I hope you and your loved ones had a wonderful Thanksgiving as we begin the month with anticipation of all the December holidays as well as the New Year. For me, it's the time of the year when one of my favorite things - and one you probably favor as well - is put in the spotlight: FOOD. Yes, that month-and-a-half time period that stretches (along with some of our waistlines) from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day is upon us, and it's a great time of year for sampling food.

Appropriately, Forward Wisconsin also had its eyes on food earlier this week and more specifically, on marketing to food processors across the Midwest. On November 29-30, we participated in the 102nd Midwest Food Processors Association (MWFPA) Convention & 79th Annual Processing Crops Conference that took place in Appleton, Wisconsin. MWFPA has food processing and related firms in its membership from Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Forward Wisconsin was among the 100 exhibitors present on the tradeshow floor at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel. It was a successful outing as we met several strong business prospects from Illinois and Minnesota, while also renewing relationships with several large Wisconsin firms within the food sector. With Wisconsin's "Dairy State" status, it should come as no surprise that we are a leading state in the food processing industry. Yet, when you look at the numbers, it becomes even clearer how strong we are in supplying the nation and world with food products.

In preparation for the show and for our future marketing efforts, we assembled a Wisconsin food processing business directory and a marketing brochure to highlight our state's strength in the food cluster (see related article below.) The business directory lists 1,050 companies from every region of Wisconsin. In addition, our initial research shows that the Wisconsin food processing sector has gross annual revenues of about $10 billion, employs around 62,000 people and pumps out an annual payroll of nearly $2.2 billion.

Be safe this holiday season and thank you again for your ongoing support.

The importance of business site selection consultants continues to grow as more corporate executives hire them to help with their company location decisions. But, how can your area be best prepared to respond to their requests for information and what do they really want? Who better to answer those questions than the business site selection consultants themselves.

On December 3-5, the Mid-America Economic Development Council (MAEDC) will hold its annual Competitiveness Conference featuring a site selector panel discussion that includes top business consultants. Seven site selection consultants will share their thoughts, highlighting the session are Darin Buelow, Bob Ady, Deane Foote and Bill Whitehead. Other parts of the conference will focus on the types of information an area needs on hand to respond quickly to a business site selection consultant, building a memorable brand image, integrating labor availability into an ED strategy and putting your website to work for you.

Forward Wisconsin President Pepi Randolph and Business Development Director Jan Alf are traveling to Chicago for the December 3-5 event. MAEDC has strong Wisconsin ties as well with Anna Schramke from the Green County Development Corporation acting as Immediate Past President, and Marilyn Haroldson from MK Haroldson Consultants and George Krueger from the Platteville Area Industrial Development Corporation, currently on the MAEDC Board of Directors.

Forward Wisconsin continues to put a priority on adding more information to the Industry Clusters section of our website, located at ForwardWI.com. In early 2006, we pulled together a Wisconsin Biotechnology & Medical Device Business Directory and a Wisconsin: The Core of Discovery Brochure for the BIO 2006 show.

Later in the spring, we added a Wisconsin's Plastics Directory (which we are currently updating) for the National Plastics Expo. Also, separate from the directories and brochures, we regularly put up links to other Wisconsin industry resources to the many industry clusters we have listed on our website.

Our latest two additions to the Industry Clusters section of ForwardWI.com are the Wisconsin 2006 Food Processing Directory, sorted by both company name and standard industrial code (SIC), and our Wisconsin Food Processing brochure. Click below to view them.

• Food Processing Directory by Company
• Food Processing Directory by SIC
• Food Processing Brochure

Wisconsin is a prominent player in many sectors within the areas of agriculture, technology and manufacturing but did you know that the Badger State is also a top Christmas tree state? In fact, Wisconsin is ranked fifth nationally in the number of trees harvested annually, trailing only Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Christmas trees are big business in our state with about 2 million harvested every year - not to mention the 600,000+ wreaths and garland made annually in Wisconsin. Wisconsin has nearly 1,400 Christmas tree farms covering about 36,000 total acres within our borders. The economic impact of Wisconsin's Christmas tree industry is estimated at $50 million.

Principal trees grown in Wisconsin are Balsam Fir, Fraser Fir, Scotch Pine, and Spruce (including White, Black Hills and Colorado Blue.) Wisconsin growers donate 600 trees annually to military members and their families. The trees go both overseas and to domestic military bases. To kick-off this holiday season, Alice in Dairyland cut the Official First Christmas Tree on November 21, 2006 on a tree farm near Chippewa Falls.