Hello world, welcome to WFHR's rapid support, probably brought you by Crockett Sceptic for
this September 23rd, 2025.
Have your host James here.
We're joined right now by our great friends from the Heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce.
We have Abby Underwood with us, Abby.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you.
Appreciate the time.
This is going to be fun.
We want a chance to, you know, hang out a little bit and get to know you, and it's going
to be a chance to do that.
We appreciate you.
Now you guys have some big upcoming events I want to jump right in.
One of the bigger events that I would say that the chamber is a part of is the Legislative
Breakfast.
It's a big one and it's right around the corner.
Yes, this is one that you definitely don't want to miss out on.
It is happening October 17th at Midstate Technical College from 7am to 9.15am.
If you remember, it's $35 for a non-member, it's $45.
We're just going to be having a bunch of people come in and talk a little bit about everything
going on here, updates from legislators and local community representatives.
Also want to thank our sponsors for this, which is Midstate Technical College, U.S. Bank,
Thendorf, and DomTar.
Just sounds like it's going to be a really great time.
We don't have a lot of this around the community area, so it's nice that they're coming around
here.
If you want more information about it, you can visit our website at
wisconsinrapidschamber.com or call 715-423-1830.
We'll get that information out again before we wrap up.
Abby, you make a really good point there.
We don't have a ton of these opportunities.
There isn't just a ton of them in general, let alone in our area.
We're fortunate here at the station, Senator Teston, Representative Krueger joined us once
a month.
We're able to talk with them.
That's one on one.
That's me talking with them.
While I take input from the listeners all the time in some of those things, and I try
to survey the area of things that are listeners want to hear about, this is a chance for no
middleman.
It's just you and these representatives being there and being able to ask these questions,
talk to them.
We have so few opportunities like that in this day and age, and it's probably never been
more vital to have these opportunities.
The chamber's been doing this for a long time, but it's really been in our favor that
they have been, because now more than ever, these opportunities are so important.
I appreciate all the individuals that come to this breakfast and give their time to
our community, answer these questions.
I do ask our community to always act like adults.
Treat these people with respect, the same respect you would want to be given.
We have enough divisiveness in this day and age.
I think that for the most part, I think that overwhelmingly Wisconsinites are this person
that I'm describing.
This is not controversial for me to say in this state or anything, but I do think that
it's a nice reminder of once in a while to treat people the way you want to be treated
and to treat these individuals the same way.
They are human beings.
They are just like you and I.
They deserve that.
They also deserve to hear what you think and feel, because that's their job.
We the people.
That's what this is about.
This breakfast is an opportunity to be a part of that.
Abby, do we need people to register for this event?
Yep.
So registration is open now, and it goes until October 10th.
It is very popular event, so make sure you check it out and get registered before.
Remember, if you are a member, it's $35 for a non-member.
It is $45.
She and kiddin' everybody.
This does fill up very quick.
Make sure to register.
Make sure to get over there and do that.
That's a nice reminder to me to do that, actually.
I put that down in my notes.
Networking at night is coming up on October 20th.
Can we hear a little about this?
Yes.
Networking at night is coming up.
It's on October 20th from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., and this is at Tamarax Pub.
I was actually able to go to my first networking at night the other night a couple weeks ago,
and I had a lot of fun.
It's just a great opportunity for members and future members to come in and network with
each other.
We have great appetizers and prizes and stuff, so it's just a great little time to sit down
in a relaxed setting and chat with these people.
Tamarax is a great spot, a great place, especially if you haven't been there before.
Here's a wonderful opportunity to check it out.
We talked about these events quite a bit over the years, and one of the things we really
focus on is that ability to be able to network, to be able to get to know other businesses
in town, especially once it might not otherwise.
This is just the same thing as far as making friends, or just getting to know new people
and meet different people.
The older we get, and I'm ancient, so you guys wouldn't know this.
The older you get, the less opportunities it feels like you have to meet people, get
to know other people, and stuff.
Here's a wonderful chance to do that while also being able to check off a little work,
which is something a lot of us like to be able to do, both boxes, kind of checking off
and everything.
It's a great event.
Wonderful one.
Do people need to register for this one or just show on up?
This one you can just show up to.
It's free to attend for our members and future members, and it's going to be a great time.
If you want more information on it, you can visit our website at Wisconsinrepaschamber.com
or give us a call at 715-423-1830.
Speaking with Abby Underwood, marketing manager with our heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce.
Another big event that you guys have coming up is the Business Expo.
One thing that I enjoy about this event is that it's big for not just future employees,
but businesses as well.
It's a great opportunity, similar to what we say with the legislative breakfast, an opportunity
for people to really one-on-one talk to people.
Yes.
So, our Business Expo is another big one.
This is happening October 28th, and it's just a day of discovering and networking.
So, registration is now open, but does close on October 14th.
