Dan Haugen

Freelance Journalist ::: Energy : Sustainability : Technology :::

Archive for the ‘Minneapolis’ Category

See my cover story in the June issue of Minnesota Business

without comments

When Target started rolling out expanded grocery sections two years ago in its general merchandise stores, the promotions featured the kind of eye-catching design people have come to expect from the retailer. Three-dimensional fruit bulged from billboards over First Avenue. Produce-filled shopping baskets jutted off bus shelters. Light-rail cars were wrapped in oranges, peppers and other grocery store images. The creative juice for the campaign came from a branding and advertising boutique just west of downtown Minneapolis. Knock Inc. produced in-store signage and promotions for the PFresh grocery concept, which is expanding at a rate of about 350 stores per year. The agency also creates Target's seasonal decorations, from the holidays to back-to-school displays. Target is synonymous with good design, but much of the retailer's creative and technical brain trust actually resides outside its Nicollet Mall headquarters. The company routinely hires outside designers and other creatives to help with projects-and not just celebrities like Shaun White or Michael Graves. It goes beyond design, too. From lawyers and consultants to programmers and photographers, scores of small- and medium-size companies play a role in helping Target hit its mark each quarter. It’s the Twin Cities’ Target economy, an entire ecosystem of companies that owe some of their growth and good fortunes even existence, in some cases to the Big Red Bull's-Eye.

(Continue reading…)

Written by Dan

June 7th, 2011 at 9:39 pm

Posted in Business,Design,Economy,Entrepreneurs,Minneapolis,Minnesota,Minnesota Business,Retail

Global Learners: How Study Abroad Experiences Impact Students

without comments

When she left Rapid City, South Dakota, for the University of Minnesota, Angela Bianco had a pretty good idea that she wanted to study abroad at some point during her academic career. Suddenly she found herself entering her final year as an undergraduate in the elementary education foundations program. She still hadn’t left the continent. The course load for her final year was too specialized to fit traditional study abroad programs, but Bianco found her chance in an intensive three-week global seminar offered over the January winter term. She and two dozen other students traveled with CEHD adviser Nathan Whittaker to South Africa, where they toured historic sites, studied at the University of Cape Town, and volunteered with a nonprofit that cares for AIDS and tuberculosis patients and vulnerable children. Bianco left with the kind of lesson you can’t get from a textbook: “Just to be content with what you have. It sounds like a very cliché thing to say, but you don’t need a whole lot to be happy.” Accessible Programs Short programs held in January or May help the college ensure that students who cannot take advantage of semester-long programs still get to graduate with at least one global experience. A number of programs allow CEHD graduate students to complete degree requirements out of country. Many other students conduct international research alongside faculty. These globetrotting efforts are part of an initiative to further internationalize the College of Education and Human Development. “There’s absolutely no way to avoid it. Our world is interconnected, and we’re preparing tomorrow’s leaders. I think we would be ill preparing them if we did not include a global element to their education,” said Christopher Johnstone, director of international programs and initiatives for the college.

(Continue reading…)

Written by Dan

May 27th, 2011 at 5:12 pm

Posted in Connect,Minneapolis,Minnesota

The Wallet-less Future

without comments

Starbucks introduced a pay-by-iPhone or -BlackBerry option at its shops nationwide in January, and the Twin Cities got a glimpse of what a wallet-less future could look like. Soon, people could be using their smartphones to pay for everything from fast food to utility bills. Both nationally and locally, activity around mobile payments has dialed up a notch. U.S. Bank wrapped up a pilot program in March in which it embedded “wave-and-pay” technology (the technical term is NFC, or near-field communication) in employees’ BlackBerrys and iPhones, asking them to use the devices at retailers with NFC terminals. For now, terminals are most common at convenience stores and fast-food chains, and are used with smart cards issued by credit card companies. U.S. Bank is one of four major banks working with Visa to combine the contactless payment technology with customers’ mobile devices. “This is about being able to provide the option for the customer to do business with us in the way they want to,” says Dominic Venturo, U.S. Bank’s chief innovation officer for payment services.

(Continue reading…)

Written by Dan

May 19th, 2011 at 6:32 pm

Posted in Business,Minneapolis,Minnesota,Technology,Twin Cities Business

“Human-centric” design in health care

without comments

Anyone who's ever had to navigate a confusing hospital complex or request health records from a provider has probably reached this conclusion at some point: our health care system wasn't designed for patients. And generally, they're right. Health care design has tended to revolve around the concerns of physicians, insurers, and attorneys, but arguably the most important stakeholders, patients, have largely been left out of the process. That's contributed to a deficit of consumer-friendly design in healthcare, from stressful buildings to impractical technology. "Patients have been treated as the recipients of care instead of the consumers of care," says Kai Worrell, president of Worrell, an industrial design firm in Northeast Minneapolis, which specializes in health care. The good news: that's starting to change. There's a growing awareness among insiders that health care lags behind other industries when it comes to providing a high-quality customer experience. And with patients starting to play a more active role in where their health care dollars go, there's an effort underway to make some consumer-centric changes. Around the Twin Cities, a new wave of creative design, from architecture to technology, is aiming to improve the patient experience in healthcare.

