Northwestern Mutual Presents

2023 Intern Challenge

16 teams of interns compete to program the best light show on the Milwaukee Hoan Bridge.

16 teams compete

You Decide the winner

Voting begins July 17th.

Sponsored by Johnson controls

2023 Intern Mixer

To kick off this year’s Intern Challenge, Johnson Controls will sponsor an intern mixer event on July 17th, complete with a DJ, light show synced with music sponsored by Generac, food trucks, beverages sponsored by MolsonCoors and a ton of interactive games.

1.
Watch the light shows
Watch the light shows of each team to pick your favorite.

Watch here
2.
Vote for your favorite

Vote for your favorite team after you watch the light show.


Vote Now

3.
Check the results

Check the results on July 21st to see who won!


Click here to check results

Hoan Bridge Livestream
10:41 am

Molson Coors

Molson Coors is a company rooted in diversity, which has evolved alongside Milwaukee. Our lightshow tells this story and showcases our heritage. Beginning with the colors of the German flag blending with red, white, and blue, we represent Frederick Miller’s journey to the US and honor our humble beginnings. The bridge transforms, showcasing parts of the production processes (farming, brewing, and packaging), signifying our cutting-edge innovations and growth. Just as Miller, Molson, and Coors merged, their corporate colors blend into Molson Coors’ current palette, (Dark Blue, Light Blue, Yellow, Orange) symbolizing our shared values with Milwaukee. The bridge reveals what Molson Coors has become, celebrating our diverse sponsorships, nationalities, and pride. This grand display unites Molson Coors and Milwaukee, radiating diversity, innovation, and unity. Together, we embody a vibrant future, deeply rooted in our city and company. 

Visit Milwaukee

Our light show represents the economic and social impact VISIT Milwaukee has on the city. We drew our inspiration from the complexity of the city and how VISIT Milwaukee bridges the gap between leisure travelers, convention attendees and the booming, diverse businesses Milwaukee has to offer.

American Family

On behalf of AmFam Dream team, we invite you to dream fearlessly with us and celebrate the people/places who make our company, beginning with highlighting the two cities that hold a special place in our hearts – the incredible city of Madison and vibrant one of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since its inception in 1927, Amfam has now grown to include diverse and powerful operating companies that form the backbone of this incredible enterprise -The General, Homesite, Main Street America, and Bold Penguin – that make up what we now call AmFam Group. Our BRG’s are a testament to the collective strength and vision that binds us together as we celebrate the diversity and infinite possibilities that lie within each of us as a company. Finally, we end showcasing our Dream Foundation which reminds us of a world filled with endless potential and a hope that reminds us all, that when we join together, with passion and purpose, we can ignite a brighter future for all. Thank you! 

Rockwell Automation

This one-minute light show represents a day in the life of a Rockwell employee. We start off our day in the life with a sunrise as we arrive to our iconic clock tower office here in Milwaukee. Once we get to the office, we spend our workday creating and using cutting edge technology that innovates the industrial automation field. Rockwell has a long history of working with industry leading companies, putting an emphasis on continued learning and innovating in the face of some of today’s biggest challenges. We value sustainability, using flowers to demonstrate our three pillars of sustainability: Environment, Social, and Governance. We take a stroll on our green roof, which reduces indirect greenhouse emissions and has absorbed 500,000 gallons of storm water a year since its construction in 2010, reducing sewer overflows that overwhelm the system. We end our day celebrating our achievements with fireworks on the Hoan bridge, proud to be a part of a company that has been named one of the most ethical in the country.

Johnson Financial Group

Our light show showcases the history of Johnson Financial Group, starting relatively small in a singular trailer and growing to a corporation focusing on quality, community involvement, and diversity.

Direct Supply

In our show we tell the story of two souls, Red and Cyan, whose lives are changed for the

better after crossing paths and falling in love. Together they embark on a journey to create and

raise a child, Magenta. As time goes on Red and Cyan begin to age. Red becomes sick and

passes away, leaving a devastated Cyan. Grief-stricken Magenta doesn’t know how to handle

their pain and the new overwhelming responsibility of caring for their single surviving parent,

Cyan. After some time of processing their grief and searching for support, Magenta returns to

Cyan with Direct Supply in tow. This support is shown through Direct Supply’s royal blue brand

colors. The family is given aid, security, and peace of mind through Direct Supply’s tools and

services. Soon, the royal blue fades as Cyan transforms into a shimmering gold, representing a

new golden age of seniors.

