CEO Margaret Anderson Kelliher of the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA) has a busy month ahead for her organization. Last week, MHTA hosted the Minnesota Venture Conference, which introduces some of the state's fledgling tech companies and gathers industry technologists, financiers and leaders. On Nov. 29, MHTA hosts its annual "Tekne" awards program that showcases several dozen small and large companies and recent achievements. A former legislator who was elected a two-term speaker of the Minnesota House by her colleagues, Kelliher, who grew up on a southern Minnesota farm, guided passage of the state's landmark renewable-energy legislation in 2006-2007, helped build a broad business-labor coalition to enact a major transportation-funding bill and championed the Minnesota's Angel Investment Tax Credit bill. A Minneapolis resident, Kelliher graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College and earned a master's degree from Harvard University. This piece was edited from submitted responses.
Q: What is the status of Minnesota's emerging technology economy and what are the hot growth areas?
A: Our emerging tech economy is evolving. National surveys continue to rate Minneapolis-St. Paul as a top location for technology startups. We continue to see innovation in areas such as medical technology, as well as growth in sectors with a consumer and business-to-business focus — retail, fin-tech and health IT. We also have companies doing great work in AI/data analytics and cybersecurity. The Minnesota Venture Conference last week showed that range of innovators, with startups, investors and experts from across the Midwest.
Q: How far have we come since the Great Recession of 2008-2009?
A: Minnesota has come a long way, with unemployment dropping from 8 percent in 2009 to under 3 percent this fall. There's nearly zero-percent unemployment in our technology industry. The internet and healthcare sectors are two strong points in Minnesota's established businesses and entrepreneur ecosystem. Unfortunately, Minnesota's venture capital investments have remained relatively flat since the burst of the dot-com bubble.
Q: What is the Minnesota High Tech Association doing to support the state's innovation economy?
A: We are reaching more science, technology and advanced manufacturing companies than ever through our programs. More than 3,000 have attended MHTA's 44 events in 2018. Each year thousands of science and technology professionals build their companies and organizations [with] MHTA programs. Minnesota is No. 7 on the Milken Institute's State Technology & Science Index. And Minneapolis was ranked the third-best city for start-ups and entrepreneurs behind only San Francisco and Austin, Texas, according to the Kaufman [Foundation's] growth-entrepreneurship index.
Q: Do we have weak spots or disappointments?
