This morning, Local First Milwaukee held its monthly networking meeting for members of the organization. “Third Thursday” is hosted by a different member each month, and this month’s host – Clock Shadow Creamery – made for an exceptionally interesting event. Besides being Milwaukee’s first cheese maker, Clock Shadow is based in one of the most “green” buildings I’ve ever seen (for more on that, look to Part 2)!
This morning’s event had great attendance, and here’s some of the snippets I heard from the member businesses present…
+Clock Shadow Creamery, I got to speak with Genya, their sales and outreach person, and she was pretty excited as tonight is their grand opening! She also gave me a glance at the area where Clock Shadow makes their cheese — pretty dang cool. 🙂
+Swipeworks continues to get more new clients (providing credit-card and gift-card processing) through the strength of their customer service and their striving to be good partners with their clients.
+Bolzano Artisan Meats is competing for a $250K grant – go login to Mission Small Business through Facebook, ,and vote for this great local business!
+Anodyne Coffee shared some exciting news in that they are looking at soon acquiring new coffee roasters in order to keep up with their amazing growth in the wholesale coffee arena. What really makes these upcoming roasters stand out is that they are made in the US and exceptionally efficient in their utility usage!
+I learned from Horizon Home Care and Hospice that they are getting prepared for their annual “Life Lights” fundraiser to be held at Milwaukee County Zoo. Horizon’s free and open-to-the-public Grief Center continues to help people going through loss and transitions of many kinds.
+Though I didn’t get to chat nearly enough with her, I met – in-person- Andrea Nordgren, of Equity Creative. We’ve followed each other on Twitter for some time now, but only met face-to-face for the first time this morning!
+91.7 WMSE has got a lot going on right now – they’re kicking of a few-day fundraiser to help them meet their annual budget, and at the same time getting ready to broadcast live from Summerfest.
+Fondy Farmers Market is opening this SATURDAY and there’ll be a BBQ contest! Worth noting is that the Fondy Market is pretty innovative in their mission to bring fresh food into Milwaukee’s north side. Incidentally, they were the first farmers market in the country to accept food stamps.
+Stone Creek Coffee, as generous as ever, provided hot coffee for everyone to enjoy. They’re pretty excited as they get closer and closer to the opening of their new cafe and bakery across from Milwaukee’s Intermodal Station!
+I also saw representatives from Purple Door Ice Cream, Bottom-Line Productions, Dig Design, Stan’s Fit For Your Feet, Outpost Natural Foods, Community Shares, Charles Allis Art Museum, WMSE, Laacke and Joys, Retailworks, Dwellephant, Becky’s Blissful Bakery, Verduras Tea House and Cafe, My Radiant Skin, Creative Landscape Design, Mark the Occasion Designs, and Roberston Ryan and Associates. To learn more about any of these great businesses, look them up at the Local First Milwaukee business directory! Also, you can follow our “tweeting” members HERE – over 100 of members are on Twitter!
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Every time I attend Third Thursday, I come away feeling even more excited to live in Milwaukee. This city has some very innovative things going on (the Water Council, Fix Development, Lone Shoe Graphics, and Creative Alliance for instance) and what impresses me is that so many of these efforts are not just “how can we make a successful business?”, but lean towards “how can we make a successful business that makes a difference in our community, and in the world?” Gosh, that makes me so thrilled – people who recognize that it’s not just “good” to do the right thing, but that you can and should envision how you can make a difference while making a living. It IS possible.
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Part 2 of this blog entry – The Clock Shadow Building…
