Mike Huggins, former Eau Claire city manager, will moderate a community forum on the revitalization of the Chippewa Valley on Wednesday (Mar. 16) at the RCU Corporate Center, 200 Riverfront Terrace in Eau Claire.
The program, titled “How the Chippewa Valley Got Back Its Swagger,” is co-sponsored by the Alliance for Strong Communities and RCU. The discussion, which will feature eight panelists, is scheduled to run from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
The forum is open to all Chippewa Valley residents, and audience participation will be encouraged.
Panelists taking part in the discussion will include Mike Golat, Altoona city manager; Kyran Hamill, an operations coordinator at RCU; Aaron Harder, owner of Entropy Multimedia; Liz Harder, president of the Montessori school board; Bruce King, government affairs director of the Realtors Association of Northwestern Wisconsin; Laura Lash, a writer for Volume One; Aaron Salmon, one of the founders of Code for Eau Claire and owner of Auraworks Ltd.; and Mike Schatz, economic development administrator for the city of Eau Claire and also representing Downtown Eau Claire, Inc.
Among the topics to be covered in the discussion are how the Chippewa Valley competes in an Age of Talent, and the need to cooperate through public and private partnerships to attract and retain businesses and knowledgeable workers here.
The Alliance for Strong Communities is a non-partisan, regional network of community organizations and agencies whose goal is to strengthen the public structures needed by individuals, families and businesses in order to flourish.
Code for Eau Claire is a local branch of Code for America, and consists of volunteers interested in helping local governments and civic organizations adopt open web technologies to inform, engage and improve the community.
Further information is available from program co-chairs Mike Golat at michaelg@ci.altoona.wi.us or Joe Luginbill at josephluginbill@gmail.com.