There’s a new term in the world of work called “Workslop”, which is used to describe AI-generated content in a professional setting that appears polished and complete on the surface but lacks the necessary substance, context, or accuracy to meaningfully advance a task. When I read this, it got me thinking about those times you listen to a speaker explaining something and you realize they aren’t providing any meaningful information or solutions to problems but instead are delivering you a “Word Salad”. I can bet you are now thinking of the last “word salad” event you attended and wishing you would have sat in the back so you could have snuck out.
To be honest, at the EDC we have been leaning on generative AI for over a year to assist us with our work. I must say, it has been amazingly helpful in so many ways. For example, this summer we hosted the Data & Analytics Workforce Summit and, in that day-long event we captured more than a dozen group conversations taking place amongst the 140 participants. Generative AI helped us to aggregate these conversations and to compile a summary against other data and information we “fed” it to produce the reports and recommended actions we are utilizing today. And, just this month, we unveiled the second annual Regional Workforce Survey results and hosted follow up conversations with nearly 100 attendees on workforce needs of companies in healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, and retail. Again, generative AI provided us the ability to combine all this learning, and what we had learned previously, into strategic information and recommendations which are highlighted below in this month’s newsletter.
This technology is evolving so quickly that it feels both exciting and nerve-racking. We are already discussing how we can use it across even more of our work, to not only be more efficient and effective, but to allow us to direct our small team to more innovative initiatives to drive our mission. One area we are researching is chatbots on both our www.gfmedc.com and www.LiveInFMArea.com sites to make it even easier for companies and individuals to get the information they need to learn about our market. In doing so, we free up our team for other work because the company or individual will contact us when they are deeper into their decision-making process.
Across all this work we can never forget that if there isn’t a human in the loop to provide their expertise, context, and the outcomes they are looking to achieve, weird things can happen. One that we learned of lately was asking generative AI to provide us with maps that represented the Greater Fargo Moorhead region. The recommended maps had us laughing because some included parts of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Upper Michigan Peninsula, and even the Minneapolis Metro Area. These results made us feel a little more comfortable in our jobs...at least for now.
Joe
The Third Annual Bioscience Summit: Building Momentum for a Thriving Regional Bioscience Ecosystem
The Third Annual Bioscience Summit wrapped up on October 16, 2025, after more than two days of thought-provoking conversations among industry leaders, academic innovators, student talent, and economic development stakeholders—all working together to shape the future of the region’s bioscience sector.
Co-hosted by the Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation (GFMEDC), Aldevron, BioND, and the North Dakota Department of Commerce, the two-day event welcomed 230 attendees from 11 states and as far away as Singapore.
Despite being far from the nation’s major biotech corridors, the Fargo-Moorhead region is fast becoming a hub for bioscience and medical device innovation.
The Summit continues to accelerate that momentum by:
Showcasing industry growth: The event explored how the region can continue to expand and strengthen its bioscience industry.
Bridging academia and business: Panels and sessions brought together university researchers, investors, startup founders, and established companies to spark collaboration.
Focusing on workforce development: A major theme this year was connecting students and young professionals with emerging bioscience careers—highlighted by a Career Exploration event that welcomed over 50 high school students to engage directly with biotech and healthcare businesses, as well as local colleges and universities.
Enabling investment and commercialization: Sessions centered on funding, facilities, and the process of scaling innovation into market-ready products.
Check out the video with highlights and interviews from the Summit!
2025 Workforce Trends:
What Our Region’s Employers Are Seeing — and What Comes Next
The Greater Fargo Moorhead region continues to navigate a fast-changing labor market, and the latest workforce survey results—shared at the 2025 GFMEDC Workforce Breakfast and compiled in partnership with FMHRA—offer a clear picture of what employers are facing and where opportunities lie. With 173 surveys representing more than 38,000 employees (25+% of regional employment) across 17 industry sectors, the data provides one of the most comprehensive snapshots of our regional workforce to date.
Below are the biggest takeaways shaping hiring, retention, and talent strategy for the year ahead.
Hiring Remains Strong — Even Amid Uncertainty
Despite broader economic questions, companies across the region expect to keep hiring. Over the next 12–18 months, survey respondents anticipate filling open roles. Survey respondents indicated that the hiring is attributed to:
21% attributed to new positions
73% due to turnover
5% tied to retirements
Remote work options for employees are still prevalent in our region compared to national data. In fact, primary-sector businesses show this as a meaningful trend and expect a notably higher share—14.5% compared to 6.6% of non-primary-sector respondents — of roles to be eligible for remote work.
As part of our ongoing effort to market the region’s quality of life, we’ve created a new family-focused video showcasing just a few of the many ways to enjoy and experience our community.
We invite you to check it out, download it, and share it widely—use it in your own outreach to help tell the story of why this region is such a great place to live, work, and thrive.
Fargo Inc. Highlights the GFMEDC's Certified Sites Program
Fargo Inc. featured the GFMEDC's Certified Sites Program in a recent magazine. Here is a snapshot from the article.
When national and international companies look for a place to land their next big project, speed and certainty matter. For the Greater Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corporation (EDC), that’s where its Certified Sites Program—otherwise known as “document-ready sites” or “shovel-ready sites”—comes into play.
