Wisconsin Chamber Professional Digest
February, 2017
USNews.com: Milwaukee now a top 50 place to
live
The rest
of the world is finding out what many Milwaukeeans have known for a long
time - that our city is a great place to live.
U.S.
News and World Report says that the city has risen more than 20 spots into its
top 50 in its listing of 2017 Best Places to Live in the United States.
"Moving
25 places from 72 to 47 to crack the top 50 on a well-respected (list) is
something we deserve an applause for," said Metropolitan Milwaukee
Association of Commerce President Tim Sheehy on Wisconsin's Afternoon News
Tuesday.
"Historical
architecture stands as a tribute to Milwaukee's past, while the metro area
vibrates from the construction of a changing skyline and with the energy of its
near 600,000 residents," the article says, written by Milwaukee's own
Andrea Trischler.
The
article cites a lower-than-average cost of housing, and a lower rate compared
to last year and before the latest recession. It also mentions "an influx
of young people drawn to Milwaukee's developing arts and craft beer
culture."
Chamber delight: Harry Potter festival moves
to Jefferson
What has come to be known as the
Edgerton Harry Potter Festival has undergone a name change: 2017 Harry Potter
Festival USA, and will be moved to its new host city: Jefferson.
The Jefferson Common Council voted unanimously, during a special meeting held Jan. 26, to approve by way of resolution a request made by festival organizers, bothers, Robert and Scott Cramer, to designate the Jefferson as host community in 2017. The resolution further authorized the city’s "financial participation in the event to include a contribution of $25,000 to effectively market and promote the event and additional costs estimated to be between $15,000 and $25,000 for event security, parking and traffic control, and facility maintenance."
As specified within the resolution, the city’s commitments are conditioned upon city officials and event organizers "negotiating an agreement that establishes the minimum standards which will control, among other things, the planning, scheduling and operation of the festival and provides for the recovery of city funds advanced for marketing and promoting the festival."
Funds used for security, parking and traffic control, and maintenance would not be reimbursed, officials said, with some discussion revolving around the idea that advertising monies recovered might be used to help finance future festivals.
Prior to the vote, city officials and department heads, festival organizers, and members of the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce were given opportunity to participate in the discussion.
"We’re very pleased that Jefferson has been selected as the site of the 2017 Harry Potter Festival USA, Mayor Dale Oppermann said. "We have an experienced local support team … Many of our team members have extensive experience safely managing crowds of this expected magnitude," he added. During discussions, organizers offered early crowd size projections for 2017 of 15,000 to 20,000. Read more: Milton News
The Jefferson Common Council voted unanimously, during a special meeting held Jan. 26, to approve by way of resolution a request made by festival organizers, bothers, Robert and Scott Cramer, to designate the Jefferson as host community in 2017. The resolution further authorized the city’s "financial participation in the event to include a contribution of $25,000 to effectively market and promote the event and additional costs estimated to be between $15,000 and $25,000 for event security, parking and traffic control, and facility maintenance."
As specified within the resolution, the city’s commitments are conditioned upon city officials and event organizers "negotiating an agreement that establishes the minimum standards which will control, among other things, the planning, scheduling and operation of the festival and provides for the recovery of city funds advanced for marketing and promoting the festival."
Funds used for security, parking and traffic control, and maintenance would not be reimbursed, officials said, with some discussion revolving around the idea that advertising monies recovered might be used to help finance future festivals.
Prior to the vote, city officials and department heads, festival organizers, and members of the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce were given opportunity to participate in the discussion.
"We’re very pleased that Jefferson has been selected as the site of the 2017 Harry Potter Festival USA, Mayor Dale Oppermann said. "We have an experienced local support team … Many of our team members have extensive experience safely managing crowds of this expected magnitude," he added. During discussions, organizers offered early crowd size projections for 2017 of 15,000 to 20,000. Read more: Milton News
Janesville jobs market brightest in Wisconsin
The Janesville area closed out 2016 with
unemployment falling and new jobs popping up at a clip greater than any other metro
area in Wisconsin, according to state data released late this week.
Year-end employment numbers showed that between December 2015
and December 2016, the Janesville-Beloit metro area had a net gain of 2,400
jobs.
That's a year-over-year gain that surpasses activity in job
markets in all 12 metro areas statewide—including neighboring Dane County,
according to a monthly labor report from the state
Department of Workforce Development.
