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Greater Bemidji seeks applicants for NORTHSTARtup Pitch Competition

Pioneer Staff Report — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 20:10:46 GMT

BEMIDJI — Greater Bemidji, in partnership with Launch Minnesota, Minnesota DEED and the Northwest Innovators Network, is seeking applicants for the third annual NORTHSTARtup Pitch Competition.

The competition will take place at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 12, at the Sanford Center during Paul Bunyan Communications’ GigaZone TechXpo.

Chosen entrepreneurs will present a five-minute pitch to a panel of judges followed by a five-minute question and answer session. Presenters will compete for a $5,000 cash prize by highlighting their business strategies for launching a successful venture in the area.

According to a release, ideal candidates for this competition bring ideas in the following areas:

Ideas that are scalable with growth potential beyond the northern Minnesota region. A new innovative product, service or technology not currently in the marketplace. Ideas that address an industry or amenity gap in northern Minnesota. A clearly defined target market with the capacity and plan to move to market quickly yet strategically.

Along with the cash prize, the first-place winner will secure entry into the Minnesota Cup to compete with entrepreneurs throughout the state.

The NORTHSTARtup Pitch Competition has already launched businesses that have made an impact beyond our region, the release said.

2023 Winner Brian Hemmelman, founder of HEMO Research and professor at Bemidji State University, became the first Bemidji entrepreneur to place in the Minnesota Cup, Minnesota’s largest statewide business competition. He secured an additional $25,000 in funding and now operates a technology business.

In 2024, winner Kelly Van Ert, founder of Empower Independence Company, secured $100,000 from Gener8tor’s NMotion Accelerator and has since attracted equity investments from angel investors, along with a beta-testing partnership with QLI Rehab. Her company is on a mission to improve safety and independence for elderly and disabled individuals.

Applicants age 18 and older are encouraged to apply by Friday, April 4.

To apply, visit docs.google.com/forms/d/17rL8ARC1a-HOFUfD5uy15V0ysR73BiFmYPwJ-RrCJNI/edit.

For more information, visit LaunchpadBemidji.com or email Brian Huch at launchpad@greaterbemidji.com.

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Tournaments announced for GigaZone Gaming Championship, TechXpo

Pioneer Staff Report — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 19:39:14 GMT

BEMIDJI — Paul Bunyan Communications has announced Rocket League and other tournaments at the 2025 GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo set for Saturday, April 12, at the Sanford Center in Bemidji.

Special guest Duncan Wardle, Former Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney, will present at 2 p.m. The event will also feature free gaming on various arcade games and pinball machines, numerous tournaments with over $9,500 in cash prizes, a cosplay contest, door prizes and more.

This year’s main stage tournament will feature Rocket League on the esports stadium-style stage in the GigaZone Championship Arena, Paul Bunyan Communications announced in a release.

Rocket League is a video game that combines arcade-style soccer and driving games. Players control rocket-powered vehicles to score goals with a giant soccer ball. Gameplay can be chaotic as vehicles can flip and fly in all directions.

The main stage Rocket League tournament will be a three-person team competition with a 16-team maximum.

New this year, Paul Bunyan Communications is adding a Rocket League tournament for high school esports teams. It is a three-person team double elimination tournament with a 16-team maximum. ��s interested in registering for this tournament should visit gigazonegaming.com for more information.

In addition to the main stage, there will be tournaments for Fortnite, Madden NFL 24, Valorant, Magic The Gathering Booster Drafts, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and junior tournaments for those 13 and younger of Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

All those who want to enter a tournament will need to create a GigaZone Gaming Player Profile prior to registration at the event. This will expedite the onsite registration process to allow the tournaments to start earlier. This can be done online at gigazonegaming.com.

Registration for all tournaments will start at 10 a.m. on April 12 at the Sanford Center and go until full. It is free to enter the tournaments.

