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Home My WebLink About04 01 2015 Technology Village Minutes CITY OF PRIOR LAKE, MINNESOTA TECHNOLOGY VILLAGE BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES – April 1, 2015 1.Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 4:03 p.m. in the Little Prior Conference Room at City Hall. Members present: Gerry Hughes, Lori Frank, Adam Proehl, David Rech, Dan Stratton and Ken Hedberg. Members absent: None. Staff present: Casey McCabe. 2.Approval of Meeting Minutes a.March 4, 2015 MOTION BY FRANK and SECOND BY RECH to approve the March 4, 2015 meeting minutes. With Hughes and Hedberg abstaining the motion was approved 4-0. 3.Old Business a.Appoint Board Advisor – Valde Group Stratton: informed the board that he has attempted to contact Valde Group to set up a meeting time; however, they have not been able to meet yet. The purpose of the meeting was be to determine the needs of Valde Group so Mr. Stratton could decide what he could offer as an advisor. Hughes: commented that the role of the advisor is to act as a conduit to the full board. Stratton: stated he will contact Valde Group to schedule a meeting. 4.New Business a.Technology Village Website Revisions – Discussion Board Members: reviewed and discussed proposed revisions to the Technology Village website. The board also discussed expanding the program focus beyond technology where Technology Village would be a program that supports a larger and more diverse Business Accelerator program. Recommended website revisions included: Homepage  Instead of static building photo add plugin to use slideshow or tiled photos (4 photos) Large group meetings, activity, people, metrics, etc. o  Highlight Technology Village as the only accelerator program south of the river.  Revise the first paragraph to simplify the explanation of what the program offers to businesses.  Remove “Technology Village” on header and replace with tagline.  Promote the program successes (employees, businesses, graduates, etc.) Services  References to clients will be changed to participants. Partners  More partner organizations will be identified and added in the future. Board of Directors  Use a consistent reference to BOD members. Some bios are more formal while others are casual. Use first and last names. Phone: 952.447.9813 / Email: drogness@cityofpriorlake.com / www.cityofpriorlake.com  Add bios for Hedberg and Stratton. Program Participants  Hughes will contact etaKnowledge to determine if a bio and email contact can be added to this page without listing owner names. News  Two new news items have been added.  Hughes asked staff to check Dec/Jan Wavelength for an additional Tech Village article. Apply  Add a link to available commercial/office properties. Contacts  No changes proposed. Other  Phase I and Phase II program options should be explained on the website. b.Lunch and Learn Event (Dates/Topics) Board Members: discussed possible topics for the next lunch and learn event. Board members felt the event would need two month notice to the community to ensure a successful event. Possible topics included: finance, legal, sales, start-up hacks, small business tools, culture, and marketing to and training millennials. Board members recommended identifying future topics and establishing a calendar for future events and discussion topics. The board directed staff to survey participants and the Chamber of Commerce Executive Director to determine what topics participants and chamber members may be interested in. Home based and sole proprietor businesses may be a good target audience. Proehl: suggested the lunch and learn event could be recorded and streamed on the Technology Village website and/or Prior Lake public access television. Frank: recommended staff ask the Chamber Director about attendance at summer meetings and other suggestions she may have to increase attendance. Board Members: will continue this discussion at future meetings. c.Virtual Technology Village Membership – Discussion McCabe: informed the board that he and Mr. Rogness met with a prospective program applicant who was not necessarily interested in leasing space but was interested in other program benefits, including meeting space and possibly advisory assistance. Mr. McCabe suggested the board discuss a virtual or membership approach that would provide program benefits without requiring the lease of office space. Board Members: discussed the lack of currently available space and the need to establish a program if this concept is going to move forward. Hedberg: suggested the Duco Exemplo community event room may provide additional needed space. Rech: suggested staff invite the prospective applicant to the next work session for a discussion with the board so the board can identify what would be involved and how a virtual program may be structured. Frank: added that she has some virtual office information available which she will share with the board. Board Members: directed staff to invite the prospective applicant to the next work session and add this item to the work session agenda for additional discussion. d.Board Member Office Hours – Discussion Hughes: informed the board that the purpose of this agenda item was to discuss regular board member office hours in the Technology Village offices; possibly one hour per month on a rotating basis between board members. McCabe: added that he spoke with a participant who felt he and other program participants would benefit from more regular contact with board members. Board Members: discussed the idea and felt that contact with individual participants is best served by their board advisor. One concern about regular office hours was a board member may not be prepared to answer participant questions if they are not their assigned advisor and may not be completely familiar with the business. Board Members: asked staff to inform all participants that they are welcome to schedule a meeting or attend a future board meeting or work session to discuss any issues. Board Members: recommended the next breakfast meeting include a discussion on the board and participant roles and expectations. 5.Staff Update a.design a tivity Office Space McCabe: stated design a tivity is considering a lease of private office space in Prior Lake. design a tivity would not be required to repay the accrued equity investment if the business remains in Prior Lake. b.iWMS Americas Program Application Update McCabe: informed the board that the meeting originally scheduled on March 30 between Mr. Hughes and iWMS th Americas has been rescheduled to April 6. Mr. McCabe reminded the board that a program application with th iWMS Americas has been approved by the board pending the meeting with Mr. Hughes. c.Program Inquiry – Outstanding Ventures LLC McCabe: informed the board that a Credit River Township resident stopped in with a few questions about Technology Village. Mr. McCabe provided a tour of the Technology Village space and supplied application materials. d.Technology Village Metric Report – March 2015 Board Members: reviewed and discussed the March 2015 Technology Village metric report. e.Action Item Update Board Members: reviewed the pending action items. f.Board Member Ideas/Recommendations Hughes: stated that he met with ICP on March 31 for their quarterly meeting and will provide a quarterly meeting summary to the board. g.Work Session Meeting Date (5 Wednesdays in April) Board Members: decided to keep the next work session meeting date as scheduled on April 15 at 7:30 a.m. th 6.Adjourn MOTION BY RECH and SECOND BY STRATTON to adjourn the meeting. With all members in favor, the motion was approved. The meeting adjourned at 5:09 p.m. Submitted by: Casey McCabe