Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Cannery Grill Gets Positive Review (77 Square)


When the 6,100-square-foot bar and restaurant opened in July 2007, it got scant publicity in Madison. Yet, as I discovered recently, the Cannery deserves to be recognized for its food and its service.

Read the full review in 77 Square, the entertainment blog associated with Madison.com.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

MATC Offers Busines Writing Course at Colonial Club (MATC Business Industry and Community Services)

Business Writing 1

In this class students will improve their skills in writing for a business setting. They will draft various correspondences such as letters, memos, and reports, learn to properly document telephone messages, and create meeting agendas. The final project will be to develop a presentation using graphics, pictures, clip art, etc., and present this to the class.

Class: #70311
Fees: $99.33
Days: W
Time: 6:00 PM-8:45 PM
Begins: 1/13
Ends: 2/24
Instructor: Staff
Location: Sun Prairie Colonial Club

Registration methods:

New students: Phone (608) 246-6240 or (608) 246-6210 or visit the Enrollment and Information Center at an MATC campus.

Returning students: Use either of the above methods OR phone the automated registration system at (608) 246-6220 OR register online... visit InsideMATC, login to your account, and use the Student Center to Add your 5-digit class number(s). First time InsideMATC users will need to activate their accounts.

For more information on Madison College training solutions or to discuss opportunities to offer customized training for businesses and organizations, please contact our Business, Industry and Community Services (BICS) department at customizedtraining@matcmadison.edu or call at 608-243-4479.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Predictions for Sun Prairie's Economy in 2010

While I carefully analyzed the Dane County Business Survey from this year to answer questions for Meghann Olson at the Star, I worked very hard to provide an objective commentary on how the questions in the survey reflected how Sun Prairie businesses would have answered. I pondered all sorts of scientific trends and correlations and emailed her some brilliant answers. Most of which didn't make the article. So much for the mumbo jumbo.

Meghann did however highlight my prognostications for Sun Prairie's economy in 2010 which I kind of threw in there for fun. Why not? If Jimmy can do the weather, I should be able to reasonably predict with some degree of accuracy what may happen in the world of development. Right?


Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Council Approves Marcus Theatres Project in Under Two Months (Various)

[Blogger's Note: I'll let the news articles speak for themselves. We're very excited about the opportunity that the Marcus project brings to our community. It was fun to work on a project where the elected officials, staff, developer and the prospect we're all striving for the same goal. Now only if the economy will cooperate and help us get that building permit issued...]

Council gives final approval to Marcus plan (Sun Prairie Star)
http://www.sunprairiestaronline.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=4416

Marcus Picks Sun Prairie Over Madison For New Theater (Channel3000.com)
http://www.channel3000.com/money/21988385/detail.html

Marcus theater project heading to Sun Prairie (The Daily Reporter)
http://dailyreporter.com/blog/2009/12/16/marcus-theater-project-heading-to-sun-prairie/

Sun Prairie council approves 16-screen theater project (Madison.com)
http://host.madison.com/wsj/business/article_c158f6d4-ea81-11de-9a48-001cc4c03286.html

Marcus Theatres project gets green light in Sun Prairie (WKOW 27)
http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11684376


Sun Prairie council approves new Marcus cinema (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2009/12/14/daily45.html

Madison leaders lament project losses (The Daily Reporter)
http://dailyreporter.com/blog/2009/12/17/madison-leaders-lament-project-losses/

Friday, December 11, 2009

THRIVE Updates Available


The following activity reports are currently available from THRIVE, the eight-county economic development organization for the Madison Region:



Thursday, December 10, 2009

2009 First Business Economic Survey of Dane County (First Business Bank)

This report highlights the findings of the 2009 First Business Economic Survey of Dane County, which was conducted by the University of Wisconsin’s A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research in September and October of 2009. This was the seventh year for the study. The survey was sent to 4,568 businesses in Dane County that were reported to have five or more employees and was addressed to the CEO, CFO, President, and/or business owner.

The survey asked respondents to evaluate the current, and predict the future performance of their business on eight key economic indicators in each of the following areas: Sales Revenue, Profitability, Total Operating Costs as a % of Revenue, Capital Expenditures, Number of Employees, Overall Wage Change, Change in Pricing, and Operating Capacity. This year, as in past years, the survey also asked questions pertaining to changes in expenses. We also asked business owners their projections on the potential effect of the newly proposed legislature regarding healthcare reform, which during the timing of the survey was not finalized in any form.



Public power CEO to step down in 2011 (JSOnline.com)

Roy Thilly, president and chief executive of WPPI Energy, will step down as the public power company’s leader in early 2011.

Thilly has been president and chief executive of WPPI Energy, formerly known as Wisconsin Public Power Inc., since 1992. He has been active on energy policy issues at the state and federal levels. He co-chaired Gov. Jim Doyle’s task force on global warming and played a leading role in 1990s in moves that led to the formation of a transmission-only power utility to upgrade the state’s energy reliability.

A search will be launched for a new CEO, and Thilly will spend 2010 continuing as CEO as well as assisting the board of directors in the succession planning process, Rodriguez said.

WPPI Energy is a regional power company serving 51 customer-owned municipal electric utilities in Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Iowa.