Hello all, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, brought to you by Crockett Sceptic for this June
10th, 2025.
Have your host James D. Mail off here, welcoming to the WFHR studio here, our great friend
promise from the Heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce.
Promise always good to see you.
How you doing?
Good.
Good to see you too.
Appreciate the time as always, and I don't want to waste your time.
We got so much to talk about today.
Let's jump right in.
Got some upcoming events like networking and night right around the corner.
Yeah, networking and night happens on June 16th.
We did change the time for this one a little bit.
Normally, there are five to seven pm, but we do have our connecting entrepreneurial's conference.
So we're going to piggyback off of that one and have our networking at night from four
pm to six pm at the Grand Avenue Tavern.
You know where that's at, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's connected right there to Hotel Mead.
Great chance to check that out.
They've done some nice renovations, some nice things over there at the Hotel Mead, a
shout out to them.
And I love the idea of piggybacking off of the other event.
Yeah.
So this one is going to be pretty busy.
So we're going to have quite a few new people shuffling through there.
It's going to be a great networking opportunity to meet and greet some people that are not
like local to the area.
So always great for our members to come out and network with each other.
This is a free event for our members.
And if anybody is interested in joining the chamber and kind of wants to see, you know,
how these things work.
This is a great one to like kind of dip your toes into and come and meet us and talk to
us and chat with us.
There's going to be snacks and raffle prizes.
It's, I'm excited for this one.
It's going to be a big one.
Yeah.
I want to focus on the snacks part, but journalistically, I should focus on it.
It's free to attend.
And really, I love that you guys do that, giving so many businesses out there that have
maybe been curious or just learning about the chamber or some of these kind of things.
I think it's a chance to go and check things out, yeah, definitely.
And we'll give information about when we wrap up today, about where you can go for more
information or registering if events need that.
The power of business luncheon, I believe, is a registered event, isn't it?
Yeah.
So that one was coming up too.
Yeah.
So June is a super busy month for us and we have a lot of things going on for anybody
that wants to get involved.
They're making connections with us.
So we do have our power of business luncheon on June 24th at 11 a.m. over at Midstate
Technical College.
So if you remember, the fee is $35, but we did open it up to non-members for $45.
The topic for this luncheon will be AI-focused, which is we've seen a lot of AI technologies
coming through this past year and we got some tools together and some speakers together
that will help you.
So talk about the AI tools that you can use and integrate into your workflow to make
things more productive and I don't know about you, but have you started using any of those
tools?
Not too much, but I have and used a little bit here and there AI for not so much anything
creative really, but when we're talking like, you know, letting it do its job and especially
spell check.
Yeah.
Definitely that.
But in all seriousness, I really appreciate you guys tackling this topic.
That's one of the bigger topics we have in today's, in any business, AI is coming up.
And I think that the more we talk about it, the less uncertainty and I hate to use word
fear, but fear of it can be.
I don't think that we need to approach things like that that way.
I think a lot of this has to do with where a lot of fear stems from in life.
People just not knowing about something.
Now we have a lot of national news that has covered this topic quite a bit, but on a local
level where people can just talk face to face or just hear from somebody they've heard
talk about this subject.
That stuff means something.
I think it really adds up and it's, you know, I'm going to help businesses.
It's going to be able to help people.
There are positives to it when it comes to that, and especially small businesses that,
you know, cannot hire the manpower that they might need.
AI can be, to be honest, it can be a difference maker in them staying around.
So I have a buddy that is a small business owner and he uses AI all the time to help
like create content for his business and it helps streamline processes too if you use
it correctly.
So, yep.
Well, shout out to our sponsors for that one.
Without our sponsorships, we wouldn't be able to, you know, hold this for our members.
So dimensional marketing, us being Renaissance, Rapids, Holmes, Solaris, and Midstate Technical
College.
Thank you for sponsoring the Power of Business Luncheon.
Mm-hmm.
Appreciate all of them.
They're really good.
Great people.
There's businesses that you hear a lot putting into this community.
Yes.
And for more information on that, well, is that registered of an...
Yep, yep.
You can go online and register at WisconsinRapidsChamber.com or just give us a call if you're having
difficulties finding the registration link on our website.
You can call us at 715-423-1830.
It is that term of year, one of the, I think, I've said this a number of times and I haven't
been corrected yet.
Our signature event really in this area, cranberry blossom festival.
There's a lot of great events and a lot of great people putting on these events all
year long.
I mean, no insult to any other event.
But I've been in this area for half my life and it's one of the first things I remember
about this area being introduced to this area.
And I know that I've talked to so many locals, people born and raised here.
And that's what they say is the signature event.
So I'm not necessarily just saying this off the top of the cuff here or anything.
And I'm saying it with pride, too, because of how much this whole town, this whole community
puts into this event.
It's an important one promise.
Yeah.
So cranberry blossom festival vendor fair.
So the cranberry blossom festival is, I think it's like a week-long event with different
businesses in the area hosting different events.
I think the Lions Club is doing the carnival and then we have downtown on tap that Friday.
But for the chamber here, we host the cranberry blossom festival vendor fair.
And then the following day, the parade.
So the vendor fair is on June 21st from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
And that's right, downtown on West Grand Avenue.
So if you haven't been there, it's a whole bunch of booths of people selling their products
and their services.
And it's really awesome.
It's kind of like a mini.
