About the Gathering

Building New Narratives for Manufacturing. Attendees explored and share how organizations are creating impactful community connections, and how we can best document these successes to update the narrative about the value of manufacturing.

As practitioners, we know that manufacturing holds the promise of economic mobility for communities. The sector can provide family-sustaining wages and, with the right training partnerships, help lift individuals into enriching career paths. But the stigmas surrounding manufacturing still abound, like that its jobs are dirty, boring, and don’t provide career ladders. On the other end of the spectrum are those who think manufacturing careers require a more traditional, costly degree.

At the same time, millions of manufacturing jobs will go unfilled over the next few years, and cities are struggling to prevent manufacturers from getting pushed out of urban cores by mounting market pressures. Over the past decade, mega-manufacturers have left cities and towns across the United States, devastating local economies and neighborhoods in the process.

Now more than ever, we need new kinds of exposure to how manufacturing and communities are connecting and benefiting from each other.

Beyond manufacturing’s economic role, our practitioners can attest to the way people and places are incorporating manufacturing into their lives and histories. This Gathering will provide the space and interactions to spur greater documentation and storytelling of these relationships, but also our daily role as practitioners, and why it is that we dedicate ourselves to the work we do.

Building new narratives will help us build more bridges—not just with local communities, but with new partners who can help refine and scale our work and its benefits, like elected officials, funders, and stakeholders outside of manufacturing.

Agenda

Wednesday, June 5th

Welcome Reception

5:00pm – 6:30pm @ The Twisted Fisherman

1200 W Canal St, Milwaukee, WI 53233

Menomonee River Valley and Harbor District Boat Tour

**Sponsored by WE Energies Foundation**

6:15pm – 7:45pm Departing / Returning to The Twisted Fisherman

Thursday, June 6th

Gathering Day

9am-6:30pm @ Bradley Technology and Trade School

700 South 4th St, Milwaukee, WI 53204

Our Agenda:

• 9:00am – Registration Opens
• 9:00am – MKE Story Gallery Opens: Inspired by a school science fair, the MKE Story Gallery will provide additional opportunities for practitioners to learn what peers are working on in Milwaukee and have conversations with colleagues facing similar issues. We’ll have 8-10 featured Milwaukee organizations and businesses sharing their work connecting communities to manufacturing.Invited organizations include:
  • The Engine Conference
  • All Hands Boatworks
  • RISE Entrepreneurship Academy
  • The Granville Connection
  • Doors Open Milwaukee
  • Rev-Up Milwaukee
  • Brew City Match
  • The Dolphin Pool
  • Brinn Labs
  • Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee
• 10:00am – Event Begins; Welcome Remarks
  • Emcee: Elmer Moore, Jr ; Executive Director, Scale Up Milwaukee & Milwaukee Denim, Owner
  • Lee Wellington; Founding Executive Director, UMA
  • Corey Zetts; Executive Director, Menomonee Valley Partners
  • Dom Portis; Community School Coordinator, Bradley Tech & Trade High School
  • Brandon Wigley; Program Officer, Bader Philanthropies
• 10:30am – Welcome Address: “The Role of Research in Building New Narratives” by Professors Laura Wolf Powers (Hunter College) and Greg Schrock (Portland State University)
• 11:15am – Local and National Rapid Share Presentations: Through lightning-style presentations, we will hear from local and national organizations who have created programs that connect manufacturing to diverse types of communities, and how they are telling their story of why these connections provide mutual benefit to each other.
  • Local Milwaukee Rapid Shares:
    • Keenan Grenell; Executive Director, Manufacturing Diversity Institute
    • Kelsey Otero; Associate Director of Social Innovation, Marquette University
    • Lilith Fowler; Executive Director, Harbor District
    • Mary Hoehne; Executive Director, Granville Business Improvement District & Sam Leichtling; Long Range Planning Manager, City of Milwaukee
    • John Anderson; Senior Programs & Partnerships Coordinator, WRTP/Big Step
  • National Rapid Shares:
    • Debby Combs; Director of Industry Partners, Partners for a Competitive Workforce in Cincinnati
    • Megan McNally; Co-Founder, The Foundry in Buffalo
    • Nisha Blackwell; Founder, Knotzland Bowties & Peer Consultant and Producer in Residence for Bridgeway Capital’s Craft Business Accelerator in Pittsburgh
• 12:00pm – Networking Break + Lunch // Visit the MKE Story Gallery and our Sponsors
• 1:00pm – Interactive Storytelling Workshop: Stories are what make us human. They engage our deepest emotions, connect us more deeply to each other, and open doors to new possibilities. In Milwaukee, we’ll use the power of stories to build narratives that shape who we are and where we’re headed as manufacturing community leaders. During our afternoon breakout sessions, we’ll use design thinking to help each other craft and workshop new stories about our industry, our individual services, and our manufacturing businesses, using what we’ve created to construct new narrative maps that can lead us forward as we leave the Gathering and go back to doing our work at home, in our own city. Session will be led by Milwaukeeans, Coe Douglas and Kim Beckmann.
• 4:00pm – Closing Remarks
  • Sonia Moin; Director of Urban Business Initiatives, Initiative for a Competitive Inner City
  • Andy Stettner; Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation
  • Katy Stanton; Program Director, Urban Manufacturing Alliance
• 4:30pm – Happy Hour with Makers Market @Foamation **Sponsored by Square**
  • Burke Candy
  • James Steeno Gallery
  • Milwaukee Blacksmith
  • Local ¢hange
  • Reginald Baylor Studio
  • Big White Yeti
• 6:30pm – Event Wraps