(Continue reading…)

Written by Dan

April 20th, 2011 at 1:49 pm

Posted in Design,Health care,Medical Devices,Minneapolis,Minnesota,The Line

Twin Cities craft brewers are on a growth bender

without comments

Surly Brewing Company wants to build a “destination brewery.” That would solve capacity problems at Surly’s Brooklyn Center headquarters. It would also follow what founder Omar Ansari says is a trend of “beer tourism” developing in places like Oregon, Colorado, California, and Wisconsin. Surly’s plans, announced in February, are to build a $20 million, 60,000-square-foot brewery with a bar, 250-seat restaurant, beer garden, and event center. Ansari says the whole package will draw tourists who will eat at other nearby restaurants, stay at area hotels, and give a bump to the local economy. A location is yet to be determined, but Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak has reportedly pitched Ansari on moving to the Minneapolis riverfront.

(Continue reading…)

Written by Dan

April 1st, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Posted in Beer,Business,Minneapolis,Minnesota,Twin Cities Business

Why Arts & Culture Matter to Economic Development

with one comment

M.A. RoskoThe Current had Fox 9 reporter M.A. Rosko, a Pennsylvania transplant, on the air this morning to talk about The Current’s birthday bash at First Avenue tonight. What caught my ear was her explanation about why she’s been in Minnesota the past 10 years:

“I moved here for the job, but I stayed for the local music and the local beer.”

I’ve met a couple of people who claim to have moved to the Twin Cities because of The Replacements, and I bet we could find a small army of twenty- and thirty-somethings who moved here or stayed here because of Atmosphere and Rhymesayers (Say Shhh…!). And well, you can’t get Surly beer in Chicago or South Dakota.

I tend to think the reasons people (and companies) choose to be in Minnesota get oversimplified and over-politicized. Taxes and regulation matter, to a degree. But my hunch is that those levers are severely limited if a place doesn’t have a vibrant “scene.”

Written by Dan

January 21st, 2011 at 8:14 am

Posted in Beer,Economy,Minneapolis,Minnesota

Bridge to Innovation: Ovative Group

without comments

Ovative Group connects start-ups with large companies seeking innovative digital technologies.(…continue reading)

Written by Dan

January 10th, 2011 at 2:36 pm

Posted in Business,Entrepreneurs,Minneapolis,Minnesota,Technology,Twin Cities Business

The new corporate hybrids: socially conscious local companies bridge the profit/nonprofit divide

without comments

After more than a decade in the banking and finance industry, Jim Delaney's latest endeavor may well have prompted head-scratching among a few of his former colleagues in the for-profit world. Engine L3C is a unique consulting shop that charges non-profits about a fifth of what its services would ordinarily cost elsewhere. The work is carried out by teams of young professionals, who volunteer their time and talents for six months in exchange for networking and professional development.(Continue reading…)

Written by Dan

December 8th, 2010 at 1:24 pm

Posted in Business,Entrepreneurs,Minneapolis,Minnesota,The Line

The Art of Manufacturing: Mid-Continent Engineering

without comments

A year and a half ago, Sanders Marvin may have wished he were touring some vineyard in New Zealand—the type of thing he did back in his old life. Instead, the former wine importer was looking at a brand-new, $2 million piece of automated machining equipment sitting idle in his family’s manufacturing shop in Northeast Minneapolis. Marvin succeeded his father as CEO of Mid-Continent Engineering in 2006. He spent the next few years reorganizing the 60-year-old company, hiring people who’d help him turn it into a lean manufacturer of equipment parts for the military, health care, and aerospace industries. Then the recession, along with fears about the impact of federal health insurance legislation, erased much of Mid-Continent’s health care business. Marvin was forced to let go many of his new hires. But Mid-Continent has emerged from the downturn stronger than when it went in. It’s a result of winning new contracts from clients that are consolidating their supply chains during the recession.(Continue reading…)

Written by Dan

October 1st, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Posted in Business,Entrepreneurs,Manufacturing,Minneapolis,Minnesota,Twin Cities Business

It’s not TV—it’s MPLS.TV, the witty web “station” that loves the Twin Cities in its own oddball way

without comments

Log on, tune in, and you might see a local buzz band playing on a rooftop, or a correspondent wandering last weekend’s funkiest neighborhood festival, or a locavore exploring the rich food possibilities in our own backyard. Or you might see a bunch of profane puppets bickering about acts we can’t describe here. Or a foul-mouthed fashion reporter confronting club kids about their attire. Or a hung-over, chain-smoking weather dude giving you the day’s weather report.

It’s not TV. It’s MPLS.TV. (Continue reading…)

Written by Dan

September 22nd, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Posted in Minneapolis,Minnesota,The Line

« Older Entries