Early Stage Symposium follow up

The Wisconsin Technology Council's Early Stage Symposium was a big success. This is our area's premier event for investors and growth businesses.

There were a record number of attendees and many great seminars. This was the first time to my knowledge that this organization has included food in its program of topics. I believe the addition of the food track helped boost attendance numbers. All of the food seminars were packed.

My friend, and fellow participant our Iowa County economic development work, John Biondi made the best presentation about one of the coolest companies I've ever seen, Xolve. John is CEO of Xolve. Xolve is in the national CleanTech finals this week in San Francisco. This is a major accomplishment. Please check out their link below. Best wishes to everyone at Xolve from all of us in your community, your state, and your region!

Governor-elect Scott Walker gave one of the keynotes, and I was energized by his goal of starting 10,000 new businesses during his first term. We're building a model to crank out new enterprises and grow our existing Wisconsin food businesses. I'm watching it work: The team behind the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen has helped individuals start new businesses, helped existing Wisconsin businesses to grow and has processed well over 25,000 pounds of local foods from our wonderful Wisconsin family farms.

This all happened in their first 3 months of kitchen operations.

When the Highland food processing center comes on line our region will be able to kick it up another notch. There are many new businesses that can be created in both rural and urban communities using these models.

I sincerely believe these kinds of value added food platforms can help our state get to Governor-elect Walker's goal of 10,000 new businesses in 4 years.

Good luck this week John and everyone at Xolve at the CleanTech Open finals this coming week. Break a nano particle!



The CleanTech Open Awards ceremony. Wed. Nov. 17. Congratulations to everyone at Xolve for this amazing achievement!

Wisconsin Technology Council's overview of the symposium and Governor-elect Walker's opportunities. Great to hear the food cluster discussed so prominently. The Bill Joos interview at the end is great.

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen, which is owned and operated by the Hodan Center, in beautiful Iowa County, Wisconsin.

I was fortunate to share a panel with my friend Michael Gay from the City of Madison's economic development team, who also farms in beautiful Iowa County, Wisconsin. This is a great online interview Michael shared with In Business Magazine's Coffee with Michael Gay.