The MetroNorth Chamber of Commerce staged the 2026 excellence in business awards, which has morphed into a popular event.
“This is an annual luncheon that we do,” said Lori Higgins, CEO of the MetroNorth Chamber of Commerce. “It’s one of the highlights of our first quarter when we get to celebrate these amazing businesses and organizations. This is exactly like the Oscars of the North Metro business community.”
On this day it really was about taking care of business. According to Higgins, there were almost 500 nominations from various companies in 10 categories, and Northeast Bank was named the community champion – which is given to a business that goes above and beyond.
Said Higgins: “This is our way to try to show the people and families behind these brick and mortars, behind these great organizations and highlight them for all these wonderful things that they do.”
Soccer speaker
A crowd of approximately 125 people showed up to eat a tasty lunch and also listen to keynote speaker Shari Ballard, the CEO for Minnesota United FC.
“I’m just happy to do it,” Ballard said. “The club is so ingrained in the community. There’s a lot of great people here, so anytime we can get out and have a chance to meet new people and introduce them to us, if they don’t already know us. I also get to know a bunch of people in the community. What they’re all working on, and honestly it’s one of the better parts of the job.”
Ballard is ecstatic that part of the Loons business operations are in the North Metro.
“North Metro is really important to us,” Ballard said. “We have three different locations as a club. The front office is Golden Valley. We play at Allianz Field in St. Paul. But, the whole core of our sporting staff and team is in Blaine. We train there. The players are there. We have a lot of players that live in and around Blaine and in the community.”
The next marquee event for MetroNorth is a regional civics bee at Anoka Technical College on April 11.
