The Community and Economic Development Committee met 06/22/2022. The one item on the agenda was a presentation by the Fox Cities Regional Partnership regarding projects, plans, initiatives, and direction. The presentation was delivered by Becky Bartoszek, President and CEO of the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce, and Eric Broten, Director of Economic Development at the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce.
Eric started the presentation out by giving an update on some of the events they had held.
In April, they had held their Excellence in Education Awards at the Paper Valley downtown. About 150 people attended. Several Appleton-area teachers were recognized, and the Educator of the Year was from Hortonville. Eric said that educators had had a tough time since the pandemic, so it was a great thing to be able to help those teachers celebrate with their families and recognize the teachers that were doing such amazing things in the community.
Greg Hartjes, the incoming Superintendent of the Appleton Area School District, attended and he felt compelled to email Becky about the event, telling her, “I attended Tuesday night’s event for the first time and thought it was incredibly professional, uplifting, and a true celebration of education. Educators seldom are treated like stars, so thanks for making this happen. Well done!”
In March, the Fox Cities Regional Partnership held a two-day career expo at the expo center in downtown Appleton. The first day was for 8th grade students, and the second day was for high school students. The event was attended by students from 17 different schools in the region, several of which were with AASD. Overall, about 3,000 students attended.
The purpose of the expo was to help students start having conversations, get an idea of where they wanted to go, and see the different employers in the area that they might be interested in working with. They held a coaching session with the kids at the beginning of the expo because, for the last two years, children had been told to not do things like shake hands, so some of the interactions that came with meeting businesses were counterintuitive to some students. The coaching involved things like making eye contact and how to be polite and professional.
In addition to the 3,000 students who attended, 82 employers had booths at the expo. The event was well attended and received good feedback from students and businesses. They were looking forward to holding next year’s event.
He moved away from events and talked about some of the projects they were working on. One thing they were working on creating was an Employee Friendly Workplace Certification. This was a Chamber of Commerce Program in which they certified businesses and recognized the many great employers in the area. They rated them on things like perks, health and wellness support, flexible work schedules, etc. He noted that in the last 7 weeks, three separate businesses had gotten certified. They were hoping this program would help people be able to see that Appleton was a great place to work with a lot of opportunities.
They were also working on creating a partnership with Livibility.com. Eric said Appleton is always listed in the Top 100 Best Places to Live which was put out by Livibility.com. Besides putting out lists, they also print publications as well. They wanted to partner with Livability.com to highlight the Fox Cities in their publication. They would be able to showcase economic data, the big events that take place here, and the many great things the area has to offer. It was intended to be a talent attraction campaign which could be shared with major employers who were looking to bring in talent from outside of the region. Businesses would be able to share this with potential employees who don’t know anything about the Fox Cities and why they might want to come here. The magazine would probably be released in the spring of 2023.
Becky then took over and talked about Fox Cities Days which was another talent attraction program. It started back in 2019 and was the continuation of a previous program. One of the issues they had been running into was that students no longer needed to leave their campuses to learn about getting a job, because recruiters were starting to go to their campuses instead. As a result, the Fox Cities Regional Partnership, created what was essentially a roadshow with employers from the Fox Cities area.
They held the first event at Michigan Tech during which they basically took over the heart of the campus. They had a live band and food to attract students to the area and featured a Pierce Fire Engine and a Humvee. They then had a big tent where all of the employers talked not about specific jobs but rather about the quality of life and the opportunities available to those who made the Fox Cities their home. The approach was based around the idea that students can get a job anywhere, but what they want first is quality of life.
The event was hugely successful and Michigan Tech apparently said they were going to change the way they invited people to recruit on their campuses as a result. The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents heard about the event wanted to hold something similar on UW campuses. Covid slowed things down a little, but they were now going to be holding events in Oshkosh, Green Bay, the Fox Cities, Fond du Lac, and Waupaca where they talk to students on the UW campuses about the quality of life in the area and the reasons why they might want to stay here. She noted that a lot of students from Illinois come to Wisconsin to study, so this would be a good opportunity to keep those students here.
