UW Madison Community Economic Development (CED)Update

Welcome to the Community Economic Development Program Weekly Update; your guide to the latest events, resources, and funding. The CED Weekly update is meant to keep you connected and informed about what’s happening in community economic development and provide information to help better serve Wisconsin communities.

Broadband Regional Workshop: Getting Ready for BEAD Funding: Permitting, Engagement, and Learning from Experience | April 16, 8:30 am – 4 pm (Viroqua, WI) – This event focuses on equipping attendees with the essential knowledge and tools required to successfully navigate the complexities of broadband expansion. This event is ideal for elected officials, community leaders, and volunteer committee members involved in broadband expansion efforts, as well as organizations supporting broadband planning and permitting authorities. Register today to secure your spot!

Broadband Regional Workshop: Getting Ready for BEAD Funding: Permitting, Engagement, and Learning from Experience | April 25, 8:30 am – 4 pm (Stevens Point, WI) – This event focuses on equipping attendees with the essential knowledge and tools required to successfully navigate the complexities of broadband expansion. This event is ideal for elected officials, community leaders, and volunteer committee members involved in broadband expansion efforts, as well as organizations supporting broadband planning and permitting authorities. Register today to secure your spot!

Broadband Regional Workshop: Getting Ready for BEAD Funding: Permitting, Engagement, and Learning from Experience | May 1, 8:30 am – 4 pm (Hayward, WI) – This event focuses on equipping attendees with the essential knowledge and tools required to successfully navigate the complexities of broadband expansion. This event is ideal for elected officials, community leaders, and volunteer committee members involved in broadband expansion efforts, as well as organizations supporting broadband planning and permitting authorities. Register today to secure your spot!

Broadband Regional Workshop: Getting Ready for BEAD Funding: Permitting, Engagement, and Learning from Experience | May 14, 8:30 am – 4 pm (Chippewa Falls, WI) – This event focuses on equipping attendees with the essential knowledge and tools required to successfully navigate the complexities of broadband expansion. This event is ideal for elected officials, community leaders, and volunteer committee members involved in broadband expansion efforts, as well as organizations supporting broadband planning and permitting authorities. Register today to secure your spot!

Broadband Regional Workshop: Getting Ready for BEAD Funding: Permitting, Engagement, and Learning from Experience | May 22, 8:30 am – 4 pm (Antigo, WI) – This event focuses on equipping attendees with the essential knowledge and tools required to successfully navigate the complexities of broadband expansion. This event is ideal for elected officials, community leaders, and volunteer committee members involved in broadband expansion efforts, as well as organizations supporting broadband planning and permitting authorities. Register today to secure your spot!

Broadband Regional Workshop: Getting Ready for BEAD Funding: Permitting, Engagement, and Learning from Experience | May 29, 8:30 am – 4 pm (Waterloo, WI) – This event focuses on equipping attendees with the essential knowledge and tools required to successfully navigate the complexities of broadband expansion. This event is ideal for elected officials, community leaders, and volunteer committee members involved in broadband expansion efforts, as well as organizations supporting broadband planning and permitting authorities. Register today to secure your spot!

BUSINESS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Money Smart Small Business Series | February-April, 1-2 pm (Virtual) – Join the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin District Offices for the FDIC Money Smart for Small Businesses. Make a plan for growing your business smarts as well as for your business. Sign up for this weekly webinar series developed by the FDIC and SBA to boost your business planning and management know-how. Register now for Feb 7 and you’ll get updates on the rest of the series: Planning for a Healthy Business – Feb 7; Banking Services – Feb 14; Organizational Types – Feb 21; Time Management – Feb 28; Financial Management – March 6; Record Keeping – March 13; Strong Business Credit – March 20; Risk Management – March 27; Insurance – April 3; Tax Planning and Reporting – April 10; Selling your Business and Succession Planning – April 17.

Wisconsin Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities Conference | May 30-31 (Platteville, WI) – Come to Platteville this spring and explore how local entrepreneurship drives the Driftless Region’s development. The CEC Conference is coming to Wisconsin for the first time in 2024. Business leaders, economic development professionals, local leaders, and community champions will gather in Platteville for two days of programming about strategies for supporting entrepreneurship in Wisconsin’s small towns.

National Rural Grocery Summit 2024 | June 24-25 (Montgomery, AL) – A premiere networking and resource-sharing venue for independent grocers and rural food access stakeholders. Co-hosted by the Rural Grocery Initiative at Kansas State University and the Hunger Solutions Institute at Auburn University.

COMMUNITY & PLACEMAKING

Climbing the IAP2 Ladder with Marketing Hometown America | April 29, 3-4 pm (Eastern Time – Virtual) – Marketing Hometown America (MHA) is a community-based people attraction program that incorporates IAP2 levels of public participation. IAP2 is an internationally recognized framework that helps practitioners determine the public’s role and level of participation in any deliberative engagement process. The MHA curriculum has integrated various engagement tools and tactics that move decision-makers through the IAP2 levels, from inform to empower.

Healthy Communities Summit | April 29, 8:00 am – 4:45 pm (Madison, WI) – Join us for a day of engaging breakout sessions, insightful speakers, and active workshops that will arm you with inspiration and tools to take back to your community. Follow one of the tailored tracks throughout the day – Education Empowerment, Changemaker Inspiration, Trail Development Toolbox – or mix and match sessions from each track.

