Around the State
AROUND THE STATE
Wisconsin a strong choice for in-state company meetings
With meeting planners looking ahead to the traditionally busy fall meetings and conventions season and with decisions on where to hold meetings on the table right now, the Wisconsin Department of Tourism and the Wisconsin Department of Commerce salute the Wisconsin companies who support the state’s economy by holding their meetings and events here. “The nation’s Great Recession affected the meetings and conventions industry around the countr y,” says Tourism Secretary Kelli A. Trumble. “Business meetings and conventions are an important part of Wisconsin’s tourism economy, and we are turning to in-state companies first to help us grow.” Earlier this year, the Wisconsin Department of Tourism and Wisconsin Department of Commerce launched “Meetings Mean Business for Wisconsin” a grass-roots effort to increase meeting and convention business in the state. “For every 25-person overnight meeting, the return is conservatively about $16,000, so you can see how this could add up with the thousands of companies located in Wisconsin,” says Commerce Secretary Aaron Olver. In Madison familiar names like Trek Bicycle Corp., American Family Insurance, Epic and Badgerland Financial choose Wisconsin for many of their meetings. The same holds true in Milwaukee for Northwestern Mutual and Kohl’s Corp. With its corporate headquarters, new museum and two manufacturing plants in Wisconsin, Harley-Davidson Motor Company holds most of its meetings in-state as well. In the Fox Cities, truck manufacturer Oshkosh Corp. and its subsidiary Pierce Manufacturing are both known for holding major corporate conferences in the area. ShopKo Corp., headquartered to the north in Green Bay, also books meetings for its Eye Care Centers in the Fox Cities. In Green Bay, Schneider National, Associated Banc-Corp, Green Bay Packaging, Pomp’s Tire and Humana Health Care, are among the companies that stay local for meetings. Eau Claire points to the loyalty of locally headquartered Menards in holding its annual training seminars right in Eau Claire, bringing in employees from a 12-state region. In La Crosse, Dairyland Power Cooperative holds its annual meeting there. And in Wausau, conferences for the Wisconsin Farmers Union and the Wisconsin Arborists Association are already on the books for 2012. Wisconsin Dells’ business owners have invested heavily in infrastructure to attract meetings and events and it’s paid off, with Wisconsin-based Nicolet Water and Marshfield Clinic among companies choosing to host their meetings there. Tourism in Wisconsin is a $12 billion industr y that suppor ts more than 286,000 jobs. It ranks among the top three industries in the state, with meetings and conventions accounting for close to 10 percent of the state’s traveler expenditures. From 2003 to 2008, meetings and conventions was the fastest growing segment of travel in the state; in 2009, the segment saw a decrease of 14.35 percent.
SCORE to Partner with Ag Innovation Center
SCORE, the national nonprofit organization that is the largest source of free and confidential small business advice for entrepreneurs, plans to work with the soon-to-be-constructed Central Wisconsin Agribusiness Innovation Center (CWAIC). Located near Owen, the CWAIC will serve as a business incubator for emerging companies in agribusiness, renewable energy, biotechnology, natural resources, food processing, forestry and related industries. “Since the Ag Innovation Center’s mission is to help create new businesses, we want to provide all the assistance we can to ensure those companies not only survive, but thrive,” says Lee Forman, chapter chair of Central Wisconsin SCORE 535, Marshfield. “Every year, SCORE helps almost 20,000 businesses start and our work with the Center will just add to that total.” “SCORE will offer advice and counsel to not only the entrepreneurs who will be tenants of the Center, but to other emerging ag-related businesses in the region,” says Mike Kawleski, CWAIC’s executive director. “In fact, even before our building is constructed, SCORE will provide advice and presentations to entrepreneurs using meeting space in our current CWAIC office in downtown Owen.” When finished, the nearly 49,000-square-foot Center will contain incubator and laboratory space, a distance learning center, public meeting and event space, a commercial classroom/test kitchen, a computer lab, offices for lease and multiple “smart” classrooms. A non-profit organization, CWAIC is partnering with the city of Owen, its community development authority
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O CTOBER 2010 | CORPORATE REPORT WISCONSIN
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