Elite young Chinese scholars to visit Iowa County Economic Development and the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

I'm honored to learn our Iowa County economic development work has been selected by an elite group of young Chinese scholars for a visit this summer. They are being sponsored by the The Environment & Public Health Network for Chinese Students and Scholars (ENCSS).

We especially look forward to discussing our economic development work with local foods and regional food systems at the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

This effort can make significant contributions to environmental and public health issues.

Here are some quotes from the ENCSS web site (below)...

"Fifty elite Chinese sophomores and juniors with 'Key High School' status will take part in an environmental research and enrichment program in the Midwest this summer."

"The 18-day program -- now planned for Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois – will unite the Chinese students and some of their teachers with American peers for the program established by the Environment and Public Health Network for Chinese Students and Scholars (ENCSS), headquartered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison."

"The Environment & Public Health Network for Chinese Students and Scholars (ENCSS) is a network that connects students, scholars, business, and government institutions in China, U.S. and other countries to improve the environment and public health. We share knowledge, opportunity, resources, and responsibility by facilitating collaboration, sustainable relationships and the development of people and organizations."

It is my understanding that our visitors will be from Key High Schools in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangdong, and Hubei.

I look forward to joining this wonderful conversation. I believe environmental, public health, and economic development issues are closely tied together. If the world can improve these collaboratively and sustainably, this century will be ranked among the most positive in history.

I can't wait to meet our young scholars from China! Welcome!


Environment and Public Health Network for Chinese Students and Scholars (ENCSS).

Download the ENCSS brochure. PDF

Iowa County (WI) Economic Development. Come Grow With Us.

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

My family ties to great friends in China.

I think the ENCSS logo show above is very effective. Created by Population Design.

Congratulations Milwaukee Region Food and Beverage Industry Network launch!

The Milwaukee region is a global food capital with many of the best opportunities in the world for growing food companies and brands.

I shared a great evening last week in Milwaukee with old and new friends at the launch of the new Milwaukee 7 Food and Beverage Industry Network.

What a wonderful roll-out of a great new effort for the Milwaukee region and Wisconsin!

Thanks to my friend, Shelley Jurewicz, Executive Director of FaB Milwaukee, and Advisory Council Co-Chairs Eric Olesen (Co-Owner/President, O&H Danish Bakery), Giacomo Fallucca, (President/CEO, Palermo's Pizza), and Cathy Henry, (President/COO, Sysco Food Services).

Here is how FaB Milwaukee describes their wonderful approach:

"LOCALLY GROWN. REGIONALLY MADE. CONSUMED AROUND THE WORLD."

"We are the growers, makers, bakers, brewers, bottlers, innovators, educators, owners, scientists, farmers, distributors, grocers and restaurateurs that bring us, and the world, our food and drink. Are you hungry for more?"

Check out these amazing Milwaukee region stats:

12 global food companies have their world headquarters here.

7 of the 11 world's largest food manufacturers are here.

#1 - Highest concentration of workers in the food industry.

#3 - Third highest concentration of food scientists in the U.S.

243 Food Manufacturers call this home. 14,170 food and beverage manufacturing employees. $582 million in food and beverage payroll.

#1 region in U.S. for water supply. Milwaukee designated by United Nations as a world center for freshwater expertise.

#1 Best metro location from natural disasters.

Nation's leader in urban agriculture.


Supported by our amazing Wisconsin stats:

#1 for cheese, beans, cranberries and ginseng

#2 for butter, milk, dairy cows

#2 for organic production

#3 for carrots, potatoes, peas, sweet corn

#4 for maple syrup, oats, tart cherries

#5 for cucumbers, mint

#5 for food manufactured products

#9 in agricultural products shipped.

The Milwaukee M7 / FaB core strategies call for our region to lead in sustainable food industry innovations including Innovation Kitchens. Great opportunities and partnerships are emerging in one of the most exciting cities and regions in the world, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Congratulations Milwaukee area Food and Beverage Industry Network! Forward!


FaB Milwaukee Congratulations on an inspiring launch!

Direct link to FaB Milwaukee video

FaB Milwaukee Core Strategies /Targeted Outcomes / Targeted Actions. PDF format.

