I’m working on the Blandin eNews for tomorrow, where we try to gather Minnesota broadband news. Thanks to Nicole Franzwa for sending me an update on Get Broadband in Kandiyohi. I thought I’d post it in its entirety today in preparation for tomorrow.

For the month of February, we held 3 Business Website Development Seminars. The purpose of the website seminars was to teach small business owners the value and benefits of having a functional website. We taught them the different speeds of internet available and how making the right choice could affect their overall business. We encouraged them to choose a service provider that could offer them the highest speed of internet available. We requested that the attendees fill out a survey at the conclusion of each session so that we could determine the value of the seminars. The response that we got back was great; they enjoyed hearing the success stories of other small business. They appreciated hearing from the service providers and website designers that shared information, tips and advice.

We will be offering grant dollars to 20 businesses that meet criteria and would like to design or redesign a website for their businesses. We will offer them a list of names for qualified web designers/developers in the local area.

To meet the second objective of our program, we are offering Residential Training Classes, which are open to the public. These classes were scheduled to take place in February, March and April at 5 different locations throughout Kandiyohi County. The first session of classes went well and we have 19 more people within our community that are learning to enjoy the computer and the value of the internet. They are pleased with what they have learned and many are eager to get connected form home. They like the idea of having “fast mail” not “snail mail”. I heard one person say that life happens too quickly for snail mail and she doesn’t want to miss a thing! The additional classes scheduled for March and April are almost completely full.

In addition to the 3 Business Seminars and the 12 Residential Training Sessions, we are working closely with a mapping company to create a county wide service map. This map will be found through a direct link off of the home page found at www.kandiyohi.com.

The public will be able to access this map to find out if service is available in a specific area, who the service providers are and what type of service they offer. This will be a great resource for many people, it will serve as a guide for area residents and business owners who are trying to expand or relocate within the county. It will also be a valuable tool for people that are considering relocating to our area, or purchasing a lake home from which they might need to stay connected to their business. Broadband is an important feature in the success of a community and Kandiyohi wants to be a part of that success!