Connection, collaboration, community lead to upcoming centennial anniversary

Lori Kaye Lodes

Contributor

November 3, 2025

SHAWANO COUNTY – In just a few short months, the Shawano Country Chamber of Commerce will mark its 100th anniversary, a milestone that Executive Director Suzanne Wittman said reflects not only the organization’s longevity, but its ability to evolve, stay relevant and bring people together across an ever-changing business landscape.

That enduring success, Wittman said, is rooted in the chamber’s role as a connector, collaborator and catalyst for progress.

Whether it’s linking businesses and nonprofits, aligning local efforts with state initiatives or helping the next generation see opportunity close to home, Wittman said the chamber’s mission continues to be about strengthening the region by strengthening relationships.

“This chamber needs to continue to be very progressive and very visionary, and if we keep going, we can look forward to another 100 years,” she said.

Business booster

Founded in the mid-1920s, Wittman said the Shawano Country Chamber of Commerce began as a modest group of civic-minded business owners promoting Shawano’s Main Street merchants and tourism on the Wolf River.

Today, she said it is part business advocate, part tourism bureau and serves as an economic development and workforce development catalyst as well as the community’s front door for visitors and newcomers.

Wittman said it serves as a regional chamber of commerce, encompassing nearly 400 members primarily in Shawano and Menominee counties, as well as some outlying areas. 

The chamber’s tourism division, she said, markets the area as a place where culture and community meet.

“It’s very busy here, with a lot of calls and a lot of tourists coming in and asking where they can go and what they can do,” she said. “That is a driver for economic development because it’s surprising how many people have come in and said, ‘We came here to visit and now we have a cottage here.’”

Wittman said the chamber also functions as a business supporter and advocate for those without tourism ties, recognizing that business builds community.

Its offerings, she said, include a variety of opportunities for networking and promotion, as well as the general business advocacy the chamber provides all its members.

In addition, within its membership, Wittman said more than 80 members are nonprofit organizations, something that sets the chamber apart.

The chamber supports the local economy through programs like Chamber Bucks, which Wittman said promote shopping at member businesses, and by managing tourism efforts funded in part by room tax dollars.

The chamber’s foundation, she said, also plays a key role – serving as the home of its 25-year-old Leadership Shawano County program, as well as the saYPro young professionals group.

In addition, Wittman said the chamber is home to the area’s Barn Quilt program.

Small, but mighty

Wittman said the small, but mighty, chamber team – numbering just five people – is complemented by a board of directors of approximately 15 member business/nonprofit representatives and a host of volunteers, all of which help make the chamber’s work possible.

Collectively, she said they are driven by the chamber’s primary reason for existing: to keep Shawano Country’s businesses healthy, thus ensuring economic, civic and cultural well-being.

Just as with any other entity, Wittman said the chamber needs to act and operate as a business, and that includes performing strategic planning.

The chamber team began strategic planning last year, she said, with a focus on understanding and communicating the value the chamber provides. 

“I tell members, ‘You’re joining a business community, and your dues are helping to support that business community,’” she said. 

Much of that work, Wittman said, is intertwined with creating and sustaining genuine connections.

“People want to do business with other people they trust, and you can tell a mile away if someone is authentic,” she said. “It’s always going to be about people.”

Asking the why

During her first year with the chamber, starting in July 2022, Wittman said she asked why they did a lot of the activities they did to understand how those aligned with the organization’s mission.

“That led me to make a lot of changes quite quickly, but with an intentional pursuit of collaboration… with municipalities, school districts, nonprofits – because we have to be able to work together [on behalf of our members],” she said. “Our team is small, and we can’t do it all.”

A great example of this, Wittman said, is the annual homecoming parade, which, after doing some digging, she learned used to be an Octoberfest-based parade and event welcoming bands. 

As it evolved into the school district’s homecoming parade, Wittman said she saw an opportunity to ask why the chamber was driving that event.

That, she said, led to conversations with the City of Shawano and the Shawano School District to create a partnership that made sense.

“It seemed crazy for me to create a theme for homecoming as that should be the kids’ choice,” she said.