Overall, the Janesville area's jobs gain between December 2015
and December 2016 made up for just under 10 percent of overall job growth
statewide during the same period, according to data in the labor report.
And the unemployment rate here fell nearly 1 percentage point
between December 2016 and a year earlier—from 4.6 percent to 3.8 percent.
Unemployment here edged up marginally from 3.8 percent in
November to 3.9 percent last month.
Still, it was the fourth straight month with Janesville area
unemployment under 4 percent. That's a continued trend of local joblessness not
seen since 2000. Read more: Gazette Extra
Fox Cities Chamber event: Speaker
says economy is better than people think
In the midst of giving an economic forecast speech Wednesday, a strategist told a crowd of 500 people not to put too much stock in economic forecasts.
“Actual results rarely match forecasts. Economic forecasting is a fool’s errand,” said William Delwiche, Baird’s investment strategist and speaker at the Fox Cities Chamber’s annual Economic Outlook Breakfast at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel.
Hard, cold facts are what matter, he said, and they're now showing that the economy is turning a corner.
“The economy is doing better than a lot of people think. Improvement has already begun. It’s not contingent on policy going forward. We’ve sown the seeds already."
Delwiche cited improved statistics from housing, inventories and the Purchasing Managers’ Index as proof.
The GDP, which has been below 3 percent for years, can rise above that mark and return to its healthy 1980s and 1990s levels, he believes.
“We are so conditioned for sub-par growth. The economy has been in a slow growth mode for a decade or decade-and-a-half. We’re finally starting to emerge from that. We’ve got some momentum. In retrospect we’ll be able to say ‘Aha! This was the moment,’” he said.
"The hope of progress is out there, and that is enough to unleash the ‘animal spirits’ in the economy that have been pent up for too long,” he said, using the term made famous by John Maynard Keynes.
“The feeling is positive, and that’s how it starts. What has been missing is the belief that things are getting better.”
Changes in Washington, D.C. are a “tailwind on top of that,” Delwiche said. Read more: Post-Crescent
Chamber
news: Burlington offers new Hot Chocolate Fest
Chocolate: It’s not just a
springtime celebration anymore.
Burlington — Wisconsin’s
Chocolate City and home of May’s annual ChocolateFest — plans to keep the
flavorful festivities flowing this winter and beyond with a new event called
Hot Chocolate Fest, set for Feb. 10-12.
In addition to celebrating
its namesake, hot chocolate, the three-day festival will be a seasonal
celebration, featuring a variety of outdoor activities including a Pond Hockey
Tournament, open ice skating, pick-up broom ball games and the Cabin Fever 5K
Run. Attendees will also have the opportunity to share stories and s’mores
around a campfire with members of the Burlington Fire Department both Friday
and Saturday.
And, on Saturday, they can
enter a snowman-decorating contest and have their photo taken with Milwaukee
Admirals mascot Roscoe and Morsel the Moose, the Chocolate City U.S.A. mascot,
among other activities.
Just because it is cold
outside, doesn’t mean there isn’t fun to be had out there, said Jan Ludtke,
executive director of the Burlington Area Chamber of Commerce. “It’s fun to
have something to look forward to at this time of year,” Ludtke said.
Tasty offerings
Much of the weekend’s fun
will take place in Echo Park, 595 Milwaukee Ave., beginning with Hot Chocolate
Fest’s opening ceremony at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 10, and continuing through the
championship game of the Pond Hockey Tournament, scheduled for Saturday night,
Feb. 11, and the Cabin Fever 5K Run on Sunday morning. There will also be hot
chocolate- and chili-tasting contests on Saturday, with tastings offered at a
variety of restaurants and other businesses in the Downtown Burlington area.
To participate in the hot
chocolate- and chili-tasting contests, attendees must purchase a $5 tasting
ticket (a separate ticket for each contest), which entitles them to sample a
variety of hot chocolate or chili, and cast votes for their favorites. Tickets
can be purchased in advance at the Burlington Area Chamber of Commerce (beginning
Feb. 6), 113 E. Chestnut St., or at Echo Park and participating tasting
locations on event day, Ludtke said. Read more: Journal Times
Greater
Madison Chamber interest: Millennials flocking to mid-size cities, survey shows
A new survey shows
millennials are flocking to mid-sized cities across the country, including
Madison.
