2012 BEST Conference

Fields of Green: Rural Entrepreneurism 

BEST is offering attendees a variety of educational opportunities focusing on the variety of rural entrepreneurs we have in the region including those in foods, tourism and services, and manufacturing. Our keynote speaker will be Cecil Wright of Organic Valley. 

This year we will also be offering tours of three regional businesses before the conference. BAPI (Building Automation Products Inc) in Gays Mills is a high tech business in Gays Mills and a past recipient of the BEST award for Established Entrepreneur. All BAPI products are designed, engineered and manufactured at their rural Wisconsin facility by people who take pride in the quality of their work. That’s why their products perform out of the box and far into the future.

Star Valley Flowers in Soldiers Grove is a cut flower operation that grows anything but the ordinary. They have found a niche by producing specialty cut flowers, especially woody ornamentals and perennials. They have 165 acres in production and are the largest field-grown cut flower producer in the Midwest.

Roth Fresh Farms in Boscobel is a different kind of farm. They are exploring ways to grow fish and plants in a symbiotic relationship whereby the fish waste is used to provide nutrients to plants and plants filter and clean the water for fish. Raising fish is called aquaculture and raising plants in water is called hydroponics. When you combine the two you have aquaponics. After the tours, attendees can stop by the Kickapoo Exchange Natural Foods Coop in Gays Mills for coffee and delicious baked goods before the start of the conference.


BREAKOUT SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

Creative Economy

It’s an important moment in time for our state, its communities, and its residents.  Creativity.  Innovation.  Imagination.  Entrepreneurship.  That's what Wisconsin needs, and that's what the arts provide.  There is growing interest from local administrators and elected officials, as well as economic and community development professionals, about pursuing coordinated, strategic efforts to boost the “creative economy” in locally and regionally.   SW Wisconsin is a hotbed of the arts and creative endeavors.  Many Wisconsin communities are already doing creative economy programs and projects, although they don’t necessarily call it that.  There’s a great need for strategic advice about tools, resources and directions. 

Anne Katz, Executive Director of Arts Wisconsin, the leading statewide organization speaking up and working for the arts, arts education and creative economy throughout Wisconsin, will provide background, directions, and information about models, research, networks and resources to encourage this development starting at the local level.    

Tourism Opportunities 

Tourists are just beginning to discover the beauty of the Driftless Region and that poses some interesting questions: Is there a tourism opportunity in my future? How can I get involved? Join Pete Knapik, Julia Henley and Shelly Allness for a panel discussion of that topic.

Peter Knapik and his wife, Nora, own and operate the Inn at Lonesome Hollow in rural Soldiers Grove. The Knapiks built their inn on 160 acres of land, moving to Crawford County from the Chicago area, where he was a chemical engineer and she a nurse.

Julia Henley, is Flood Recovery and Economic Development Coordinator in Gays Mills. For the past three years she has been applying her extensive experience in community development to building local and regional initiatives aimed at restoring communities in the Driftless Region.  A Michigan native, she is a graduate of Central Michigan University in Design & Industrial Technology.

Shelly Allness is program manager and executive liaison for the Travel Green Wisconsin program, the first statewide sustainable tourism certification program in the country when it started in 2007. The program is designed to give the state and hospitality business participants a marketing edge, promote smart business practices, reduce costs and energy consumption, educate travelers, support the Wisconsin brand, and protect the beauty and vitality of Wisconsin’s landscape.

The Unconventional Entrepreneurs

The origins of an entrepreneurial idea are often surprising, ranging from a long cherished idea to a sudden brainstorm. Learn what the founders of two fascinating companies -- one in floraculture and another in aerospace -- can tell us about the unconventional entrepreneurism possibilities in Crawford county and Southwest Wisconsin.

Jack Knowles is founder and president of J.B. Knowles, Inc., better known as The Chopper Spotter company, a manufacturer of ground handling equipment for the world helicopter market. Knowles is a former high school teacher who lives and works on the Richland County farm where he became an aerospace manufacture more than 30 years ago and where he is now also developing a new business, the Driftless Brewing Company.

John Zehrer is the owner of Star Valley Flowers, the largest field-grown cut flower producer in the Midwest. A Minnesota native, Zehrer was raised in a dairying family but gradually developed a love for horticulture. Star Valley Flowers produces more than 100 plant varieties but is best known for its berried and other fruited branches used in floral arrangements and believes it is the largest producer of bittersweet in the world.

The Phases of Food

Farmers grow things and supermarkets sell them, right? Actually that is only a small part of the story about the phases of the food business. Learn from an expert panel about the opportunities for food entrepreneurs right here in the Driftless region of Southwestern Wisconsin.

Brad Niemcek is director of the Kickapoo Culinary Center, a food business incubator that opened earlier this year in the new Gays Mills Community Center. Niemcek’s interests include both the specialty food  business and rural economic development. A journalism graduate of Marquette University, Niemcek retired to the Gays Mills area six years ago with his wife, Sharon Murphy.

Anthony Roth, is the operator of Roth Fresh Farms in rural Boscobel, where he raises tilapia and lettuce in a combined operation called aquaponics. Roth, who studied agronomy and horticulture at UW-Madison, is already selling his and hopes to have tilapia on the market by this fall. In addition to everything else, Roth and his wife, Sarah, are expecting their first child in June. Aquaculture + hydroponics = aquaponics (a very special variety of rural entrepreneurism.

Amy Seeboth, the Planning Manager at Southwest WI Regional Planning has worked in local foods since 2004; her experience includes coordinating a statewide CSA for the Maine Department of Agriculture and producing organic meat and dairy on a diversified educational farm.   With raising gas prices and unpredictable subsidies, the food market of southwestern Wisconsin is changing.  Amy is going to talk about how Project Produce, a three-state partnership, is exploring how these changes may create new economic opportunities for our region.  In her free time, Amy enjoys growing both vegetables and native flowers in her Platteville yard. More information is available at: www.swwrpc.org/projectproduce