CG Schmidt Purchases Building for New Office

Madison, WI – CG Schmidt, a Milwaukee-based construction management and general contracting firm, announced today the purchase of the office building located at 433 West Washington Avenue in Madison. This building will serve as CG Schmidt’s permanent Madison office, replacing the current office space the firm occupies on the fourth floor of 10 West Mifflin Street on the Capitol Square. CG Schmidt has been building in the Madison area for more than 40 years, with a dedicated Madison office since 2006. 2020 marks the construction company’s 100-yearanniversary.

“This move has been in the works since we first established a Madison office thirteen years ago. We want to make the statement to our clients, partners and the community as a whole that we are committed to being a Madison construction firm, being a Madison taxpayer, and that we are putting down permanent roots in Wisconsin’s Capitol City,” said CG Schmidt, Senior Vice President and Owner, Eric Schmidt. “It has taken our family a while to find the right location that meets our needs as a growing office and to define collaborative spaces that help us to serve our clients more efficiently. We now have that with this new building.”

The five-story, 34,255 square-foot commercial office building was purchased from Keller Real Estate Group and will be completely remodeled with a modern design and features, and updated for efficiency and sustainability. The design for the building was created by Kahler Slater Architects. Construction has begun and it is slated for completion in July of 2020. CG Schmidt will occupy three floors, with two floors available for commercial and retail lease.

CG Schmidt is a family-owned and operated construction management and general contracting firm, headquartered in Milwaukee, specializing in community, commercial, industrial, healthcare and educational facility construction throughout Wisconsin. 2020 marks the firm’s 100^th year in business. Several of the firm’s notable Madison projects include UW-Madison Union South, St. Paul University Catholic Center, Hovde Properties 316 West Washington Avenue Building, and the new Madison Youth Arts Center, which is currently under construction.

For more information, please contact Sarah Dunn, Vice President, at (608) 960-4102 or sarah.dunn@cgschmidt.com.

Attachment: Exterior Building Rendering (View from the North on West Washington Avenue)

Broker-Led Investor Group Launches BrokerTech Ventures

Contact: Kacie Conroy, Director of Information Technology, M3 Insurance
kacie.conroy@m3ins.com, 608-288-2795

M3 Insurance, along with Holmes Murphy, PayneWest Insurance, ABD Insurance & Financial Services, and Conner Strong & Buckelew, are pleased to announce the launch of BrokerTech Ventures, the first program specifically for investors and innovators building the next generation of tech solutions for insurance agencies and brokerages.

BrokerTech Ventures will deploy a highly intentional accelerator curriculum, as well as a veteran mentoring network, seed funding for a portion of the chosen startups’ research and testing, and a distribution platform to deploy the technologies. Startup companies can apply for a spot in the first BrokerTech Ventures cohort starting in late October 2019, with program launch planned for February 2020.

“The idea behind the alignment of BrokerTech Ventures as both an accelerator and an investment vehicle is that we have an opportunity to shape a product or solution alongside the startup,” said Mike Victorson, president and CEO of M3 Insurance and co-founder of BrokerTech Ventures alongside Holmes Murphy. “We intend on being active participants in the insurance technology space and offering a testing ground to benefit our clients.”

Dan Keough, chairman and CEO of Holmes Murphy added, “BrokerTech Ventures will alleviate some technology-related pain points by creating an ‘innovation hub’ for startups to test broker-centric ideas and products while bringing new and innovative ideas and solutions to our customers.”

In further building the resources available through BrokerTech Ventures, the owner agencies plan to partner with additional privately held, like-minded, and geographically-diverse insurance agencies and brokerages. A targeted, executive search is in progress for the organization’s first managing director, and Brian Hemesath, former managing director of the Global Insurance Accelerator (GIA) and a noted InsurTech leader, will provide guidance and counseling on the initiative as the architecture and curriculum for BrokerTech Ventures are built.

About M3
M3 is the largest insurance broker and risk management firm in the state of Wisconsin. As a top 50 broker in America, we’re leaders in the products we represent and the industries we serve. M3’s people are an extension of your team, providing world-class resources to help you manage risk, purchase insurance, and provide employee benefits. And our focus on community builds better places to live and work. For more information on M3, visit www.m3ins.com.

About BrokerTech Ventures
Based in the insurance nucleus of Des Moines, Iowa, BrokerTech Ventures is the first broker-led investor group and accelerator program focused on delivering innovation to the insurance agent-broker industry. Founded in 2019, BrokerTech Ventures provides a venue for the best minds in insurance and technology to collaborate and bring to market leading-edge ideas and solutions. BrokerTech Ventures invests in the research and testing for each of the chosen startups, provides access to veteran industry mentors, and helps scale the technology to market through broker distribution channels.

Jerry, Rachelle & Vanessa Butler’s Living Sculptures brings multi-media, multi-generational collaboration to Madison Ballet’s studios for Gallery Night

CONTACT: Gretchen Bourg, (608) 278-7990, gretchen@madisonballet.org

MADISON, WI – Madison Ballet is proud to present the original choreography of Rachelle Butler, inspired by the visual art of her father and sister. Part of Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA)’s Gallery Night, Living Sculptures will see the student dancers of School of Madison Ballet perform surrounded by paintings and collages of prolific local artists, Jerry Butler and Vanessa Butler.
 
The home of Madison Ballet will be transformed to a performance space and art gallery in the first public performance offered there since moving to their new studios at 6734 Odana Road. All ages are encouraged to visit Madison Ballet for these series of free performances on Friday, October 4th, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.. Performances will be every 30 minutes. Refreshments will be provided through the generous sponsorship of Willy Street Co-op.

