APPLETON, Wis., Aug. 15, 2022 (Competitive Wisconsin) – Leaders from New North and Competitive Wisconsin Inc. (CWI) are collaboratively hosting an opportunity to take a look at what goes into developing a successful broadband expansion strategy and the plan for implementing that strategy. The statewide in-person and virtual summit for local elected officials, business leaders, economic and community development professionals and interested citizens will be held at the Fox Valley Technical College DJ Bordini Center from 8 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, Aug. 23.
“New North leaders recognized the importance of having world-class internet services for the people and businesses of the region early on. Their support and engagement energized and informed the process,” said Barb LaMue, president and CEO of New North, Inc. “It also allowed us to commit the time and resources required to understand the nature and complexity of the things that needed to be done; identify, retain and work with the experts to collect the information and data required; and to build the relationships among the interested parties and providers necessary to achieve effective collaboration. Many of them will be at the strategy session on Aug. 23, and we encourage people interested in broadband to hear them share their thoughts.”
The broadband action accelerator is one of nine summits CWI is organizing as part of a CWI initiative called Wisconsin Tomorrow, dedicated to working with local and regional leaders around the state on specific workforce recruitment and retention enhancement strategies, including early childhood care and education, housing, broadband, health care, transportation, community quality of life and opportunity, energy and rural resurgence.
The New North and CWI event will include subject-matter experts in the design and implementation of broadband strategies and deployment, county and tribal leaders who have implemented strategic broadband investment, and state leaders who will discuss current state and federal grant funding opportunities.
“The need for community-strengthening workforce recruitment and retention strategies such as the New North broadband initiative was underscored when elected officials and community leaders came together last year to discuss how best to invest the more than $2 billion dedicated to local governments in Wisconsin in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) at a CWI virtual gathering co-hosted by the Wisconsin Counties Association (WCA), the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, the Wisconsin Towns Association and the UW System,” said Mark O’Connell, president and CEO of WCA. “At that meeting we talked about the need for the creation of strategic collaborations dedicated to specific outcomes. The work being done in the New North region represents an excellent example of such a collaboration, and the Broadband – The New Economic Necessity event will, we believe, add greatly to statewide public understanding of what Wisconsin’s needs to do regarding broadband access and the options that exist for moving forward.”
Competitive Wisconsin, Inc. is a unique mission-driven, non-partisan, collaboration established in 1981 by leaders of Wisconsin’s business, labor, agricultural, academic and governmental communities to identify, understand and develop strategic options to address major systemic and structural challenges to the state’s economic and social wellbeing