At the TechXpo, start-ups and companies creatively leveraging technology will be able to demonstrate their innovation to a large group of tech-savvy potential employees. Educators and educational institutions will have their tech-oriented students show off projects and promote the technology training programs they have to offer.

This Paul Bunyan Communications event includes the talents of many local partners, including NLFX, Accidentally Cool Games, Northern Amusement, the Sanford Center, as well as support from several regional and national partners, the release said.

For more information on the GigaZone Gaming Championship, visit gigazonegaming.com.

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Digging into the data to see how the dating game has changed

Annalise Braught — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 13:30:00 GMT

As I was thinking about a possible Valentine’s Day-themed story for the paper this year, I recalled a YouTube video my husband and I watched recently.

It went through a myriad of topics using data to show how certain things have changed around the world in recent decades. One of the topics that stuck with me was how couples meet now compared to back in the 1930s.

According to the data they used from a Stanford University study, the majority of couples in the ‘30s were meeting through family, 22.76%, closely followed by school at 22.55%, and 18.58% met through friends, with the remaining percentages meeting through neighbors, church, at a bar or restaurant and so forth.

https://x.com/burkov/status/1843793993274143184

While we obviously all know the world is very different than it was nearly 100 years ago, as I watched the video of the graph progress through the decades it kind of shocked me just

how drastically

things changed in this category.

By the time it reached 2024, all those other percentages were almost nonexistent on the graph, because meeting online was how nearly 61% of couples met. The next highest was through friends at 13.86%, followed by coworkers at 8.48%.

We all are well aware of how much the rise of the internet and social media has changed all sorts of aspects of life, but I was still blown away by how greatly that was impacting something like dating and relationships.

This got me thinking about how couples I know have met in recent years compared to the stories my parents and their friends have told about how they met back in the '80s and '90s, and just how different things are now.

Doing a little poll of my friend circle, I was surprised to find how many of them met through dating apps and are now happily in long-term relationships or married. Others primarily met through friends or in common spaces such as work, school or church.

My husband Nathan and I, both in our 30s, met in the 2010s era through mutual friends, but since he lived in Tennessee at the time, the majority of our dating life in those early days was through a lot of online video chats due to the long distance. So, I guess we fall into the friends category, but we definitely wouldn’t have become a couple without the help of the internet, so we have a little bit of both to thank.

This tracks with the data for that decade, as the majority of people — 24.5% — met through friends, with 20.7% meeting online.

For much of the '70s through ‘90s — when folks in my parent’s generation were dating — people primarily met through friends, closely followed by coworkers or family. I kind of expected college to be higher up on the list for those decades, considering that was how my parents and many of their friends got to know each other, but it came in around fifth or sixth place the whole time.

What does this tell us?

So, as we head into the Valentine’s Day holiday, all of this got me thinking of ways this could be impacting us on a local level as a smaller community in a fairly rural area.

We took to our social media accounts to poll our local readership and of those who answered on Facebook, 28% met online, 20% met through friends, 17% met at school or college, 11% met through work or coworkers and 9% met at a bar or restaurant.

The Pioneer is gathering data for a Valentine’s Day feature about how couples met 🥰 According to recent data, more...
Posted by Bemidji Pioneer on Sunday, January 19, 2025

We got quite different results on Instagram, with 33% meeting in school or college, 24% meeting through friends, and only 13% meeting online, closely followed by 11% meeting at a bar or restaurant.

I found this to be interesting as our Facebook demographics tend to be primarily folks ranging from ages 30-65, while Instagram is a little younger audience with most of our followers ranging from 18-40.

While obviously our polls were pretty general and didn’t take each person’s age into account, it was interesting to see people’s responses.

My personal observation was that maybe it just means those younger folks on Instagram — a majority of which are probably still in school or college — are currently dating someone they met there. While the folks just a little bit older are having to resort to other measures to find romantic connections.

So I guess this all just begs the question of whether or not people are happy with this change in the ways of meeting or not.

