Ashland hosts technology/energy conference Aug. 9

Friday, July 06, 2007

From an article in The Daily Press (Ashland):

The second annual Lake Superior Region Technology Conference will be held on Thursday, August 9 at the Ashland WITC [Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College] Conference Center.

The conference will highlight three prominent themes and consist of four morning workshops and an afternoon general panel discussion. The intent of the workshops will be to inform and to encourage building our economy on the resources that exist in our area. The workshops will also challenge us to take risks, cultivate and support entrepreneurship, broaden our economic vision and expand its horizon.

Education will be the theme of one of the workshops. It constitutes a fundamental ingredient in our goal of making technology a significant contributor to the economy of our Lake Superior area. We are living in a borderless, knowledge-based global economy, which means that our students are not only competing for jobs with students who sit next to them in class, but they are competing with students in all parts of our world. . . .

Alternative/renewable energy will be the focus of another workshop. Alternative energy facilities and production have already been given birth in our region, and plans for substantial expansion of renewable energy facilities in our area are underway. The result of that expansion will add capital to our industrial base and tax base, create new employment opportunities, expand an industry that will assist in sustaining both our economy and our environment, and potentially produce byproducts that could be used by other area economic and environmentally sound businesses and industries. Additionally, a highly unique and recently initiated project that uses solar energy to power classroom computers at our WITC Ashland campus will be described. Also tentatively scheduled is a demonstration on how the system works.