Community engagement is one touchpoint that is becoming more of a priority for Meet Minneapolis. Our team works to secure a variety of events for the city representing an array of industries, special interests and causes. One of the key reasons organizations select us is our community’s alignment with that organization’s goals and objectives.

A recent example of such alignment is the AVID Summer Institute held here a few weeks ago. AVID is an acronym for Advancement Via Individual Determination. This non-profit advocates for a more equitable, student-centered learning approach in schools. Nationally, AVID serves more than 6,400 K-12 schools and 50 higher learning institutions. The Summer Institute has been in Minneapolis for several years and, annually, AVID trains more than 70,000 educators through its multiple summer institutes across the country.

AVID wanted to enhance its already strong partnership with our community and challenged Meet Minneapolis to convene key civic leaders to discuss our pressing local concerns surrounding education.

Meet Minneapolis’ Senior Director of Destination Sales, Nathan Hermiston, worked hard to bring AVID to Minneapolis, and did the legwork to connect AVID with community leaders. We were able to bring together representatives from Hennepin County, Project for Pride and Living (PPL), Achieve Minneapolis, YouthLink, Bremer Bank, and the Minneapolis Regional Chamber.

In our brief time together, we laid the groundwork for how we might collaborate to address issues such as our imminent statewide workforce shortage and the well-chronicled racial achievement gap. These two issues directly impact the tourism/hospitality industry and are lynchpins of our tourism master plan, Destination Transformation 2030.

The experience with AVID provides us additional impetus and experience in making sure the tourism and hospitality industry is properly engaged, as we face issues that impact our community. We look forward to future intersections of opportunity.