I’ve heard from many of my single friends who have used online dating that they did so because they basically ran out of options in their immediate circles and didn’t know how else to meet anyone.

Looking through various studies online, it seems there are mixed reviews from people with some expressing frustration with dating apps and how it can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack. While others appreciated how it expanded their possibilities, either from a lack of connections in their community or because they struggled with meeting people in person.

According to a Pew Research study conducted in 2020, nearly half of Americans polled said it had gotten harder to date in the last 10 years. The majority of single and looking women said their top difficulty was finding partners who met their expectations and wanted a similar type of relationship, while men primarily cited difficulty approaching people.

A follow-up study done in 2022 found that things got even more challenging during the pandemic, with seven out of 10 people saying their dating lives weren’t going well. But another study found that it had some positive effects too, citing more serious relationship outcomes and lower sexual violence due to the ability to better vet people online ahead of meeting.

In general, both studies confirmed that relationships seemed to become more purposeful during the pandemic era, as the fleetingness of life served as a wake-up call to many single or dating adults. Researchers also found that during this time, dating apps played an increasingly important role in connecting people who may not have otherwise met.

So, is online dating helping us in the midst of challenging times when we are relearning social skills and coming out of a phase of isolation? Or is it a shield people are hiding behind to avoid getting out of their comfort zones and plugging in with those around them like generations past were forced to do?

While I don’t have the exact answers to those questions, all of this concluded for me that there’s no right or wrong way to find the love of your life.

Maybe reading through my ponderings on these interesting facts about the modern era of dating can motivate you to think outside the box and connect with someone in a new way during this season of love.

Annalise Braught is a photographer and editor at the Pioneer. She can be reached at

(218) 333-9796

abraught@bemidjipioneer.com.

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Disney's Duncan Wardle to speak at Paul Bunyan Communications' TechXpo event

Pioneer Staff Report — Tue, 24 Dec 2024 16:00:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — Duncan Wardle, former Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney, will be the guest at Paul Bunyan Communications' GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo, set for April 12 at the Sanford Center in Bemidji.

Wardle helped teams at Disney Parks, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar, Imagineering and Animation to innovate, creating magical new storylines and amazing experiences for consumers around the globe.

From sending Buzz Lightyear into space on a space shuttle, creating an Olympic-sized swimming pool for Michael Phelps to swim down Main Street USA at Disneyland, and creating the Super Bowl halftime show for the new Millennium, Wardle has given life to some of the biggest ideas imaginable, a release said.

Wardle has been a TEDx speaker multiple times, is a frequent contributor to Fast Company, Harvard Business Review and Forbes, and teaches Innovation and Creativity Masterclasses at Yale and Harvard Universities.

He also holds the American Citizen Award presented at the White House, an Honorary Doctorate from Edinburgh University and the Duke of Edinburgh Award, presented by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth.

"We are so excited to have Duncan Wardle as our special guest this year," said Chad Bullock, Paul Bunyan Communications incoming CEO and general manager, in the release. "His work at Disney touched so many different facets of technology from films to their theme parks to events."

As a special guest at the TechXpo, Wardle will speak at 2 p.m. on the main stage. A Q&A session will follow. He will also be a judge for the Greater Bemidji Northstar Pitch Competition.

The mission of the GigaZone TechXpo is to spark excitement and create opportunities with technology by connecting students and job seekers with employers, educators and technology enthusiasts from across northern Minnesota, the release said.

There is no cost to be an exhibitor as a school or business but space is limited and the exhibit must display their use of technology. Applications open Jan. 3 and must be submitted by Feb. 28 at gigazonetechxpo.com.

The event will also feature free gaming on various console and arcade games, numerous tournaments, door prizes and more. There is no cost to enter the tournaments or for any of the gaming. Tournament details will be posted on the GigaZone Gaming Discord, Twitch channel and Facebook page as well as gigazonegaming.com.

