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| ALEXANDER PARKES |
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The first man-made plastic was unveiled by Alexander Parkes at the 1862 Great International Exhibition in London. This material - which the public dubbed Parkesine - was an organic material derived from cellulose that once heated could be molded but that retained its shape when cooled.
Parkes claimed that this new material could do anything rubber was capable of, but at a lower price. He had discovered something that could be transparent as well as carved into thousands of different shapes.
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| MMM . . . NANO |
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The University of Wisconsin College of Engineering is holding its 3rd Annual WI Nanotechnology Conference and Food Research Institute Focus on Food Safety Series.
The event is titled "Nanotechnology Applications in Food, Food Processing and Food Packaging." Does this mean smaller portions for us all? To find out, you'll have to attend the June 13-14 conference at the Engineering Hall on the UW-Madison campus.
Email Larry Casper for More Information
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| COWPARADE WISCONSIN 2006 |
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A herd of painted, costumed, and whimsically transformed cows – 101 in all – have made their debut in America's Dairyland as part of CowParade Wisconsin 2006. Presented by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, the cows will be on display from June 3 through Oct. 13, 2006.
You can visit the cows in Madison or track down the Wisconsin Cow Tour herd as they travel the state.
Learn More About CowParade Events
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| WI JUNE HISTORY |
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June 1861: Dr. Erastus Wolcott, a Milwaukee surgeon, performed the first recorded removal of a diseased kidney. June 1916: Gaylord Nelson, state and U.S. Senator, governor, and founder of Earth Day, was born in Clear Lake. June 1921: Wisconsin VFW organized. June 1867: Frank Lincoln Wright (he changed his middle name after his parents divorced) born in Richland Center.
June 1999: Milwaukee Brewer Paul Molitor's number four jersey was retired at County Stadium at a pre-game ceremony. June 1845: The first free public school in Wisconsin was opened in Southport (now Kenosha). June 1949: Southern Wisconsin's first outdoor, drive-in movie, the Hi-Way 26 Outdoor Theatre, opened on Milton Avenue in Janesville. June 1943: Future senator Joseph McCarthy broke his leg during a drunken Marine Corps initiation ceremony, despite a press release and other claims that he was hurt in "military action."
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| ATLANTA, WISCONSIN |
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Yes, there is an Atlanta, Wisconsin and it has an estimated population of 700. It is a town located in northwest Wisconsin within Rusk County.
Atlanta, Georgia has a population of 8.2 million and it is the tenth largest U.S. city.
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Dear Reader,
It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly 40 years
since the movie “The Graduate” featured the
character Mr. McGuire telling a twenty-something
Ben – played by a young Dustin Hoffman -
that “There's a great future in plastics. Think about
it. Will you think about it?” Obviously, our state’s
business leaders listened to the sentiments expressed
by Mr. McGuire in the 1967 big screen classic - or
they were inspired by some other source - and they
did think about plastics, because today Wisconsin is
a leading plastics state.
The impact of Wisconsin’s plastic industry may be a
surprise to some. Wisconsin’s plastic industry
oftentimes falls below the radar – there is no
Wisconsin Plastics Association – and most of our firms
are privately-held and employ, on average, less than
75 people. Still, that doesn’t mean the industry isn’t
a huge part of our state’s economy – because it
simply is. While biotechnology, information
technology and other quote “technology” business
sectors tend to dominate the business pages and
grab the headlines, our plastics firms quietly continue
to “lower their shoulder” and successfully push ahead
with steady growth and new technologies of their
own.
Plastics is Wisconsin’s fourth largest industry and one
that Forward Wisconsin has focused on attracting for
over 20 years. Later this month, Forward Wisconsin
is joining 50 Wisconsin plastics-related businesses in
exhibiting at Chicago’s McCormick Place for the
National Plastic Exposition (NPE). NPE 2006 will take
place June 19-23 and it will be the largest
international plastics show of the year with over 2000
companies exhibiting, one third of them coming from
outside the U.S. There is no doubt that plastics is
big business, with North America’s plastics industry
representing a $400 billion a year marketplace, and
Wisconsin is right in the thick of it.
As part of our plastics marketing effort, Forward
Wisconsin is compiling a plastics business directory
and we have found that there are over 750 plastics-
related businesses in the state. According to the
most recent data compiled by the Society of the
Plastics Industry, employment in Wisconsin’s plastics
industry totals about 46,000 jobs with annual plastics
industry shipments of nearly $11 billion. Our state is
in the top ten states in terms of plastics employment,
number of plastics processing machines installed and
value of plastics shipments.
When you think plastics, think Wisconsin!
Pepi Randolph
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New WI Biotech Resources Available
The Wisconsin Department of Commerce, Forward
Wisconsin, RS&K, Velocity
Systems and several other
partners worked together on a number of marketing
resources for initial use at BIO 2006. BIO 2006 was
the world's largest biotechnology conference that
took place in Chicago in mid-April.
Now that the smoke has cleared from a wildly
successful Wisconsin marketing effort at BIO 2006,
Forward Wisconsin has replenished its supply of four
biotech marketing pieces we used at the show, as
well as made them accessible on our web site. The
four promo items include a 10-minute biotechnology
DVD; a directory of Wisconsin biotech businesses; a
Wisconsin biotech marketing brochure; and, the
Wisconsin Association for Biomedical Research and
Education (WABRE) Bioscience Wisconsin 2006 Report.
To view the four biotech resources, click on the links
below.
We have a limited number of DVDs, as well as CD-
ROM business directories and Wisconsin Bioscience
2006 Reports available. Additionally, biotech
marketing brochures are available in hard copy
format. Contact Forward Wisconsin at
info@forwardwi.com for more information.
Quick Click: Forward Wisconsin Biotech Resource Page
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BIOMidwest Web Marketing Effort
Companies Joining Regional Promotion Campaign
Many organizations within the life sciences from
across the Midwest are working together, via the
Internet, to market themselves and the region, for
biotech development. Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,
Nebraska and Ohio are pulling together under a
BIOMidwest banner to push themselves as a large
biotech presence on a website called BioSpace.
Forward Wisconsin is part of the effort and you can
be too. For more information, contact Ryan Guensch.
He can be reached at 732.746.2283 or via email.
Quick Click: BIOMidwest on BioSpace
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IWF Means Hot - Lanta in August
If you are considering travel plans, "August"
and "Atlanta" may be two words you don't want to
use in the same sentence. However, if your goal is
to market Wisconsin's forest products industry to
woodworking and furniture business executives from
over 79 countries, Atlanta's Georgia Dome is the
place to be from August 23-26, 2006.
The International Woodworking Machinery & Furniture
Supply Fair (IWF), held every two years, is one of
the world's largest trade shows for the furniture
manufacturing, architectural woodwork, custom and
general woodworking industries. Forward Wisconsin
and several of our partners will be exhibiting at IWF,
as well as calling on potential business prospects in
the Atlanta area during the show.
For more details on our marketing effort at IWF,
contact Jan Alf via email or by
phone at 262.691.7873.
Quick Click: IWF 2006
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