The survey, from employment
recruiter Career Builder, found that younger workers are flocking to mid-sized
cities with strong technology sectors and more affordable costs of
living.
Madison took the top spot
in the survey, seeing the greatest increase in workers between 22 and 34 years
old. According to the survey, millennials now make up
just over 30 percent of Madison's workforce, a 3 percent increase from 2001, something
the city's chamber of commerce said is exactly what the city has been trying to
do.
"The
things we are doing in greater Madison are actually moving the needle and
bucking a Midwest trend -- young people are leaving the Midwest -- but cities
like Madison have figured out how to be a hot spot for this type of
talent," Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce President Zach Brandon said.
Read more: Channel 3000
Christmas Train Riders Donate 2,000
Pounds of Food to Local Pantries
Volunteers from the East Troy
Railroad Museum delivered more than 2,000 pounds of food to pantries that
served needy families in East Troy and Mukwonago this past December. Families
riding on the railroad’s Christmas Express trains donated the food. More than
4,200 people enjoyed the Christmas Express train rides to “Santa’s Workshop” at
the Elegant Farmer.
“We had a big increase in ridership compared to last year,” according to Ryan Jonas, president of the East Troy Railroad Museum. “But there was an even bigger increase in the amount of food our passengers donated. It was really exciting for us to be able to deliver a pickup truck full of food after each Christmas Train weekend.”
Because of the large amount of food, Jonas said the railroad decided to deliver half of the donations to Mukwonago’s pantry and half to the East Troy pantry. He added that the railroad is trying to establish more of a presence in Mukwonago, and donating food to the Mukwonago food bank is just one way to do that. Last year, the railroad began running regular trains into Mukwonago’s Indianhead Park for the first time.
The annual "Christmas Parade Train," held this year on Dec. 3, was also a big success, according to Jonas. The railroad used three historic interurban railroad cars, which offered more seating than in past years. The engine leading the train was loaded with computer-driven lighting equipment, adding to the excitement of spectators waiting along the railroad.
The Christmas Parade Train is presented in conjunction with the East Troy Area Chamber of Commerce and Mukwonago Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Center. The East Troy Jaycees and the East Troy Railroad started the East Troy Christmas Parade Train in 1972. It was designed to replicate the Schuster’s Christmas Parade Trains, held in Milwaukee until the mid 1950s.
MMAC partnership: TPI aims to boost manufacturing productivity
by 40 percent
Wisconsin manufacturers are being called upon to lead the charge
to improve productivity, to boost the state’s economy.
“Productivity equals prosperity,” said Lee Swindall, vice president
of sector strategy development with the Wisconsin Economic Development
Corporation (WEDC).
The WEDC has joined the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension
Partnership (WMEP) and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce
(MMAC) to address drains on productivity.
Together, they have launched the Transformation Productivity
Initiative (TPI), a diagnostic assessment and strategy implementation with the
goal of reaching a dramatic 40 percent productivity improvement within 18
months.
“It’s very ambitious,” Swindall said. “But we’ve been literally
flat in manufacturing productivity since 2004. I was flummoxed. We have a major
productivity problem.”
What’s more, the combination of rising real wages and declining
productivity is a recipe for inflation, he added.
The manufacturing sector is being targeted because it is
responsible for almost 19 percent of the state’s total GDP, and manufacturing
employment makes up over 16 percent of the state’s workforce.
But Wisconsin ranks 33rd in productivity performance, according to
Swindall.
“We have a responsibility to do this. We need to start attacking
it now,” he said.
Various diagnostic pathways will be examined through the TPI
program, including supply chain management, enterprise resource utilization,
technology, human capital management and return on new investment.
An initiative already underway showcases a successful effort to
boost productivity. The WMEP’s Profitable Sustainability Initiative recognizes
the connection between sustainability and efficiency.
Swindall noted that PSI had its early skeptics, but has proven
highly successful.
“Many of the companies we approached early on about PSI said you
aren’t going to achieve much,” Swindall said. “But it got companies to change.
We know there are opportunities there with TPI.”
