They call themselves the Rock County Development Alliance, a partnership that began in 2001 between Forward Janesville, Rock County, Alliant Engery and the cities of Janesville and Beloit, Wis. But this story is less about who they are than what they’ve done.

And they have done a lot.

In collaboration with Rock County 5.0 – a public-private initiative created in September 2009 – the organization has succeeded in creating a seemingly seamless approach to economic development that has succeeded in filling some rather large industrial holes. The mothballed Motorola campus in Harvard, empty since April 2003, underscores the point.