New to the event this year is the GigaZone Gaming High �� Invitational, a Rocket League tournament exclusively for High �� esports teams. ��s interested should contact Fenworks at fenworks.com/contact-us.

The event showcases Paul Bunyan Communications' IT and web development team, which custom-built and integrated much of the online technology being used, and leverages the speed of the GigaZone, one of the largest rural all-fiber optic gigabit networks in the country, the release said. The entire gaming event is run off a single residential GigaZone Internet connection.

This Paul Bunyan Communications event includes many local partners including NLFX, Accidentally Cool Games, Northern Amusement, the Sanford Center, as well as support from several regional and national partners, the release said.

For more information on the GigaZone Gaming Championship, visit gigazonegaming.com.

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Paul Bunyan Communications' GigaZone fiber optic network celebrates 10 years

Pioneer Staff Report — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 13:00:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — Paul Bunyan Communications is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the GigaZone all fiber optic network, which currently serves over 6,000 square miles and offers Internet speeds up to 10 gigabits per second.

"In 2014, we set out to build a network that would not only meet the needs of our community but exceed them," Gary Johnson, CEO of Paul Bunyan Communications, said in a release. "Today, we are proud to celebrate a decade of delivering on that promise with the GigaZone all-fiber optic network."

The network enables households, businesses and institutions to experience gigabit fast uploads and downloads for uninterrupted online activities. It has supported local economic growth, remote education, telehealth services and other community initiatives, added the release.

Over the years, the cooperative has continually invested in and expanded the GigaZone network, adding service areas in Beltrami, Cass, Hubbard, Itasca, St. Louis, Koochiching and Aitkin counties.

"Looking back on the past ten years, we are incredibly proud of what we've accomplished," Johnson said in the release. "But we are even more excited about the future. Our journey is far from over, and we are committed to continuing to innovate and provide the highest quality service for our membership."

To view a map of the GigaZone service area and areas of expansion, visit paulbunyan.net/gigazone/availability-map/#address_search_form. For more information, visit www.gigazone.com.

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Lifeline Awareness Week set for Sept. 8-14

Pioneer Staff Report — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 19:11:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — Paul Bunyan Communications is raising awareness for the Lifeline program during Lifeline Awareness Week, Sept. 8-14.

Lifeline helps low-income consumers connect to the nation’s voice and broadband networks, find jobs, access health care services, connect with family and call for help in an emergency, a release said.

The Federal Communications Commission promotes "Digital Connectivity and Lifeline Awareness Week," as a way to highlight this important assistance program.

Paul Bunyan Communications wants residents to get and stay connected and promotes Lifeline throughout the year to raise awareness about the program that provides assistance to those who need voice and/or broadband services but can't afford it, the release said.

“We promote the Lifeline program a lot because want to make sure all of our membership and those who live within our service area know about it and the benefit it can provide," Paul Bunyan Communications CEO and General Manager Gary Johnson said in the release. "This program can help those struggling to afford Internet services get and stay connected."

Under the federal Lifeline program, low-income consumers who participate in certain public assistance programs, or qualify based on income, can receive a discount of up to $9.25 per month off their monthly bill for broadband, or bundled phone and broadband service; up to $5.25 for voice-only service; and up to a total of $34.25 per month for residents of qualifying tribal lands.

"For some, being connected can be the difference between social connection and complete isolation," said the release.

More information on program eligibility and rules is available at www.lifelinesupport.org.

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Paul Bunyan Communications returning over $3 million to cooperative members

Pioneer Staff Report — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 20:32:10 GMT

BEMIDJI — The cooperative Paul Bunyan Communications is distributing a capital credit return to its members.

According to a release, Paul Bunyan Communications is providing more than $3 million back to cooperative members this month. When profits are earned by the cooperative, they are allocated to the members based on their proportional share of the allocable revenues.

