Introduction:

Ascent Consulting appreciates the opportunity to evaluate the relationship

and strength of the connection between 1 Million Cups and the young
professionals in the Fargo-Moorhead area. After surveying North Dakota State
University (NDSU) students, our firm has concluded that the Fargo-Moorhead
area has a gap in connecting students with local businesses for educational
and professional development. Students are unaware of additional
networking opportunities outside of ones offered on campus. Our team is
proposing to utilize 1 Million Cups as a partner to improve this connection
between the students in the Tri-College area and local businesses and
professionals. Furthermore, we are suggesting an improvement in the
educational and professional events offered.
Our goal will be to draw seasoned and young professionals together. We will
do this by building a formal partnership between 1 Million Cups and the
colleges in the Fargo-Moorhead area. There are two key areas of
improvement we wish to address with this partnership. The first is to create a
series of networking and educational events focused on growing professional
skills. The second is to build a social media campaign with each colleges
career center to establish awareness of 1 Million Cups and the new events.
With these points in mind, we are excited to present you with the following
proposal.
Our Assessment of the Current Situation:
As we met with students at North Dakota State University, our firm found a
disconnect in the relationship between the students and community
professional events. According to the analysis of the surveys, only one
student surveyed had attended a Ted-X or a 1 Million Cups event held in the
Fargo-Moorhead area. In addition to this, the majority of students were either
neutral or in agreement that the Fargo-Moorhead area has resources to
connect young professionals and support them in growing and developing
their career. This is a clear indication of a missed opportunity since the
students arent satisfied with current career resources; yet, only one of them
had attended either a local Ted-X or 1 Million Cups event.
Causes and Effects of the Current Situation:
One cause of students not attending events could be that neither of these
organizations advertise on the NDSU campus. The effect of this is that
awareness is not created; therefore, students do not participate with 1 Million
Cups. Another cause for missed opportunity of connection is that possibly
students are not willing to travel outside of campus to attend events. An
effect of this is that only experienced professionals or non-students attend
these events. This denies the connection and support for education that 1
Million Cups believes in. One final cause is that students experience time
constraints due to classes, work, and other organizational commitments. The
effect of this, students narrow their focus to only campus connections and
not local professional organizations. A final effect would be that Fargo1

Moorhead businesses may be missing opportunities to grow and recruit

future professionals into their community. With this assessment, our main
objective will be getting young professionals involved in current activities as
well as emphasizing interactions throughout the community.
Objectives:
Our plan is to create a series of educational events focused on growing
professional skills that will benefit all professions and experience levels. In a
partnership with 1 Million Cups and area colleges, we will expand their
mission to educate, engage, and connect entrepreneurs to young
professionals. Our events will educate professionals on topics including
communication skills, leadership skills, and team building. These skills are
beneficial at any point in a career and by attracting experienced
professionals we give young professionals the opportunity to be in a
businesslike environment and network in the Fargo-Moorhead area.
Networking is a key focus in our plan in order to connect and build
relationships between young professionals and the Fargo-Moorhead
community. A social media campaign will be used to advertise the
educational events and 1 Million Cups to target a younger and wider
audience.
Methods and Plan:
Using our objectives, we have created a plan focused around helping young
professionals network and learn new business strategies that will be
beneficial in the business world. We have broken our plan up into three
separate areas in order to better serve your goals.
Social Media Ad Campaign
As part of our market research, we found that most NDSU students had
not heard of networking events that were already offered within the
community of Fargo-Moorhead. Working in cooperation with the career
centers of NDSU, MSUM, and Concordia-Moorhead, we will institute a
campaign on social media, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., to promote
existing events and interact with young professionals in the
community.
The reasoning behind our social media ad campaign is to promote
outreach towards the young professionals that rely on social media for
news and updates. With this in mind, content between the differing
types of social media will be similar so that people may choose their
favorite platform and still receive the information about upcoming
events and business tips.
Events
With our Ad campaign focused on community outreach, we feel it
would be beneficial for professionals, both beginner and veteran, to

host events in which they could congregate in order to build up

networks and to find potential opportunities with which to expand upon
ideas and better understand the Fargo-Moorhead community.
We propose that these events be hosted monthly on varying days of
the week and at differing times so that we can cater to people of all
professions and schedules. Our research has shown that the evening is
the optimal time to host such events to reach as many people as
possible.

Topics
The third part of our plan involves using market research to compile a
list of potential topics to be covered at some of the events so that
there is variety in content and so people feel it beneficial to attend
more than just a single event. The research we conducted gave us
some potential topics including networking, resume building, general
job tips, and entrepreneurial skills. Upon your acceptance of our
proposal, we will do further research into the specifics of each topic
and compile a more detailed list of topics with agendas.
Qualifications:
Our qualifications yield from our direct involvement and experience in the
Fargo-Moorhead community. We are a team of recent graduates who are
dedicated to furthering our home state of North Dakota. Since we were
students in the Fargo-Moorhead area we could directly hear what our peers
liked and disliked about the area. This knowledge is crucial to understand
why young professionals are choosing to take jobs in cities elsewhere.
John Frosig:
John was raised in Grand Forks, ND. In 2015 he graduated from
Minnesota State University Moorhead with a B.S. degree in
Communications and Public Relations. Since graduation John has been
employed by NDSU as their public relations officer for Bison Athletics.
His experience with managing Bison Athletics social media pages has
provided him with the knowledge and skills to execute the social media
campaign.
Madison Mathiason:
Madison was born in Bismarck, ND. She graduated from North Dakota
State University in 2016 with a B.S. degree in Finance and
Communications. Madison was in charge of contacting speakers and
overseeing events while she was a student at NDSU. She will use this
experience to ensure our proposed educational events operate
smoothly and correctly.

