Milwaukee Area Technical College is justly proud to have served as host for the 2009 Wisconsin Renewable Energy Summit. The enormous success of this landmark event transformed it into the premier green conference in the state. And next year the 2010 Summit will be better than ever!It all started five years ago when 60 representatives of Wisconsin’s technical colleges convened at Lakeshore Tech to share ideas and initiatives for renewable energy. As one of the principal planners of this historic gathering, MATC invited the group to come to Milwaukee in 2005. More than 100 showed up for the second meeting, and it became clear that an important annual event was emerging.
One-hundred eighty attended the 2006 meeting hosted by Mid-State Technical College in Wisconsin Rapids. Presidents of the technical colleges were invited to participate in a forum, so the name Renewable Energy Summit was adopted. The Summit returned to MATC in 2007, and attendance more than doubled to 450! Vision and inspiration revealed the possibilities – now planning and execution would create a major conference.
In anticipation of broader scope and interest, last year the organizers moved the fifth annual Summit to the Midwest Airlines Center, Milwaukee’s full-size conference facility. MATC continued as Summit host, and attendance soared in 2008, nearly tripling to 1,250! All other components of the conference also grew dramatically in number: presenters, sponsors, exhibitors and volunteers.
The vision and hard work of all these passionate and dedicated contributors was vindicated at the 2009 Wisconsin Renewable Energy Summit. Registrations again more than doubled to 2,725! And both the size and quality of all aspects of the conference increased significantly.
Those who attended that first modest meeting in 2004 are amazed by the explosive growth of this event. The reason is simple – the time was right! Major economic and ecologic forces have converged to drive historic change, and change brings opportunity. Summit organizers and contributors recognized that green enterprise was emerging as a major sector of the 21st century economy. Consider the timely themes of the last two summits: “Green jobs – building Wisconsin’s economy” (2008) and “Green business – unlimited economic opportunity” (2009).
These themes express the mission of the Renewable Energy Summit – education of the business and investment community, and education of the future workforce, our students. The education mission of the Summit surely is its greatest attribute. This unique conference has brought together in sponsoring partnership many of the great institutions of higher education in the Milwaukee area and throughout Wisconsin. Next year we intend to invite more, including many in neighboring states.
Perhaps the greatest distinction of our Summit is its policy of allowing all students to register free of charge. What an enlightened and beneficial policy this is! More than 1,700 students registered for the 2009 Summit – half of them from MATC. Thanks to the generosity of our many sponsors and exhibitors, almost 2,000 students were exposed to this exciting marketplace of economic analysis, research results, innovative initiatives, career ideas and future employment possibilities.
If ever there was a successful team effort, the 2009 Wisconsin Renewable Energy Summit was it! Hundreds of individuals and organizations contributed substantially. Check the Summit website (http://renewableenergy
summit.org/) for speakers (2009 Event Agenda), sponsors (2009 Event Sponsors), and committee members (2009 Summit Plan, pages 26-30). If you have a copy of the Summit program, see the last three pages (14-16) for lists of Planning and Executive committee members. They all deserve our thanks. (Wanna help for 2010? Get in touch!)
Most of all, let us applaud our own institution, Milwaukee Area Technical College. For the MATC District Board of Directors, for the President, for the student body, the faculty, the staff and the administration, for our alumni and the community at large, this academic and economic event was a triumph! Indeed, it was a triumph for all stakeholders in the future of Milwaukee and Wisconsin and the region.
Let me now single out for special recognition and appreciation my good friend and colleague, Robert P. Gilbertson. Bob, Director of Development for the Wisconsin Technical College System Foundation, has served as Chair of the Summit since its inception. It is my privilege to work with him as Co-Chair. Simply put, the Summit would not exist without Bob Gilbertson.
Yes, we’ve come a long way, baby. Just wait till next year!
