Antonio Davis & Gwen Viegut Are MKE DMC’s 2024 Local Impact Award Winners

Milwaukee’s community spirit is often cited as a driving force behind the city’s successes. Antonio Davis and Gwen Viegut embody that ethos through highlighting tech, inclusivity, and powerful listening. Fresh off the Milwaukee Digital Marketing Awards’ Local Impact Award, they describe how to immerse yourself locally, preserve your ‘why,’ and keep that unstoppable momentum going.

Like MKE DMC members, Antonio and Gwen go whole heart with community building. They help local tech talent meet and evolve by marketing things like an AI roadmapping program for startups.

When looking at the MKE Tech Hub Coalition website, the unique value propositions of living in Milwaukee are beautifully quantified – and in a way that makes young professionals, solopreneurs, engineers, and other folks who like to nerd out in tech feel proud of Brew City’s progress and collective intellectual capital.

I mean, how could you not treasure Milwaukee when hearing these stats?  

• No. 2 US City to Launch Your Career
• 6th Most Affordable Place to Live Well in the US
• "The Midwest's Coolest & Most Underrated City"  -Vogue Magazine
• 18 Fortune 1000 Headquarters
• 6th highest concentration of college students across large metros
• 2,360 tech companies

Together, Antonio and Gwen inspire admiration and realization of Milwaukee’s potential. Their energy, alongside others, has helped put this remarkable city on the map for professionals among larger metropolitan areas.  

NYC might be the city that never sleeps, but Milwaukee is the city that’s making meaningful moves.

Join MKE Tech Hub Community

Let’s learn more about Antonio & Gwen

Read the full conversation between Antonio, Gwen, and Tyler Einberger, MKE DMC’s co-founder 👇:

Tyler Einberger
What keeps you in Milwaukee?

Antonio Davis
I've been here for 30 plus years transplanted from San Francisco california. Shout out to my mom. What keeps me here is the community the history the belief small market but with a lot of power a lot of potential and just the willingness to be more than what may be said about the city and i like the trajectory where we are just witnessed it in the last 30 years awesome.

Tyler Einberger
Gwen, how would the rest of the people that you work with describe you in three words?

Gwen Viegut
Punctual, ambitious, and organized.

Tyler Einberger
That's great. Okay for both of you, if you had to summarize your year in a song, what would it be?

Gwen Viegut
Well [MKE Tech Hub Coalition] had an ai song written about us a couple times. It's been stuck in my head – I can't remember the title but that's what i'm thinking of.

Antonio Davis
Stronger by Childish Gambino. It's a classic to me. It's something that turned out to motivate me throughout different periods of the year. to stay motivated.

Tyler Einberger
What advice would you give someone who is trying to make an impact locally whether it's at a non-profit or something they're doing by themselves? What keeps you driven? What's some advice that you can give there?

Anotonio Davis
I would say you have to immerse yourself in the community. Listen to people more than you speak to people. I think being a listener is the most important thing to understand where everyone's at and what they need.

I’ll also add, keep your “why” at the forefront and see who connects with your “why”. I think that's a way to build community subculture and to go further into what you believe in.

Tyler Einberger
If Milwaukee could thank you, what would you want it to say?

Gwen Viegut
Did you think of that question? That's a good question. Thank you for the support, and like, recognizing what the city is capable of.

Antonio Davis
Yeah! I would say thank you, thank you for contributing to our creative ecosystem.