AeroInnovate Wins Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce Innovation Award

AeroInnovate, an aviation program within the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Business Success Center, received the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce’s 2015 Company Innovation Award in the Small Employer Category during a luncheon on June10, 2015 in Appleton. The award was created as a means of recognizing businesses that drive innovation through creative thinking and problem solving, as well as take risks to propel economic development through their innovation.

AeroInnovate’s accelerator program launched on June 1, 2015 to provide funding, expertise, networking, and mentoring to selected aviation and aerospace startup companies with innovative business models. Companies participating in the accelerator program will be featured during EAA AirVenture July 20-26. Accelerator program participants will pitch their ideas to investors and gain awareness and industry presence during AeroInnovate’s Pitch and Mingle during EAA AirVenture the evening of July 21, 2015.

Major funding for AeroInnovate’s accelerator program comes from a Department of Defense Office of Economic Adjustment (DoD-OEA) grant received by the East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (ECWRPC) which supports the efforts of the ongoing Oshkosh Region Defense Industry Diversification Initiative (ORDIDI). To date, this initiative has brought over $2M to ECWRPC to undertake studies of specific initiatives aimed at assisting in the growth and expansion of new industry clusters to create an economy more resilient to changes in federal defense contracts.

For additional information on this initiative, please visit https://www.ecwrpc.org/2015/02/23/oshkosh-region-defense-industrydiversification-
initiative/ or contact Sarah Van Buren, Economic Development Planner.