Dear Minot:

We’re all familiar with Minot hosting two of the largest events in North Dakota in the North Dakota State Fair and the Norsk Hostfest. But there are countless community partners who work to help Minot expand its reach beyond our city limits and beyond the borders of our state to attract visitors to a host of events throughout the year.

At the top of that community partner list is Visit Minot, where Executive Director Stephanie Schoenrock and her staff have proven time and time again that they are capable of successfully attracting a plethora of events, including a wide variety of sporting events. Every event, large or small, brings visitors to Minot, and creates opportunities for our residents to interact with visitors and our business owners to interact with potential customers.

When we host successful events, the effect is felt throughout our community. The impact is felt by hotels, restaurants, boutiques, attractions like Roosevelt Park Zoo, golf courses, and other entertainment venues. Attracting more people to our community for these events benefits all of us by creating sales tax dollars, not to mention direct benefits to our business community. And if you’ve noticed, we’re hosting more and more of these events in recent years.

In just the next couple of months, there are several major events taking place in Minot. Here are just a few of them and their potential impact on the community:

Magic City International Figure Skating competition on Feb. 3-5. More than 250 athletes and their families expected to attend.

State Fire School on Feb. 23-26. More than 750 firefighters from around the state will be in Minot.

High school girls Class B State Basketball Tournament on March 2-4. Eight teams plus thousands of fans expected to attend the tournament at the Minot State University Dome.

Girls State High School Hockey Tournament on March 2-4. Eight teams and thousands of spectators will be in Minot for the tournament at Maysa Arena.

Rebel Round Up gymnastics meet on March 14-15. More than 200 athletes plus families, coaches, and others expected to attend.

USA State Gymnastics meet on March 17-19. More than 500 athletes, plus spectators, coaches, and others expected to attend.

Athletic Empire Spring Spikedown volleyball tournament on April 14-16. More than 600 athletes and their families and spectators expected to attend.

All of these events illustrate and reinforce the same point: Minot is more than capable of hosting essentially any type of event, large, small, or in-between. We have top-notch facilities, and we have a large supply of hotel rooms to accommodate visitors, whether it’s for a day or for a week.

And now, thanks to the continued hard work of the Visit Minot staff, we have the opportunities to showcase our community to the rest of the state and, in many cases, the upper Midwest and Canada. We’re fortunate to have Stephanie and her crew telling Minot’s story and working to attract events to our community. I have no doubt that there will be even more events coming to Minot this year and beyond.

If you’re looking for what’s happening in Minot, check out Visit Minot’s web site at visitminot.org for updated lists of events, where to stay, things to do, where to shop and eat, and a host of other information. Besides the long list of major events, there are nearly endless things to do in Minot. All you have to do is look.

You can find more about what’s happening at the City of Minot at minotnd.org, or find us on Facebook and Twitter. We’d also encourage you to sign up for our monthly electronic newsletter on our website.