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Continued: Inside Track: New future, new name for Minnesota Technology
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Minnesota Technology plans to inaugurate a new future as "Enterprise Minnesota" at a reception at 4:30 p.m. today on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas before about 300 invitees. Sponsors of the change say the new name better reflects the nonprofit organization's mission to help Minnesota manufacturers grow profitably.
The organization will unveil its rebranded name, logo, magazine, events lineup, website, and new e-trends online newsletter.
In recent years, Minnesota Technology has consulted with 1,100 manufacturers who have added an aggregate $27.5 million to their profitability through better products, increased sales and employee productivity. The nonprofit was chartered by the Minnesota Legislature in 1987. It employs 21 business specialists around the state.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty, representatives from Minnesota's congressional offices and client businesses are expected to attend the ceremony. More information is at: www.minnesotatechnology.org.
New digs and another new nameTalk about an identity shift. The ad agency Kerker is moving from Edina to northeast Minneapolis and is changing its name after 58 years to Preston Kelly. The firm's principals, Chuck Kelly and Chris Preston, said the move and name change reflects the agency's emergence from a business-to-business marketing communications to a full-service consumer operation.
Preston Kelly will set up shop in two weeks in the old Minneapolis Fire Barn building on 1st Avenue NE. The 40-employee agency has revenues in the $5 million neighborhood. Clients include Johnsonville Sausage, Taco John's, Roundy's Supermarkets, Piper Jaffray and HealthPartners.
Preston Kelly eschewed the name Kelly Preston, even though Kelly is president of the agency and Preston is executive vice president because a Google search of Kelly Preston brings up three pages of hits on John Travolta's wife.
Report cardMinnesota's Lori Swanson was one of six attorneys general awarded an A+ for fighting home foreclosures in their states, in a report out last week from ACORN, a homeowner advocacy organization. Swanson was cited for her support for Minnesota's new predatory lending law, the toughest in the nation, lawsuits against predatory lenders, and public education work. The report -- "Attorneys General Take Action: Real Leadership in Fighting Foreclosures" -- dished out 12 more A's as well as a dozen F's -- two of those to Wayne Stenehjem in North Dakota and Larry Long in South Dakota.
NEAL ST. ANTHONY, DAVID PHELPS, H.J. CUMMINS
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