2024 Annual Rural Summit | May 14-15 (Ashland, WI) – We’re delighted to announce that the 2024 Wisconsin Rural Partners (WPR) Summit will be hosted in Ashland at the AmericInn by Wyndham. Participation in Wisconsin Rural Partners Annual Rural Summit is now more important than ever. Our rural communities have so many issues in common. Our goal is to network together and work on possible solutions to gain future success.

The National Adaptation Forum | May 14-16, 2024 (St. Paul, MN) – The National Adaptation Forum gathers the climate adaptation community to foster knowledge exchange, innovation, and mutual support for a better tomorrow. The Forum includes opportunities for professional development through formal training sessions, facilitated presentations, and informal knowledge sharing and networking opportunities.

2024 WISCAP Annual Conference | May 22-23 (Green Bay, WI) – WISCAP’s Annual Conference brings together Community Action Agency staff, board members, and community partners around essential topics such as food security, affordable housing and homeless services, weatherization, childcare, and economic development. Attendees are able to receive training and program updates from state agencies and subject matter experts. The annual conference is a great fit for program-level staff and managers to stay on top of trends and changes while establishing strong relationships with peers across the state.

DOWNTOWN

Main Street Now Conference | May 6-8 (Birmingham, AL) – Save the date to join fellow commercial district revitalization leaders from across the country for three days of education sessions, special events, mobile workshops, and opportunities to explore the host city. Whether you come from an urban business district, small rural downtown, or somewhere in between, the Main Street Now Conference time-tested solutions to common problems and innovative approaches to emerging issues to help your community thrive.

2024 Downtown Summit | May 20-21 (Wausau, WI) – Wisconsin Downtown Action Council (WDAC) invites all those interested in the success of Wisconsin’s downtowns to attend the Downtown Summit on May 20th and 21st in Wausau’s beautiful River District. The Summit will begin on Monday at 10:30 a.m. with the evening reception hosted at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum following the mobile workshops. Tuesday’s sessions will be at the historic Jefferson Street Inn. All event venues are located in Downtown Wausau and close to parking and amenities like amazing pubs, restaurants and shops. The summit is a “hands-on” approach to conferencing including out and about tours, panels, Keynote, general and breakout sessions. Of course, plenty of time for networking is included as well.

ECONOMY

Rural Partners Network: Progress Through Action Workshop | June 13 (Rothschild, WI) – Join us on the banks of the Wisconsin River for a free, all-day workshop centered around some of the top needs in your Community Networks. Community leaders like you are especially encouraged to participate and come prepared to share projects and initiatives vital to your community’s future.

ENERGY

IRA, BIL, and the Future of Energy: A Summit to Support State Implementation | April 17-18 (Washington, DC) –The Summit will be an unparalleled learning and networking opportunity for state and federal government leaders and program staff who are working to implement IRA/BIL programs.

WORKFORCE

Regional Economic Conditions: Health of the Minnesota Child Care Sector | April 15, 12-12:30 (Virtual) – For the fourth year in a row, the Minneapolis Fed partnered with First Children’s Finance to survey Minnesota child care providers. The Minneapolis Fed’s Tu-Uyen Tran and Suzanne Pearl, Minnesota director at First Children’s Finance, will host a free webinar discussing survey results on the sector’s current health, capacity, and challenges.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Turning Investment Assets into Local Housing: Community Foundation Approaches to Housing Impact Investing | April 29, 2-3 pm (Eastern Time – Virtual) – A safe and affordable home is crucial to advancing personal wellbeing for families, and an affordable housing market is vital to thriving communities. While the construction of new housing is beyond the grant budgets of nearly all place-focused foundations, some community foundations are finding innovative ways to use their investment portfolios to partner with local developers and increase local housing stock.

Extension Northwoods Forum | May 7 (Lac du Flambeau, WI) – Celebrating 175 Years of Partnering with Wisconsin Communities. Join us for an engaging day focused on topics important to communities in the Northwoods! Presentations and discussion topics will include economic, workforce and community development, health, forestry, and natural resources. Connect with researchers and educators who provide UW–Madison resources to northern Wisconsin.

Leadership Chautauqua: Revolutionizing Extension’s Approach to Community Leadership Development Systems | May 15, 1:00 – 2:00 pm (Eastern Time – Virtual) – The notion of a Chautauqua, an Iroquois word for a lake near the first Chautauqua site in 1874, brought together diverse perspectives for dialog and debate. The Leadership Chautauqua established new relationships and utilized inventive facilitation strategies to make visible the underlying community systems that encourage sustainable approaches to community leadership development. Webinar participants will gain insights into this Leadership Chautauqua approach, with particular attention paid to the emergent themes that can revolutionize Extension’s approaches to community leadership development systems.

NACDEP 2024 Conference | June 17-20 (Houston, TX) – Theme: The Power of Together. The 2024 NACDEP conference aims to provide a space for extension professionals from land-grant universities to exchange ideas, explore collaborative projects, and strengthen partnerships.

2024 Community Development Society Annual Conference | July 14-17 (Omaha, NE) – Theme: Creating Capacity for Resilient Communities. The conference offers participants an exciting opportunity to explore the broader impact of our work on communities and the steps they are taking to secure their futures.

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