NEW NORTH

Jerry Murphy, Executive Director of New North, shared his presentation that he presented with bond rating companies who were recently in our community.  What is The New North you may ask??  New North, Inc. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, regional marketing and economic development organization fostering collaboration among private and public sector leaders throughout the 18 counties of Northeast Wisconsin, known as the New North region. New North is a regional partner to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) and the State of Wisconsin, as well as local economic development partners, and represents more than 100 private investors. They focus on three areas: marketing the region, business development and talent development.  Cost drivers use to be a priority but today one of the top drivers is available, qualified and adequate numbers of labor force.  Collaboration is key to build infrastructure with community partners to break down traditional boundaries and make the commitment to get the strategic work accomplished.  Key areas of industry sectors are manufacturing, construction, wholesale trade, retail trade, finance, insurance, real estate, professional and business services, educational services, arts and culture. A shared example of Wisconsin Energy Works and collectively went after the wind energy market as a region supply chain.  It started with 7 companies and evolved to having more than 300 companies as part of this new market opportunity.  One turbine has 8,000 components.  How can we take this same logic and apply it to reach other emery markets such as natural gas?  Creating new talent development/recruitment tool in a digital format that employers in our region can use to attract new employees.  New tools will be released later this year.  The highest growth employment growth area is in IT- which grew by 19.8% between 2011-2014. The impact of recession – pre-recession was 588,000 jobs.  Currently they are 577,000 jobs.  Between 2010 and 2020 we will need 76,000 new workers.  We need to get smarter and wiser to recruit, retain and be energized around this specific areas to provide talented workforce for the future.