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Little Free Libraries and the Innovation Kitchen

My friend Rick Brooks (photo) helped bring the remarkable Little Free Library phenomenon to life. They started this amazing idea in the Madison, WI neighborhood where we raised our family.

Little Free Libraries are just that - small (20-30 book) libraries put up and cared for by private citizens and organizations around the world.

Rick and friends just received significant and well deserved media attention for their work.

At the link below you can hear and see many great recent shout-outs to the Little Free Library, including NBC Nightly News (Using Books to Build Community), and USA Today (Little Free Libraries are taking root on lawns).

Rick and I got to catch up at a Something Special from Wisconsin event in Milwaukee this week.

What a great mission the Little Free Library is on: "Building a sense of community and a love of reading. A worldwide movement to promote literacy, libraries and more."

We'll make Little Free Libraries part of our Innovation Kitchen story going forward. Congratulations Rick and Little Free Libraries!


Little Free Library. Keep up the great work!

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Something Special from Wisconsin

The key to sustainability in food or any business

Organizations don't get a bottom line until they can create and grow a top line.

That means revenue.

No organization can survive on wishful thinking. You have to sell something. You have to create continuing revenue. You have to fix a problem, provide a needed service, or create innovations that make life better.

Without sales and revenue coming in, the idea of a sustainable bottom line is a myth.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen offers a powerful tool for food based businesses, especially restaurants, to grow sales and revenues by creating and selling their own private label food brands. More options mean more ways for customers to buy. More options. More customers. More revenue.

You don't get a bottom line until you create and grow a top line.


Innovation Kitchen

Iowa County Wisconsin Poultry!

Iowa County, Wisconsin is an amazing place with wonderful economic development opportunities unfolding every day, especially in sustainable agriculture and regional food systems.

Our Iowa County Poultry group is moving to the next level in 2012.

This is a fun bunch, including some of our Iowa County Economic Development Board members.

I believe deeply in this kind of local economic development. Our Iowa County poultry group is growing right into a big regional opportunity. Thanks to all involved!

Save the date: Our Iowa County poultry group is sponsoring a free seminar on April 14th in Dodgeville, WI:

“Raising Meat Poultry for Fun and Profit”

Selecting a Breed
How to Start Chicks
Food: Organic vs. Commercial
Supplies/Requirements
Raising Chickens for Market
Marketing
Health Benefits
Economic Benefits
Financial Benefits
Making Portable Pens
Processing Chickens
Chicken Finance 101

When: Saturday, April 14, 2012

Where: Sam and Maddies Restaurant, Dodgeville, WI

Time: 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Registration: Eventbrite

Many thanks to our Iowa County Poultry group for a great launch of a very cool enterprise. This is really going to be fun!

Local foods and effective regional food systems are a great economic development asset for all involved. Iowa County, Wisconsin continues to lead in many areas of this work.

Download our Iowa County Poultry seminar info.

Register for this event via Eventbrite

Iowa County Area Economic Development, my wonderfully diverse day job.

An inspiring evening with the Inspiration Corporation!

I greatly enjoyed a wonderful evening with new friends at the Inspiration Corporation's annual fundraiser, 'One Inspired Evening', Friday in Chicago.

It was an inspiring gathering in a really cool setting. I'm flat-out smitten with the amazing work of their Inspiration Kitchens in Garfield Park and Uptown. What a creative and effective vision for community based economic development and social change.

The Inspiration Corporation provides many other valuable and much needed community services. I love their tag line: Inspiration Corporation. Catalyst for self-reliance.

I met many new friends including the Inspiration Corporation's Board Chair, Neal Kulick, their amazing founder, Lisa Nigro (photo), and Executive Director and CEO, Shannon Stewart.

The 'Welcome' page in this year's event handout gives a great overview of the Inspiration Corporation's valuable work:

"In an atmosphere of dignity and respect, Inspiration Corporation helps people that are affected by homelessness and poverty to improve their lives and increase self-sufficiency through the provision of social services, employment training and placement, and housing."

