Madison, WI: Part 2

Rafael Carbonell writes:

As so many of you already know, Chris does such a phenomenal job in
telling a compelling story, providing facts, data and anecdotes to
support it and getting people to buy in to the vision. We were so
fortunate to have him here in Madison yesterday to share his vision
and how-to with many of our regional economic development
professionals, county/city/village/town administrators/clerks, elected
officials and businesses.

We actually made a trek (yes, intentional choice of the word as Trek
Bicycles is the perfect example of a home-grown company right here in
the Madison Region) out to Denver and Littleton back in February 2006
with 50+ business, government, education and non-profit leaders from
our area to learn about their collaborative, regional economic
development/quality of life efforts. Visiting with Chris and his
incredible team helped us to shape our own efforts. With the hundreds
of volunteers, thousands of hours and $2.6 million pledged by 157
investing companies and communities for the first 3 years of
operation, in Feb 2007 we were able to launch Thrive, the regional
economic development enterprise for the eight-county Madison Region in
Wisconsin. And no, "Thrive" is not an acronym; it's an outcome and end
benefit of living and having a business here.

Our vision is to grow this region's economy in ways that preserve and
enhance the quality of life. Our approach incorporates some economic
gardening principles: focus on target industry sectors based on our
assets (agriculture, biotechnology and healthcare), create and grow
your own (not recruitment) and needs-based - ask the companies in the
sectors what they need, identify where there are gaps to address those
needs and develop scalable pilot projects to fill the gaps. We strive
to also enhance the great efforts of our many regional partners
(avoiding duplication/replication - always seek to add value).

Some specific examples: our "Growers to Grocers" project with a longer-
term goal to increase the regional consumption of regionally-produced
foods and our "Boomerang" project to fill hard-to-fill positions
(e.g., seasoned management, niche scientific, physician, pharmacist)
for our biotech companies (over 150 located here! many early-stage)
and healthcare orgs. This one project complements our efforts to also
address the production of talent side. For more info on the Madison
Region, Thrive and our pilot projects, check out www.thrivehere.org -
we're also on twitter and facebook if you'd like to follow us in those
worlds.

There was tremendous buzz among the many attendees yesterday and
energy to explore incorporating even more of the EG strategies and
tools in our region. We’ll be sure to keep you in the loop.

Yes, this started out as a "thanks" to Chris and ended up being an
infomercial on the Madison Region and Thrive. Just wanted to share how
Chris and the EG community have helped to mold our approach to
regional sustainable prosperity.

Rafael

Rafael Carbonell
Executive Vice President
Thrive

www.thrivehere.org