Business innovation – Main Street & Connect Community businesses adapting to the pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic so many local businesses have had to adapt their business plan to adhere to safety guidelines and to best reach their customers. In fall of 2020, WEDC created the We’re All Innovating Contest to recognize and promote the creative ways local startups and small businesses have adapted to the recent challenges. Among the winners were multiple businesses in both Wisconsin Main Street and Connect Communities. These businesses were recognized for the We’re All Innovating Contest based on business innovations, adapting services and adapting technology. Read More
City of Madison receives $250,000 state grant to redevelop idle site
The City of Madison is receiving a $250,000 state grant to assist in the redevelopment of the Westgate Mall site. Read More
New round of WEDC grants to focus on aid to diverse entrepreneurs
Organizations working with minority, women and LGBTQ businesses encouraged to apply for the targeted Entrepreneurship Support Grants MADISON, WI. FEB. 8, 2021 – The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) plans
Wisconsin’s emerging investors: meet the managers
Part one of a multi-part series on Wisconsin’s next generation of venture funds and angel investor networks. Read More
For Wisconsin’s recovery, let’s resolve to apply the lessons of 2020
In conversations with business owners over the past year, after stories of hardships upon hardships, many, although certainly not all, have ended with, “But we’re going to be OK.” Read More
We’re All Innovating Contest recognizes businesses’ creative responses to COVID-19 pandemic
A Milwaukee biotech firm that developed a faster test to detect COVID-19 antibodies, a DePere restaurant that allows customers to “pay it forward” with gift cards to front-line medical workers and a Menomonie food co-op that developed an online ordering platform to highlight local producers are among the 226 statewide winners selected for the We’re All Innovating Contest. Read More
Milwaukee’s brewing legacy continues with Molson Coors
The City of Milwaukee has been known as “the capital city of beer” for well over 150 years, and with Molson Coors Beverage Company’s recent decision to keep its corporate offices here, that legacy will no doubt continue. Read More
Blue Ribbon Commission releases “Rural Voices for Prosperity”
After receiving input from more than 500 rural stakeholders, the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Rural Prosperity recently released its report, “Rural Voices for Prosperity: A Report of the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Rural Prosperity.” Read More
HARIBO gets a warm welcome from Wisconsin
Just in time for the German candy maker’s 100th anniversary, HARIBO has begun construction on its 130-acre plant in Pleasant Prairie. Read More
WEDC grant programs help communities thrive
From building new hotels to restoring historic buildings and converting a former grocery store into a community center, WEDC awarded more than $5 million in Community Development Investment (CDI) Grants to 25 municipalities across Wisconsin during the 2020 calendar year. Read More
We’re All In Grants provide nearly $240 million total to Wisconsin small businesses hardest hit by COVID-19 pandemic
Almost 55,000 Wisconsin small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic received approximately $240 million last year through the We’re All In Grant Program—the largest direct-aid program for small businesses in WEDC history,Governor Tony Evers, WEDC, and the Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR) recently announced. Read More
Five state businesses named finalists in Wisconsin’s Main Street Makeover Contest
Five Main Street businesses from around the state have been named as finalists in the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s (WEDC’s) annual Main Street Makeover Contest and have a chance to win up to $10,000 in upgrades for their storefronts. Read More