The City of Sun Prairie invites you to join us for a continuing discussion on the benefits of Opportunity Zones. This event is a follow up event to the meeting hosted by the City of Madison, the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Madison Inc., and the City of Fitchburg on Feb. 20th.

At this event, we’ll dive deeper into Opportunity Zones, including non-real estate ways of benefiting from OZ’s, and how funds are established. We’ll also take a look at some of the other financial tools that can be leveraged including Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) and Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) for qualified OZ projects. Scheduled presenters include Husch Blackwell, Ehler’s, Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, and others to be announced. There is no charge to attend, but registration is required.

Launch to be held February 4, 2019, 5:00-7:00 PM at The Sylvee, 25 S. Livingston Street, Madison.
Announcement and comments from Mayor Soglin – 6:00 PM

Kiva Greater Madison officially launches on February 4, bringing crowdfunded microloans to small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs in Greater Madison. This initiative has been brought to Madison through a Coordinating Committee including the City of Madison, The Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC), Madison Gas and Electric, The Doyenne Group and Kiva.

Through Kiva Greater Madison, anyone can help grow small business and promote local job creation by visiting Kiva.org. To support Madison entrepreneurs, you may go to www.kiva.org  and sign up to become a lender. From there, simply search for borrowers in the Madison area under the Kiva U.S. tab on the website and support them with a loan as small as $25. Small business loans crowdfunded through Kiva Greater Madison are on average $5,000 and are offered at 0% interest with no fees. For borrowers who may be rejected by traditional lenders, Kiva provides opportunity.

“Creating opportunities for equitable capital for Madison entrepreneurs is of vital importance to the economic growth of our economy,” Madison Mayor Paul Soglin explains. “Kiva is a community partner that will work with entrepreneurs and the City to provide character based loans to our neighbors working to build strong businesses to serve the community.”

Crowdfunded loans fill a critical lending gap faced by entrepreneurs whose businesses are too young, too small or too innovative to receive loans from traditional lenders. Nationally, small businesses create two-thirds of all new jobs and if just one in three small businesses could hire one more person, the U.S. would be at full employment, according to the Association for Enterprise Opportunity.

“Many of the small business owners who come to Kiva have all the tools to succeed except one. They have a vision for success, a plan to achieve that success, and all they’re missing is capital,” said Sophia Zisook, Kiva’s Midwest Regional Manager. “These business owners can’t reach their goals without financial inclusion. When they see this community step up to support them, they know they are being given a vote of confidence. By lending on Kiva, you are doing more than providing capital, you are telling the small business owner ‘I believe in you.'”

Through their work with WWBIC, Kiva has already brought crowdfunded loans to entrepreneurs across the state. KIVA Milwaukee was launched in 2015 and in three years has lent $742,600.00 to entrepreneurs in Milwaukee and $1,224,900 to all of Wisconsin. Lenders to entrepreneurs in Wisconsin (over 15,000 now) are everyday people from nearly every state in the U.S. and an astounding 21 countries including Japan, UK, China, Ethiopia, and Rwanda.
Internationally, Kiva’s community of 1.8 million lenders have crowdfunded $1.25 billion in loans – $25 at a time – to more than 3.1 million entrepreneurs in 81 counties and 47 US states. The repayment rate is 97%.

Partners, Supporters and Trustees
Kiva Greater Madison is made possible by several area organizations joining the initiative as Sponsors and Trustees. Major sponsors in addition to the City of Madison include Madison Gas and Electric, WBD, Wells Fargo, The Evjue Foundation and State Bank of Cross Plains. Loan matching funds that support the KIVA loans in fundraising are still pending.

Kiva Trustees are organizations or institutions that publicly endorse entrepreneurs on the Kiva website who they know and trust in their community. Current Trustees in the State who have endorsed borrowers include: WWBIC, African American Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, Hmong Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce, Native American Chamber of Commerce and The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

To have your organization become a Kiva Trustee visit https://www.kiva.org/trustees/apply  .

About Kiva.org
Kiva is an international nonprofit, founded in 2005 and based in San Francisco, with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Kiva celebrates and supports people looking to create a better future for themselves, their families and their communities. With as little as a $25 loan, anyone can help a borrower start or grow a business, go to school, access clean energy and realize their potential. For more information, visit www.kiva.org .

Created by the 2017 federal tax law, Opportunity Zones are a powerful new economic development tool that provides tax benefits to incentivize investment in key designated areas. In Madison, Opportunity Zones have been granted for eleven census tracts covering 14,000 acres of property. There is tremendous potential to leverage this tool to catalyze important projects and job creation.