Friday, June 7th

(A) City-Wide Manufacturing Bus Tour

Led by local tour guide, Adam Carr, the bus tour will criss cross the City of Milwaukee, giving attendees a foundation for understanding Milwaukee’s manufacturing past/present/future, as well as the communities connected to industry.

Departing from Hilton Garden Inn located at 611 N Broadway, Milwaukee, WI 53202 @ 10:00am

• 9:30am – Assemble at Hilton Garden Inn
• 10:00am – Board Bus
• Stop 1: Milwaukee Blacksmith – Featured on the History Channel’s “Milwaukee Blacksmith,” you’ll visit this small family business, see a demo, and hear how they’ve survived and thrived in a business that has seen a decline in popularity over the years. Milwaukee resident Kent Knapp is trying to keep it alive and pass the skill on to his three sons. 
• Stop 2: Rexnord – Rexnord has been known by many names over the decades, but they started in this location over 150 years ago. They are now manufacturing power transmission products including gears, couplings, industrial bearings, flattop, aerospace bearings and seals, industrial chain, and special components. Rexnord has connected to the community through partnering to revitalize the Menomonee River Valley and career discovery programming to introduce youth to opportunities in manufacturing.
• Stop 3: CenturyCity / Good City Brewing – The Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee (RACM) acquired the 86-acre former A.O. Smith/Tower Automotive complex, demolishing 1 million square feet of dilapidated buildings to make way for a new business park, Century City. Located in a neighborhood with high unemployment, the city’s goal is to develop the site with manufacturers that provide jobs for the residents of the surrounding neighborhood. In 2018, Good City Brewing purchased a building for their second manufacturing space and office relocation, the first project in Milwaukee to use the Opportunity Zone program. 
• Stop 4: Sherman Phoenix – In 2016, violent unrest broke out in the Sherman Park neighborhood of Milwaukee after a fatal police shooting rocked the community. In the weeks following, community conversations identified the need for safe, welcoming neighborhood space, and leaders in the community decided to take matters into their own hands in order to foster change. In the hopes of moving forward — the idea for the Sherman Phoenix was born. The Sherman Phoenix transformed a fire-damaged BMO Harris Bank building into a high-quality space for 29 small businesses primarily owned by people of color, many of which are family ventures.
• 1:30pm – Return to Hilton Garden Inn

(B) Riverworks Neighborhood Manufacturing Walking Tour

Riverworks Development Corporation will host a walking tour from 10am-12pm, with four stops covering ~1.5 miles.