Have you ever been out to Warns?
Yeah.
It's kind of like a little mini Warns.
It's a great cop.
Yeah.
It really is like that.
Just a bore out a little bit out or a little bit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's good.
I also have, we'll have like food trucks down there too.
I love being down there when those food trucks start cooking.
You just smell it all in the air and it makes you hungry.
We're really fortunate in this area.
We've got all great food trucks too.
They're all great ones.
Yeah.
The only tough part is choosing which, you know, when you want to go to and stuff sometimes.
Yeah.
That's good.
We do have a few sponsorships left available for this one and then we are still accepting
booth registrations.
We do have a capacity of how many booths that we can hold.
So the sooner you get your registration in the better, we are developing the map layout
right now.
So if you're interested in, you know, being down there at the cranberry blossom vendor
fair, reach out to us, reach out to at least the Alling actually.
You can email her at communications at Wisconsin Rapids Chamber.com or give her a call at 715-422-4859.
And cranberry blossom festival parade is, as you mentioned, right after.
Yep.
So cranberry blossom festival parade is the following Sunday on June 22nd.
We will start at noon right down there at the same area, downtown Wisconsin Rapids there
on West Grand Avenue.
So this year we're implementing a float theme.
And so we're encouraging all those that have entered a float into the parade this year
to decorate it from last from the past.
And I'm very excited to see how people interpret it.
Yes.
Yes.
It's such a great way to word it and put it to everybody.
Yeah.
Different people are going to have different memories and different patterns.
Oh, it's going to be fun.
Yeah.
That's going to be fun.
Yeah.
I'm pretty excited about it.
So float registration is now open.
I don't believe we have a capacity on that.
I know this one gets bigger and bigger every single year.
So it is very helpful if you get your registrations in early so that way we can kind of get a grasp
on what the line-ups going to look like in the last year.
It was massive.
Yeah.
It was pretty big.
I was really taken back by it.
I was so impressed with that.
And promises are so right about this.
The sooner you can get that information to them, they got a strong good team over at
the chamber, but they're not a ton of people.
So anytime you can get the sooner you can get any information to them is always the better,
especially with something like this.
Yep.
And then if you were interested in registering for the parade, you can retreat back out to
Lacey Elling for that one as well.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lacey, appreciate it.
Lacey too.
Appreciate her.
And that number will get out there one more time before we wrap up.
But as we're wrapping up, promise, I know we wanted to get into the 42nd annual Lucky Summer
Golf Classic.
And I had to say it out loud because 42nd, I know.
Wow.
That's impressive.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So the 42nd annual Lucky Summer Golf Classic is happening at the ridges this year on July
22nd.
So the reason why I'm talking about this one so early is because registration is now open.
So we do have a limited amount that we can host for teams this year.
I think we're like limited at 150 players.
So if you're interested in bringing your team down there to play, get them registered,
like the sooner the better, because once we're full, we're full.
We are also looking for sponsors for this one as well.
So if you're interested in sponsoring and potentially having a booth out at one of
the holes and having a fun game for everybody to play, this one is really great for team
building.
So get your team out of the office, go play some golf, network with other businesses in
the area.
There's going to be a dinner afterwards, a 50-50, tons of networking opportunities, tons
and tons of raffle prizes.
This is one of our signature events of the year.
So it's really great to see everybody come together.
It's a really fun day to get out of the office and whether permitting, it's a lot of good
memories.
Yeah.
My brother lives in the Appleton area and he even looks at this one every year.
So two promises point, get in your registration as soon as you can.
This area loves golf to the point where even when you leave this area, you still want to
come back and golf here.
So the sooner you get signed up, that way you and your team, you know you're all setting
ready to go to promises point as well.
When you sponsor a hole at this event or something, you just have no idea who could be seeing
that business logo or learning about your business for the first time.
It's an advertising gold mine, along with helping out a great cause and a wonderful tradition
that Lucky started a long time ago.
I remember first hearing about this and it's one of those, one of the longer running traditions
we have around here too.
That's a great event.
Real quick promise before we wrap up, we mentioned Lacey's name a couple of times when it comes
to registering for the power of business luncheon or no, I'm sorry, the cranberry blossom
festival vendor fair or the festival parade.
So Lacey's number one more time, 715-422-4859-422-4859.
And for anything else that people have followed questions about promise, is there a way to
reach you?
Yeah, you can reach me at marketing at WisconsinRapidsChamber.com or you can give my line a direct call
at 715-422-4856.
And keep in mind everybody, while this has been fun and promised us an amazing job every
time she comes in here covering all this stuff, we've only scratched the surface.
We just talked about June basically.
I know.
I have a lot more in June too, so there's so many great events going on with the chamber.
One of the best ways to keep up the date and find out about this, go to their website
at WisconsinRapidsChamber.com.
They got a bunch of great tabs on there for workforce, community resources or economic
development, and also their events tab, which you'll show you all their signature events,
just the events calendar, community events, all of those things.
And you'll see exactly what I'm talking about, barely scratched the surface like there's
so much going on.
Head on over to WisconsinRapidsChamber.com and be sure to follow them on social media,
share their posts on your page, you just never know who might see him otherwise.
A promise always good to hang out with you to say hi to everybody over there.
You guys get a breather when you can, and we'll talk again real soon.
But when June's over, we'll talk.
That's exactly it.
And thank you all for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report.