"Our cooperative is thriving, standing as the largest broadband cooperative in Minnesota with over 30,000 active members spread across our 6,000-square-mile service area," said Paul Bunyan Communications CEO/General Manager Gary Johnson in the release.

The release states that current members with a distribution of $100 or less had credits applied to their August bills. Checks have been mailed out for distributions of more than $100.

If you were a member of the cooperative in 2003 and/or 2023 and accrued more than $10 in total capital credit allocations, but do not receive the credit on your account or a check by Sept. 1, contact Paul Bunyan Communications at (218) 444-1234 or (218) 999-1234.

"For over 70 years, we have been offering the latest technology at cost...there are no membership fees or annual dues," added Paul Bunyan Communications Chief Financial Officer in the release. "Simply subscribe to a local phone line or GigaZone Broadband Internet service and you become a member."

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Pixar's Danielle Feinberg visits Bemidji as nearly 4,000 attend GigaZone Gaming Championship, TechXpo

Daltyn Lofstrom — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 20:58:54 GMT

BEMIDJI — The Sanford Center provided a haven for nearly 4,000 tech enthusiasts and gamers as Paul Bunyan Communications hosted its seventh annual GigaZone Gaming Championship and second annual TechXpo event on Saturday.

Making its post-pandemic return last year, gamers flooded the Sanford Center arena to compete in Rocket League — this year’s main stage tournament — along with Fortnite, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Valorant and a host of other tournaments.

A total of 32 teams competed on the main stage with Ayden Sander, Cameron Oakgrove and Milo Collings taking the top prize of $900. Tyler Bos, David Bos and Trevor Bos took home second place and a $600 team prize.

A full list of championship results can be found at gigazonegaming.com.

Introduced last year, the TechXpo housed over 25 exhibitors in the arena, halls and meeting spaces of the Sanford Center. Following Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s guest appearance as part of the TechXpo last year, a different notable guest would be brought in to speak about her unconventional path to prosperity.

Feinberg and film

As the current visual effects supervisor for Pixar Animation Studios, Danielle Feinberg spoke about her career since starting at Pixar in 1997 as well as childhood experiences that paved her path.

Growing up in Boulder, Colo., Feinberg noted interests that weren’t represented by many girls during her childhood. Notably, Feinberg had an internal struggle with enrolling in a power mechanics class in eighth grade that involved repairing used lawnmowers that were donated to the class by local hardware stores.

“This sounded really cool, but I was pretty sure there weren’t going to be any girls in this class,” Feinberg said. “In eighth grade, I was trying to fit in and not stand out, so I had to take a moment and really think through whether I was willing to take that chance. So, I decided to take it.”

Feinberg would be the only girl in power mechanics, but her love for the subject would outweigh that fact.

“For me, it’s always been a thing where I’m going to follow the things I love or have a fascination with,” she added.

Feinberg would maintain this momentum and attend Harvard for computer science, which she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in 1996. Pixar would release Toy Story during her junior year, which ultimately led to her professional start.

As she strived to be a part of the representation she wanted to see, Feinberg would work on 14 of Pixar’s feature films including "A Bug’s Life," "Toy Story 2," "Monsters, Inc.," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles."

Following a talk at her high school alma mater in Boulder, an audience member met with Feinberg afterward to discuss "Coco," which Feinberg considers one of her favorite movies she has worked on. The audience member thanked Feinberg for representing Mexican culture.

“She came up to me and said ‘I watched it with my brother and when Miguel came on the screen, my brother pointed at the screen and said (Miguel) looked like him. We just don’t ever get to see any movies with people that look like us,’” Feinberg recalled. “This really underscored how much it means to see ourselves represented on big and small screens.”

Driving her point home, her work on "Turning Red" involved an all-female leadership team with Feinberg in the visual effects supervisor role — the first time a woman had taken the role in 20 years.

The process of finishing the film provided a moment of clarity for Feinberg.

“I finally was able to take a deep breath. I not only felt that I had succeeded but also felt the victory of what we had all created together,” she said. “I didn’t care about fitting in.”