For members, it's $100, and non-members, it's $120, and non-profit, it is 50.
So from two to four PM, we have our Business to Business Networking, and that's where businesses
can come in, bring your business cards to show at the front gate, so you can conversate
with each other and get to know what's going around the community.
And then we are open to the public for free from 4 PM to 6 PM, where you can just network
with all these businesses, maybe find yourself a job if you're looking for that sort of thing,
and just communicate.
It is Candyland theme, so if you come along and you decorate your booth, you also have
a chance for a reward.
It's very cool.
The Candyland theme is perfect.
It's a perfect for this.
It's not only, I think, fun, a part of the event and everything, but it really fits the
event in many ways.
I like that part of it.
And there's a line here that you have about this event, a day of discovery and networking.
It's perfect.
It's a great tagline right there.
There are movie executives that would kill for them to come along with an old tagline
for their movie that good.
In part, because it's certainly the networking part, we've kind of described that very
well-abby and got into that, but the discovery part.
We're seeing more and more.
We've been seeing this since the pandemic.
More and more people are, you know, a job is great, but I want a career.
I want something that I'm going to enjoy doing, or I want something that I'm putting back
into my community while also making a paycheck, or whatever your criteria is for that perfect
job or that career job that you're looking for.
Now you can look a lot of this stuff up online, and I know that most people can do those
things nowadays.
But there is just something missing there that you don't get without this event.
Being able to talk to people one-on-one, being able to ask those questions that kind of
come up organically that you think of with somebody right in front of you.
It's a great opportunity for employees that we're seeing with this event.
On the other side of it, it's, I would say, just as strong of an opportunity for businesses
out there where, you know, so much of online, I haven't, I haven't, I haven't been fortunate
to knock out wood.
I haven't had a look for a job for a long time, but when I talk to a lot of my students
or I talk to younger people about it, and one of the things that I found with teaching
acting, teaching improv, is a lot of students just wanted to be more confident in interviews.
Then it comes to, well, what are the interviews like?
Well, it's usually on the phone, or it's online, and I, whoa, that's a whole new world to
me.
I didn't have to do that, and that makes it even harder to sell yourself.
So here is an opportunity face-to-face, breathe in the same air as this person, and being
able to sell yourself to them, and be able to ask those organic questions, those things
that you just think of in the heat of the moment.
Yeah, I also think it's really nice.
It gives you an opportunity to give, like, a great first impression as well, whereas
over the phone and such, you don't get that until you come in, so it gives that, it's
great chance.
Yeah, and also I would like to thank our sponsors for this.
U.S. Bank, whole chunk gaming, Nakuza, Samuel's Group, Marshfield Clinic Health System,
and Security Health Plan.
Big thank you to all of them, by local support, local support, all of them, everybody.
And again, we've been registrating for this event, similar to what we said before, and
we can give that information before we wrap up, Abby.
We do have one other thing I wanted to talk about with you, and that's a network exchange
for safety professionals.
Another one of these things that the Chamber does, where you've got your signature events
and things that we look forward to every year, I appreciate these ones where you see something
in the community, you're like, oh, this would be a good one for us to discuss.
This would be a good one to get some of our better minds together and have a speaker
for, and this is another good one.
Yes, so this is our network exchange for safety professionals.
This is free to Chamber members and registration closes for this October 22nd.
We are doing this in discussion with topics on risk assessment, new approaches to identifying
and mitigating workplace hazards.
So we're going to be having our speaker, Chris Bartek, from Irko Worldwide come in and
talk a little bit about this while providing a snack and water.
Again, this is October 29th.
This is going to be hosted at the Heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce from 1130 to
1pm.
It's going to be a great event.
I want you to be a part of it, everybody, in order to find out more or to register
Abby, how can they do that for this or any of these other events?
Yeah, for sure.
If you want more information on any of these events or what's going on in our community,
you can visit our website at Wisconsinreppidschamber.com or call 715-423-1830.
Be sure to follow them on social media as well.
It's a great way to keep up the dating and things in your community.
It's last second things that will come up in that, but also a great way for you to share
their posts on your page.
You just never know who might see them otherwise, and it's another way to impact our community
and help out our community.
And of course, that website she mentioned, because this has been a great conversation.
You both, Daniel, have done a great job last couple of weeks coming on and everything.
It's been a lot of fun working with you all.
That said, we've only scratched the surface of all the things that are available at the
chamber and you can find out more by going to their website, whether it is a community
resources workforce, economic development, all these different things are there for you
at that fantastic website, Wisconsinreppidschamber.com, Wisconsinreppidschamber.com, and again, be sure
to follow them on social media.
Abby, thank you for the time.
Thank you.
Say hi to the team over there for us, and we'll talk again real soon.
Well, definitely.
Thank you, everybody, for joining us.
We appreciate you being here for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report, probably brought
you by Crockett Settler.
