CEDC Blog
Growing Best Together in the Chippewa Valley
The Forecast Lunch, part of CEDC’s Business Retention and Expansion (BEAR) program and hosted by CEDC with generous sponsorship from Frandsen Bank & Trust, brought together business owners, entrepreneurs, lenders, educators, area manufacturers, and public-sector partners. The shared purpose was clear: to better understand the forces influencing our local economy [...]
Keeping the Chippewa Running
Conversations around disaster are never easy. Whether it is a cyberattack, natural disaster, or unexpected operational failure, the topic forces our local business leaders to confront risk, uncertainty, and worst-case scenarios. Yet CEDC knows those are exactly the conversations that must happen before a crisis or disaster ever occurs. That’s [...]
From a Century of Care to a New Beginning in Chippewa County
When the groundbreaking begins for the new Rogers Behavioral Health hospital in Chippewa Falls, it will represent far more than the start of construction. It marks the continuation of a legacy more than a century in the making—one now taking root in the Chippewa Valley. A Legacy Rooted in Wisconsin [...]
Yes, Wisconsin Has a Moss Industry—and It’s Global
Last weekend, I laced up my boots and headed to Beaver Creek Reserve in Eau Claire County—a beautiful 400-plus-acre mix of upland woods, river bottom forests, wetlands, and savanna just outside Eau Claire. The occasion: a moss hike, one of those wonderfully slow, ground-level experiences that shifts your perspective from [...]
Beyond Deals and Dirt: How Advocacy Is a Strategic Economic Development Tool
Entrepreneurial development doesn't happen in a vacuum. While ideas, talent, and capital are critical, the policies and programs that shape the business environment often determine whether entrepreneurs can start, grow, and stay local. That's why legislative advocacy is a core part of Chippewa Economic Development Corporation’s (CEDC) economic development strategy. [...]
#FlyEAU — What Communities Without Air Service Wish They Had
In economic development, you don’t always learn the value of an asset by having it. Sometimes you learn by watching others lose it. Across the Midwest, communities without reliable commercial air service are discovering—often the hard way—that air access is not a luxury. It is one of the core infrastructure [...]