The beta phase of the program is expected to be completed within a
year
“I detect unusually high enthusiasm for this,” Swindall said. “I’m
gratified that the world is waking up.” Read more: BizTimes.com
Town Square Chamber Membership Directories and Community
Profiles: The best in Wisconsin
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Chambers of Commerce and
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Fort
Atkinson Chamber of Commerce holds changing of guard
The Fort Atkinson Area Chamber of Commerce held its changing of the guard Wednesday as members gathered for the organization’s 118th annual dinner.
The event took place at the Fireside Dinner Theatre.
Officers installed for 2017 are President David Witte of Spacesaver Corp., Vice President Luke Smith of LSM Chiropractic, Treasurer Eric Frey of Business & Tax Systems, President-Elect Tom Dehnert of Badger Bank and Executive Director and Secretary Carrie Chisholm.
“When I enlisted in the Marine Corps, I had an uncle that told me to keep my head down and not to volunteer for anything,” Witte said following his installation as chamber president. “As you can see, that lesson didn’t stick!
“It is an honor and privilege to be asked by my peers to lead the chamber as its president,” he added. “I am looking forward to serving with the dedicated members of the board of directors and the chamber staff.”
Witte said he first was exposed to the chamber in 2012 when he joined the 25th Project LEAD leadership class. Over nine months, the group transformed into a cohesive team that planned, raised funds and executed the veteran’s memorial project at McCoy Park.
It was through this experience that I was able to get a sneak peek into the inner workings of the chamber, the city council and some of the great manufacturers that call Fort Atkinson home,” said Witte. “This experience opened my eyes to what a special community Fort Atkinson was and still is today.” Read more: Daily Union
The Fort Atkinson Area Chamber of Commerce held its changing of the guard Wednesday as members gathered for the organization’s 118th annual dinner.
The event took place at the Fireside Dinner Theatre.
Officers installed for 2017 are President David Witte of Spacesaver Corp., Vice President Luke Smith of LSM Chiropractic, Treasurer Eric Frey of Business & Tax Systems, President-Elect Tom Dehnert of Badger Bank and Executive Director and Secretary Carrie Chisholm.
“When I enlisted in the Marine Corps, I had an uncle that told me to keep my head down and not to volunteer for anything,” Witte said following his installation as chamber president. “As you can see, that lesson didn’t stick!
“It is an honor and privilege to be asked by my peers to lead the chamber as its president,” he added. “I am looking forward to serving with the dedicated members of the board of directors and the chamber staff.”
Witte said he first was exposed to the chamber in 2012 when he joined the 25th Project LEAD leadership class. Over nine months, the group transformed into a cohesive team that planned, raised funds and executed the veteran’s memorial project at McCoy Park.
It was through this experience that I was able to get a sneak peek into the inner workings of the chamber, the city council and some of the great manufacturers that call Fort Atkinson home,” said Witte. “This experience opened my eyes to what a special community Fort Atkinson was and still is today.” Read more: Daily Union
Baileys
Harbor Tree contest winner
If you
recall, the Baileys Harbor Community Association sponsored an "Adopt A
Tree" program before the holidays. Individuals and organizations in town
were encouraged to adopt one of the Christmas trees lining our downtown on Hwy.
57. Each tree was uniquely decorated and were an interesting change this year.
Residents were invited to vote for their favorite tree. The winner will be
featured on the BHCA website and on the 2017 Harbor Holiday poster. Well, it
turns out that the Harbor Girls made up of Lesley and Shawna Anschutz and
Tracey and Kierra Rockwell were the winners of the decorating contest. Their
entry was named the Packer Tree and was decorated appropriately. The tree will
stay up until the Packers are done playing for the season. The tree just may be
their lucky charm. Read more: Green Bay Press-Gazette
Fox Cities
Chamber highlights successes in 2016
The Fox
Cities Chamber recently provided its annual Report to the Community showcasing
its successes in 2016.
The annual
event featured stories told by Chamber stakeholders in three areas: inspiring
community, investing in people and strengthening business.
A few
highlights about the Chamber revealed there are 1,014 total members, 75 new
members, 32 total Pulse events with more than 6,000 attendees, 39 Leadership
Fox Cities graduates in Spring 2016, and 2,600 student attendees and 48
participating businesses at the 10th annual Eighth Grade Career Expo.
Inspiring
community: The Fox Cities Chamber recognizes the importance of community-wide
initiatives that bring together people, businesses and organizations that
positively impact the local economy, and improve the quality of life for
everyone. These initiatives include Bazaar After Dark, Octoberfest and YP Week.
