By Sara Strong
Luverne's branch office of a high-tech company is carving a place in the Webcasting market.
Netbriefings, with Luverne branch manager Jeff Ernst and marketing specialist Amber Weinkauf, works daily with organizations around the globe.
That is what Ernst said is the beauty of Netbriefings. "Just like people should be able to do [this kind of work] from Luverne, people should be able to use us from anywhere," Ernst said.
When Netbriefings expanded to Luverne, not many people understood the logistics of the company. Essentially, the local office feeds video and audio, live or archived, to clients.
Netbriefings can also archive meetings for large companies that may have employees who need to catch up on material.
Think of Webcasting as a type of broadcasting over computers for specific users.
People who use Netbriefings will probably never enter its office, which is located behind the Brandenburg Gallery in Luverne.
Weinkauf works daily to increase the name recognition anyway. She writes press releases and broad e-mails.
Weinkauf also deals with Internet search engines, bidding for good placement so people looking for services like Netbriefings can easily find the company on the Web.
Netbriefings contracts are a matter of national and even international sales efforts. The World Trade Organization used Netbriefings for a meeting in Qatar, and JVC and American Express are other recognizable companies that contracted with Netbriefings recently.
Even though the company headquarters is still in St. Paul, Ernst said any company growth will likely mean new employees in Luverne.
"We're still growing," Ernst said.
City ties
Netbriefings announced it would locate in Luverne in June 2001 and opened in November.
The city of Luverne approved a $250,000 loan with many attached conditions that council members thought would protect the city.
The minimum employment expectations are five employees by the end of the first year and a target of 35 by the end of the fifth year to the 10th. If the company doesn't come through, the interest rate will increase by 2 percent for the following year.
If Netbriefings never meets its minimum annual employment expectation, the interest rate will rise to 12 percent at the end of the fifth year and remain at 12 until the loan is paid off.
Two years of principal and interest are deferred so the Luverne branch can get on solid footing and concentrate on gaining employees.