You can find the article here.

What are some me of the current plans underway to achieve the goal of making MCC an even stronger community asset?

We have been working for the last four years to temporarily activate our outdoor space through art and activities as a way to get residents involved in the convention center space in a different way. Northern Spark has been a nice opportunity to bring some "cool" night time activity to the convention center that has attracted a different demographic to our building. Based on some of our learnings, we hope to permanently remodel the Plaza to be more useful as an outdoor event space and connect through new streetscape to our surrounding attractions, especially the Nicollet Mall and in the future, Loring Park via Grant Street. Biking in Minneapolis is a way of life and we have worked to help connect the city through the bike connections we have with the protected bikeway on 3rd Avenue and new infrastructure that will connect 2nd Avenue in front of our building to the Loring Greenway.

We continue to display local artists’ work throughout the facility on a six-month rotation. This one-of-a-kind art helps show that Minneapolis has a strong creative culture and draws our guests to seek out our artist neighborhoods. As we increase the digital signage throughout the facility, we hope to start a local video design outlet to showcase local video graphic art on our video monitors. As we have increased sponsorships with local businesses, we maintain that any advertising they do in the building must represent their Minneapolis/Minnesota story rather than just traditional billboard advertising.

We support local organizations through discounted rent through grant applications to our Community Events Grant program. Local events may fill out an application to receive free or discounted rent if they can meet our specifications, which are mainly that the event must work to support one of the City of Minneapolis Goals and be free for the public to attend. Over the years we have supported local school district events and events to help end homelessness.

A goal for 2017 is to do more outreach into the 13 Wards of the City Council to make sure that residents understand the benefits that the convention center brings to the entire city. Action steps have not been completely vetted, but it could include using the City's Cable Access Channel, going to Ward meetings that the Council Members hold, or attending other community meetings. We hope to increase the awareness about our benefits.

If you could start from scratch with creating the MCC, what would you do differently?

I would put the building by the city's biggest asset and natural wonder, the Mississippi River. I think a convention center could be a great connector from the river to the downtown business core while also giving beautiful views with development that helps revitalize the riverfront. I would also better connect the convention center to public transportation. We need to be on an LRT line so that getting to the convention center is easy for visitors. From a structural standpoint, I would like to have bigger lobby/pre-function space and a grand ballroom of at least 40,000 square feet. Otherwise I think we have a pretty great set-up for our size.

What other convention center have you've seen that is well integrated into its surrounding community?

San Antonio and Moscone are spending hundreds of millions of dollars right now better integrating themselves to their community through outdoor space and better connections to amenities. The location of the Vancouver Convention Center is stunning and the city is very walkable. Most convention centers are islands due to their size. Denver has worked hard on their convention center area. Charlotte did a nice job of putting their space in an urban setting by a tourist attraction in the NASCAR venue. Atlanta has built their hospitality space to be impressive, but it didn't feel very engaged to me.

You can find the article here.

What are some me of the current plans underway to achieve the goal of making MCC an even stronger community asset?

We have been working for the last four years to temporarily activate our outdoor space through art and activities as a way to get residents involved in the convention center space in a different way. Northern Spark has been a nice opportunity to bring some "cool" night time activity to the convention center that has attracted a different demographic to our building. Based on some of our learnings, we hope to permanently remodel the Plaza to be more useful as an outdoor event space and connect through new streetscape to our surrounding attractions, especially the Nicollet Mall and in the future, Loring Park via Grant Street. Biking in Minneapolis is a way of life and we have worked to help connect the city through the bike connections we have with the protected bikeway on 3rd Avenue and new infrastructure that will connect 2nd Avenue in front of our building to the Loring Greenway.

We continue to display local artists’ work throughout the facility on a six-month rotation. This one-of-a-kind art helps show that Minneapolis has a strong creative culture and draws our guests to seek out our artist neighborhoods. As we increase the digital signage throughout the facility, we hope to start a local video design outlet to showcase local video graphic art on our video monitors. As we have increased sponsorships with local businesses, we maintain that any advertising they do in the building must represent their Minneapolis/Minnesota story rather than just traditional billboard advertising.

We support local organizations through discounted rent through grant applications to our Community Events Grant program. Local events may fill out an application to receive free or discounted rent if they can meet our specifications, which are mainly that the event must work to support one of the City of Minneapolis Goals and be free for the public to attend. Over the years we have supported local school district events and events to help end homelessness.

A goal for 2017 is to do more outreach into the 13 Wards of the City Council to make sure that residents understand the benefits that the convention center brings to the entire city. Action steps have not been completely vetted, but it could include using the City's Cable Access Channel, going to Ward meetings that the Council Members hold, or attending other community meetings. We hope to increase the awareness about our benefits.

If you could start from scratch with creating the MCC, what would you do differently?

I would put the building by the city's biggest asset and natural wonder, the Mississippi River. I think a convention center could be a great connector from the river to the downtown business core while also giving beautiful views with development that helps revitalize the riverfront. I would also better connect the convention center to public transportation. We need to be on an LRT line so that getting to the convention center is easy for visitors. From a structural standpoint, I would like to have bigger lobby/pre-function space and a grand ballroom of at least 40,000 square feet. Otherwise I think we have a pretty great set-up for our size.

What other convention center have you've seen that is well integrated into its surrounding community?

San Antonio and Moscone are spending hundreds of millions of dollars right now better integrating themselves to their community through outdoor space and better connections to amenities. The location of the Vancouver Convention Center is stunning and the city is very walkable. Most convention centers are islands due to their size. Denver has worked hard on their convention center area. Charlotte did a nice job of putting their space in an urban setting by a tourist attraction in the NASCAR venue. Atlanta has built their hospitality space to be impressive, but it didn't feel very engaged to me.