Collaboration Council hears ideas for future

Dane County could have an economic development corporation in place by next summer � talking up the region's high points, making sure existing businesses stick around and working to lure new companies to the fold.

But it will take a financial commitment from the business community that will run well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars as well as a thumbs-up from citizens and local government leaders, according to the Collaboration Council.

The Collaboration Council, a group of about 40 business executives, government officials and civic leaders organized in 2004, received reports from four of its working groups in early June. Recommendations include:

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•  Setting up a pilot internship program, linking 25 students with local startup companies and providing the students with mentors from the community.

•  Persuading alumni of UW-Madison and other local colleges to move back here.

•  Combining several efforts to attract employees to the health-care field.

•  Developing a "brand" for Dane County to use as a marketing tool. (What that message will be is uncertain.)

•  Convincing Dane County's cities, villages and towns to work together for economic growth.

Next steps include setting up committees to start implementing the goals, establishing budgets, raising money and taking the plans to a bigger swath of Dane County for response.

"We think this has the potential of being quite unique in the nation," said Jennifer Alexander, president of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce and a Collaboration Council member.

It's not that the idea of a business booster group is new; it's more a case of a slightly different mission than other such organizations, she said.

Dane County's development corporation would emphasize growing the region's economy, increasing jobs and expanding the tax base, "but at the same time, with a companion focus on being stewards of our assets, preserving our quality of life," Alexander said.

The goal is to get it off the ground by July 2006 � if not sooner, said Mark Bugher, director of University Research Park.

Bugher led a council committee on job retention and recruitment, which analyzed 21 economic development organizations around the country. The panel found that "a private-sector model seems to work better than public," said Bugher. "That means funding will have to be, by and large, carried by the private sector, which we think is a good thing."

Most likely, such an organization would get 90 percent of its money from private sources but maintain a policymaker role, he said.

Groups like these generally have six or seven employees and a budget of around $750,000, not including marketing expenses. But Dane County's organization could start small, Bugher said, and gradually increase to that level.

"It could probably get some traction for a couple hundred thousand dollars and one or two employees on board" to start working on the group's goals, he said. "Realistically, you're looking at, perhaps, a five-year timeline to get it ... matured and doing the kinds of things it's supposed to do."

Much of the corporation's work would focus on retaining existing companies, "so they grow in Dane County, and growing new businesses by leveraging the technology that's available," said Kay Plantes, an economist and one of the consultants working with the council.

Companies chosen for recruitment from other areas would be "very targeted," Plantes said, and would mesh with businesses already active here, such as those in the biomedical field.

"We're not going to go after manufacturing companies � we don't have the work force here," said Jim Hopson, publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal and co-chairman of the council along with Gary Wolter, president, chairman and chief executive of MGE Energy.

"But what we might do is research and development ... and manufacturing can be done in Milwaukee or Chicago where they've got the work force and the infrastructure for it," Hopson said.

The Collaboration Council is operating with a $175,000 contribution from one of its members, businessman and philanthropist John Taylor. The money will pay for consultants to help the group with its analysis.

"It's really (about) quality of life here," Taylor said. "We're at a tipping point."

With its low unemployment rate � about 2 percent � and growing economy, Dane County is running out of jobs, the council says, and battling a brain drain. "There are definitely work force shortages," said Jay Loewi, president of QTI Group and head of a council team on work force development.

Dane County's work force is anything but idle, with a labor participation rate of 83 percent � much higher than the national average of 66 percent, according to the state Department of Workforce Development.

But studies have found that many UW-Madison graduates leave the area to find jobs.

One way to keep them here might be to connect them with business startups through internships. "We would like to put them in high-tech firms ... and interest interns in very promising firms just getting started, so they'd say, 'Wow, I could really make a difference with this firm,'" said Ed Clarke, vice president for strategic innovation at Madison Area Technical College.

An internship clearinghouse could be set up, said QTI's Loewi. "People who have internships are twice as likely to stay in an area," Loewi said, quoting a study in Philadelphia.

The study also showed that people who volunteer are more likely to stay, he said, so hooking up skilled workers with volunteer opportunities could be part of the mix, too.

Another strategy is to get graduates and former residents to return and, while they're at it, to bring with them the companies they may have started. It's called the "boomerang project," said Clarke, also a Collaboration Council member.

A biomedical collaborative already is in place, trying to recruit more people into health care, Clarke said. "Our (role) at this point is to pull all those groups together," he said. A committee study found Dane County is short on nurses, medical records personnel, radiologic technologists and clinical lab technologists.

As for Dane County's image, a brand identity is being developed, said council member Deb Archer, president of the Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau. And it will be tested "to see what will be compelling to the public as well as differentiate this community from Portland or Indianapolis or Des Moines," she said.

"We're getting very close," she said.

A "cost-effective" marketing plan is in the works and the target audience is being determined. "It won't be targeted only at Midwesterners," Archer said. "I think it will be a richer, broader audience."

Local community leaders and more than 100 corporate chief executives from around the country participated in separate surveys conducted by the Lindsay, Stone & Briggs advertising agency. The surveys, which measured perceptions about Dane County, found that the nationwide CEOs' responses "really mirrored what we believed about ourselves," Archer said.

Positive traits both groups used to describe the area included intellectual curiosity, open to ideas, and casual and unpretentious.

The CEOs were then asked to compare Madison to 10 other cities, including Boulder, Colo.; Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; and Minneapolis.

Madison ranked No. 1 for having a sense of openness and No. 2 for casual atmosphere, but was in the middle of the pack for intellectual curiosity.

"We need to do a more compelling job to convince people that's what we are," Archer said.

No brand identity is expected to be formalized until the economic development corporation and its leaders are named, she said.

Will the suburban and rural communities in Dane County sign on to the effort? "There'll be a skepticism ... as to whether or not this is Madison-centric," the chamber's Alexander said. It's not, she added.

"I think it's a good step," Ann Smith, executive director of the Sun Prairie Chamber of Commerce, said of the council. "My only concern is that there is no Sun Prairie representative on the council."

Council members say they intend to add more people from suburban and outlying communities.

The Collaboration Council's recommendations will be taken to communities around Dane County for comments and suggestions, Alexander said.

Meanwhile, the bulk of the group's work will be taken up by implementation teams and by an executive steering committee, yet to be named. The council itself won't meet again until January.

Though initiated by the private sector, council leaders say they hope much of the community will get involved in the project.

"We've got to convince people that we're really doing this for our children and grandchildren," Bugher said.