Equally so, Wittman said she asked why she was presenting to the city council about closing streets when the city’s department of public works could coordinate that aspect of the parade’s logistics.

That, she said, left business membership sponsorships.

“I was happy to take care of that part,” she said. “Once we figured it out and had the right people in place, it became so much easier to do.”

Nonprofits matter, too

Wittman said she’s met with each nonprofit member over the last year and a half, bringing firsthand insight into the unique challenges they navigate.

During those conversations, she said she has gauged what their needs are and how the chamber can help to serve them.

“I know how hard it is to work in a nonprofit, and I support them,” she said. “I want us to be known as the chamber that absolutely supports nonprofits.”

Likewise, Wittman said her conversations with local businesses include discussions about their needs and a reminder of why those nonprofits are so important and directly impact them as well.

As such, she said she views the chamber as a bridge between the business and service sectors.

“If we didn’t have nonprofits, we’d have a lot more homeless on the street, families who can’t afford diapers or food…,” she said. “Nonprofits play a significant role in our community.”

Wittman said the chamber’s collaborative approach has also enabled it to lead conversations that are top of mind with its business membership about workforce, technology, child care, inclusion and more.

“We’re discussing how youth’s work ethic is different from ours, and what does that look like in the workplace, for example,” she said. “We’re working on the hard stuff, because that’s part of what we do.”

Workforce is top of mind with employers

If there’s one issue that dominates nearly every business conversation in Shawano Country, Wittman said it’s the workforce.

“Workforce has been a thing for the last decade – and now it’s more of a thing than ever,” she said.

Under her leadership, Wittman said the chamber has focused on tangible solutions for workforce challenges.
“We need young people and families here as a future workforce, and [it begs the question] of what we’re doing as a community to develop the downtown or housing or taking care of schools – and we are involved in all of that,” she said.

In addition, Wittman said she serves on the Bay Area Workforce Development Board, where she works to align local business needs with regional workforce training initiatives.

Wittman said the chamber also plays a hands-on role in the long-running 8th Grade Career Exploration Fair – an event that introduces more than 1,000 students to careers in fields like manufacturing, health care, construction and agriculture – through a partnership with the Clintonville Area Chamber of Commerce, Fox Valley Technical College and the Clintonville School District.

“When I look at the workforce, it’s about starting young,” she said of the career fair. “By the time they’re in high school, they determine what they want/don’t want to do.”

Building on that outreach, Wittman said the chamber also takes part in the City of Shawano’s annual Third Graders Day, where team members explain the chamber’s role in the community in a way that’s easy for young students to understand.

“We want our kids to know there are opportunities here,” she said. 

Furthermore, Wittman said the chamber supports the Wolf River Youth Apprenticeship Consortium, where she serves on the board of directors.

The program, she said, pairs high school juniors and seniors with local employers for hands-on experience and boasts a retention rate of more than 90% among participating businesses.

“If a business gets a junior or senior in their place of business, chances are they will continue to work there [post-apprenticeship],” she said. “That’s a win-win. Everybody should be doing it. Businesses aren’t doing it, and so I am pushing for more of that.”

Wittman said she fully recognizes workforce needs are only going to become more acute as Baby Boomers increasingly retire from the workforce.

“[Workforce challenges] have been a thing for the past decade, and it’s more of a thing now than it’s ever been,” she said. 

Looking ahead, Wittman said the chamber hopes to launch a youth leadership program, modeled after Leadership Shawano County, to nurture civic involvement even earlier.

That program, she said, will complement a few of the chamber’s other legacy programs that have become synonymous with local leadership.

Its Leadership Shawano County program – which celebrated its 25th year this year – Wittman said, has graduated hundreds of participants who now serve in public office, lead nonprofits and manage businesses.

The creation of the saYPro, she said, was initiated in 2012 as a Leadership class project, fostering the next generation of community leaders. 

Progress summits

Wittman said the chamber co-hosts biannual Progress Summits, which bring together business owners, educators, policymakers and others to foster community-wide understanding and spark actionable ideas for addressing shared challenges.

Introduced in 2022, she said the summits are focused on the workforce, which particularly resonates with business members.

