One of the things that we do here in our city government to stay in touch with our local business community is to go out and meet with them and talk with them about what they do and what we can do to help them, or sometimes, what we can do to stay out of their hair. When we started the initiative, we called the “Business Recognition and Retention Program”. Now, we just refer to it as our “Meet & Greet” program.
This is a photo I snapped at our most recent Meet & Greet at a new business in Eden Prairie called Art Partners Group. The Art Partners Group is (from L-R) are Kim Cameron, Brian Knudsvig and Connie Shields. On the right side of the photo is the City’s Economic Development Manager David Lindahl in the blue blazer and City Councilmember Phil Young in the tan blazer. Art Partners Group works with the commercial real estate industry, institutions and corporations to provide them with full service art consulting and installation. They help clients decide how much and what kinds of art to display in their facilities. Then they go out and find that art and get it installed.
It was a pretty typical Meet & Greet. We toured the building. We learned about their business. We learned about their client base. We learned that they have had only a small amount of official contact with the City, mostly with our Building Inspectors through their remodeling project. We learned that they chose Eden Prairie because it has great access to the Twin Cities urban core and the airport, while being close to their commercial real estate clients in the western suburbs. We learned that they like being in Eden Prairie and are happy with their decision to locate here for many reasons.
Since we started doing the Meet & Greets in 2002, we’ve done over 150 of them. We’ve toured some of the City’s biggest employers to some of the smaller restaurants. We’ve seen traditional manufacturing to some of the most high tech production equipment in the world. Eden Prairie’s economy is humming and Eden Prairie’s business community is largely satisfied with its city government. How do I know that? Because I’ve asked them and that’s what they’ve told me.
