry, a cross-industry perspective, and changing the name to CUES Experience--and received positive feedback, like the nodding of heads, smiles, and the occasional affirming whisper among attendees. But then I got to the location--Minneapolis, Minn. The room got still. Nodding heads stopped nodding, smiles evaporated, and the affirming whispers turned decidedly, um, un-affirming. Immediately after my announcement I got the question, "Why Minneapolis? You're nuts."
I'm not nuts; I just know how cool Minneapolis is. A few fast facts:
- Marketwatch named the Twin Cities the best metro area for business.
- Frommer's listed Minneapolis in its top 12 travel destinations; similarly ranked cities include Tokyo, Krakow, and Zurich.
- American City Business Journals named the Twin Cities among its top 10 metro areas for small business for the past two years.
- Forbes ranked Minneapolis eighth best city for young professionals.
Should I keep going?
- The Twin Cities are home to Target, Best Buy, Caribou Coffee, 3M, Cargill, General Mills, Xcel, and Medtronic.
- Minnesota is a huge golf state; it's home to more golfers than any other state and is the only state to have hosted all 13 USGA Championships. (Hear that, golfers?)
- Minneapolis has more theater space per capita than any other city in the United States except New York. But you won't pay New York ticket prices in Minneapolis.
- Minnesota is home to 20 different Fortune 500 companies.
And those are just the fast facts. Minneapolis is a hub of innovative and forward-thinking large and small businesses and their leadership teams want to share what they know with us. At CUES Experience, attendees can visit the Minnesota Twins, Mall of America, Summit Brewing Company, or Fair Isaac and learn business lessons from their leaders. What could be better? Minneapolis makes it possible to bring case studies to life.
Now, after all that, tell me Minneapolis isn't cool.
