The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation – it should more accurately be called the Wisconsin Economic Disaster Corporation – had yet another embarrassment this week.
At the WEDC-sponsored ‘Forward Technology Festival‘ in Madison, a local company announced that it was moving…to Ohio. The Journal Sentinel reports that
Aver Informatics Inc., a health information technology start-up, moved from Wisconsin to Ohio because the founder wanted to, not because a big investor required it, the investor said Wednesday.
Kurt Brenkus, Aver’s president and chief executive officer, approached Drive Capital about moving from De Pere to Columbus, Ohio, where the venture capital firm is based, said Chris Olsen, a Drive co-founder…
Olsen was speaking at the Forward Technology Conference at Monona Terrace. The conference is part of the eight-day Forward Technology Festival that runs through Thursday.
Fair enough to move where one wants. It’s more than ridiculous, though, that the WEDC puts on a festival to showcase its local influence, and a business used that forum to justify a move to another state.
The gentlemen of our city who have touted the WEDC have picked a failed, yet still-failing, agency.
Posted in part at Daily Wisconsin; hat tip to James Rowen @ The Political Environment for posting the original story (Oops: WEDC-Sponsored Tech Event Yields Biz Defection News @ The Political Environment).
Previously at FW on the WEDC:
- WEDC Update (subsidizing the outsourcing of jobs to other countries)
- Local Crony Capitalism via the WEDC (and similar schemes)
- The Truth About the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation
- WEDC Board Offers Millions to Subsidize Job Cuts