Business View Magazine - November 2016

106 Business View Magazine - November 2016 from a project initiated by the city’s business group, the Association of Commerce and its Leadership FDL Program, which hired a consulting firm with experience in community visioning. “And for better than a year, the Envision steering committee, working closely with the consultants, spent hours and hours reaching out to the community,” he says. “We hosted a lot of work- shops and listening sessions. We had an online site for folks to access. Basically, we said to the community of Fond du Lac: ‘What do you folks think?’” As a result of all that input, Envision Fond du Lac fo- cused on three big ideas: recalibrating the city’s econ- omy for the 21st century which includes becoming a primary hub for entrepreneurship, small business start-ups, and quality job growth; enhancing the com- munity’s identity, brand, and distinct sense of place; and investing in the city’s children while attracting and retaining young students and professionals to replen- ish its aging population. Envision Fond du Lac contains many strategic objec- tives and actionable items distilled from its three main areas of focus, as well as several “moon shots” - big ideas that the city can embrace, both immediately and incrementally, to achieve its goals. For example, although Fond du Lac is a “lake city,” it is not well- known for its waterfront. Therefore, embracing Lake Winnebago and investing in the city’s Lakeside Park is a moon shot that can transform the waterfront area and redefine the city, both for its residents and tour- ists, alike. “Lakeside Park is how this community accesses Lake Winnebago and it’s how folks using Lake Winnebago can access the community,” Molitor says. “It’s really a