Launched in 2020, the program was designed to put the metro on equal footing with regions across the country that already had similar programs in place. Minnesota, for example, runs a well-established shovel-ready site program. Without something comparable, North Dakota risked falling behind.
“Site selectors don’t want to waste time,” Ryan Aasheim, Chief Business Development Officer at the EDC, said. “If there’s missing information, they’ll move on to another location that has it. Even if our site is objectively better, if it takes too long to prove that, we may never get the chance to make the case.”
The EDC’s solution is to gather and maintain critical details about select development sites in the region. That means up-todate documentation on everything from environmental studies to utility capacity, topography, floodplain mapping, and geotechnical analysis. By having this work already done and verified by third-party consultants, Fargo-Moorhead can offer decision-makers clarity from day one.
Why It Matters?
Speeds up decision-making for companies.
Reduces risk by eliminating “unknowns.”
Keeps Fargo-Moorhead competitive with larger markets
A Strategic Journey: Reflecting on the Grand Farm Partner Trip to St. Louis
From the vantage point of the Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation (GFMEDC), a recent partner-trip hosted by Grand Farm in St. Louis was more than a networking excursion—it was a deliberate strategic move to strengthen the region’s agricultural-technology (AgTech) ecosystem and attract new investment and innovation to the Fargo-Moorhead region.
Why We Participated
As the region’s lead economic-development organization, GFMEDC is committed to “cultivating an economic environment where all people and organizations flourish.” In our view, the Grand Farm partner trip — which brought together growers, technologists, startups, corporates and researchers in the heart of AgTech in St. Louis — offered several leveraged benefits for the region including:
Showcasing the Fargo-Moorhead / Grand Farm ecosystem to national‐/global AgTech leaders, so they see our region as a compelling opportunity.
Learning first-hand from the St. Louis ecosystem (e.g., Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Pivot Bio, Bayer CropScience, AnheuserBusch, 39 North AgTech Innovation District) about how innovation, research, corporate collaboration and scale co-exist.
Identifying prospects for investment, relocation or scale-up that could be steered toward our region. This visit included engagement with several business development prospects who are considering expansions or investments in the Fargo-Moorhead region.
Strengthening the brand of Fargo-Moorhead as a meaningful AgTech hub – thereby supporting talent attraction, startup interest, corporate partnerships and capital flows.
Join us at the GFMEDC Annual Meeting on February 24, 2026
Celebrate this year’s economic momentum with us as we highlight key wins, share impact stories, and provide updates on the work driving our region forward.
This year’s event will also feature a selection of showcased companies and partner organizations, giving attendees the chance to interact with innovative businesses and organizations and engage in meaningful conversations about the work happening across our region.
Whether you’re looking to stay informed, connect with fellow leaders, or support our mission, this event is the perfect opportunity.
Secure your single ticket or take advantage of special pricing with a sponsor package today!
North Dakota’s Grand Farm earns another $7 million in state funding
Grand Farm received a $7 million grant to advance Phase II of its Innovation Campus in Casselton, expanding it into a next-generation Autonomous Agriculture Proving Ground designed to secure North Dakota’s position as a global leader in agricultural innovation.
Building on the success of Phase I, which delivered a 25,000-square-foot Innovation Shop, 590 acres of activated land and nearly 80 field trials with more than 70 organizations in just two years, Phase II will accelerate research, commercialization and workforce development on one coordinated campus.
The award will be used to:
Construct new facilities, roads, utilities and partner co-location infrastructure.
Engage hundreds of organizations, including startups, in real-world testing and development.
Expand applied R&D across robotics, drones, autonomous systems and precision tools.
Support North Dakota growers through direct involvement, on-site collaboration and structured input via the Grand Farm Grower Advisory Board.
Generate increased annual tax revenue, attract new companies and unlock additional federal investment over the next decade.
Phase II will also deliver campus-wide drainage improvements, upgraded demonstration areas, multi-use facilities, advanced AV/hybrid tools and new equipment including drones, robotics platforms and more.
“These two projects reflect the full spectrum of innovation we need to lead in autonomous agriculture,” said Miki Miheguli, Director of Agronomy & Research at the North Dakota Soybean Council and scoring committee member. “From field-scale research to the infrastructure that enables commercialization, these strategic investments drive cutting-edge technology development and accelerate its real-world adoption, ensuring North Dakota remains at the forefront of agricultural innovation.”
About the Autonomous Agriculture Grant Program
Administered by the North Dakota Department of Commerce, the Autonomous Agriculture Grant Program supports pioneering technologies that strengthen agricultural productivity, expand commercialization opportunities, address workforce challenges and enhance North Dakota’s national leadership in agricultural innovation.
%20(600%20x%20200%20px).png?upscale=true&width=1120&upscale=true&name=biosciencesummitblogheader%20(560%20x%20187%20px)%20(600%20x%20200%20px).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=1120&upscale=true&name=FMHRA%20(1).png)
-1.png?upscale=true&width=1120&upscale=true&name=Untitled%20design%20(10)-1.png)
.png?upscale=true&width=1120&upscale=true&name=Annual%20Meeting%20(2).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=1120&upscale=true&name=Copy%20of%20Data%20Summit%2c%20Newsletter%20Header%20(5).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=1120&upscale=true&name=View%20Our%20(Twitter%20Post).png)
