To attract people, Wisconsin looks to transcend its cheesy reputation

27 Sep 2017


Cheese. Cold winters. Packers.

When people in other parts of the country think of Wisconsin, those are some of the main ideas that come to mind, according to a survey conducted last year by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

Or, as one survey respondent from a neighboring state put it: "I thought it was just farms and bars."

State officials counter that Wisconsin has developed far beyond its reputation as an agricultural rust belt state.

"It's not only beer and cows," said Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch in an interview. "We're biomedical. We're aviation and aerospace. And now (with the pending arrival of Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn) we're LCD and software and the cutting edge of information and internet and high-end technology."

But the state remains challenged by a historically slow-growing economy, an industry mix still heavily rooted in manufacturing and spread across several small- to mid-size cities, and the limited appeal of its largest city to young professionals compared with the work and cultural offerings in Minneapolis and Chicago.

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