Investing
in people: The speakers talked about the Chamber’s programming that attracts
and retains talent in the Fox Cities. They explained how the Chamber connects
young students with local employers, while also providing employers with
retention tools that give participants a sense of community engagement. Read
more: Post Crescent
SSI wins Forward Janesville's Business of the Year Award
Forward Janesville honored a local company Thursday whose
blossoming in recent years has been quiet—even by company's own admission.
Janesville-based SSI Technologies garnered Forward Janesville's
2017 Business of the Year Award for large corporations at the chamber of
commerce's annual awards banquet.
It's the first time in 16 years of Forward Janesville running
the awards banquet that it has awarded SSI the coveted award, one of a number
of awards the group gives out.
SSI, which produces automated controls and powder-coated
products for the automotive and industrial technologies industries, got the
award at a time when the company is seeing continued growth across its seven
locations—three of which are in Janesville.
Senior Vice President Bruce Corner accepted the award in front
of about 400 people during a luncheon at the Pontiac Convention Center.
Corner, a 25-year company employee, chronicled the company's two
divisions: SSI-Controls Technologies and SSI-Sintered Specialties.
Since the company was founded in 1982 as an offshoot of Parker
Pen, it has grown from a one-facility industry producing about $4 million in
revenue to a much larger corporation.
In 2017, revenues could approach $200 million, Corner said.
In the last two years, the company has opened an engineering
division in Germany and a 60,000-square-foot sensor and controls manufacturing
facility in the Czech Republic. That's along with a 125,000-square-foot
expansion to its world headquarters and manufacturing facilities on Palmer
Drive in Janesville.
Corner said SSI's Sintered Specialties division is now the
nation's largest manufacturer of powdered metal automotive and nonautomotive
components, and he called the company the world's “preeminent” producer of
automated sensing devices and controls for automotive and heavy vehicle exhaust
systems.
“All from a little company in Janesville, Wisconsin,” Corner
said.
In 2009, SSI was generating $38 million in revenue. At that
time, during the heart of a downturn that knocked the national automotive
industry flat, SSI employed about 270 people in Janesville. Read more: Gazette Extra
Chamber interest: Ten Manufacturing
Trends to Watch in 2017
As the New Year begins, the editorial team at the Manufacturing
Leadership Council offers its predictions for the year ahead. Contributors to
this blog include David R. Brousell, Jeff Moad, Sankara Narayanan, and Paul
Tate.
Trade Tensions Loom as Global Uncertainty Dominates 2017
Political upheavals during 2016 in both the U.S. and Europe have
created unprecedented levels of uncertainty about the freedom of international
trade for manufacturing companies over the next decade. The prospects of a
major trade deal between the U.S. and 12 Pacific Rim countries, known as the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), now seem dead in the water following
statements by the incoming Trump Administration to abandon the deal. A similar
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal with Europe is
stalled. And the U.K.’s Brexit vote last June has thrown the traditional trade
relationships between many European companies into disarray and could take up
to a decade to resolve. Large corporations may be able to negotiate their way
through the minefield of future trade agreements, but small- and medium-sized
manufacturing enterprises will need to be vigilant and flexible if they wish to
maintain broad and open access to key export markets around the world.
The Coming Collision Between Jobs and Automation
Faced with a dramatically changing political environment
stressing nationalism and protectionism, U.S. manufacturing’s profile will rise
in 2017 as the debate over how best to expand manufacturing jobs takes place.
That debate will become increasingly illuminated by a growing understanding
that automation, in contrast to off-shoring, has played a key role in not only
job elimination in the past but also in defining what jobs and skills are
needed in the future. It will also become increasingly clear to policy makers
that automation isn’t slowing down, and that the adoption of advanced
automation and information technologies will continue to result in not only
further low skill level job losses but also fewer mid-level positions, exposing
the fragility of the idea of “bringing back” jobs to the U.S. This dichotomy
will force a national conversation about how far industry should automate in
relation to needed employment, once again pitting those who perceive the
emerging digital global economy as a tailwind against those who perceive it as
a headwind.
