NEW ULM - The New Ulm Retail Development Corporation (NURDC), was selected as a recipient of a Minnesota Community Broadband Award by the Blandin Foundation and its ADC Foundation.
The award recognizes New Ulm as a community at the forefront of broadband technology use and provides an additional $2,000 for continued efforts in accomplishing its broadband objectives.
The NURDC award is in the category of "broadband market and application development," which recognizes efforts to stimulate community demand for broadband services and/or to deploy advanced broadband applications in business, education, government and healthcare.
In late 2006, NURDC benefited from an earlier Blandin "Get Broadband" grant that enabled the organization the benefit of consultative Blandin services in designing a program tailored specifically to New Ulm needs.
The survey and resulting planning session gave rise to action plans that would increase the number of consumers using broadband, and, more specifically, increase the number of retailers taking advantage of broadband for marketing and expanding their businesses.
This plan was deemed essential in part because New Ulm was faced with the entrance of big-box retailers, creating a need for smaller businesses to take advantage of formerly non-traditional modes of reaching consumers in an effort to sustain sales and increase revenues in order to attain success.
Many of NURDC's goals for the initial program grant were accomplished. Those objectives included increasing the use of broadband, increasing the number of retailers who have websites and/or sell on line, and reach at least 25 businesses with training and resources, as well as enhancing the Chamber of Commerce website.
The task force supplemented the Blandin surveys by one of their own in order to determine the level of presence and engagement retailers had on the web.
Out of 103 businesses, 65 had a web presence with 24 of them performing e-commerce, i.e. selling products or services on line at the initiation of the project.
The free educational computer lab program was specifically designed by NURDC and taught by a retained professional the initial grant made possible. It included three levels of training which included workshops on:
- Setting up a basic web site, understanding what makes a good website and how to select a domain name
- Online marketing tools to help retailers increase the usability of their web sites, discussing search engine optimization
- E-commerce that focused on online selling, the use of shopping carts, catalogs, or internet auction sites, legal issues, and customer expectations
Following implementation of the program's workshops, a follow-up survey of the same 103 businesses was conducted. Of those, 79 now had a web presence, with 29 of them performing e-commerce.
During the course of the efforts, two more businesses were added to the online retail community - one a new business start-up; the other a newly identified retail business with an online presence. Thus, out of 105 businesses, 75 had a web presence, with 30 also performing e-commerce. NURDC well exceeded its goal to reach 25 businesses as there were 50 participants filling 114 seats during the three levels of coursework offerings. Due to the overwhelming response, the original six planned sessions were increased to 11.
"We are delighted to have been chosen for this honor and to be the recipient of an additional grant. The success of this program can be attributed to the intense efforts of NURDC's volunteer board and task force members. The help of New Ulm Telecom (provided professional staff assistance and a computer lab for classes), Comcast (provided professional staff assistance) and Skillings Technology (provided technical advice and some computers) were key to our endeavors.