St. Paul, Minn. - Governor Mark Dayton will highlight growing Minnesota small businesses at his job summit next week in "Innovation Hall." Thirteen Minnesota businesses from various industries and parts of the state will display their companies' products and services for attendees at the event.

Companies like those in Innovation Hall are the future job creators of Minnesota. Our state's next Fortune 500 company will likely grow from a Minnesota small business. Some of these companies have exported their products overseas and some have benefitted substantially from public/private partnerships. By creating an environment where small businesses can thrive and grow into large companies, we can position Minnesota for a new era of economic prosperity.

In addition to these thirteen companies, there will be two students on hand from the Ultrasound Imaging and Signal Processing Lab at the University of Minnesota.

Beginning today, some of these companies will be profiled on the new Office of the Governor blog. To learn more about their stories, check back each day at http://mn.gov/governor/blog/

AUM Cardiovascular - Lakeville, Minnesota
BlueSky Designs - Minneapolis, Minnesota
EarthClean - Minneapolis, Minnesota
GeaCom - Duluth, Minnesota
McGyan Biodiesel - Anoka and Isanti, Minnesota
The Naiku, Inc. - Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota
NovaTech Engineering - Willmar, Minnesota
Recon Robotics, Inc. - Edina, Minnesota
ReGo Electric - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Rushford Hypersonic, LLC - Rushford, Minnesota
TLC Precision Wafer - Minneapolis, Minnesota
TwinStar Medical - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Xollai, LLC - St. Paul, Minnesota

The Governor's Job Summit is a culmination of the Governor's conversations with Minnesotans across the state about the best ways to grow businesses and create jobs. These conversations will provide the agenda for the summit, with a prominent focus on workforce alignment, access to capital for small businesses and increasing our state's exports. The aim of this summit is to continue to engage Minnesotans in finding solutions to the challenges facing our state's economy and to identify a path forward towards prosperity.