Madison Magazine, December 2008
The heady optimism that gave birth to the region's first economic development entity is finally beginning to produce results.
Enter Thrive: the new regional economic development group that shares a president with the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, and its aptly named "Growers to Grocers" program. When we last met Thrive ("Drama in Dane," February 2006), it was called, simply, Regional Economic Development Entity, or REDE (pronounced like "ready"). It grew out of the Collaboration Council, a large group of business and civic leaders with the nebulous goal of fostering regional cooperation. The economy does not respect municipal boundaries, the thinking was; there's no need for competition for businesses and jobs between Madison and Middleton or Sauk County and Rock County, since people and their dollars don't stop at the city or county line.
Fast-forward three years. The boomerang project, once dubbed Badger Boomerang, is now Badger Career Network Alerts. The Growers to Grocers program is up and running. And the REDE has a name: Thrive, conceived with the assistance of local branding wizard Marsha Lindsay, website at thrivehere.org, a staff of nine, and $2.6 million raised (eighty percent from private sources).
The heady optimism that gave birth to the region's first economic development entity is finally beginning to produce results.
Enter Thrive: the new regional economic development group that shares a president with the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, and its aptly named "Growers to Grocers" program. When we last met Thrive ("Drama in Dane," February 2006), it was called, simply, Regional Economic Development Entity, or REDE (pronounced like "ready"). It grew out of the Collaboration Council, a large group of business and civic leaders with the nebulous goal of fostering regional cooperation. The economy does not respect municipal boundaries, the thinking was; there's no need for competition for businesses and jobs between Madison and Middleton or Sauk County and Rock County, since people and their dollars don't stop at the city or county line.
Fast-forward three years. The boomerang project, once dubbed Badger Boomerang, is now Badger Career Network Alerts. The Growers to Grocers program is up and running. And the REDE has a name: Thrive, conceived with the assistance of local branding wizard Marsha Lindsay, website at thrivehere.org, a staff of nine, and $2.6 million raised (eighty percent from private sources).