Madison Region's Assets and Opportunities Initiative

Summary

Rob Gottschalk presents key regional assets at the December 2008 Collaboration Council meeting
Rob Gottschalk presents key regional assets at the December 2008 Collaboration Council meeting
What if there was one tool that tied together all the critical elements of a region - economy, education, environment, workforce, infrastructure, culture, recreation, and resources - into one story that uncovered the shape and strengths of our region? What if there was a place to start that showed how the region could best leverage its assets for the greatest return? And along the lines of the old adage "a picture tells a thousand words", what if it could be presented in colorful and visually-appealing maps?

Launched by Thrive in December of 2008, with funding from the Madison Community Foundation, and through analysis and synthesis of research by Vandewalle & Associates, this ambitious project paints a compelling and diverse "big picture" of the Madison Region's greatest assets and greatest possibilities. Key data is aggregated for Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Rock, and Sauk counties in one place: the Madison Region's Assets and Opportunities Initiative.

With input and leadership from each county's economic development, business, education, nonprofit, community and government leaders and visionaries throughout the eight-county Madison Region, the Madison Region's Assets & Opportunities Initiative collects and maps information that has never before been aggregated for the full region. The outcome is a new view of this region, providing a new shape, a new context, and a new depth to understanding the wealth of the region's assets. Not only does this high-level initiative paint a picture of where we live, work, and play, it also shows us who we are collectively, providing answers to:
-How a collaborative perspective can enhance our existing assets
-Where are our strengths across asset categories
-What resources we can leverage to advance sustainable development across the region
-How we might market our region to the rest of the nation and world
-What our region's direction could be for a shared regional future
So what did we learn about our assets? What does this region look like in terms of shared assets? It's a broad picture and a long list - in fact, over 150 maps and slides are in the complete report. But definitely a few key, unique assets emerged. These are the things we are - or could be - known for as a region, and which lead us towards a few potential big idea opportunities.

And where are the opportunities? When Thrive undertook this study with its partners, the objective was to collect data - without judgments or pre-conceived ideas. From this picture, paths began to emerge for how things could be, what the region could shape itself to be, and as a result these asset or strength-based ideas are a place to start based on our inherent competitive advantages. While additional opportunities may emerge from this new picture, key opportunities for the region that bubbled up from the asset base include:

1. Grow Regional Food Production and Processing Industry by scaling up the regional food system and growing large scale specialty production and processing export industry. (Thrive will be a partner)

2. Position to Build the Bioeconomy and Green Economy by strengthening the region's role in advancing the bioeconomy and emerging strengths in biofuels, bioenergy, biomaterials and biopharma. (Thrive will be a partner)

3. Integrate Biomedical, Healthcare and Wellness by collaborating to improve the region's health, grow new health-tech businesses, and become the Midwest Biomedical and Wellness Region. (Thrive will be a partner)

4. Package Place-Based Tourism Experiences for the Region by further developing regional "experiences" for visitors and residents by packaging, coordinating and marketing the unique and diverse tourism destinations.

5. Build a 21st Century Transportation System by creating the vision to take the region's existing network and propel us towards rapid transit systems that include high speed rail, regional express transit, and enhance our rural-urban connections.

6. Realize the Potential as the North American Bike Capital by expanding the region's bicycle system, infrastructure, industry and culture to gain this recognition and enhance economic and recreational opportunities.

7. Advance the Region as a Wellspring Innovation System by becoming a global knowledge and convening center connecting, translating and integrating ideas to help regional businesses compete globally.

8. Become a Regional Leader in Sustainable Solutions by leading the development of global environmental and natural resources solutions and exporting new technology applications, policy, system approaches, products, & services to the world.

What will Thrive be doing now?

After creating this public tool and offering these opportunities to the region, Thrive's role is now to "support the framework" of the Madison Region's Assets and Opportunities Initiative. Supporting the framework means:

  • Making presentations to interested regional groups to educate, generate interest, and identify champions

  • Serving as clearinghouse to make connections between interested individuals and groups
  • Providing initial support to help regional leaders launch an effort

  • Using Thrive communication tools to support the entire effort and specific opportunities as needed

Thrive is taking a lead role with the opportunities that align with our current sector work in agriculture, biotechnology, and healthcare: Food Production/Processing, Bio & Green Economy, and Biomedical, Healthcare, Wellness. And we are supporting regional leaders in their launch of both the Packaging Tourism Experiences and Bike Capital of North America opportunities. Thrive is hoping to be at the table for the remaining three opportunities, and is seeking leaders to help "set" that table.

What can you do next?

The assets and opportunities are intended as tools for the region. Some groups are using the asset maps in their comprehensive planning, others to identify their own areas of opportunity. If you are interested in seeing the assets and opportunities presentation, please let us know.

Regional champions are already stepping up to lead efforts around the opportunities that were uncovered. If you are interested in leading or in being involved in an opportunity, let us know.

The ball is now in your court as to what you do next with both the assets and the opportunities. This initiative is a starting point to foster new ideas and innovative collaboration around dreaming big, and working together to achieve big ideas. The opportunities introduced here might not be the same ones that you see - and that's the hidden strength of this project. As we collectively embrace this initiative, continually adding new ideas and developing new opportunities, the stronger we will be as a region.

"One of the goals of the Sauk County Comprehensive Plan is to increase awareness of the relationships among diverse realms of public policy at the sub-county (local), county, multi-county, and regional (Midwest) scales. Rather than reinventing the wheel, Sauk County is looking to the work completed by Thrive to foster additional discussion which will prove to be valuable for the County in looking forward 20 years."
--Mark Steward, AICP, Planning and Zoning Director, Sauk County

"The information in the Madison Region's Assets and Opportunities project is absolutely fantastic. These maps allow us to talk about the region as a whole with certainty and passionate advocacy for the first time. Having the facts, laid out in a coherent and comprehensive way, allows us, even inspires us, to be ready advocates."
--Phil Anderson, Director, Southwest Wisconsin LIFT