Technology road show

Mayor extols Milwaukee’s high-tech economy with new presentation
Milwaukee is a high-tech city, and Mayor John Norquist wants you to know it.
In his quest to educate everyone from denizens to business owners to tourists and venture capitalists, the mayor is taking his tech show on the road. He previewed his presentation separately to a group of professors from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and members of the public relations branding committee of the Greater Milwaukee Convention and Visitors Bureau (GMCVB).
It did not disappoint.
“It was awesome, and it really brings to light the entrepreneurial atmosphere here,” said Vanessa Welter, director of public relations for the GMCVB.
The tech road show has three goals, according to Norquist, in that it educates Milwaukeeans about what’s going on here, it shows those outside the area that there is a lot going on here, and it tries to attract more businesses and venture capitalists to take a closer look at Milwaukee’s potential for investment.
“I see this as something that we at the bureau can use with our audiences,” Welter says. “This is a great place to come and visit, Milwaukee is a progressive city, we have all these educated people here. … But also, businesses consider coming here because there’s a wealth of employable people.”
The presentation includes surprising statistics. For instance, in percentage of economy based in high tech, Milwaukee (17th) outranks such cities as Boston (23rd) and Minneapolis (30th) out of 114 metro areas studied.
Another statistic presented is the fact that metro Milwaukee has nearly three times as many jobs in technology manufacturing and services as Dane County, which has gotten attention as a bio-technology center due to the presence of UW-Madison.
“This is always an issue in Milwaukee – getting people to understand how dynamic and wonderful a place this is,” Norquist said.
Once he fine-tunes the presentation, he plans to present it for everyone from Rotary Clubs to e-Innovate. And he promised that, if given the chance, he would present it outside the state, as well. Norquist said that he was trying to get an invitation to present his program to venture capitalists in Chicago. He’s got an in: former Democratic National Committee chairman David Wilhelm is one of the mayor’s friends. Wilhelm is the president of Wilhelm and Conlon Public Strategies, a firm that works on behalf of public policies and business initiatives that spur economic growth.
April 27, 2001 SBT