"Last year we are proud to say that Inspiration Corporation assisted more than 3,000 individuals that faced homelessness, poverty, and other barriers to self-sufficiency such as recent incarceration."

Thank you for the invitation and thanks to all the event organizers including Honorary Chair, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

I could not be more inspired about the vision of the Inspiration Corporation and especially their Inspiration Kitchens! Thank you for all your great work. Forward!


Inspiration Corporation. Thank you Inspiration Corporation for One Inspired Evening!

Inspiration Kitchens. Thank you Lisa Nigro for your vision and entrepreneurial spirit! My kind of sustainable work!

Earlier post about the Inspiration Kitchens. Dine well. Do good.

Lisa Nigro's wonderful new non-profit, Transform U. Transform U supports individuals with cognitive disabilities in achieving fitness goals and in becoming certified peer fitness trainers for other individuals with cognitive disabilities. A spectacular social enterprise startup that's needed worldwide.

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen. An amazing community-based food processing facility in Iowa County Wisconsin, owned by the Hodan Center, a 501c3 Non-profit serving the goals of people with disabilities.

Inspiration Corporation's wonderful event 'One Inspired Evening' was hosted at the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Union Hall, in the West Loop. This is a really beautiful venue!

Food and jobs - "Don't Mock the Artisinal Pickle Makers"

Our Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is helping pioneer new business models for developing sustainable artisan food businesses. We are helping to create new tools and markets for growing businesses and creating jobs through local foods and regional food systems.

There was a great story in the New York Times recently, by Adam Davidson of NPR's Planet Money.

This idea of small batch manufacturing has been emerging and getting better all my life. It was the core of our business model for the 25 years we ran our first startup.

Now I have the honor to work with the emerging capacity of the Innovation Kitchens to make small batch artisan foods for safe, legal, commercial sale to the public.

This is a great way to grow new businesses, create jobs, and rebuild the economy.

The quotes below are from the New York Times (emphasis added).

Don't Mock the Artisinal Pickle Makers

"It's tempting to look at craft businesses as simply a rejection of modern industrial capitalism. But the craft approach is actually something new — a happy refinement of the excesses of our industrial era..."

"As other countries move into mass production, the United States, even in the depths of economic doldrums, has a level of wealth that translates to fewer people willing to do dreary, assembly-line work at extremely low wages. More significant, we're entering an era of hyperspecialization. Huge numbers of middle-class people are now able to make a living specializing in something they enjoy, including creating niche products for other middle-class people who have enough money to indulge in buying things like high-end beef jerky."

"When it comes to profit and satisfaction, craft business is showing how American manufacturing can compete in the global economy. Many of the manufacturers who are thriving in the United States (they exist, I swear!) have done so by avoiding direct competition with low-cost commodity producers in low-wage nations. Instead, they have scrutinized the market and created customized products for less price-sensitive customers. Facebook and Apple, Starbucks and the Boston Beer Company (which makes Sam Adams lager) show that people who identify and meet untapped needs can create thousands of jobs and billions in wealth. As our economy recovers, there will be nearly infinite ways to meet custom needs at premium prices."

The Innovation Kitchen model can help artisan food entrepreneurs from across the US and from around the world operate legal, safe, food enterprises in North America while supporting great jobs for people in need. Get ready to expand your existing food business. Start one of your own. Join us!

Don't Mock the Artisinal Pickle Makers. New York Times

The new artisan economy, (an earlier blog post) quoted a great study to conclude, "The next ten years will see a re-emergence of artisans as an economic force."

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Graphic artist John Hendrix did the great graphic for the NYT piece shown above. John is a fabulous graphic artist with many credits and a great gallery at his site!

Congratulations Dr. Tim Lindsey and Caterpillar!

Amazing. Two friends from two completely different parts of my business life just joined forces.

In my recent business, we built oil and fluid recycling systems for industrial manufacturing plants around the globe. Among our best customers was Caterpillar. My wife's family also ran a manufacturing business that supplied Caterpillar for decades.

It's been great fun and a great learning experience to get to know my friend Dr. Tim Lindsey through our shared love of economic development via food and agriculture. Tim's recent work at the University of Illinois was done at a size and scale and quality that can transform the globe.

