I've been President of Forward Wisconsin for nine months now. In that time I have come to realize the high-level of competition Wisconsin faces in the economic development arena. For example, in late June, I spent several days attending BIO 2005; the world's largest biotechnology conference held this year in Philadelphia. Forward Wisconsin spearheaded our presence there to promote the state's biotechnology industry to investors, researchers and business executives.

Wisconsin was not alone. Forty-seven other states had a presence at BIO 2005 with the same goal in mind. It seems that everyone is working to harness the great potential the biotechnology industry offers. While Wisconsin had the resources to fund a modest marketing effort, it was eye opening to note that Iowa spent almost five times the amount that we did and other states spent as much or more.

My point is that the competition is keen from other states, regions and countries for jobs and investment - and that most have more financial resources than we do to implement marketing programs. We certainly appreciate your support of Forward Wisconsin and please know that we will continue to be as aggressive as possible with the resources we have. Our plan is to grow our organization so that we can do a better job of telling people around the country and the world about the tremendous assets we have in Wisconsin. You are an important part of our plan, so again, thank you for your support.

The LocationOne Information System (LOIS) software was purchased by Wisconsin last fall to provide a platform for communities to list their attributes and available buildings/sites on the Internet. Buying LOIS was just the beginning - getting it populated with community information is the next step for successful implementation.

The best way to get local data is through the cooperation of community officials and economic development professionals. These individuals need to attend a two-hour LOIS training session, obtain a password for their area(s) and then start the process of entering data.

Sharon Seffrood was hired by Forward Wisconsin in December 2004 to take on the LOIS project and facilitate training sessions. So far, about 170 people have taken the LOIS training class at over 30 different locations around the state. Currently, 836 Wisconsin communities have capability to utilize LOIS. Contact Sharon at 608.261.2501 for more info.

Strike up the band and blow out the candles - if you have enough breath! Forward Wisconsin's Jan Alf celebrated her 18th anniversary with us this past month. She began her career with Forward in July 1987 as a receptionist in the Milwaukee office. Overseeing the office at the time was none other than Jerry Franke, our current Board Vice-Chair and now President of WISPARK. Jerry was working as Forward's VP of Economic Development in 1987.

Presidents, presidents, presidents . . . Jan has worked under eight of them while at Forward Wisconsin. She started under Nino Amato's leadership (1987-88), then Dennis Blang took over (1989-96), followed by Cate Zeuske (1996), Brenda Blanchard (1997-98), Dean Amhaus (1999-01), Wayne Harris (2001-03), Mike Armiak (2003-04) and now current president, Pepi Randolph. (Whoa, that's a lot of bosses!)

Jan has steadily taken on more responsibility while at Forward serving as office manager, tradeshow coordinator, account executive and economic development consultant. For several years, she also went to night classes and then finished her bachelor's degree. Jan became director of business development in January 2004 and heads up our Prospect Development Office in Pewaukee. During her career, she has helped scores of out-of-state companies establish new Wisconsin facilities or move their entire operations here. Congratulations Jan and here's to ANOTHER 18 years!

Guardian Pipeline recently agreed to become a major investor in Forward Wisconsin. Rich Gielecki, President of Guardian Pipeline, informed Forward President Pepi Randolph that his firm would become more involved in Forward marketing activities, invest dollars in our group and that he would personally help with investor relations outreach.

"I am very pleased that Guardian Pipeline has agreed to help Forward Wisconsin bolster its marketing program," said Randolph. "I look Forward to partnering with Rich and Guardian Pipeline in the future to promote Wisconsin."

Guardian Pipeline began service on December 7, 2002, and provides gas transportation and storage services to Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. Guardian is owned by Wisconsin Energy, Viking Gas Transmission, and WPS Resources Corporation, and is operated by Northern Plains Natural Gas. It originates from a Chicago Hub, near Joliet, Illinois, and extends to Ixonia, Wisconsin.