Building Community Wisline Series

Building Community Wisline Series - You’re invited to join other Sauk County leaders as we explore how to best position our community to succeed in the 21st Century economy.  This web-based conference will highlight both the process of developing a good local economic development strategy and some of the key ingredients to making that strategy work for you.  Sponsored by Sauk County UW-Extension and the Sauk County Development Corporatio, this ten-session web conference will be held at the Sauk County Extension Office, 505 Broadway in Baraboo on the second Friday of the month from 10:00 - 11:00 A.M. from September 2007 - June 2008.  There will be no fee to participate. Please register with Lynn Zick at 355-3250 if you would like to attend any or all of the sessions.

Sessions:
September 14, 2007, 10:00 - 11:00 A.M.,
Strategies for Community & Economic Development
UW-Madison/Extension Professor Gary Green will set the stage for engaging communities and their stakeholders to maximize positive change. He’ll introduce some of the basic concepts and issues in the community development field. Gary will feature the dilemmas and contradictions of participatory development and discuss the basic features of a development approach based on a community’s strengths and assets.

October 12, 2007, 10:00 - 11:00 A.M.,
Community Capacity Building: Making it Work
UW-Madison/Extension Associate Professor Randy Stoecker challenges us to re-think our notions of democratic community decision making. Who are the right people to engage and have involved? How do we assure that all voices are being heard? Join Randy to learn how to maximize citizen input and design strategies that will address the needs of all those with a stake in our communities.

November 9, 2007, 10:00 - 11:00 A.M.,
Community Preparedness: Building on Assets
UW-Extension Professor Andy Lewis and Associate Professor Will Andresen share their work with the Community Economic Tool Box, The Community Economic Preparedness Index and First Impressions. Using these robust tools to illustrate, this session will focus on the process used to help a community analyze its strengths and weaknesses prior to developing a plan to improve economic development opportunities in the community.

December 14, 2007, 10:00 - 11:00 A.M.,
Clusters and Regions: A Both/And Approach
While a growing number of economic and demographic information sources provide a wealth of data, community leaders and economic development professionals still struggle to access this information and understand what it means for their communities. During this session, UW-Extension Professor Bill Pinkovitz and GIS Specialist Matt Kures transform our anxiety about “data” to confidence in using “information” to inform local choices.  Learn how to uncover your community’s story—richly mined from available resources and illustrated with everyday tools.  

January 11, 2008, 10:00 - 11:00 A.M., .
Understanding the Local Economy: Seizing the Market
UW-Extension GIS Specialist Matt Kures and Center Fellow Terry Ludeman take on the economic development debate—should we focus on clusters or work collaboratively in regions?  Terry will detail how to identify regional economic similarities as a first step to creating regional approaches.  Matt will uncover the secrets of identifying industrial/business clusters to target economic development efforts.  The magic happens when they show how combining clusters with regions leads to powerful information from which winning regional economic and workforce development strategies can be formed.

February 8, 2008, 10:00 - 11:00 A.M.,
Attraction Strategies: Industrial Recruitment to Visitors
UW-Superior/Extension Associate Professor Jerry Hembd and Center Fellow John Ramer(CEcD, FM) take us from the traditional to the nouveau
of attraction. Often thought of in terms of landing that large new manufacturer or the branch plant, they’ll discuss how today’s global marketplace has not just changed the rules, but altered the game. Join in as they discuss how the changing economy demands new forms of infrastructure and community assets in order to be attractive to today’s workers, who themselves are key to sustainable business and economic growth.

March 14, 2008, 10:00 - 11:00 A.M.,
Business Retention and Expansion
UW-Extension Community Business Development Specialist Bill Ryan and JD Milburn of the Wisconsin Main Street Program have developed tools and resources to help support existing local businesses and create vibrant business districts.  This programg features an understaning of the changing marketplace and how communities can identify opportunities that are both realistic and sensible for their downtowns.  They'll share tools and strategies for retaining and growing businesses that we can employed not just in downtown, but across the entire community. 

April 11, 2008, 10:00 - 11:00 A.M.,
Entrepreneurship: Small Business Startups and More!
UW-Extension Professor Greg Wise addresses entrepreneurship as a community development solution to enhancing our communities’ quality of life. How important is entrepreneurship to our communities and what are the essential ingredients of successful entrepreneurship development efforts? Best practices will be shared and the national “eXtension Community of Practice on Entrepreneurship” project will be highlighted as we answer those and other important questions.

May 9, 2008, 10:00 - 11:00 A.M.,
Growing the Market: Tourism, Retail and Retirees
UW-Superior/Extension Associate Professor Jerry Hembd explores the emerging topic of “sustainable development.” What challenges and lessons does it offer to those of us working to enhance our communities? What does it suggest in terms of new ways of doing business? Join in as Jerry shares his research on the sustainable development movement and how we might employ key elements in our community development efforts.

June 13, 2008, 10:00 - 11:00 A.M.,
Putting It All Together: From Plan to Action
UW-Extension Emeritus Professor Alan Anderson reflects on over three decades of working with communities to address critical community development issues. He’ll help us understand how and when to support a community’s need to have an early success or take a step back to put a plan in place. Al offers a “real-world tempered” perspective of how to guide a community in making local, sustainable development choices.

For more information please contact:

Jenny Erickson
Sauk County - UW Extension
West Square Administration Bldg
505 Broadway
Baraboo, WI 53913-2404
Phone: 608-355-3250
Fax: 608-355-3550
711 for Relay
Email: jennifer.erickson@ces.uwex.edu