I believe he just got the chance. Tim has just joined Caterpillar as their Global Director of Sustainable Development.

Congratulations to all involved!

Here is a description of Tim's goals for Caterpillar from LinkedIn:

"Lead Caterpillar’s efforts to build a culture of sustainable development in all internal business units as well as with suppliers and customers. Team with Caterpillar business units and divisions to expand existing markets through strategies that improve system sustainability. Identify and create breakthrough opportunities for sustainable development that are not currently established."

I worked with Caterpillar for many years as a vendor of fluid recycling systems. Our first Caterpillar installations were at Aurora, IL, in their heat treating department. We rocked it, and the metallurgical engineers from Cat that managed our systems loved them. Caterpillar Aurora was one of the installations highlighted in our United States Small Business New Product of the Year Award from the National Society of Professional Engineers

I was on a panel with Tim at a recent conference in Chicago earlier this month.

I had the fun chance to tell the audience that the trouble with the placement of my presentation was that I was the only thing that stood between them and the amazing Dr. Tim Lindsey.

Congratulations Tim. Congratulations Caterpillar. It's a great honor to know you both. Rock it!

Caterpillar Sustainability

Dr. Tim Lindsey at LinkedIn

National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE)

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Thank you Again! The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies.

Fast Company magazine's listing of the world's 50 most innovative companies is out in their March issue.

A few years ago, Dave and I started and grew a new business with an investment of $3,000 each. We successfully designed, patented and manufactured amazing industrial fluid recycling systems during a significant decline in American manufacturing. We had great customers on 6 continents.

We were awarded Fast Company's Fast 50 Award in 2004.

The following year, we were honored by being chosen as the United States Small Business New Product of the Year Award, by the National Society of Professional Engineers.

I believe the work of the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is breaking new ground at this level. Annette (Food Service Director and Mistress of the Universe) and her team at the Innovation Kitchen are remarkable. This effort is creating good jobs for people with disabilities and new opportunities in the world of local foods. I could not be more inspired by the amazing new friends and co-workers I've made through the Hodan Center!

Congratulations to this year's Fast Company 'World's 50 Most Innovative Companies.' And thanks for the shout-out in 2004!

Fast Company full article

Fast Company direct to full list

Our 2004 Fast 50 Award

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Hodan Center Thank you! The Hodan Center owns and operates the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

Inspiration Kitchens. Dine well. Do good.

I just read an article about the Inspiration Kitchens in Chicago and I was beyond inspired.

It was my first introduction to this wonderful enterprise. Great idea. Amazing execution.

Then 'out of the blue' I made a cool new friend with strong connections to this organization.

Here is a short intro from the Inspiration Kitchens' site:

"We look forward to welcoming you to Inspiration Kitchens, the social enterprise restaurant of Inspiration Corporation! You'll enjoy contemporary American cuisine prepared and served by students and graduates of our award-winning food service training program.

Join us for memorable meals, friendly service, stylish atmosphere and the joy of giving hope and opportunity to students working to achieve self-sufficiency. Inspiration Kitchens has helped hundreds of individuals gain the skills they need to find employment and exit homelessness and poverty."

I believe there are many areas of possible collaboration between the Inspiration Kitchens and the Innovation Kitchens. The potential for building valuable, replicable, economic development outcomes for people in need through these kinds of joint efforts is significant and sustainable.

The Inspiration Kitchens idea was pioneered by Lisa Nigro. Ms. Nigro is now focusing on helping helping people with disabilities achieve personal and job goals. My kind of hero.

What wonderful stories are circulating and enriching our lives. Dine well. Do good. Thank you Inspiration Kitchens!


Inspiration Kitchens. You're going to love this.

Chicago Tribune article about this great enterprise. "On West Side, unemployed get chance to learn a recipe for success. Gourmet restaurant in struggling neighborhood offers free training."

Join this year's 20th Annual One Inspired Evening, March 2, 2012, a fundraising event for the Inspiration Corporation with honorary Chair, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. I hope to see you there!

Our Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen salutes the great work of the Inspiration Kitchens. Forward!