That was then, this is now

From the President

That was then, this is now

Much of metro Milwaukee’s economy is linked to our

past. But our future depends more than ever on what we do now.

Consider one enabling and disrupting example: on a

3G network, a movie download took 45 hours; on a 4G network, 2 hours; and on the imminent 5G network, only 45 seconds. Think about the applications for all industries in moving data and images. What we do now to do develop lifelong learners matters more than ever as we anticipate the skills and occupations needed to fuel our future.

There is a famous antique poster that proclaims, "Milwaukee feeds and supplies the world" through its manufacturing prowess. That legacy will carry forward into our future, even while the percentage of jobs in our economy represented by manufacturing has fallen from 40% in 1960 to 16% in 2018. Milwaukee is a great place to engineer and make things — refrigerators, offroad vehicles, hot water heaters, lawn equipment, manufacturing controls, locks, brakes, seats, water meters, electric tools, and imaging machines. In fact, we remain one of the top two metro areas measured by the percentage of our employment engaged in manufacturing. However, it is the application of today’s technologies that will lift up or disrupt Milwaukee’s economy. The advent of artificial intelligence, big data, the internet of things (IOT), 8K + 5G technology apply as much to manufacturing as they do to financial services, health care, transportation and logistics.

Manufacturing is a great foundation to build on, and we must pay close attention to its needs as an industry. It will also serve us well in the future and it was a significant factor in attracting Foxconn. But our economy must also diversify through companies like Scanalytics. Using technology they developed right here, Scanalytics is poised to transform physical spaces into intelligent environments that can predict consumer behavior using proprietary smart floor sensors. When we look back at 2018, the footsteps we measure will lead us in the direction of the future.

Tim Sheehy President Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce

MMAC President Tim Sheehy

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