Riverworks Development Corporation serves as a catalyst for redevelopment, striving to positively impact area businesses and their neighbors. The Riverworks neighborhoods, one of Wisconsin’s most culturally diverse areas, is built on a long standing foundation of manufacturing and industrial history. As our urban industrial framework adapts to the future, we see the Riverworks district defining itself by creatively reinventing industrial spaces into artistic industrial entrepreneur maker spaces, while incorporating the cultural relevancies of its neighborhoods. Wear your walking shoes!

• 9:30am – Assemble at Hilton Garden Inn
• 10:00am – Board Transportation
• 10:15am – Walking tour with four stops covering about 1.5 miles
• Stop 1: Spike Brewing – Proudly located in Milwaukee, the beer capital of the US, Spike Brewing is a premier manufacturer of stainless steel home brewing equipment. They do all their own custom fabrications at their facility, showcasing such products as brew kettles, flex fermenters, and their brewing systems, giving precise control of mash temps and preventing any scorching of the grains.
• Stop 2: Burke Candy – Making gourmet candy has been a Burke family tradition since 1929, with some recipes dating back almost 100 years. Burke Candy, a one of a kind family owned business,  manufactures fine and gourmet candies and ingredients, certifying all products as Kosher and Gluten Free. With state-of-the-art facilities and a dedicated Research and Development team, Burke has been manufacturing customized product solutions for the candy industry for nearly a century.  Burke is community and family focused manufacturer, passionate about their craft and dedicated to their quality.
• Stop 3: FluxDesign – Flux Design is a fusion of artists, designers, craftsman, creators and critical thinkers offering full service design build for commercial and residential needs. As one of Milwaukee’s most influential design teams, Flux has left a thumbprint on over 100 restaurants, bars, nightclubs and cafes all over the greater Milwaukee area. Flux takes regular design and turns it on its head, offering an unique experience in every one of their spaces. Flux continues to deliver art that makes people talk.
• Stop 4: 3728 Fratney – Soon to be one of Milwaukee’s coolest Industrial Maker Spaces, developers have seized opportunity to build upon this historic asset. In a majority of urban industrial areas, old manufacturing buildings are being revitalized and renovated to move out of the industrial zone. However, in Riverworks, developers are excited to bring new industrial life to these older facilities by creating a culture for growing industrial entrepreneurs. See how these developers are repurposing this old space into a community asset and find out about upcoming tenants that will be moving in.
• Stop 5: 3700 Fratney – An amazing opportunity, that’s what the new owner of 3700 Fratney thought when purchasing this old industrial facility. The owner, an industrial entrepreneur and developer, saw opportunity in this building to provide affordable space for his business as well as other entrepreneurs in the area. The building has already undergone an amazing renovation and brought in such businesses as Dolphin Wetsuits, ThinkHR and Hammer & Trowel, building upon his vision of creating a collaborative maker space.
• 12:00pm – Return to Hilton Garden Inn

Gathering FAQ’s

Q: Who attends these Gatherings?

A: The types of organizations that attend UMA Gatherings include individuals representing city, county, and state economic development agencies; city planning, workforce and sustainability departments; affordable housing developers; academic institutions from K-12 through university and technical schools; makerspaces; CDC’s; mission-driven real estate developers; lenders, such as banks, CDFI’s, and philanthropies; students and faculty; business improvement districts; neighborhood associations; designers and artists; faith-based institutions; elected officials; and manufacturing and making businesses themselves. We take a very broad definition of who is connected to manufacturing and invite anyone to come.

Q: I have a very small budget. Can I still attend?

A: Cost should never be a barrier to attend. If you or someone in your network needs support, please have them reach out to Crystal Marie @ crystalmarie@urbanmfg.org.

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Hotel Suggestions and Deals

(Hotels below are close to public transportation that take you directly to the events.)

 

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More About our Gathering:

For decades, economic development in cities depended on “smokestack chasing”: luring large employers from one community to another or incentivizing them to stay. However, we have begun to see a shift from this zero-sum paradigm towards a locally-focused, place-based approach that lifts up and champions businesses of all sizes. Local stakeholders are driving today’s cross-sector approaches to industrial and community economic development, through financing programs, community coalitions, and workforce initiatives that lift up and sustain small-scale makers and manufacturers. By working to stimulate these entrepreneurs, local coalitions are keeping good-paying manufacturing jobs in urban neighborhoods.

