The Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce’s latest annual dinner explored the concepts of belonging and human connection in the era of remote work.
“Gathering can happen in interesting ways, that doesn’t always have to be in person. But there are risks when it’s not in person … Remote work and hybrid meetings will be part of the future, but you have to be sure that you’re being thoughtful and intentional in how you convene,” Chamber President Zach Brandon said yesterday.
In an interview with WisBusiness.com, Brandon shared highlights of the organization’s 70th annual dinner. It was the chamber’s largest event to date, with about 1,250 people gathering at the Monona Terrace in Madison last week.
Attendees heard from featured speaker Priya Parker, host and executive producer of the New York Times podcast “Together Apart,” and author of “The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters.” Multiple audience questions were related to the new remote and hybrid work paradigm, and how to form meaningful connections in that context, according to Brandon.
“She said that nowhere is gathering more contested than in the workplace,” he said. “I thought that was a really interesting take … the workplace really is the front line of that contest.”
Her comments focused on how business leaders and other team members can work together to find a balance between business priorities and the wants and needs of workers, Brandon explained.
Also at last week’s event, the chamber announced a new branding strategy around recruitment and promotional initiatives called Be Madison. That will encompass pitch materials and emerging technologies as well as the group’s “inclusive economic platform,” Brandon said.
And the chamber is set to release its latest advocacy agenda in the next month or so, he added.
Brandon yesterday also applauded the recent news that the state has been selected as a regional “Tech Hub” around precision medicine, noting “for maybe the first time in a long time, all of Wisconsin seems to be rowing in the right direction.”
In landing the federal designation, leaders in Madison and Milwaukee found a way to “bridge the mythical divide” between the cities, Brandon said.
“A lot of what personalized medicine is — which is the focus of this biohealth tech hub — we have long argued is unique to this region,” he said. “That we have something special here that is not easy to replicate, and in fact, we don’t even think anybody has even come close to replicating it.”
That acknowledgement of expertise creates a global competitive advantage for the region, state and country, he said.
Brandon will be in Chicago today to meet with representatives of major airlines in hopes of getting more direct flights between the West Coast and Madison, adding the Tech Hub designation validates such efforts to drive investment in the region.
“This is an affirmation, this is a statement by the federal government of what they believe the future looks like,” he said. “That when you’re thinking about what future technologies will define innovation and global competitive advantage, and what regions are best positioned in the next 10 years to deliver and deploy those technologies.”
See more on the Tech Hub designation here: https://www.wisbusiness.com/2023/wisconsin-lands-one-of-31-regional-technology-hubs/
–By Alex Moe
