Mayor Young, Economic Development Manager David Lindahl and I did a Business Meet & Greet visit last week to an Eden Prairie company called MakeMusic.
I’ve talked about our Business Meet & Greet program before in this blog, but it has been awhile. The program is simple. We make an appointment with the owner, manager, CEO of a local business. Then we (typically some combination of the Mayor, a Council Member, Economic Development Manager and the City Manager) go out and pay that company a visit. We talk about their business; their employees; any issues they see in the community; any general issues they may have with government; and any specific experiences they may have had with the Eden Prairie city government.
We’ve been doing this program since 2003 and we’re pushing 200 of these Meet & Greet visits. The breadth of business activity in Eden Prairie would really surprise you. We’ve visited companies that manufacture such diverse items as coatings for pills that make them easier to swallow, 3 dimensional printers, new devices that make it easier to hear, and equipment that makes it easier to pluck the feathers of a chicken. Companies love the Meet & Greet program. They appreciate our interest in their business. They appreciate our interest in their opinions of our services. We always end each visit with a “thank you” for being in Eden Prairie.
I don’t always go to every visit, but when I do go, I always enjoy it. Our visit to MakeMusic last week was no exception. MakeMusic creates software solutions for the music industry. They have many different products that make it possible for musicians to log and organize the music they are creating. They also make a new new product, called smartmusic, that is marketed to schools to assist children with the learning process for playing musical instruments. The new product helps kids by providing immediate play back of their practice routines and by providing kids, and their instructors and parents, with immediate online feedback about the accuracy and quality of their practice. It’s revolutionary in the sense that it adds data to the arts, with the hope that the data can shape and improve the arts.
MakeMusic is a very interesting company located right here in Eden Prairie. We’re fortunate to have them as part of our local economy.
