Today HF2419 was introduced at Jobs and Economic Development Finance Division Committee. It’s a bill for a $50,000 matching grant for a coworking space. It’s about creating a technology hub in a community. It was moved over to Ways and Means.

The goal is to provide funding to support coworking spaces in rural Minnesota. You can see the video of the brief discussion…

And/or read my brief notes…

There’s a network gap – but in terms of lack of technology and lack of connecting with others.

Hope that this project will be a catalyst to address both network issues and that the coworking space will promote greater collaboration and provide incentive for funding.

Testifier – Betsy Bonemma

Work Up in Willmar – the coworking culture has been an asset to the our community. We have touched at least 60 businesses in our space, And people come from 60 miles around.

Testifier – Rep Baker
This space was cutting edge when it first started. I see people come and go at all hours. It a great place for meetings. We have done much of our work to make Willmar a destination playground in the space.

Question: What was the startup cost for WorkUp?
I borrowed $50,000 in my first year for the work space.

There are people who need space, people who need community and people who need both.

What bandwidth do you have there?
100Mbps – but we can increase it.
“I expect that soon 100 Mbps will be like dialup is today.” Rep Mahoney