ABOUT

About the Wisconsin Technology Council

The Wisconsin Technology Council is the science and technology advisor to the Governor and the Legislature. Launched in 2001, the Tech Council was created by a bipartisan act of the governor and the Legislature. It is an independent, non-profit and non-partisan board with members from tech companies, venture capital firms, higher education, research institutions, government and law.

The Tech Council has three main functions:

1) It provides policy guidance to lawmakers, the governor, state agencies and other institutions in Wisconsin. It has most notably done so through “Vision 2020: A Model Wisconsin Economy” and biennial white papers that have served as background for policymakers – and led to constructive changes.

2) It serves an important in-state networking role through the Innovation Network, a membership arm that is dedicated to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. It also works with other statewide and local affiliates. And it provides out-of-state networking through its “I-Q Corridor” activities and other events.

3) It serves as an economic catalyst through programs such as:

  • Innovation Network The Tech Council’s general membership arm dedicated to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.
  • Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference A program focused on stimulating more entrepreneurial activity in Wisconsin across all segments of our economy.
  • Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium Open to technology companies seeking all capital.
  • Wisconsin Tech Summit Brings together major companies and emerging firms in a setting that allows them to meet and explore likely business relationships around technology needs and innovation.
  • Monthly Innovation Network Events Brings together entrepreneurs, business owners and related high-tech professionals in a collaboration-rich environment.
  • Governor’s Business Plan Contest (BPC) An opportunity to compete for cash and in-kind prizes – but it’s also a chance to get constructive feedback on your business plan and to help move it from “virtual business” to reality.
  • Investor Networks The mission is to build angel network capital capacity throughout Wisconsin in order to increase the number and amount of early stage equity investments in Wisconsin companies, creating jobs and improving our economy.

Tom Still Biography:

Tom-Still

Tom Still is president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. The Tech Council is the non-profit, bipartisan science and technology policy advisory board to the governor and the Legislature. Its programs include the Tech Council Investor Networks, the Tech Council Innovation Network, the Governor’s Business Plan Contest and regular events that connect entrepreneurs, investors, researchers and others with a stake in the tech-based economy.

Still serves on the Board of Visitors for the UW-Madison Department of Computer Sciences, the Industrial Advisory Board for the UW-Madison College of Engineering, the board of directors for the Marshfield Clinic Health System, and the board of directors for the Wisconsin Academy for Sciences, Arts and Letters. He is a former member of the WiSys Board of Trustees.

He is the former associate editor of the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison. Still writes a syndicated column that appears regularly in about two-dozen publications.

Still moderated the Wisconsin Economic Summits (2000-2003) and helped write the Wisconsin Prosperity Strategy in 2010. Still is the co-author of “Hands-On Environmentalism,” published by Encounter Books, New York.

He was a 2008 winner of Madison magazine’s “Best of Madison Business” award and was named to InBusiness magazine’s 2010 Executive Hall of Fame. Still was named “Communicator of the Year” by the Public Relations Society of America/Wisconsin in 2012.

Still is a senior lecturer emeritus in the Department of Life Sciences Communication in the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

Interested in learning more? Put your business on the Wisconsin Fast Track to success by reading the Council’s Vision 2020: A Model Wisconsin Economy – or by contacting us directly.

The Wisconsin Technology Council is a proud member of:

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