From organizations that connect housing advocates with real estate developers, to local branding organizations that provide everything from marketing services to funding opportunities for small-scale manufacturers, UMA members represent the finest in the art of ecosystem building. Our collective job–both as an organization and on the part of our members–is to build connections among these groups at the local, regional, and national level, so that ecosystems can expand and influence one another. UMA Gatherings help us achieve that goal: they unite practitioners from across the country, and give them a dynamic platform to discuss coalition building strategies, face-to-face, with like-minded professionals.

As UMA works in partnership with its members to build a movement around inclusive industrial development, we are able to connect manufacturing advocates with those whose development work indirectly impacts local manufacturers. This ultimately expands our national coalition to become more representative of the local neighborhoods and businesses our work strives to benefit.

Milwaukee, our host city, is experiencing a boom of new projects that are leveraging human capital and social infrastructure to create connectivity to the manufacturing sector through:

• Recreation
  • A long-vacant 120-acre rail yard site was recently developed as a 60-acre eco-industrial park. Today it is home to 10 next generation manufacturing buildings, and 60-acres of parks and trails between neighborhoods hardest hit by decades of disinvestment. Parks and trails invite people into the industrial park, and sustainable and modern design exposes the reality of today’s manufacturing to passing bikers and kids playing soccer in the park.

• Education
  • Several organizations are working to engage kids on the path to manufacturing careers through hands-on projects that provide skills and mentorship—from partnerships with a local technical high school where students build baskets to support underwater habitats in Milwaukee’s harbor to a carpenter’s union that mentors kids through the process of building their own boat and paddling it down the river.
  • Komatsu Mining, a global mining equipment, technology and services provider based in Milwaukee, this year will break ground on a new headquarters and manufacturing campus in Milwaukee’s Harbor District. With the State of Wisconsin and City of Milwaukee, the total planned investment in the new South Harbor Campus is $285M, one of the largest investments in urban manufacturing in the U.S. in decades. The planned site will include a museum and public space to showcase to the next generation the critical role that manufacturing plays in the city and around the world.

• Inclusion
  • Milwaukee Area Technical College is working to redefine its role in inclusive economic development through the MATC Promise, which provides free tuition to new high school graduates or adults who meet income requirements. This program will pair students with employers in in-demand industries and grant credits for on-the-job work so people most in need aren’t just getting entry level jobs, but degrees and paths to family-supporting careers.

• Community-led Investing:
  • Fund Milwaukee, an organization addressing the issue of capital for start-ups, is connecting small, non-accredited investors with social entrepreneurs, and has built a community of residents to fill the capital gap needed to open a variety of small manufacturers, retail establishments and real estate developments, including: Fyxation, Clock Shadow Creamery, Purple Door Ice Cream, and the Sherman Phoenix, a former bank reborn as a mixed-use development that is now home to 29 makers, restaurants, and entrepreneurs.

These projects are creating new pipelines to opportunities and innovation in manufacturing. Documenting the people who pioneered, and processes that went into these concepts, will help encourage similar models outside of Milwaukee, while providing an opportunity for us to understand the holistic impact that equitable manufacturing development can bring to city residents.

About UMA

UMA is a coalition of organizations and individuals working together to grow more equitable and prosperous economies in cities by building robust, environmentally sustainable, and inclusive urban manufacturing sectors. In everything we do, we are vigilant to ensure that the new urban manufacturing economy reflects the diversity of our cities and offers environmentally sustainable and inclusive equitable employment, ownership, and innovation opportunities to residents of all urban communities.

About Menomonee Valley Partners

MVP’s mission is to revitalize and sustain the Menomonee River Valley as a thriving urban district that advances economical, ecological, and social equity for the benefit of the greater Milwaukee community. MVP envisions a thriving Valley with a well-balanced mix of industrial, recreational, and entertainment uses that strengthen Milwaukee.

Photo credit: Urban Manufacturing Alliance

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Thank You To Our Sponsors

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