The Skills Shortage Hits Home
Meanwhile, the ongoing debate about whether the manufacturing
skills shortage is real will finally come to an end. A growing U.S. economy,
lower unemployment levels, and expected lower taxes on businesses under the new
Trump Administration will spell accelerated expansion and an increased need for
more manufacturing workers, engineers, and managers. At the same time, the push
toward Manufacturing 4.0 will create a growing demand for software engineers in
manufacturing. The result: Manufacturers that have already created a
Next-Generation Workforce strategy and supply chain will prosper, while others
will struggle to attract the human capital needed to take advantage of new
opportunities.
M4.0: It Will Resemble a “Digital Wagon Train”
The journey to Manufacturing 4.0, the next wave of industrial
progress built on digital technologies that many manufacturers are now
beginning to undertake, will come to resemble a “digital wagon train”,
traveling slowly, at times haltingly as companies come to grips with the fact
that M4.0 is much more of a cultural and leadership transformation than a
technological challenge, requiring deep changes in leadership orientation and
practices to deal with the complex, multi-layered transition to M4.0.
Manufacturing leaders will need to make tough decisions about vision, strategy,
alignment, execution, and culture to achieve the promise of M4.0. The challenge
will come down to whether leaders are personally ready for the epochal
transformation in front of them. Spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical
energies will need to be harnessed as much as adopting and integrating new
technologies.
M4.0: Manufacturing Leaders Must Broaden Their Horizons
As part of that reorientation, manufacturing leaders will also
be required to broaden their horizons as Manufacturing 4.0 creates new,
digitally-enabled opportunities to enhance operational efficiency by building
new workflows that link previously isolated functions such as manufacturing,
supply chain, and new product development. Leaders will be forced to gain
deeper knowledge of how other, contiguous functions work in order to understand
the opportunities for cross-functional collaboration, ultimately resulting
greater customer value. And manufacturing leaders will be expected not just to
understand how contiguous functions work, they will need to be able to build
stronger alliances so that they can influence decisions made across functional
boundaries.
Machine Learning and AI Enter the Mainstream
Having spent much of the past decade perfecting the sensing,
collection, and organization of data from the plant floor and across the supply
chain, manufacturers in 2017 will get serious about leveraging a new generation
of deep machine learning, artificial intelligence, and natural language tools
that will not only turn all of that data into new, real-time insights about how
the business is operating, but also deliver valuable recommendations for
improving operations or even heading off problems. Already, for example,
manufacturers are applying machine learning protocols to detailed part quality,
product testing, and field performance data to quickly isolate and fix the
underlying causes of quality problems.
The Digital Thread Stitches Together the Supply Chain
Until now, manufacturers have tended to aim their Manufacturing
4.0 initiatives at cutting costs and improving efficiency of internal processes
such as equipment maintenance and quality. Increasingly, however,
manufacturers—particularly those that rely on partners for production and
assembly—will endeavor to build platforms that securely give external partners
access to the “Digital Thread.” These digital platforms will enable visibility
into product and design change data and applications that enable collaboration.
The result will be reduced part tooling costs, increased design reuse, faster
and less expensive prototyping, and much more flexible production.
Blockchain To Emerge as New “Trust” Platform for Manufacturing
Value Chains
Originally developed to support the Bitcoin digital
cryptocurrency, the ability of the underlying blockchain technology to create
deeply-encrypted, immutable records in a highly-secure distributed ledger will
become increasingly important as a way to increase trust between collaborating
manufacturing enterprises. In 2017, blockchain technology will begin to be
developed and adopted by innovative manufacturing companies as a more secure,
and ultimately disintermediating approach to creating more agile supply chains
that can automatically negotiate and close new financial and supply-side
partnership deals, ensure IP protection, provide trusted proof of product
provenance and certification, and ratify material traceability and
transparency.
Manufacturing Cybersecurity Threats Demand Urgent Rethink
Increased connectivity as part of a Manufacturing 4.0
transformation strategy will inevitably create greater vulnerability to digital
disruption, interference, and malicious attack for the world’s manufacturers.
One in five manufacturing companies already report that cybersecurity concerns
have materially slowed, or prevented, one or more Manufacturing 4.0 projects or
initiatives, according to the latest Manufacturing Leadership Council
Cybersecurity survey. Over half also believe that in the next five years,
cybersecurity concerns could hinder the speed and scope of adoption of M4.0
technologies and approaches in some way. Traditional cybersecurity policies are
no longer adequate in this increasingly connected, data-driven world.
