News and Media

Our attitudes about food and beverage influence the brands we purchase, how we socialize, where we shop — and sometimes even where we live. Our expectations are high when it comes to product mix and availability. When our wants and needs are not met quickly, as was the case a...Continue Reading

In recent years, geopolitical and economic trends have been encouraging pharmaceutical drug manufacturers to shift their active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) sourcing and physical manufacturing plants onto domestic soil or near-shore locations. This has been a gradually turning tide that accelerated this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and, in it...Continue Reading

This year has been hallmarked by re-evaluation. On all levels, people have taken a second look at their habits, spaces, and lifestyles and have had to adjust greatly to meet the new needs of today. With safety as a priority, people entered their homes in March, and most have no...Continue Reading

It’s been a wild year for Jeffrey Sproul and the mortgage loan office at Royal Credit Union. The pandemic hitting this spring has rippled into a whirlwind year of record sales in the local housing market. Houses are listed and within a day, sometimes even less, they’re sold. Luckily, Jeffrey is ...Continue Reading

As if manufacturers are not challenged enough by COVID-19, many face shortages of appropriately skilled workers to keep their tech-savvy factories competitive. A 2018 report by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Instituteestimated the manufacturing industry would have as many as 2.4 million jobs to fill by 2028. Last year, the National Association o...Continue Reading

E-commerce has exploded in recent years, but as COVID-19 emerged the sector has seen unprecedented growth. While many industries battled disruptions, e-commerce provides opportunity. E-commerce and logistics companies are accelerating planned innovation and restructuring initiatives to stay ahead of the curve — if that’s even possible — spurring the implementatio...Continue Reading

Start in West Central Wisconsin is a pilot initiative designed to support entrepreneurs and build businesses in the Momentum West region. Stakeholders and organizations from throughout the region have come together to offer comprehensive no-cost support aimed at helping entrepreneurs to start a business and helping existing business owners t...Continue Reading

Leading a successful site and facility master plan challenges even the most seasoned leaders. After all, how often have you undertaken a master-planning process, only to be disappointed in the outcome, or worse yet, end up with a building that doesn’t align with your business goals? Based on over 3...Continue Reading

AD: How has COVID-19 changed the employee experience in manufacturing, and what facets of this should organizations retain going forward? Zenk: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees have been experiencing a drastically different work environment. Thousands of manufacturers across the U.S. and around the world were deemed essential during the pandemic...Continue Reading

If there were ever a year to shop small for Christmas, 2020 is it. This year has been unprecedented, chaotic, and frightening for Americans in a lot of ways. But since March, the year’s upheavals have had a severe impact on small businesses, especially those in the Chippewa Valley. CCED...Continue Reading

It’s natural to expect more data center capacity is needed to handle the boom in e-commerce, streamed programming and virtual meetings since the pandemic arrived. But there’s another subset of screen-based transactions that requires that expansion too. Statista reports there are an estimated 2.7 billion video gamers around the world i...Continue Reading

They’re cities of dreams. They’re the nation’s glamor capitals. But they’re attracting the lion’s share of Opportunity Zone funds meant to spark the economies of neighborhoods struck more by poverty than by fame. Analysis published in September 2020 by tax break experts Novogradac found that investment in more than 800 Qualifie...Continue Reading

PwC’s Aerospace & Defense practice has issued the seventh edition of its Aerospace Manufacturing Attractiveness Rankings. It does so at “a precarious moment in the industry’s history,” according to the report’s introduction. “By April 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had plunged commercial aviation into crisis mode, with global revenue passenger kilometer...Continue Reading

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) invites Wisconsin dairy processors to apply for the next round of Dairy Processor Grants through Jan. 15, 2021. The funding is intended to foster innovation, improve profitability, and sustain the long-term viability of Wisconsin’s dairy processing facilities. Grant recipients wil...Continue Reading

The 2019 Census of Horticultural Specialties report, released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), shows that horticulture operations in the United States sold a total of $13.8 billion in floriculture, nursery and specialty crops in 2019, down slightly from 2014. The number of horticulture operation...Continue Reading

Two Menomonie businesses are among a handful of top winners in a statewide contest for businesses that have addressed the COVID-19 pandemic in creative ways. Menomonie Market Food Co-op and Brewery Nonic placed atop their size divisions in the We’re All Innovating Contest sponsored by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. Accordin...Continue Reading

There's no shortage of articles that will opine about how tumultuous 2020 was for the economy, jobs, and industry as the world grappled with the impact of COVID-19 on business and daily life. However, there's reason to be optimistic, especially in manufacturing.  Despite 60% of manufacturers feeling the impact of COVID on operations, ...Continue Reading

Following last month’s focus on diversity and inclusion in all aspects of the Main Street approach, this month’s blog post will explore how the design of façades, storefronts and business signage within Main Street districts can incorporate cultural diversity and expression. One factor that can unintentionally crowd out diversity in cultura...Continue Reading

Richelle Martin has a simple goal in mind for how some people may view women like herself who are venture and angel capital investors: “I want it to not be weird anymore.” Not that it’s actually “weird” for women to be early-stage investors, of course, but Martin’s point is that sh...Continue Reading

MADISON, WI. DEC.4, 2020—To help Wisconsin companies continue to grow their exports even in the current economic downturn and while international travel is limited, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) is organizing a virtual Global Trade Venture that will connect Wisconsin exporters with potential buyers, distributors and other partners i...Continue Reading

MADISON —? Gov. Tony Evers announced with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) that restaurants and other targeted small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic will receive $45 million in assistance, bringing the total assistance distributed to Wisconsin businesses this year to more than $220 million. The program, We’re All In Fo...Continue Reading

Victoria “Vickie” Sanchez was recently named one of the top 39 most influential Latinos in Wisconsin by Madison 365, which is run by the 365 Media Foundation – a nonprofit journalistic organization based in Madison. Sanchez started her stint at UW-Stout about a decade ago, and has since worked with student organization...Continue Reading

Applications are now open for the fourth annual Force for Positive Change awards, which are open to nonprofit, for-profit, and hybrid enterprises in Wisconsin. “The Force for Positive Change is a statewide competition that focuses on social entrepreneurship as a model for solving social or environmental challenges in a way tha...Continue Reading

Authors don’t write books for librarians, they write books for readers. So why are economic developers creating websites just for search engines? The sole focus on search engine rankings has moved economic development website marketing away from the true intended purpose - connecting communities to business owners and expanding economic growt...Continue Reading