4 ways our region is tackling what’s next
2023 was the GREATER MSP Partnership’s most productive year ever.
At the NEXT 24 event in February, many MSP leaders shared how, over 12 years, we’ve learned how to roll up our sleeves and collaborate on hundreds of projects at a far greater scale.
We’re connecting and focusing hundreds of leaders of organizations—from corporations and startups, to universities and foundations, cities and counties—around a shared strategy. We’re moving faster and thinking bolder every year. And we have to—because opportunity is global, the world is changing fast and the competition isn’t waiting.
In that spirit, let’s talk about what’s next in 2024:
Technology
In the 21st century, we can’t be globally competitive unless we win on technology. That’s why we’re going to:
- Reinvest in our semiconductor industry with the MN CHIPS Coalition.
- Put AI and machine learning to work in our Minnesota MedTech 3.0 strategy.
- Bring new tech firms into this economy with major new investments in digital infrastructure. Meta’s recently announced data center in Rosemount is a $800 million example.
Bottom line: This work will bring $2 billion or more into the state this year and put us on a path to recapture Minnesota’s national leadership in advanced technology.
Inclusion
Because inclusive economic growth is our mission, to accelerate our work we will:
- Help ensure capital starts getting deployed as part of the GroundBreak Coalition.
- Complete a second close of the $50 million MSP Equity Fund—the venture fund we’re raising with gener8tor to invest in fast-growth companies founded by women and people of color.
- Keep delivering on our goal in the Business Bridge initiative, where 20 of Minnesota’s largest HQ companies are working to spend $1 billion more with minority-owned companies this decade.
Bottom line: Inclusive economic growth is how we will unlock faster growth, build a stronger community and renew our brand as a place that turned tragedy into transformation.
Sustainability
With the warmest January on record, the world urgently needs solutions to the hardest climate challenges. That’s why we will:
- Advance our bold innovations in sustainable aviation fuel onto the global frontier.
- Extend our leadership by building more bio-based industries, anchored with a new BioMADE facility at the University of Minnesota.
- Develop a global protein sustainability strategy that will deliver solutions for feeding the world’s 9 billion people while reducing carbon emissions.
Bottom line: There is a bio revolution under way. We intend to lead it.
Talent Strategy
A big part of what’s next for this region is all of us coming together to renew our strength in talent and workforce. At NEXT, Peter Frosch, GMSP president and CEO, and Andrea Walsh, president and CEO of HealthPartners, announced an action plan to develop a regional talent taskforce to tackle it.
Bottom line: Developing the labor force it will take to do all the above is our next big problem to solve together.
So, can we really do all things?
Yes, all these efforts are already in motion. This is how our region is building the future rather than waiting for it.