West Bend Mutual

Our show starts with a representation of our prairie located on the West Bend Campus that many wildlife and plants call their home. In 1893, an unfortunate fire tore through West Bend destroying people’s livelihoods. This sparked the idea of West Bend Mutual Insurance. You cannot always predict disaster, but you can have someone fall back on. West Bend Mutual was founded with the sole purpose of being there for you in times of need. We are focused on getting you back on your feet as quickly and easily as possible. That’s the idea behind the silver lining. The worst brings out our best. No matter where or who you are, West Bend guarantees that there will always be a rainbow after the storm or disaster. West Bend has been satisfying customers for over 125 years. Special thanks to the people of Wisconsin for helping our business expand and providing support to our policy holders nationwide. West Bend Mutual Insurance, since its humble origins, has expanded our mission and belief in the silver lining across the country. At West Bend we fundamentally believe that we are obligated to serve our community and better improve the world. Our commitment goes much further than just insurance. Through various charities, non-profits, and community involvement we hope to make a positive impact on the world one day at a time.

We Energies

We begin with blue and white to symbolize WEC, We Energies holding company. We then transition with a wind turbine, representing our wind generation resources. All of our transitions are renewables, symbolizing WEC’s transition to cleaner energy. We now have the spreading colors of We Energies, representing electricity going out across Wisconsin. The blue rushes in lite water to represent hydro generation. The travelling white lights are our transmission lines sending power to southeastern Wisconsin, keeping the lights on for the 2.3 million We Energies customers. We transition to orange and white sparkling lights for the overarching We Energies power distribution company.

Baird

Founded in 1919 and headquartered in Milwaukee, Baird emphasizes integrity in everything we do. “The Baird Way” is defined by transparency, honesty and teamwork in how we provide the best financial advice and service, uniting us and helping us to appreciate the diversity in our backgrounds and perspectives. The variety of colors and motion in our show depict our shared values and celebrate the unique contributions of our Associate Resource Groups: Ascend, Baird Gives Back, PATRIOT, Prism, PULSE and Spectrum. Next, we highlight the city of Milwaukee with the Brewers’ and Bucks’ team colors. As our light show closes, we focus on Baird’s brand colors, showcasing our excitement for the new Baird Center opening next summer and the announcement of our lease extension to include Baird signage atop Milwaukee’s U.S. Bank Building. We are Baird, and Baird puts our associates, our clients, and our communities first.

CNH INdustrial

For our light show presentation, we wanted to showcase the history of CNH Industrial. We start off we a subtle design of red for the original Case IH brand. Then, we wanted to show the addition of Case Construction when we took the first step of moving the company forward with the combination of the two. After that we wanted to show the transition into the era of merging with New Holland and Fiat represented by the yellow and blue colors. In 2021 we have acquired Raven to continue our pursuit of Breaking New Ground in the agriculture and construction industry. Lastly, we want to remember where we started in 1842, and how far we have come today. We use the green to white to represent this as the seeds planted to remember our roots, that have now sprouted to build 1 company with 10 brands and over 37,000 employees globally, CNH Industrial.

Husco

HUSCO has been a long standing proponent of the Off-Highway and Automotive industries, supporting our customers through excellence in product and service. When we designed this lightshow, we wanted to represent 5 eras of electrohydraulic and Husco’s influence on the field.  

  1. Industrialization: Represented by bright orange and red signifying fire & oil in a combustion engine. 
  1. Husco’s joins the industry: Represented by the flow of Husco’s colors (Blue) signifying hydraulics. 
  1. Era of computers and automation: Husco brought the use of electronic controllers and automation to the industry depicted by bright green mimicking a “Matrix” feel. 
  1. Era of Electricity and Magnetic products: We used red to exemplify electricity, white to signify magnetics, and blue to illustrate hydraulics. Husco leveraged this innovation to expand internationally.  
  1. Husco’s present day: HUSCO products continue to drive innovation and bring efficiency to our customers within the Off-Highway and Auto industry, symbolized by the two cohesive colors flowing across the bridge.