Matthew Brown:
Matthew grew up in Fargo, ND. He graduated with a B.S. degree in
Business Management and Communication from Concordia University
in 2013. Since graduation Matthew has been employed at Leaders
United, an organization devoted to developing leadership skills for high
school students. Matt will use his background in leadership to direct
our entire plan.
Nathanael Klose:
Nathanael was raised in Fargo, ND. In 2015 he graduated from North
Dakota State University with a B.S. degree in Business and Public
Relations. Upon graduation Nathanael was hired at Fargos Volunteer
Network. His time there has allowed him to make numerous
connections in the community. His connections to the community will
allow us to expand our events to more businesses and seasoned
professionals.
Benefits and Costs:1
In order for our proposal to be successful, we will need to control our costs
throughout the collaboration with 1 Million Cups and area colleges to keep
our budget as low as possible. Having multiple meetings per month will cost
the normal company a small fortune in space rentals, guest speakers, and
refreshments. We will not have this problem. By creating this collaboration,
we are hoping that NDSU, MSUM, and Concordia will allow use their space
without charge. In doing this, the only costs will be guest speakers,
refreshments, and other menial charges that will occur along the way.
With an extremely low cost, the tri-college, students, professionals, and
many others will see major benefits from our company. First and foremost,
this collaboration will bring together younger and older professionals who are
not considered to be entrepreneurs in business careers. One Million Cups is
centered more around those in a business career background which places a
restraint on the other young professionals who study Science, Fine Art, and
Agriculture. Ascent Consulting will change this by having more meetings with
those in non-business career backgrounds so that they can gain the same
benefits that their business peers receive.
Not all job offers can be found in classified ads or on the internet. There are
some job offers that are only given by word-of-mouth and are given on a
who-you-know basis. Who you know and how well you know them is always
important when you are trying to find a career. With Ascent Consulting young
professionals will be able to network and collaborate with other professionals
in their own career as well as those in more diverse career fields. The more
1 This section would normally include a detailed budget
4

people that young professional know in the FM the better the chance that
they have of finding a career in the FM area.
Millennials have had negative attention brought to them by the older
professionals in recent years. While One Million Cups attempts to break these
barriers Ascent Consulting can help to continue to change the opinions of
older professionals. Once again, by having our meetings at night older
professionals will be able to attend more meetings allowing them to meet
and spend more time with their younger peers. This will allow younger and
older professionals to meet on a more one to one level and break these
negative stereotypes.
Our community will greatly improve with implementation of our ideas. By
working with Ascent Consulting recent college graduates will enter the
workforce with more knowledge and confidence to obtain employment in
their field. Businesses will be able to hire more employees who show more
maturity from meeting and spending time with older professionals in their
field. The tri-college system will see a vast improvement with their new
graduate job placement rates due to the increased networking graduates will
obtain. And finally not just those who work in business professions but all
professions will see more prepared young professionals stay in the FM area
due to the increased networking, change in attitudes of young and old
professionals, and with a much broader scope of professions being explored.
Thank you for taking to time to read through our proposal. Ascent Consulting
is excited to help young professionals in the near future and hope that you
will greenlight our ideas. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns
please contact us by phone at 364-5320 or email at
services@ascentconsulting.com. Ascent consulting hopes to hear back from
you soon.

Appendix:
(2016). One Million Cups. Retrieved from
http://www.1millioncups.com/fargo.
Bosse, Rian. (2015). How Cities Are Trying to Attract Millennials. National
Center for Business Journalism. Retrieved from
https://businessjournalism.org/2015/04/millennials-and-money-howcities-are-trying-to-attract-millennials/
U.S. Census Bureau. (2016). Demographics. Retrieved from
https://www.cityoffargo.com/CityInfo/Demographics.aspx.
Survey Questions
Demographic Qs (Dont count toward total)
1. What is your major?
2. What is your age?
3. What state or country are you from?
4. How many years have you lived in Fargo-Moorhead area?
Quantitative
1. Have you ever attended or used any of the following? (Circle all that
apply)
a. Ted X Fargo
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b. 1 million cups
c. Fargo First
d. None of the above
2. The Fargo-Moorhead area has resources to connect young professionals
and support them in growing and developing their career:
Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

3. What topic of career development skills would you be most interested in

an event for?
a. Confidence Building
b. Resume creation
c. Communication skills
d. Networking
e. Other __________________
4. How often are you interested in attending career development and
networking events?
a. Weekly
b. Monthly
c. Quarterly
d. Bi-annually
e. Annually
5. If these events were held regularly, what is the chance that you would
attend?
No Chance
Chance

Very Little Chance

Some Chance

Very Good

6. What time are you most open to attend events?

a. Morning
b. Mid-day
c. Evening
d. Weekends
Qualitative
7. Have you attended any Fargo-Moorhead professional career events
(outside of NDSU), and if so what was it?
8. What type of career development event are you most interested in seeing
in the Fargo-Moorhead area? Please describe below.
Focus Group Questions
1. What is your major?
2. What is your age?
7

3.
4.
5.
6.

What state or country are you from?

How many years have you lived in Fargo-Moorhead area?
What is the largest draw to a location when job searching?
If you are planning to leave the FM area, what was the largest deciding
factor?
7. What would be most beneficial to young professionals when job searching?
8. In the FM area, what resources are you aware of for young professionals?
9. Being a young professional, what do you feel is the most important thing a
community could do to attract and help develop your career?
10.
What are some reasons you would attend collaborative professional
events?
11.
Do you already participate in collaborative events? If yes, what
benefits have you seen from attending?
12.
If you were to attend a collaborative event, what topics would you be
most interested in learning about?