What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the words "Atlanta" and "August" used in the same sentence? Of course, the answer is "hot and humid weather" - something I certainly experienced the week of August 21st during my visit to Atlanta for the International Woodworking Machinery & Furniture Supply Fair (IWF 2006). IWF 2006 took place on August 23-26 in the Georgia World Congress Center.

The Western Hemisphere’s largest woodworking show makes an appearance in Atlanta every two years and 45,000 people from 70 countries travel to participate in the conference. Forward Wisconsin, the Department of Natural Resources, the UW-Madison Forest Ecology & Management Department and several economic development professionals headed to this year's IWF as well to market our state's $18.7 billion forest products industry with the goal of bringing more investment, businesses and employment to Wisconsin.

After spending three days in the Forward Wisconsin booth, and on the tradeshow floor among the other 1200 exhibitors, I can tell you that the show includes much more than just woodworking and furniture businesses. Other businesses were present that made composites, display and store fixtures, plastics, flooring, and upholstery. Additionally, I noticed service and supportive business sectors like printers, transporters, packagers and insurers - just to name a few.

What I saw at IWF 2006 again illustrated that we need to continue to promote industry clusters - and not just a narrowly-defined business sector - for growth. Simply put, businesses are successful in an environment where they have access to other complimentary businesses and services and we must always keep that in mind in our business marketing efforts.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Forward Wisconsin has signed a consulting agreement with Paul W. Ehrfurth & Associates, LLC to bolster our business marketing and attraction efforts. Paul Ehrfurth, the president of the firm, has 30 years of experience in economic development, community development, planning and marketing. He officially began work on behalf of Forward Wisconsin on Tuesday, September 5 and we are pleased to have him on board.

Paul was most recently the vice president of economic development for the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce – a post he held for nine and a half years. He started his own economic development consulting business in July 2006 upon his retirement from the Chamber. Paul is a long-time "ED" professional and is a familiar face to almost everyone in the economic development field in Wisconsin.

He began his career in community development and planning with positions in Wausau and Oshkosh respectively, and later moved on to economic development jobs at the City of Wauwatosa, Sauk County and for Wisconsin Electric Power Company in Milwaukee.

Paul has a master’s degree in urban planning from Iowa State University and a bachelor’s degree in urban analysis from UW-Green Bay. He holds certifications from the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and through the National Development Council as an Economic Development Finance Professional (EDFP).

Paul can be reached at 920.339.8821 or via email at ehrfurth@sbcglobal.net.

The dictionary defines "synergy" as "the process of bringing together two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of the individual efforts." Leaders in the West Central Region of Wisconsin take it one step further and define it as "a process to position the nine county region, its communities, businesses and residents for sustainable economic growth through the collaborative efforts of key stakeholders who together can achieve what individually they cannot."

The 2006 Synergy Conference, "Positioning West Central Wisconsin for Economic Growth", will take place September 20-21 in the Memorial Student Center at UW-Stout in Menomonie. It is the fourth annual conference who's mission is to bring people together to help position the Chippewa and St. Croix Valleys for economic development—where everyone is motivated to contribute, to get results, and to grow.

The conference will have "action sessions" on affordable health care, quality of life, education, workforce and economic development. Rebecca Ryan, founder of Next Generation Consulting, and Jack Schultz, the author of Boomtown USA, will highlight the agenda. Over 200 people are expected to attend.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, in partnership with the UW-Madison Department of Forest Ecology & Management, has made the Wisconsin’s Primary and Secondary Wood Using Industry Databases available through searchable, online databases. The databases are extensive and have company contact information, raw material use, and production data at your fingertips for use as a convenient sales and marketing tool.

Click here to access the databases.

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue recently released a reported titled, "Corporate Tax Burden Comparison, Wood Products Industry." It examines several states as well as Wisconsin before and after the implementation of the single-sales factor apportionment.

Click here to view the report.

This year, Forward Wisconsin partnered with Corporate Report Wisconsin in putting together our annual report. Over 30,000 copies of the 2006 Forward Wisconsin Annual Report will be included as inserts in the September issue of Corporate Report Wisconsin, which should already be hitting newsstands and your desk.

If you don't get a chance to see it in Corporate Report Wisconsin, you can view a "PDF" of our Annual Report by clicking below.

Click here to view our 2006 Annual Report.