Regional opportunities

Inviting Feinberg to Bemidji aimed to serve an invaluable purpose as her speech concluded with women leaders from Paul Bunyan Communications joining her onstage to discuss their own journeys.

“There are so many paths that technology can take you,” Paul Bunyan Communications CEO and General Manager Gary Johnson said. “It’s why we do this. It’s really to talk about the potential of careers in technology, not just thousands of miles away, but also right here in this region.”

Attendees milled about exhibits that showcased careers that Johnson alluded to. Bemidji State University’s Technology, Art and Design Department offered interactive activities as a way to feature the department to the public.

“We’re looking at luring in students for the TAD Department specifically,” sophomore Lydia Bauer said. “A lot of kids here are younger, so we can show that they don’t have to go that far to find a good program for graphic design, for event planning, for illustration. They can come to Bemidji.”

This marked Bauer’s first year attending the GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo, an opportunity she considers unique for the region.

“I had never been to this event before,” Bauer mentioned, “and for a town like Bemidji, I think it’s really cool that we have an expo this big with so many people coming from a ways away.”

“Whatever talents you have, whatever options you have, there is a world out there for you,” Johnson left off. “There’s a career out there for you. Whether it’s on the West Coast or in the Bemidji region, it’s all very doable.”

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Paul Bunyan Communications to expand GigaZone to Aitkin, Itasca and St. Louis County areas

Pioneer Staff Report — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 15:19:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — Paul Bunyan Communications plans to expand its GigaZone internet service to over 1,500 locations in Aitkin, Itasca and St. Louis counties this year.

The GigaZone refers to Paul Bunyan Communications' initiative to provide broadband Internet speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps, or a gigabit.

"We are committed to our effort to bring gigabit broadband Internet to those currently without reliable Internet access in our region," Paul Bunyan Communications CEO and General Manager Gary Johnson said in a release.

The Itasca County expansion will include over 180 locations in the city of Taconite, over 500 locations in the city of Keewatin and 45 locations in an area of the Greenway Township east of the city of Calumet.

The St. Louis County expansion will include over 530 locations in the city of Buhl and over 240 locations in the Forbes area southwest of Eveleth.

The Aitkin County expansion will include over 70 locations in areas of Aitkin Township and an unorganized township northwest of the city of Aitkin.

Construction will take place over the summer with services expected to be available by winter. Anyone interested in getting connected to the all-fiber optic broadband network should sign up for service now, the release said.

Interested community members can sign up online, over the phone or in person at Paul Bunyan Communications' Grand Rapids Customer Service and Technology Center or Cooperative Headquarters in Bemidji.

"When we started expanding in 1999, high-speed Internet service was just beginning," Johnson explained in the release. "Today, Internet access is no longer a luxury, it is a vital component of everyday life and our cooperative continues to bring this essential access to more homes and businesses right here in northern Minnesota every year."

To check to see if a specific location is within an expansion area and learn more about the construction process, visit www.gigazone.com.

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Meta's Facebook, Instagram down for hundreds of thousands of users across globe

Reuters — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 16:16:10 GMT

Meta Platforms-owned Facebook and Instagram were down for hundreds of thousands of users across the globe on Tuesday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com.

The disruptions started around 9 a.m. CT, with more than 300,000 reports of outages for Facebook and about 40,000 reports for Instagram, according to the website.

"We're aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now," Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a post on X social media.

The outage comes on Super Tuesday, a day in which 15 states — including Minnesota — are holding their primary elections or caucuses. More than one-third of all the available delegates for both parties are at stake on Super Tuesday.

Meta's status dashboard showed the application programming interface for WhatsApp Business was also facing issues. There were around 200 reports of outages for WhatsApp on Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources, including users.

The outage was among the top trending topics on X, formerly Twitter, with several users saying they had suddenly been logged out of the Meta-owned social media platforms.

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