The beginning of a new year always brings great anticipation, for new opportunities, meeting new friends and working with great businesses!

2014 has started off with a bang on the entrepreneurial side. One Millions Cups kicked off at the Plains Art Museum to great success with David Bacheller sharing the incredible success at Appareo Systems, followed up by Sarah English, Beach Interactive, who pitched her new start up, an interactive language learning game. 

Come join the fun every Wednesday morning at 9:00 am, Plains Art Museum and hear a new entrepreneur pitch their company, and learn how you can help create the next great new company in our area.

The weekend of January 24-26  ND Women's Start Up Weekend occurred here in Fargo at the Dakota Medical Foundation. More than 40 women from all over North Dakota came together to share ideas and work on the creation of new business ideas. The event culminated on Sunday evening (during a Blizzard) when eight teams presented their new business ideas to a panel of judges. And the winner is...Naveah, a company that seeks to make innovative breast pump systems for women. 

What a great start to 2014! 

Please mark your calendar for the GFMEDC's 2014 Annual Meeting for investors.

GFMEDC Annual Meeting
Thursday, May 8,  2014

11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

The 2014 Fargo Moorhead magazine is now available!

The Greater Fargo Moorhead EDC has partnered with Livability for a third straight year to produce the magazine. It highlights our region's excellent quality of life and our great businesses.

We encourage you to use this magazine in your marketing and recruiting efforts.

Ask us for free hard copies of the magazine or put the electronic version right on your website. Just use this link to grab the code. 

Two new employers will host a teacher for the 2014 Teachers in Industry internship program. 

KLJ and CAT Reman have  each agreed to host a teacher intern bringing the company total to eight.  Returning employers include:  Bobcat Company, John Deere Electronic Solutions, Microsoft, Moore Engineering, Sanford Health and Ulteig. 

The program places a teacher in industry for four weeks in the summer. The internship is designed to give teachers the opportunity to work with interdisciplinary teams and gain more in-depth knowledge of teamwork, collaboration, communication and other critical skills. This experience strengthens the teacher's ability to make curriculum content more relevant.  As part of the program requirements, teachers are asked to make a change in their curriculum directly impacting the students they teach.

Startup Weekend Fargo, March 7-9

The second Startup Weekend encourages participants to experience the startup environment. Teams form around ideas and spend 54 hours turning an idea into a startup business. Friday and Sunday nights are open to the public. http://fargo.startupweekend.org /   

Midwest Mobile Summit, May 5 & 6 

The two-day event focuses on trends in mobile technology, mobile design and mobile strategy with speakers, panel presentations and demos. http://midwestmobilesummit.com/ 

Cultivate.You, May 9

Join Arthur Ventures Co-founder, Doug Burgum, for a one-day event at the Fargo Theatre that brings together entrepreneurs and key influencers for networking, sharing and learning. More information to come. 

After a year and a half of service as executive assistant to the GFMEDC, Sammi Rowe recently accepted a position with Wanzek Construction. 

We very much appreciate Rowe's dedication and work to support the GFMEDC and economic development and wish her the best of luck.  

We welcome Missy Froeber, who will serve as our organization's new executive assistant. Froeber most recently worked at Heritage Homes and Prudential Premier Real Estate where she gained almost 14 years executive assistance experience. Froeber has two sons, 13 and 10. Her husband, Kevin, teaches physical education at Cheney Middle School in West Fargo.