Rachelle Butler is the Director of the School of Madison Ballet. Ms. Butler’s professional training began with Madison Ballet, then Wisconsin Dance Ensemble, in 1999. She was accepted on full scholarship to The Rock School of the Pennsylvania Ballet, where she trained under dancers from American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet. Ms. Butler began her teaching career as a student with Ballet Chicago and honed her teaching style while performing with Sacramento Ballet and Madison Ballet.

Her choreographic works include a commercial with MG&E’s genre3060, Capital City Theatre’s Find Your Light program and with the students of the School of Madison Ballet. Ms. Butler’s passion for bringing ballet to underprivileged youth sparked her to work in the Chicago, Sacramento, and Madison communities in outreach and education throughout her career.

Jerry Butler is a visual artist, writer, and educator from southern Mississippi whose path has gone from teaching elementary school to college to college student and back again many times — each iteration lead him to grow more as an artist. He holds a PhD in Arts Education, an MFA in 2D art, and has done post graduate work with Harvard University. He currently resides in the Madison area developing programs to embrace art as a form of expression and utility in times of struggle.

The School of Madison Ballet is designed to take students through a comprehensive curriculum of classical ballet and related studies. SMB provides quality training for students of all levels who will gain the poise, confidence, discipline, and fundamental life skills inherent in the study of classical ballet.

Government, business and cybersecurity leaders gather at CyberSecure My Business™ Workshop in Madison

MADISON, Wisc., Sept. 13, 2019 ‒ The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), a nonprofit public-private partnership focused on helping all citizens stay safer and more secure online, is teaming up with the Wisconsin Chief Information Officer, the Small Business Administration and others to present NCSA’s CyberSecure My Business™ workshop in Madison on September 24, as part of the Wisconsin Governor’s Cybersecurity Summit.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are regular targets for cybercriminals. SMBs represent 54% of the nation’s economy, according to the SBA. In addition, the 2018 Verizon Data Breach Report stated that 58% of targets within their study of more than 53,000 incidents identified as small businesses. Studies show more than half of small businesses would be unprofitable within a month if they were to lose permanent access to their essential data.

With this top of mind, NCSA created a national program designed to help SMBs learn to be safer and more secure online with a non-technical, non-threatening approach. The workshop will cover common cyber threats targeting SMBs, cyber misconceptions, actionable steps or “quick wins” to better secure their businesses and free local, state and national resources to help them improve their cybersecurity. 

“The CyberSecure My Business workshop content is designed to be easily understood by people who do not have technical backgrounds,” said Daniel Eliot, NCSA’s director of small business education. “Attendees will leave the workshop with the understanding they are indeed a target, but this isn’t a scare tactic. The rationale is to empower SMB owners, employees, and advisers to take action and implement key actionable steps to secure their personal and business assets. Cybersecurity awareness is great, but cybersecurity action is the goal.”

Participation in the workshop is free, but registration is required. The agenda for the morning workshop, to be held at the UW-Madison Gordon Commons Event Center, 770 W. Dayton in Madison is:

8:30 a.m.:           Registration, networking and exhibitor tables

9:00 a.m.:           Opening remarks from the U.S. Small Business Administration

9:15 a.m.:           Fireside Chat, featuring:

·         David Cagigal, Chief Information Officer, State of Wisconsin

·         Brian Dennis, Director, Cybersecurity Center for Small Business, UW-Whitewater

·         Lisa Plaggemier, Chief Evangelist, Infosec

·         Matt Wernz, Attorney, Federal Trade Commission

·         Molly Arranz, Partner, SmithAmundsen

10:00 a.m.:       CyberSecure My Business™ Workshop

12:00 p.m.:       Wrap-up

Visit https://staysafeonline.org/event/csmb-workshop-wi/ to register at no cost.

To learn more about staying safe online and to find links to websites that offer additional account security information, visit www.staysafeonline.org.

Badgers’ Economic Impact? $610 Million

MADISON, Wis. — In athletics, statistics matter. For Wisconsin Athletics, two numbers stand out from a recently completed economic impact report.

The Badgers provide a $610 million total annual economic impact for the state of Wisconsin.

Zoom in on the city of Madison and the Badgers provide a $395 million total annual economic impact for the local community. That’s also 1.8 million visitors to the city each year.

Completed in June with Econsult Solutions, Inc., the economic impact report sheds light on the many economic benefits the Badgers’ 23 athletic teams and supporting organization bring to the area through hosting football games, other sports competitions and other events like high school state tournaments, concerts and more.

“The fact that Badger Athletics has such an impact on our city, region and state is a great source of pride for us,” said Wisconsin Director of Athletics Barry Alvarez. “Our athletic program is woven into the fabric of not only the Madison area, but all over our great state.

“The financial figures back that up and they go hand-in-hand with the strong bond we have with the residents of our state.”

Notably, the $610 million impact equates to 4,480 jobs and a $12 million tax revenue impact. In Madison, the $395 million impact brings 2,950 jobs and a $1.7 million tax revenue impact.

Fall Saturdays at Camp Randall Stadium? Each home football game provides $16 million in total economic impact on the Wisconsin economy.

The report also highlights the Badgers’ impact more specifically in direct spending by athletic department operations, capital investments, attendee spending, ancillary spending and broader societal impacts.

The full report is available online here – https://uwbadgers.com/economicimpact.