Dane County is seeking an experienced economic development professional to lead its newly created Office of Jobs and Prosperity. Located in Madison, WI, the Office of Jobs and Prosperity will be an integral part of the County Executive’s Office charged with leading and coordinating the County’s economic development programs and initiatives in collaboration with other agencies and programs offering complimentary services. The Director will develop an economic development strategy focused on business recruitment and retention and the creation of jobs with a particular emphasis on supporting the development of green jobs and will align County programs and efforts with those currently being performed in other jurisdictions.

Recruitment ends at 4:30 pm on Friday, March 30, 2012.

See the full job description.

Excerpted from news.wisc.edu

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Entrepreneurs’ Resource Clinic has partnered with the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) to bring the VentureLab program to Wisconsin.

VentureLab Wisconsin is a five-day immersive program designed to assist early-stage entrepreneurs in preparing to take technology products to market.

The program will host 20 teams of business partners, including a mix of Wisconsin entrepreneurs and NCIIA grant recipients from across the United States. Online applications will be accepted through May 15, with VentureLab Wisconsin scheduled for Aug. 13-17 at the University Research Park in Madison, Wis.

Students, faculty and business community members working in the following areas are invited to apply to participate in the program:

• Clean/green tech: Green materials, green chemistry, energy, packaging, water, waste reduction/management
• Biomedical/global health: Capital-efficient medical devices, monitoring systems, procedure-related devices, world health technology; and,
• Advanced computing sciences: Platform technologies, high-growth technologies with a social benefit.

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Editorial excerpted from Milwaukee Biz Blog
By Ken Harwood

As I sit here deciding whether or not to buy the New iPad from Apple, I was wondering, “Does Wisconsin have an Apple?”

Turns out the answer is yes, and, cue the spotlight, drum-roll please, the answer is cheese. Let’s compare, Apple Computer vs. Wisconsin Cheese: huge brand awareness – check, market dominance – check, innovative new products – check, a great company to promote the brand – you don’t know the half of it.

It turns out that our dairy business has the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB), and they are the rock star of all things cheese. They work diligently to keep Wisconsin’s dairy products on every grocery shelf, in every fine restaurant, and in your refrigerator and they are very, very good at it.

“Our job is straightforward – to create demand for Wisconsin milk,” says Patrick Geoghegan, senior vice president of corporate communications at WMMB. “We do this by focusing primarily on the promotion of Wisconsin cheese since about 90 percent of the milk in this state goes into cheesemaking. But we also promote the consumption of all Wisconsin dairy products through a variety of strategies and tactics, from retail and foodservice promotional efforts in all 50 states to advertising and the use of social media.”

Each year WMMB invests north of 25 million dollars on national advertising, public relations, local markets and grassroots promotions, funds the Wisconsin Dairy Council (the nutrition education arm of WMMB) and provides nearly half of the funding for the UW Center for Dairy Research. They also provide Market Research, and Technical Services as well as partnering with the cheese companies in the state.

Holly cow Batman (cow, get it?), you mean 25 million of my hard earned tax dollars goes to promote cheese? NO, actually the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board is farmer-owned, farmer-directed and farmer funded — ten cents from every 100 pounds of milk produced in the state goes to WMMB. An additional five cents goes to the National Dairy Promotion & Research Board for generic dairy promotion activities at the national level.

“In 1983, Wisconsin dairy farmers decided to create a checkoff program to promote the consumption of dairy products made from Wisconsin milk,” Geoghegan points out. “The operations of the organization are overseen by a board of 25 dairy farmers who are elected by their peers. They oversee the development of our plans and budgets and monitor our activities. Since the time we were established, per capita cheese consumption has grown by more than 50 percent and total milk usage has increased by 38 percent. Other states also became active in promotion of their dairy products and while Wisconsin’s market share of total milk and cheese has fallen, total state milk production has grown 11 percent and cheese production has increased more than 50 percent. “The pie has gotten much larger as a result and Wisconsin has benefitted,” says Geoghegan. “The Center for Dairy Profitability at UW-Madison has estimated that more than 90 percent of farmers’ income is reinvested in their local communities, which creates a powerful economic engine for all of Wisconsin whether you live on a dairy farm or not. Farmers’ tax dollars pay for good roads, excellent schools and other critical elements of what makes Wisconsin special.”

And one of the best features of the dairy industry for Wisconsin’s economy is that it’s steady. “It’s hard to tell a cow to stop producing milk when prices fluctuate, Geoghegan says. “So, it provides great stability to the Wisconsin economy.”

UW-Madison researchers have estimated that Wisconsin’s dairy industry generates more than $26.5 billion in economic activity for the state and nearly 150,000 jobs, making it Wisconsin’s most important single economic sector.

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Excerpted from Discovery.wisc.edu
by Janet Kelly

The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, the innovative 330,000-square-foot public-private facility that opened just more than a year ago on the UW–Madison campus, has been named the 2012 Laboratory of the Year.

This international competition, sponsored annually by R&D Magazine since 1966, is judged by a panel of industry experts to recognize the highest standards in architecture, laboratory design and “push-the-envelope” concepts in science buildings.

The unique facility houses twin research institutes: the private, nonprofit Morgridge Institute for Research and UW-Madison’s public Wisconsin Institute for Discovery; and a main floor Town Center offering features and ongoing programming to engage the public in science. With architecture designed to encourage human interaction, the overarching goal of the building is to foster new interdisciplinary research collaborations across campus and beyond that lead to great discoveries in science.

“The award is a tremendous honor and reflects the careful collaboration, experience and skill that the project partners, donors John and Tashia Morgridge, the state of Wisconsin, UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation used to plan, design and build this exceptional research facility, now recognized as such worldwide,” says George Austin, who served as the building project manager.

The Discovery building was built with three research floors aboveground and one below, and a public venue for science that spans its block-long main floor.  The facility is located in the heart of campus at 330 N. Orchard St., between University Avenue and Campus Drive.  In addition to flexible state-of-the-art laboratories, it includes civic spaces and a Mesozoic garden, meeting rooms, three public restaurants, and a university resource center for inventors, entrepreneurs and startup companies. The building earned LEED Gold certification last year.

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Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
By Judy Newman

Development experts will converge on Madison in 2015.

The International Economic Development Council, based in Washington, D.C., has chosen Madison as the site for its annual spring conference in 2015. More than 250 people are expected to attend, with a local economic impact estimated at more than $230,000.

But the amount of dollars spent is not the only significance of hosting the conference, said Janet Ady, president of Ady Voltedge and co-chair of a group of economic development professionals who led the effort to bring the group here.

She said the participants, who may also include site selectors, will have a chance to get a fresh look at Wisconsin as a potential destination for companies.

“We’re getting people to wake up and see what’s new about Wisconsin,” Ady said.

“I couldn’t imagine a better marketing opportunity than this conference,” said Paul Jadin, chief executive of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

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