To better understand this new program and its application in Madison, we invite you to join us at the Madison Opportunity Zones Symposium on Wednesday, February 20, from 7:30-9:30 a.m. at the Madison Municipal Building (MMB), 215 Martin Luther King Boulevard, Room 215.

The program will include presentations from city leaders on priorities for the designated areas, as well as a panel discussion on private sector participation.

We look forward to the discussion.

Reserve your seat at MITA’s February 12 event and learn about the trends, tips and hot topics in international trade compliance.

This program is designed for established importers and exporters, companies who are considering exporting or importing, and those who wish to learn more about trade compliance.

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LUNCH PROGRAM – Trade Compliance in 2019: Strategies for Surviving and Thriving in a Time of Disruption (11:30 AM – 2:00 PM)

The lunch program features keynote speaker Alec Streeter, Director of Global Trade Compliance at Oshkosh Corporation, who will provide an update on tariffs and briefly discuss strategies for navigating them as they continue to evolve.

Following lunch, you will have an opportunity to attend four to five “Ask the Expert” Roundtables featuring experts who will share their insights and address your questions on a variety trade compliance issues, including the challenges of mitigating the impact of tariffs and countermeasures, enforcing export controls, trade compliance policies, import and export compliance, global export regimes, and much more.

The Ask the Experts Roundtables feature the following topics and experts:

– Navigating the Tariffs – Alec Streeter, Director of Global Trade Compliance, Oshkosh Corporation

– The Basics of Trade Compliance Internal Audits – Ruth Girmscheid, International Customs Services, Inc.

– Global Export Control Regimes and Your Business – Jay Nash,  Nash Global Trade

–  The Customs Broker/Freight Forwarder’s View – Sandi Siegel, M.E. Dey

–  Export Documentation and Payment Methods – Ric Frantz, LR International

– Trade Compliance Violations: To Disclose or Not to Disclose? – Wendy Arends and Eric Wilson,  Godfrey & Kahn, S.C.

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AFTERNOON PROGRAM – Trade Compliance 2.0 (2:00 PM – 4:30 PM)

The afternoon program is designed to provide compliance managers, employees involved in trade compliance (such as supply chain management, logistics/transportation, and sales), as well as anyone who wants to know more about trade compliance a deeper dive into the topics below, including implementation and best practices.

Attendees select two 45-minutes sessions which will consist of workshop-like discussion. The expert will lead the group through specific, real-world scenarios and attendees will participate in an interactive discussion to gain additional knowledge through practical problem solving, peer collaboration, and expert advise.

The following speakers and interactive workshops will focus on the topics below:

– A View from the Inside: Opportunities and Challenges of an In-House Trade Compliance Manage – Alec Streeter, Director of Global Trade Compliance, Oshkosh Corporation

– Export Compliance in a Time of Disruption –Jay Nash, Nash Global Trade

– Internal Compliance Audits 2.0: Conducting, Preparing for, and What You Need to Know – Ruth Girmscheid,, International Customs Services, Inc.

– Importing: From the Basics to Beyond – Wendy Arends, A Panel of Expersts from M.E. Dey.

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4:30 PM – 7:00 PM Networking Happy Hour – FREE for all participants and MITA Members (no registration required).

This program is Co-sponsored by Godfrey & Kahn S.C. ABS Global and ME Dey & Co.

Tuesday, February 12^th    11:30am – 4:15pm (with lunch provided)
Fluno Center     601 University Ave., Madison
Cost of Admission:

Lunch only: Early Bird rate applies until February 5, 2019 – $35 MITA Members; $50 for Non-MITA Members; Regular rate (thereafter)- $45 for MITA Members; $60 for Non-MITA Members.

Lunch and Afternoon Workshop:  $99 for MITA Members; $119 for Non-MITA Members.

The Department of Administration – Division of Energy, Housing and Community Resources (DEHCR) will host a Report and Application Training webinar for the Revolving Loan Fund for Economic Development (RLF-ED) CLOSE Program.

Attendance is encouraged (but not mandatory) to review final reporting and application requirements for the CLOSE Program.  The webinar will be recorded and posted on the DEHCR website after the training for anyone that is not able to attend or would like to review at a later date.

To register for the webinar, please follow the log in details provided below. You must register to receive a link to access the webinar training. Attendance will be verified by tracking those who log into the webinar training.

 

Webinar Registration Information:

The webinar will be held via GoToWebinar. Follow the registration link below to register and receive your personal link to access the webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information on how to join the webinar. The link cannot be shared with other agency staff; however, multiple people can view the webinar in a group setting. If you have any questions or issues when registering or connecting to the webinar, please contact WECCTraining@weccusa.org.