UW-Eau Claire represented itself at Wisconsin Economic Summit II held in Milwaukee November 26-27 at the Midwest Express Center.

The summit was put on by the UW System and it brought together students, administrators, faculty, business leaders, economic developers and government officials to discuss the Wisconsin economy, Student Senate President Andy Oettinger said.

For the 800 attendees, Monday and Tuesday morning offered different sessions, and in the afternoon there were large group activities including keynote speakers Governor Scott McCallum and futurist Daniel Burrus, Intergovernmental Affairs Director Sara Schuh said.

Futurist Daniel Burrus is a hired consultant; he predicts the biggest technological trends and how to prepare for them. He mentioned the new information based economy and how to distribute the information to all classes. Before there were the “haves” and “have nots,” now there are the “knows” and “know nots;” the people who have access to the information and those who don’t, Finance Director Nate Otto said.

Student Life and Diversity Director Erin Brandt said she thought Burrus was fascinating.

“He was blunt about his ideas and the things he talked about were really interesting,” she said.

One of the topics covered by Governor McCallum was his program, Wisconsin Jobs for Wisconsin Grads. A fairly low percentage of graduates stay in Wisconsin, and that can greatly affect the economy. Employers looking to hire can put job descriptions on-line that would go to Wisconsin students and alumni, Schuh said.

The summit gave students a good opportunity to see what is going on around the state with economic development and to meet a lot of different people. It was a chance to be in the presence of important people and to see what they are doing, Brandt said.

“My biggest interest was to see exactly how the different communities around the state benefit from the universities,” Oettinger said. “Because a lot of times students and universities aren’t given proper credit for how much they contribute to the economy at both city and state level.”

Kevin Boatright, assistant vice president of University Relations in UW Systems said this year’s meeting was kind of like a sequel to last year’s Wisconsin Economic Summit.

“The first summit raised a variety of issues related to the economic development of Wisconsin,” Boatright said. “This year’s summit builds upon last year’s meeting and aimed at developing a set of goals and objectives for government in UW System and private businesses to work toward.”

He said the outcome of this summit will be posted in a report on the Internet before Feb. 1.

More information on both this year’s and last year’s Wisconsin Economic Summit or summaries of the event are available here. The futurist Daniel Burrus also has a Web site.