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Home About Us B2B Club Breaking News Contact Donate Events / Programs Feedback Ideas Incubator Industry Clusters Links / Resources Progess Funds Progress Teams Public Art / Murals Publications		Breaking News September 13, 2004 By Colin Atagi, Daily Tribune Staff Many local residents use basic technology to make it easier to live at home, but businesses also need that technology to succeed, said members of a Community Progress Initiative industry cluster group. After meeting every week for more than two months, the New Economy cluster group decided it wanted to help new entrepreneurs by showing them local technological resources, and teaching a better understanding of the businesses' needs and how they can be helped. "We have a lot of small businesses that know a lot about, let's say, golf equipment, and will start a golf store," said Chad Bormann, co-chairman of the group. "They know a lot of that market, but not about each infrastructure they need to put in the business to help them." Local technology service providers such as Charter Communications and WCTC play an important role in many south Wood County businesses, Bormann said. As commonplace as some of those services are, the customers who subscribe to the services need to know more than the basics. The New Economy group hopes to develop a local business incubator to help prepare local entrepreneurs to open their businesses. The group and the Heart of Wisconsin Business & Economic Alliance have shared information on business technology opportunities and plan to continue working together, said Connie Loden, executive director of the Heart of Wisconsin. "We're working on improving our Web site and representation of the community," she said. "(The cluster group) identified the need for a portal so that you can get your variety of area Web sites from the same location, and that's something we want to work on in moving forward." Members of the New Economy cluster group who specialize in Web design have been responsible for the cluster group Web site and message board, Loden said. You can reach Colin Atagi at 422-6728 or at catagi@wisconsinrapidstribune.com.
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