If the war for talent is a numbers game, industry alliances play a strong hand.
The Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance (NEWMA) has been a power player in the region since 2006, and the Northeast Wisconsin Digital Alliance (NEWDA) traces its roots back to 2014. For years, NEWDA has been working as part of New North, Inc. to address the current and future talent shortages in information technology. And last December, New North, Inc. added a new staff member and placed another industry alliance in its portfolio: The Northeast Wisconsin Construction Alliance, or NEWCA — an independent 501(c)3 started by volunteers representing the region’s construction industry not long before COVID-19 reared its head.
Jason Mathwig says the opportunity to support NEWDA and now also NEWCA in his newly-created role as industry alliances director for New North, Inc. has been both challenging and gratifying.
“As you can imagine, talent is the biggest initiative for both alliances, so a lot of our programs are centered around talent attraction, recruitment, retention and things of that nature,” Mathwig says. “But [NEWDA] is more 50/50 — 50% is the talent side, and the other 50 is general promotion of digital health in our region.”
And with massive issues like cybersecurity and artificial intelligence affecting nearly every home and business in Northeast Wisconsin, NEWDA won’t run out of things to do or problems to solve anytime soon.
“What are we doing in our region to make sure we aren’t falling behind other regions in terms of being prepared for AI? How can we be proactive and not stand on the sidelines? It’s how can we be creative about sharing resources, getting people together to have conversations about how we can collaborate,” Mathwig says.
NEWDA hosts monthly roundtables on either IT or cybersecurity topics, and in August it hosted a tech summit about generative AI. Mathwig says he would also like to see the organization increase its participation in Wisconsin Tech Month (October annually), which has been centered more around Milwaukee in the past even though there’s a wealth of tech companies in the New North. NEWCA activities have included quarterly and annual meetings featuring guest speakers on topics such as youth apprenticeship and hiring military veterans; future activity will likely have a strong focus on opportunities to promote diversity and explore new talent pipelines for the industry.
“Some of our events are more ad hoc, because we think they’re great learning opportunities, but I’d like to get to where it’s more consistent,” says Mathwig, adding that he envisions creating a signature NEWDA event. “The networking piece of these events is just as important, if not sometimes more important. That’s where a lot of innovation happens.”
But ultimately, both organizations are focused on creating opportunities, leveraging connections and forging partnerships to infuse more overall talent into their industries.
Mathwig says alliance membership growth is among his biggest goals for the coming year. NEWDA currently has 25 investors; NEWCA has 23, including both construction firms and “associate members” such as labor unions, financial institutions and insurance companies that have demonstrated work and investment within the industry. To join NEWCA, there must be an industry affiliation. But as for NEWDA, membership is pretty much wide open.
“Any business could join [NEWDA],” Mathwig says. “Whether it’s health care or restaurants, every type of entity has some digital or IT component.”
Companies don’t have to be investors in New North, Inc. to join the alliances, though Mathwig says there currently are financial incentives offered to organizations that want to be part of both. Once a company becomes a member, all its employees are entitled to the benefits. And prospective members are always welcome to attend events or connect with Mathwig before making the financial commitment of membership. In fact, because of its community education and digital health mission, many of NEWDA’s educational activities are free and open to non-members.
“Ultimately, I’m here for the greater good of all — all of construction, all digital,” Mathwig says. “The more investors and supporters we have, the bigger and greater things we can do. But even if you don’t end up being an investor, we’d still love to help out in any way we can. We’re here to help the industry, not individual companies.”