Another thing they have been involved in is the Governor’s Council of Workforce Investment which is a group of community business leaders and other leaders throughout the state as well as people involved with the Department of Workforce Development. They hold quarterly meeting in which they strategize on how the state’s investment should be spent to attract and retain talent. They also roll out all of the programing that the Department of Workforce Development offers.
The last meeting was hosted at Appleton International Airport during which all of the business leaders had an opportunity to tour Gulfstream. Becky said it was the highlight of the day and that those leaders had no idea that things like that were happening in the Fox Cities. The actual event was held at the FVTC Public Safety Training Center which gave them the chance to spotlight the fact that people come from all over the words to this area to learn how to put out fires on airplanes.
She moved on to talk about Huntsville, AL. Huntsville was recently named the Best Place to Live in the US. The Fox Cities Regional Partnership was working with their economic development partners to travel down to Huntsville. The Chamber of Commerce in Huntsville had agreed to show off the manufacturing plants that are there as well as some creative joint public/private projects that are underway and helping to drive the economy in Huntsville. Becky said that she herself have been down to Huntsville a couple of times and she thought some of the things they were doing were amazing. NASA, Toyota, and Polaris were doing expansions there and the FBI had relocated their second headquarters to that region. A number of parties in the Fox Cities were interested in attending, including Goodwill, the airport, and Fox Valley Technical College. Overall, the hope was to learn about the best practices happening in Huntsville and see if they could be implemented here locally. She said that trip would probably happen during the first half of 2023.
Huntsville was also the home to the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering which was a great example of a public/private partnership. Private businesses paid to build the facility and the state was funding it. The school took students aged 14-18 who left their homes and lived for free at the school, and the school provided them an education through the lens of ethics, cybersecurity, and engineering. Becky said it was one of the most beautiful facilities she had ever seen.
Alderperson Vaya Jones (District 10) asked a question. Her microphone was off for part of the question, but it sounded like she might have asked if the school served at risk or low-income students.
Becky said it served anyone. Students competed to be a part of it. There was no expense to go there. Because it was state-funded, there was a requirement that there be space for at least one student from every county.
She went on to say that it was a great example of how a public/private partnership could take on a real issue in a community. Families were actually moving from all over the country to get their children into this school. She noted that here in the Fox Cities, she heard everyday that businesses needed more engineers.
She finished up the presentation by talking about the Toward One Wisconsin Conference. It had started in Milwaukee 3-4 year ago and was focused on showcasing the work that was being done around the state on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In specifically spotlighted the work that was being done in the community that was hosting the event. The first conference had been held in Milwaukee. The next year communities started to compete to be able to host it. Green Bay hosted it the next year followed by Eau Claire.
In 2023, Appleton will be hosting it at the Paper Valley. It will be a two-day event with speakers talking about the great work being done in the DEI area around the state with special focus being put on efforts in the Fox Cities region. She said that they were looking forward to filling all the restaurants and hotels for a few days, and suggested that people could volunteer if they were interested in participating since they were just starting to put together the committees.
Alderperson Jones asked a question off microphone. My impression was she asked what kind of attendance they expected for an in-person conference given that the last few conferences had been held virtually due to Covid. Becky responded that the only time the conference had been in person about 500 people attended. She thought they could probably bring in 800 to 1,000 based on the historical attendance rates they have had for other similar events.
Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) asked if she already had an idea of what the city was doing in the DEI area.
Becky answered that the city’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator participated in the launch of the event a couple weeks ago. She herself did not have a great grasp on it all but there was great work that was happening in this area and they definitely wanted to focus on that. She then opened things up for general questions.
Alderperson Jones said the student career expo was a wonderful event and asked if they had seen any tangible return from it such as students getting a job after attending. Did they have any feedback or numbers on the impact it had on local businesses and students.
Becky shared one feedback story. A couple years ago, Miller Electric had had a both with a welding simulator. All of the students had an opportunity to try their hand at the simulator. One 8th grade student proved himself to be a natural at welding. The people from Miller couldn’t believe how he was able to operate it like had 30 years of experience. Miller went to the student’s teachers and told them the student had a natural skill that needed to be embraced. He was a troubled student, and his teachers were shocked that there was something he was fascinated with and that Miller was looking to invest in. Miller and the school counselors started working with that student to foster that skill and help him move into a potential future at Miller Electric.
