Gays Mills Culinary Center Joins A Statewide Interactive TV Network

The Kickapoo Culinary Center has joined a statewide interactive
television network whose goal is to distribute educational programs to
benefit start-up businesses.

The network is a distance learning project of the Wisconsin Business
Incubator Association (WBIA) and was funded by a Forward Innovation
Fund grant from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce, now the
Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC).

The grant provided $180,000 for the purchase and installation of
interactive television equipment in nine strategically located
business incubator locations around the state. Gays Mills is one of
five kitchen-equipped incubators in the network.

Start-up businesses created in incubators are nearly twice as likely
to succeed in their first five years of operation, according to the
U.S. Small Business Administration. The WBIA network is designed to
make proven incubation techniques available as widely, and affordably,
as possible.

A digital video and audio equipment package, designed by LifeSize
Communications, has been installed at each of the nine locations tied
to a network control facility, called a “bridge,” at Gateway Technical
College’s Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation in Sturtevant.

The LifeSize system allows up to 24 sites to be interlinked via
digital broadband Internet connections. Programming can originate from
any of the sites. The network can also be expanded to include other
videoconferencing sites and educational institutions and private
businesses equipped with compatible systems manufactured by Cisco
Systems, Polycom and others. Point to point video conferences are also
possible.

The primary educational focus of the network is start-up business
entrepreneurs, said Brad Niemcek, director of the Kickapoo Culinary
Center. But training for incubator managers is also part of the
network’s mission. In addition, incubators are also able to rent
access to the network to local businesses and organizations that are
not associated with the kitchen.

The Gays Mills system has been successfully tested several times in
recent weeks with pictures and sound fed to and originating from the
board room, the community room and the kitchen of the Community
Commerce Center.

Plans are underway for a collaboration by the WBIA and the University
of Wisconsin Extension service for the delivery of special classes for
food business entrepreneurs, said Niemcek. Most of the projects
currently being developed involve programming delivered to Gays Mills
from elsewhere. But Niemcek, who has a background in television
production, is eager to explore the possibilities of Gays Mills
becoming a “30 Rock” in its own right.