Business: Custom picture framing and large-format digital printing that offers photographic quality with images that are measured in feet instead of inches.
Founded: 2002
Headquarters: Red Wing, Minn.
Website: redwingframing.com
Executive: Founder John Becker
Employees: 3 full time, 1 part time
2008 revenue: $289,000; on track to approach $310,000 in 2009.
Just as Lawrence Kazmerski, a top official at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, was about to give the keynote address at the University of Minnesota's annual E3 conference at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, the lights went out, bathing the audience in darkness and a deep sense of irony.