Manufacturers of all sizes will need to rethink, redesign, or radically improve
their cybersecurity strategies to better protect key assets, networks,
products, and personnel as they move along their journey to Manufacturing 4.0
in the year ahead.
Use of Advanced Analytical Software to Increase
Manufacturers will strive to hone their skills in using advanced
analytical software, already one of the most desired technologies, to not only
improve decision-making but also to identify new business models and
opportunities. Expect to see many companies extend their expertise with the
software from a largely diagnostic activity today to increasingly predictive
and even prescriptive undertakings with the technology. Building the capability
to travel this maturity curve with the software will determine which companies
create new competitive advantages, potentially enabling them to disrupt and
even reshape their markets.
Chamber collaboration: Reedsburg
council moves forward with ‘Discover Wisconsin’
Reedsburg is one step
closer to potentially being featured on “Discover Wisconsin.”
Common Council approved a
proposal giving the city administrator the authority to sign a contract with
Discover Mediaworks. The vote was unanimous during council’s regular meeting
Jan. 23.
City Administrator Stephen
Compton said the City would partner with the Reedsburg Area Chamber of Commerce
to fund the $40,000 project. The City would be responsible for $21,600, and the
chamber would cover the rest.
Some of the money has
already been set aside in the budget for this year, Compton said.
It costs nearly $219,000
per episode but Discover Mediaworks can offer the service for $40,000 thanks to
sponsors, said Greg Smith, the company’s managing director. Besides creating
the episode, the company also needs to buy airtime. Many people believe the
show is on public television but it has always been on cable, he said. The
businesses that advertise during the show bear the brunt of expenses.
Reedsburg’s episode would
air three times over a two-year period, he said. If filming took place this
year, the show could debut in 2018 or 2019 and would air in 8 states. Episodes
are a little over 20 minutes long, but run for a half hour with commercials.
Smith said Discover
Mediaworks would collaborate with the chamber of commerce to highlight
different kinds of events and attractions throughout the year. Read more: Reedsburg Times-Press
Top Five Daily Postings in the last month at Midwest Chamber of Commerce
Daily News – click to go there or Google search “Midwest Chamber of Commerce
Daily News”
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Last
Month’s Stories
Wisconsin Manufacturer of the
Year Award nominees announced Portage Daily Register
Coastal Young Professionals:
Katelyn Braun thrives in Sheboygan Sheboygan Press
Pat
McGaughey: Chamber Mentor - Pick One of 3 Goals to make 2017
Happier
Goal #1
Call 5 inactive members every week in the next 50 weeks (250 calls) *
Call 5 inactive members every week in the next 50 weeks (250 calls) *
Goal #2
Put a major focus on your
social media communication strategy. **
Goal #3
Promote and support 30
min. meeting agendas to increase volunteer engagement.***
(Give volunteers 15
minutes to travel to and 15 minutes to travel back. Be dynamic.) More: Pat McGaughey
Kenosha chamber partnership: Initiative seeks to lure talented
workforce to Kenosha County Kenosha News
Jefferson
branding effort set Daily Union
Burlington Chamber hosts dinner, auction
Chamber interest: WisDOT will give I-39/90/94 presentation in
Lodi Lodi Enterprise
If you would like
delivery of a chamber directory, community profile or map in July/August, 2017,
please contact me at your earliest convenience, or Click
here
Do you
have a story idea?
If you know of a chamber news item that you would like to be included in the CHAMBER EXECUTIVE WISCONSIN INTELLIGENCE REPORT or the MIDWEST CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DAILY NEWS, please email me at jdussman@tspubs.com or call me at (847)-427-4633. Thank you.
If you know of a chamber news item that you would like to be included in the CHAMBER EXECUTIVE WISCONSIN INTELLIGENCE REPORT or the MIDWEST CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DAILY NEWS, please email me at jdussman@tspubs.com or call me at (847)-427-4633. Thank you.
John Dussman
John Dussman | Chamber Manager
jdussman@tspubs.com | 847-427-4633 | Town Square Publications
Daily Herald Media Group
155 E. Algonquin Road | Arlington Heights, IL 60005
jdussman@tspubs.com | 847-427-4633 | Town Square Publications
Daily Herald Media Group
155 E. Algonquin Road | Arlington Heights, IL 60005
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