She also gave another example of a student coming home after the expo all excited about the career opportunities and after talking to his parents applying to some of the businesses that he had seen earlier that day.
She said that in future years, because more and more employers were participating, that they were looking at potentially turning it into a full-blown career fair where participants could submit applications. Employers were really excited about that prospect.
Eric said that a lot of teachers prep their students before the event and it was pretty cool to hear an 8th grader go up to a business and ask them what their retirement benefits were like.
Becky said that in the past two years, they had started partnering with Junior Achievement which actually goes into the schools ahead of time to meeting with the students and prep them which really helped improve the students’ experience and increase their engagement at the expo.
Alderperson Israel Del Toro (District 4) asked if there was potential to hold a career expo that catered to more than middle and high school students and supported the local community in general or college aged students.
Becky responded, “Absolutely.” Economic development right now was focused on talent attraction and retention. It was really difficult to talk to employers about bringing new businesses to the area when local businesses already couldn’t fill the jobs they had. So, they were definitely wanting to increase employees.
Alderperson Kristin Alfheim (District 11) asked if there was anything the city could do. She understood that some things were outside of the city’s control, but what did the business community need from the city to help bring the region up to the number one spot?
Becky said that they have the economist Elliot Eisenberg come in every year [presumably to speak at an event]. He’s well respected internationally, and actually used to meet with Vice President Mike Pence on a regular basis to provide updates on the economic trends he saw. Back in February he attended an event which Mayor Woodford also attended. She said that he had listened as Mr. Eisenberg and Mayor Woodford talked to each other. She said Mr. Eisenberg and said, “We can’t control the weather, so keep taxes in check, keep quality of life as high as possible, and those are your best bets.” She said he had encouraged focusing on areas like Minneapolis and what they were doing because they were one of the only areas in the Midwest that was attracting people. [That surprised me because the first thing that springs to mind when I hear the word “Minneapolis” is massive riots, violent crime, and defunded police. I kind of hope Appleton doesn’t follow suit.]
She said that if international immigration was removed, the State of Wisconsin would be net negative in terms of migration trends. At the city level anything they could do to get even better with working with the immigrants that come to the city would make a big difference. She mentioned provided affordable housing for immigrants and helping them integrate into the community. “I do think that international immigration opportunity is really key, and anything that we can do to focus on diversifying our population is very very important to all of us. We’re never going to be able to grow if we don’t have more people here, and the only way we’re going to get more people here is to make it a more welcoming community–not that we’re not a welcoming community already, but there’s always room for improvement.”
Alderperson Jones asked if they had done any work on people who had grown up here then moved away because they were bored with Appleton, but now that they are adults with children, they understand what a great area the Fox Cities is. Had any work been done to bring those people back?
Becky said they hadn’t done any targeted campaigns, and Covid had really slowed down some of their efforts. Part of what they were going to be doing at UW Oshkosh would be trying to get people to see the benefits of the area and entice people to come back to our region.
Alderperson Maiyoua Thao (District 7) appreciated all of the information. She thought the responsibility of making the community better fell not just to the Fox Cities Regional Partnership or to the City of Appleton but to everyone in the community. She appreciated all of the efforts the Fox Cities Regional Partnership was making.
Becky thanked them for letting her speak and asked them to let her know if anything came up. She said that Lisa Malak at Local 5 Live had given them the opportunity every Thursday to invite a guest from the Fox Cities onto her show to spotlight all the great work that was happening in the area. They had brought on people from the Champion Center, the Tourism Convention Bureau, and even go the CEO of Plexus to come on because everybody knew about Plexus but nobody knew exactly what it was they did. The segments had been well received and were highly rated. It was not uncommon for them to get 4,000 hits on a video in 10 minutes. So, she asked for the alderpersons to keep them in the loop if there was something they could help promote.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=959527&GUID=9630FF31-26BA-493C-9C4D-466F771187EB
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