Making the Progress Summits possible, she said, involves collaboration with groups like saYPro, Shawano Community Education, Shawano County Economic Progress and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College’s rural communities

Wittman said representatives from these organizations come together to brainstorm on key business topics that are top of mind for local employers.

“All the entities said, ‘We have workers for you; you just need to come to us and tell us what you need,’” she said. “Not only do they hand [businesses] employees, but also so much oversight, follow-up and checking in. Why wasn’t every single employer looking for somebody at this event?”

Wittman said many employers weren’t present – not because of a lack of resources, but due to a common challenge she often sees: employees simply don’t have the bandwidth to attend events like this, no matter the value offered.

To address this, Wittman said she followed up with numerous business members afterward, highlighting workforce opportunities and connecting them with the resources shared at the event.

“It’s hard,” she said. “We assess [members’] needs and put events like this out there to serve many. But the reality is a lot of us are incredibly overworked, and when somebody doesn’t show up for something like this, it’s because they’re doing something else. We understand that.”

Wittman said the first Progress Summit focused on a benefits study, highlighting the role of employee benefits in attracting and retaining talent.

Another, she said, featured a representative from Madison who shared the state’s economic development forecast and offered insights on how the chamber’s region is performing.

A later summit, Wittman said, addressed the childcare challenge and discussed a school referendum aimed at funding a daycare facility, which ultimately did not pass.

The common denominator among the topics, she said, is that they’re timely and important to the business membership.

Robyn Shingler, director of community education at Shawano School District, was one of the five partners involved in bringing the Shawano County Progress Summits to local businesses and said the relationship between the school district and the chamber is symbiotic – one rooted in aligned goals for education, a vibrant business community and connection to partnerships.

“While the chamber supports a thriving local business community, our school district is preparing the next generation of families, workers and entrepreneurs who will carry that success forward,” she said.

Shingler said she knows firsthand, with more than 25 years of involvement in the chamber as a volunteer, ambassador and board member.

Today, as a newly appointed chamber board member, she said she is eager to learn from local leaders and contribute an educational perspective that supports the community’s shared goals.

Tribal connections

A commitment to collaboration, Wittman said, also inspired the chamber to strengthen ties with the three tribes within the chamber’s membership – taking a leading role in facilitating joint tourism initiatives, business partnerships and cultural exchanges.

A recent highlight, she said, came when the Menominee Tribe hosted a Native American Tourism of Wisconsin conference, drawing leaders from around the country.

Wittman said the chamber helped coordinate introductions and state-level connections, reinforcing the region’s reputation for inclusivity and cooperation.

“I asked, ‘Would you like me to introduce and welcome the deputy secretary of tourism?’ and they didn’t realize what we could do for them,” she said. “Now, we have the ties where they reach out and say, ‘We’re looking for this, who can you connect us with?’ Our greatest strength as an organization is as a connector.”

From business booster to regional connector

As with many of the activities of the chamber, Wittman said one action led to another.

After meeting and connecting with Deputy Secretary Maria Van Hoorn, Wittman said they quickly “hit it off,” leading Van Hoorn to invite her to join the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility committee.

Wittman said the committee advises the Wisconsin Department of Tourism in developing initiatives that create a Wisconsin travel experience that is welcoming to everyone – working to ensure inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility are integrated into the department’s strategic plan and all aspects of its work.

“That would never have happened if we hadn’t met, and that is about getting Shawano Country on the map,” she said.

Creating connections, Wittman said, is an everyday affair for the chamber, whether that’s hosting meetings with Gov. Tony Evers’ office, Rep. Elijah Behnke’s office or Congressman Tony Wied, for example. 

“We’ve had several meetings with the governor’s office, so that when something does come up for a member, and I need to talk to someone in that office, I have that connection,” she said. “These relationships are established behind the scenes, even if it’s just chatting with them for a half-hour here and there, so they know what we’re doing. Then, when there is a need, they know who we are.”

Save the date

Wittman said the chamber will officially celebrate its 100th anniversary at its 100th Anniversary Annual Banquet Feb. 26, 2026.

The event, she said, will honor the chamber’s history, as well as recognize its 2025 Distinguished Citizen and Business of the Year award recipients.