Perlick

Perlick is a 106 year old family owned company that started in the third ward. We started out as a custom brass works company. Beer has been a staple of Perlick success. We entered the beer industry creating. Brewery tap fittings in the 1920s. We even made dispensing equipment for near beer during prohibition. When prohibition ended there was a boom in new bars which allowed us to expand further into the Bar industry. During this time we invented our century system that allow beer to be moved over 100ft while staying cold. This ground breaking invention had an amazing impact in the beer dispensing in stadiums and other large venues. Perlick is not only focused on dispensing equipment. After becoming beer experts, we also expanded to other areas of the bar allowing our customers to come to us with all of their bar needs.

Milwaukee Tool

Our group wants to tell a story of how Milwaukee Tool has been engaging with customers in order to provide them technical solutions with a high degree of Speed, Agility, and Urgency.

The white lights, which move like lightening across the bridge, represent our market research. As you see lighting will hit different places on the bridge and propagate through them. This lightening is effectively gathering information about each different user, so that it may bring information regarding what our customers need in a new tool to the engineers.

The vertical lights on the bridge will represent Milwaukee Tools obsession over process improvement, and the lights of the arch represent our customers we support. We aim to show that we target a diverse set of end users by representing each end user as a color shown on the bridge. We have chosen orange, blue, green, and yellow because these are colors that represent our users. From green ground wires to orange construction signs, the colors in our show are the ones seen by our users every day.

As we all know, after lightening comes thunder. In our light show, Milwaukee Tool’s product launches are that thunder. Quickly following our market research, we launch a new tool that disrupts the industry and unites people within and across end user groups as one thing: Milwaukee Tool users. You’ll see this disruption and subsequent unity as the horizontal lights on the bridge all turn red.

The continual motion of the lights at the end shows that we are always communication with our users and providing them with new and improved solutions.

 

Remember, Stay Obsessed, Never Settle, and always keep improving.

Northwestern Mutual

At its core, our light show represents Northwestern Mutual’s mission to ensure every person is guaranteed a life full of financial freedom and promise. With the show opening in white, it captures all the possibilities Northwestern Mutual can uncover by providing its clients with financial freedom. As the light transitions to the colors of red, white, and blue, it emphasizes NM’s mission to relieve Americans from financial anxiety. The show proceeds to include blue and gold for NM’s branding, which is also the color of the Milwaukee flag, and a directional wave from south to north representing Franklin employees who will soon relocate Downtown. A rainbow is then presented to illustrate Northwestern Mutual’s commitment to their diverse and inclusive workforce. In an exciting flash of all the previous elements of the show, this finale further reinforces NM’s dedication to its rich history of consistently being committed to their clients.

Generac

Generac’s history is rooted in backup power, generally following severe storms, so our show begins with a severe storm that leads to a complete power outage. 

Immediately, emergency sirens sound and Generac steps in to provide back up power with a team of volunteers that works closely with first responders. We ease their efforts by fixing generators and restoring power to critical areas in the community, even in the midst of hurricanes. Generac’s purpose may seem simple: to provide power solutions. But Generac isn’t just generators or the services we provide. Our story and the people behind the scenes of our company are what make us who we are. In our show, we celebrate our people by encompassing different employee resource groups including LGBTQ, African Americans, and Women in Business. We pride ourselves on the inclusivity and representation of these and all groups that drive the foundation of Generac. Without our people we wouldn’t be able to grow and embrace the direction we are heading with energy technology and sustainable solutions, as expressed with our windmill reference during the show. Together, Generac supports communities in need by first supporting our own people. 

Johnson Controls

Johnson Controls dedicates our mission to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to empower every team member to take an active role in a rich culture that values uniqueness. JCI encourages team members globally to support, participate, and self-identify through our Business Resource Groups (BRG’s). Our values are represented in our 9 BRG’s.

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