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Webinars

Webinars are seminars in which content is delivered over the internet and displayed on a screen in our conference room.  Most of the webinars have interactive features that enable the user to participate in the discussion.  By using this technology, UW Extension Grant County can bring a variety of world-class educational resources to our citizens for free.  The following is a list of webinars that will be held at the Youth & Ag Center in Lancaster.   Everyone is invited and there is no fee. Please call or e-mail ahead of time so that we can make the proper accommodations.

Schedule:

  • March 7, 2012:  ‘Community Retail Analysis Techniques’ @ noon.

To support sustainable economic development and guide decision making in small city downtowns and business districts, business and community leaders require more than a basic understanding of the health of the local economy. Retail development in particular requires relevant and sector-specific market information to guide business development efforts. This information is the focus of a “market analysis”.

This webinar will describe a variety of retail market analysis tools that have been incorporated in the newly updated “Downtown and Business District Market Analysis Toolbox.” This one-stop resource, developed by Extension professionals in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ohio, is designed to help local leaders understand market conditions, conduct business-specific analyses, and apply the findings to business retention, expansion and recruitment efforts. New techniques have been developed in the toolbox such as a “gap analysis calculator” that helps measure local market potential in terms of demand and supply for 70 business categories.

 

  • December 13, 2011:  ’2011 Nonprofit Economic Outlook: The State of Wisconsin’s Nonprofit Sector’ @ 2PM.

This is Forward Community Investment’s third annual survey of Wisconsin’s nonprofit sector.  This report is a summary of trend in the economic condition of nonprofits and an examination of the capacity building and collaborative efforts undertaken to overcome financial obstacles.

Our guests will be discussing the findings from the 325 nonprofit leaders who responded to the survey, with a focus on the current challenges facing nonprofits and the potential solutions and next steps that nonprofits and community stakeholders can take.

 

  • December 8, 2011  ‘Best Practice Approaches in the New Economy’ @ noon.

David Ivan, Extension Specialist Greening Michigan Institute, Michigan State University. Overview: Our world has changed and past strategies to add vitality in our cities and towns are failing in a globalized society. Based on the successful approaches from real people in real communities, this presentation is the result of nearly two years of research and site visits to more than 70 smaller and mid-sized communities in 20 states that are experiencing success in a global paradigm. The presentation outlines five pillars of success in the New Economy while providing community examples that operationalize global competitiveness themes.

  • November 10, 2011  ’The 1099 Economy’@ 1:00 PM.

Erik Pages, Entreworks Consulting. This presentation will include a conversation regarding the increasing number of Americans who don’t have a “regular job” but instead work on individual contracts with employers or customers.

  • October 26, 2011   ‘Broadband 101: What do consumers need to know?’  @ 10 AM.

Professor Andy Lewis, Community and Economic Development Manager, Office of Broadband Sustainability, University of Wisconsin-Extension.With all the choices available on the market, it can be confusing for consumers to make decisions about how they access the Internet, why high speed connectivity is important and how to evaluate service offerings. This free program will provide an overview of tools that can be used to identify providers and make decisions about service choices.There are consumers without internet service choices, and this program will also cover what they can do to be more proactive in getting service.This free program will be delivered as a live webinar using Elluminate and will include time for some group activities (at group sites), and questions.

  • October 20, 2011    ‘Governor’s Conference On Economic Development: Bringing Small Industry to Downtowns’ @ 10 AM.

Kennedy Smith, of the Community Land Use and Economic Group, is a renowned leader and innovator in downtown revitalization, land use development, and historic preservation.  Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Business Week, Forbes, Governing and Red Herring to “Donahue,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” and Public Radio International’s “Marketplace.” In March 2002, Fast Company magazine named her to its first-ever list of “Fast 50 Champions of Innovation”.

  • October 19, 2011  ’Human Resources:  Doing More with Less and Taking Your Organization to the Next Level‘ @ 2 PM.
  • October 18, 2011     ‘Examining Entrepreneurial Activity at Six North American Universities’@ Noon.

Professor Martin Kenney of the Department of Human and Community Development at University of California, Davis.

Overview:  In recent years, the standard practice of in which universities own inventions made by their research faculty, staff, and students has been increasingly questioned as to whether it is the most effective means of commercialization.  This paper uses hand-collected data of the population of technology-based spin-offs from five US universities, all of which operate under a university-ownership regime, and the University of Waterloo, Canada, which operates an inventor-ownership regime.  Attempting to control for university quality, R&D investment, and faculty size, we demonstrate that inventor ownership appears to be more effective at converting R&D expenditures into university spin-offs.  We also find that the biological and medical sciences are less efficient than computer science and electrical engineering in terms of R&D expenditures and numbers of university faculty at generating spin-offs.  Our results suggest that at universities where entrepreneurship is considered a goal, university ownership of inventions should be reconsidered.

  • October 13, 2011      ‘Disaster and Small Business Survival’ @ 1:00 PM.

Dr. George Haynes, Professor & Ag Policy Specialist, Montana State University discusses how small business owners should prepare for disasters.

  • October 6, 2011    ’Marketing Food Specialty Products Online‘ @ 10 AM.
Connie Hancock , Extension Educator, University of Nebraska Extension and Glenn Muske, Rural and Agribusiness Enterprise Development Specialist North Dakota State University Extension Service will provide information to assist food retailers in making decisions on the use of online technologies in their marketing and management planning strategies. The program will provide an overview of how food retailing is already benefiting from the use of technology and provides a glimpse at what strategies could be possible within the context of a cost benefit analysis.

  • September 8, 2011    ‘The Case for Supporting Entrepreneurs in a Jobless Recovery’ @ 1:00 PM.

Join Dr. Stepan Goetz, Director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development for an informative session on where the research points in supporting the communities we work in. More than ever before, expectations are high that entrepreneurs can serve as engines of economic growth in local economies.  Yet the scientific research base documenting the local economic impacts of smaller entrepreneurs remains weak, and organizations such as The Kauffman Foundation are promoting billion-dollar businesses rather than smaller operations to rekindle economic growth.  This presentation provides a user-friendly state of the art review of the most recent research on the roles of small, locally-owned businesses and the self-employed in local and regional economic growth.