In 2002 the City started a new program called the Business Appreciation and Retention Program. The objective of the program is simple: City representatives go out and tour local businesses, thanks local business leaders for their contributions to the local economy, and inquire about local businesses experience with City government. By all measures, the program, now known as our “Meet & Greet” program, has successfully acheived its objectives.
As of yesterday, we completed our 56th Meet & Greet tour. Mayor Tyra-Lukens has devoted a significant amount of time to this initiative. She has attended at least 50 of the tours. Our Economic Development Manager David Lindahl makes the whole thing work. He identifies the companies and gets us in. In almost ever case, we get to meet and tour the facility with the President or CEO of the company. It has been a great experience, and with over 2,000 businesses in Eden Prairie, we’ve got a loooong way to go.
Yesterday we did a Meet & Greet tour of Stratasys. This is an incredible company! They manufacture a 3-D printer. That’s right, a three dimensional printer. The 3-D printer “prints” a three dimensional object, like this wrench which the company gives out as a sample/souvenir:
The printer prints a liquified plastic material that hardens (somewhat) almost immediately after it comes out of the printer head. The printer prints CAD files of things designed by companies who are interested in seeing/touching/testing a prototype of a new or redesigned product. So who might be interested in rapid prototyping?McDonald’s, for example, might want to print a protoype of a new proposed Happy Meal toy, before giving a toy manufacturing company the go-ahead to actually manufacture a couple million of them for their U.S. stores, and the children of America. It’s a good, and relatively inexpensive, risk management practice.
We toured the company with the CEO, Mr. Scott Crump. He and his wife started this company in their basement, or maybe it was his garage. Either way, this is an American business success story. They have started an amazing company. The people at Stratasys are doing great things in Eden Prairie.
