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Proud to CHOOSE GREATER PEORIA

March 25, 2022

GPEDC Weekend Update- March 25, 2022


Some GPEDC updates to end your week: 

New Peoria Business: Manusis4, a Brazilian software company with a proven and successful asset management and supply chain solution for healthcare systems, manufacturers, and other complex businesses, has selected Peoria as one of its office locations. The company is expanding its operations into the United States and will have offices in Peoria, Pittsburgh and Boston.  Manusis CEO Rodrigo Rotondo visited Peoria in late November 2021 at the invitation of Andrew Ngui of the Greater Peoria EDC. Andrew and Rodrigo connected years ago through the MIT Startup Bootcamp. During his visit, Rodrigo was impressed by the region’s helpful and collaborative nature and its robust innovation ecosystem. They will operate out of The Nest coworking space, where they will also create a showroom to demonstrate their technology. While Manusis USA will have a small presence in Peoria — at first — we look forward to helping them grow and succeed. You can read their press release here.

Women’s Fund Leadership Panel: The Women’s Fund of the Community Foundation of Central Illinois is hosting a panel discussion on leadership on Monday, April 4 at 5 pm at the ICC Performing Arts Center. Among the five panelists are two very familiar faces: GPEDC’s own Director of Business Attraction Lenora Fisher and GPEDC Board Member (oh, and ICC President) Dr. Sheila Quirk-Bailey.  Tickets are only $25 and go to a great cause (full disclosure: I’m on the CFCI board of directors). More details and registration here

Newcomer Event: One big part of the GP2030 talent attraction initiative is to make recent transplants feel welcome in their new community.  So we are throwing a party! On Saturday, April 2 we will be hosting a Newcomer Mixer in the Lexus Club of the Peoria Civic Center before the Peoria Rivermen hockey game. We hope it will be a way for newcomers to meet each other (and some of us who have been here a minute) as well as connect with their new community in a new way. The event is free to attend but registration is required. The event includes food and beverages plus a ticket to the Rivermen game. We start at 6 pm and the puck drops at 7:15 pm. Please make sure to share this opportunity with anyone you know who has moved to Greater Peoria in the past three years. Registration and more details here.

Makers Madness: The nominations for this year’s Makers Madness: The Coolest Thing Made in Illinois are in! This annual event, organized by the Illinois Manufacturing Association, highlights the diversity of manufacturing in this state, ranging from food to medical equipment to giant mining vehicles. There are dozens of entries, but we’ve done the hard work of picking out the items that were nominated from our own region. You can vote for your five favorites each day until April 3. IMA will then start a bracket-style competition with the top 16 vote-getters culminating in an announcement of the winner on April 27. The list of Greater Peoria products is below. Cast your vote here

Bosstek – KoolBoss (Peoria)
Butch’s Premium Pizza – White Garlic Deluxe Pizza (Morton) 
Caterpillar – D11 Track Type Tractor (East Peoria)
Caterpillar – Engine Block (Mapleton)
Flexi-SnakeThe Drain Weasel (Chillicothe)
Jupiter Machine Tool – VMC Vertical CNCs (Morton/Galesburg)
Komatsu – 980E-5 Electric Drive Truck (Peoria)
Natural Fiber Welding – Mirum (Peoria)
Novel Electronic Design – Ten Player Quiz System (Chillicothe)
Onken’s – Custom Semi-Trailer Bar (Easton)
Onken’s – Fire Pit (Easton)
Onken’s – Recycling Trailers (Easton)
Philippi-Hagenbuch – Rear Eject Body (Peoria County) 
Walz Scale – Volumetric LiDAR Scanner (East Peoria)

Have a great weekend!

Chris