The Star News recently reported on Sherburne County’s perspective on the 2015 Broadband Conference, especially noting the significance of the broadband vision that was created by attendees at the conference…

Sherburne County Assistant Administrator Dan Weber and IT Director Brian Kamman banded together last week with more than 120 other broadband champions from around the state to create a vision for Minnesota to achieve border-to-border broadband.

This vision, created at the Border to Border Broadband: Better Together conference co-hosted by Blandin Foundation and Minnesota Office for Broadband Development, will propel future broadband work around the state.

It’s exciting to see the vision gain traction around the state…

driven by a sense of urgency and a shared need to coordinate, conference attendees walked through a two-day-long process to create, and develop a plan for sharing, a vision for the broadband network Minnesota needs to thrive, and even survive, in the 21st century.

The vision states, “Everyone in Minnesota will be able to use convenient, affordable, world-class broadband networks that enable us to survive and thrive in our communities and across the globe.”

“The availability of a high speed data network is considered a key economic development tool, with a number of national studies finding that communities with access to broadband have a competitive advantage over areas that do not,” Weber said. “Minnesota needs to work together to ensure our future economic success.”
In her remarks to conferencegoers, Blandin Foundation President Kathleen Annette said, “It is our shared responsibility and opportunity to partner better together for a better Minnesota.”