Workforce Solutions Summit to explore attracting, retaining talent

Sue Grossardt

Contributor

March 3, 2025

PLOVER – Angel Laidlaw, president/CEO of Centergy, Inc., said her team is gearing up for the 2025 Workforce Solutions Summit March 18-19, which will be held at the Food + Farm Exploration Center (3400 Innovation Drive) in Plover.

Laidlaw said the event is uniquely focused on providing practical solutions for businesses, communities and organizations.

A pre-summit networking reception will be held from 5-8 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, Laidlaw said, with the full-day summit running from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 19.

Laidlaw said the first event took place in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Centergy, Inc., along with our local partners, are bringing the Workforce Solutions Summit back to the region,” she said. “The first summit was wildly popular, so we wanted to bring it back. Part of (Centergy Inc.’s) strategic plan is to really engage in the public sector in our region.”

The process of planning this Summit, Laidlaw said, has everything to do with feedback from the first one, including the selection of keynote speakers.

Laidlaw said she has spent her career working in various chambers of commerce throughout the state in capacities of economic development and digital marketing, along with supporting local entrepreneurs – so she knows firsthand the struggle with attracting and retaining employees.

“When Centergy, Inc. did our strategic planning, we knew talent attraction and retention was an issue that impacts every sector of the business community, including our public sector as well,” she said. “We (also have) partnerships with our chambers of commerce. By the end of 2023 and 2024, we hosted several human resource workshops and round table discussions.”

Laidlaw said Centergy, Inc. collaborated with eight chamber partners in the region with whom it has shared resources. 

She said Centergy, Inc. conducted workshops and gleaned a common sentiment from the question-and-answer sessions and learned more about the difficulties pursuing and securing talent companies are seeing and experiencing.

“We took in all of that information, and that’s how we developed the topics specific for this year’s workforce summit,” she said. “We are very mindful and intentional about the content, because we want every breakout session and every keynote speaker to provide a tangible solution people can take back with them – whether they are a community member, a business owner, part of a human resources department or a leader in a huge corporation.”

Laidlaw said summit sponsors include Mid-State Technical College, Delta Dental, Northcentral Technical College, NRG Media and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

Laidlaw said Centergy, Inc.’s relationships with area chambers of commerce each played a key role in event planning, particularly in the selection of keynote speakers.

“One of our biggest challenges was having an overflow of many great options for speakers,” she said. “We intend to pocket some of them for future summits.”

Speakers

One of those speakers, Laidlaw said, is Layla Merrifield – the new president of the Wisconsin Technical College System. 

“Merrifield is our opening keynote speaker,” she said. “We know trades are very important to our region, which is heavily weighted in manufacturing, health care and technology. Merrifield will talk about the direction from the technical college perspective as we proceed forward.”

Next up in the keynote schedule, Laidlaw said, is Matt Kirchner. 

“Kirchner is the president of ATS/LAB Midwest and hosts the weekly TechEd Podcast,” she said. “Kirchner is an expert in all things AI and technology and really understands the importance and process of business integration into technology. He will emphasize the importance of how that integration will nurture business growth.”

Matthew Kures – the summit’s third keynote speaker – Laidlaw said, is the community economic development specialist and researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension Community Development Institute. 

“Kures is an expert in all things data and research and will be talking about the workforce landscape,” she said. “He will ask key questions like, ‘What do our numbers look like? What are some of those projections that are available, and how can we leverage some of that data in our region?’”

Laidlaw said the summit will close out the day with Edward Erfurt – a nationally renowned speaker and the director of Strong Towns. 

She said Erfurt will touch on how communities can do small things to help engage their members to be friendlier and more welcoming.

The breakout sessions throughout the day, Laidlaw said, will provide attendees the chance to select niche topics that fit their workplace and interact with peers and presenters as well. 

Some of the breakout session topics include workplace technology, outdoor recreation, veteran talent attractions, the new AI center, employee health care, refugee engagement, broadband, child care and housing.

Breakout details

Laidlaw said the summit planning committee focused on three different tracks as they relate to talent attraction and retention. 

“Our first track is skills development and technology,” she said. “We have Gamber-Johnson, LLC as part of our program, and they will talk about integrating technologies and different skill sets to maximize creativity in the workplace.”

Another breakout session track, Laidlaw said, focuses on talent retention and will highlight housing and quality of life. 

“We know employers and organizations need to talk about quality of life to attract talent, as employees want to live somewhere safe and welcoming,” she said. “We’re focusing on things like outdoor recreation. We will have a representative from M3 who will discuss innovative solutions for employee health care. We know having affordable, accessible health care is a huge component of quality of life.”

Laidlaw said the final track is about community collaboration and support services. 

“We have many local resources available to uncover talent,” she said. “We want attendees to be aware of those. We will also be discussing refugee engagement. Finally, one of our partners, Mission Wisconsin, will join us to talk about veteran talent attraction.”

Laidlaw said the summit anticipates hosting more than 100 attendees from all sectors of the community to include health care, business, manufacturing and education representing grade levels K-12 and up through technical colleges and universities.

“Our goal is to bring the private and public sectors together,” she said. “We know a lot of the issues people are experiencing with talent can’t be solved without each other. We need to do that as a partnership.”

Laidlaw said information about the new artificial intelligence (AI) center at Northcentral Technical College will be shared as part of one of the breakout sessions. 

“That is a resource center for businesses to get training on how to integrate AI into their local businesses,” she said. “Our summit is really an opportunity to provide practical solutions for businesses, organizations and the communities whom we serve. Many resources are free and available right here in the center of our state.”

Laidlaw said many businesses already do a great job using the resources and marketing materials provided by their local chambers of commerce to attract talent to the area.

“Attendees will walk away with new angles and ideas to move their businesses and organizations forward,” she said. 

For more information, visit centraltosuccess.com.