A work in progress

Regional efforts are continuing to evolve, and evidence indicates New North is on the right path

Editorial by Sean Fitzgerald

 Many who are critical of regional economic efforts forget that these ideas are still in their toddler stage in Wisconsin.

The entire construct of promoting an entire region has, for the most part, less than a decade of experimentation here. Business attraction has occurred on a statewide basis through the Forward Wisconsin program since 1984, but the agency has been perceived as rather innocuous and ineffective in recent years, with an overwhelming majority of efforts aimed specifically at southeastern Wisconsin and the Madison area.

In recent years, state government has turned more if its attention toward regional economic development efforts, increasing its funding to the handful of initiatives across Wisconsin.

Initiatives like New North, which promotes an 18-county region of northeastern Wisconsin, reflect this growing trend in promoting business development in the state.

Since the birth of New North in 2005, other regional economic efforts have taken root in the Wisconsin River Valley of central Wisconsin through Centergy, in the state’s Northwoods region through Grow North, in the La Crosse area through 7 Rivers Alliance, and in a 10-county region of western Wisconsin though the 2-year-old Momentum West. Two more mature collaborative initiatives – Milwaukee 7 in southeastern Wisconsin and Thrive in the Madison area and southwestern counties in the state – have been carrying out their mission a couple of years longer than New North.

If you didn’t get a chance to attend the New North Summit in early December, you missed out on a key message from economist David Ward about the critical ingredient to making regional economic development work – and the recognition that New North is headed down the right path.

Ward was the keynote speaker at the very first summit in 2004 – neither a “first annual” affair or a “New North” affair at the time. The event evolved out of a need to share the results from a $150,000 economic opportunity study conducted for a nebulous 18-county region of northeast Wisconsin. Ward and his colleagues at Northstar Economics conducted the study and prepared a litany of more than 100 recommendations, a list which eventually became the agenda of work for New North Inc.

Ward was there at the very beginning of what became regional economic collaboration in northeast Wisconsin. He’s watched – although at an arm’s length – during the past five years. His visit to the summit in Green Bay last month provided some perspective on what has been successful with New North, particularly if you don’t pay attention to other regional economic development regimes around the country.

New North, Ward said, has worked because it has leadership. It’s worked because people and businesses have invested financial resources and volunteer time into the idea. It’s worked because it operates with a professional staff staying on top of its day-to-day activities.

That’s not the case across the board.

Grow North and Momentum West don’t have a dedicated staff to help carry out their efforts. All efforts conducted by these two organizations are driven by volunteers. The 7 Rivers Alliance just hired its first executive director this past November.

Most importantly, Ward said during the December summit, New North has worked because it has a strategic plan. Most regional efforts don’t have a plan in place, which makes continuity a challenge.

Momentum West had grown out of a more than 20-year-old initiative known as Momentum Chippewa Valley, a patchwork of municipal and county economic development officials with no real strategy for carrying out their mission over time. But it didn’t have a sustainable plan for its efforts – and as a result didn’t have any meaningful investment from its stakeholders – which ultimately lead to the demise of the organization in the middle of this past decade.

The strategic plan employed for New North became the blueprint for the strategies of Centergy and the U.P. Economic Development Alliance serving Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, both efforts which Northstar Economics aided in providing a start.

Ward’s comments recognize the proper ingredients are in place to make regional economic development a model for success in the New North. And through continued diligence and adherence to the region’s strategic plan, the benefits of New North efforts should prove far reaching to every community and county throughout northeast Wisconsin.