Pleasantly surprised by Minneapolis

Earlier this month, a group of Mojo Ad students, two TAs and a professor went on an advertising agency tour of Minneapolis. Each year, Mojo has the opportunity to expand our reach to another market and students have the chance to explore a city they could potentially work in. Since I didn't go on last year's Chicago trip, I had the option to go on the trip under one condition...if I planned it.

We all know that I don't say no to:
1. The opportunity to plan a vacation
2. Anything where expenses are covered!

So Minneapolis in the middle of the winter, here we came! Ginny, the Mojo operations TA, and I spent months making the trip as perfect as it could be. Ginny planned meals, I coordinated agency visits and became acquainted with the talent department of pretty much every advertising agency in the Minneapolis metropolitan area. We arrived on a Sunday evening and could not wait for what the trip had in store, even amidst the -10 degree weather with wind chill.

Our first day of agency visits, we already had an awesome grasp on Minneapolis. I was pleasantly surprised by the city as a whole, especially coming in with low expectations. My brain tiers larger cities like Chicago and New York City in one group, mid-tier cities like Kansas City, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Minneapolis in another and smaller towns like Columbia and Champaign in the last. While I anticipated Minneapolis to be the size of St. Louis, it felt more like Philadelphia with its large size and energetic feel.

Everyone in Minneapolis LOVES Minnesota. It's very livable with an active LightRail train system, apartments downtown and in the suburbs and a rich history. We noticed this firsthand staying in the Mill District and visiting a flour exhibit at a nearby museum. The city was also very sustainable, with a lot of bikes, unique internal design and cool architecture. Any city with a body of water takes a step up in my book, so the fact that we were by the northern most lock on the Mississippi River was also pretty cool.

Economically- Best Buy, Target, General Mills and other company headquarters are there, so plenty of jobs exist. We quickly learned that the advertising agencies are like an incestuous family, with turnover and employee circulation within the same few, large agencies. Each advertising agency had its own unique culture, feel and high spirit amongst the employees. It was easy to observe the impressive creativity the companies had and they were nothing but welcoming to our group of Mizzou journalism / strategic communication students.

Leaving the trip after three days of business, I would happily return to Minneapolis again - especially during the summer when the arts & festival scene pops up. Overall, it was a successful trip logistically and opening my eyes to a city I never expected to love!

The group on the Carmichael Lynch rooftop by the Minneapolis skyline

We found the skywalks that make the whole city of Minneapolis stay out of the cold outside!

The Mill District from the Mill City Museum, with Pillsbury across the river

Anna, Kathryn, Sam, Grace and I at the Mall of America Nickelodeon theme park, where we went on a roller coaster in our business casual attire. 

A view of the river from the Guthrie Theater, where we saw Long Day's Journey Into Night.