Connecting and Convening
Grow North Connects and Convenes the Ecosystem
Entry Point Into Minnesota’s Ecosystem
Grow North is the front door and starting point for those who want to be a part of, engage with or know more about Minnesota's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in food and agriculture. Are you a founder looking for a community? An organization looking to work with other organizations? A company looking to get exposure to the startup community? New to Minnesota? Minnesota's startup ecosystem is vibrant and extensive - explore the website, sign up for our newsletter and attend and stream our events.
Food Ag Ideas Conference
Food | Ag | Ideas (FAI), led by Grow North and partners, is our annual signature event. This week of world-class speakers, events, experiences and demo showcases is held in Minneapolis and St. Paul in October with the goal of driving visibility and connectivity to Minnesota's ecosystem for food and agriculture innovation and entrepreneurship.
This is a truly differentiated experience created in collaboration with 25+ content and support partners from across the sectors, including Fortune 500 companies, non-profit, state and local government, civic leaders and businesses of all sizes. We strive to make the Week as accessible to the community as possible through flexible and low cost ticketing, scholarships, streaming and more.
Thought Leaders in Food and Agriculture speaker series
This monthly summer speaker series showcases successful and industry leading experts, innovators, founders and executives in an intimate format designed for conversation and networking.
Networking Happy Hour Events
Our Minnesota Mingle at Expo West and Crash the Networks Happy Hours bring together food start-ups, large food and agriculture manufacturers, retailers, investors, farmers and supporters at events in and outside of Minnesota. These happen throughout the year so sign up for our newsletter for updates.
Investor Breakfast Series
Grow North hosts a quarterly invite-only investor networking series for active investors and managers of capital across the food, agriculture and beverage sectors. If interested, reach out to [email protected]