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Archive for the ‘Economic Development’ Category
Rural Education: Get your questions ready
August 31st, 2011
As a former teacher turned rural economic development professional, I have some questions about education in rural schools. Top on my list is “Do rural schools have a responsibility to help build rural economies?” Today, I have an opportunity to pose that question in a Twitter chat to the U.S. Department of Education’s point person for rural outreach, John White. According to information on the ED.gov blog, here’s how it works. Deputy Assistant Secretary White will host the forum today between 3:00 – 3:30 EDT on Twitter. You can begin submitting your questions right now using the #EDRuralChat hashtag. Others have already started. In fact, I was pleased to see Dakota State University President Doug Knowlton ask:#EDRuralChat How might partnerships with regional universities improve college access for students from rural settings?” (source)From what I understand, White will begin addressing these questions at 3:00 EDT. I hope we also see some follow-up on the ED.gov blog because 140 characters simply doesn’t facilitate serious conversation. If you are looking for a little inspiration before participating, I highly encourage you to read Zach Wilson’s “Speak Your Piece: Rural Education Reform” blog post from yesterday’s Daily Yonder. It is one of the best succinct essays on rural education that I have read! And if you are looking for a crash course in how a “Twitter chat” works, here are some resources:
- “What is a Twitter Chat and How to Make the Most of It,” Jennifer Moline, Pronet Advertising, Jan. 27, 2011
- “Tips for Twitter Chats,” Neicole Crepeau, Social Media Today, April 18, 2011
- “The Twitter Guide Book,” Mashable (a great guide to using Twitter)
Tags: place based education
Posted in Economic Development, education, Rural | Comments (4)
Enterprise Facilitation: Another Strategy for supporting entrepreneurs
July 13th, 2011
I’ve advocated previously for economic gardening, as a key strategy for supporting entrepreneurs in rural communities. Another strategy worth consideration is enterprise facilitation. Developed by Ernesto Sirroli, enterprise facilitation offers one-on-one support to business owners who are trying to start or build a business. Enterprise facilitation programs typically differ from economic gardening programs in a number of ways:- Enterprise facilitation programs work with businesses of any size, but often focus on new business start-ups, something economic gardening programs typically don’t do.
- Programs typically provide support in all areas of running a business, not just marketing and business intelligence aspects.
- Facilitators serve as connectors, matching a business owner’s weaknesses to resources and mentors who can fill the gaps.
Tags: enterprise facilitation, Oregon, South Dakota, southeast enterprise facilitation project
Posted in Economic Development, Rural | Comments (0)
Rural Economic Development Comes from Within
July 8th, 2011
While researching online yesterday, I stumbled across a video produced by the Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The video’s title, “Rural Economic Development Comes from Within,” immediately drew me in because it is a founding principle of our work at the Rural Learning Center. The video provides an overview of two Alberta communities who used a process called the Business Vitality Initiative (BVI) to develop action plans for their community development efforts. Started in 2009 as a pilot project, the initiative was designed to help communities assess their capacity to work with and support entrepreneurship. I like that the process helps communities build on existing assets within the community. I was also particularly impressed by Project Coordinator Patricia Macklin’s closing comment, “The future of our rural Alberta communities will involve harnessing the passion, imagination, and resources of community people.” I couldn’t agree more. (Source: "Rural Econmomic Development Comes from Within," AlbertaAgriculture, YouTube, March 3, 2010) If you watch the video and want to learn a bit more, I’d recommend checking out the Ministry’s website. The page provides links to each community’s BVI assessment report as well as an evaluation of the program conducted by an outside firm. I also discovered that the Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurial Leadership, which facilitates the BVI process, offers a thorough description of the initiative on their website. I’ve embedded a video they produced below. As I listened to it, I was struck by some of the similarities to the Community Vision Meetings that helped launch our efforts in Miner County back in the late 1990s. ("Community Vitality Initiative," CIEL, Viddler, ) I wish I had more time right now to dig deeper into the BVI process; hopefully, that comes in the future. But for today, it serves as a good reminder -- Rural Economic Development Comes from Within.
Tags: Alberta, Business Vitality Initiative, Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurial Leadership, community vision meetings
Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, Rural | Comments (11)
Reflections: Strategies to attract & retain newcomers in West Central MN
June 15th, 2011
If your rural community is serious about growing its population, then you need to develop a people attraction and retention plan. And that plan has to be something more than hiring a person to manage your community’s business recruitment strategy. A few weeks ago, I recommended that communities begin the process of developing an attraction and retention plan by asking newcomers, “Why did you move here?” Both projects I highlight in that post – the West Central Minnesota project and the Gogebic Next Generation Initiative – began with this approach. But then what? What does a community do after it discovers the motivations of people moving to the region? How can they use this information to create a plan? Ben Winchester, Research Fellow with University of Minnesota Extension, has some thoughts.What does Ben recommend?
Ben is the guy who coordinated the research for the West Central Minnesota project. He published the research in a paper titled “Regional Recruitment: Strategies to Attract and Retain Newcomers.” At the end of the report, he offers eight strategies for communities to consider as they develop a people attraction and retention effort. The strategies Ben recommends fit into three broad categories:1) Putting the region on the map strategies; 2) Employment strategies; and 3) Newcomer support strategies.
Rather than summarize each strategy, I want to highlight a few of my reflections on Ben’s recommendations.Five thoughts I want to share
1) Putting the region on the map is more than advertising. Rather than “selling” their communities to outsiders, Ben recommends that rural community leaders would be better served by focusing on how they can help individuals who are trying to decide if they can and should move to a small town. In other words, give them the information that helps them make their decision. Ben offers some advice on what information potential newcomers to West Central Minnesota are seeking. And while you should use this as a starting point, I highly recommend that you start with your own research. In the end, your effort will be more successful because of it. 2) Share stories about people who have recently moved to the region. We talk a lot about the power of stories here at Reimagine Rural. Potential newcomers will see themselves in the stories you share and will say, “I want what that person (who just moved to your town) has.” As Ben notes, this can be accomplished most effectively through social media tools. But if your community is not ready to take that step, stories can be shared on traditional websites as well. 3) Think regionally. People live in or near towns, but towns are a part of a larger eco-system. A person may live in one town, work in another, go to the movies in third, enjoy friends in a fourth, and go shopping in still other communities. If your effort focuses solely on your town, potential newcomers will develop a limited impression of what life will be like for them in your town. 4) Business recruitment is not the only way to help create employment opportunities. Of the four “employment strategies” Ben offers, none involve recruiting businesses. I appreciate that because I believe there are many other ways for rural communities to help create economic opportunities. Now, if your community already has a successful business recruitment strategy, then you should continue. If not, consider one of the more personalized approaches Ben describes. Even if you are unsuccessful at helping each newcomer to your community discover or develop an economic opportunity, they will appreciate and remember your efforts to help. 5) Don’t overlook the importance of helping newcomers connect with the community. If I had to select only one retention strategy, it would be to develop a process for helping newcomers connect. We often assume that it is easy for new residents to make new friends and get involved in our rural communities. But research in West Central Minnesota reflects the opposite; newcomers actually had difficulty connecting in the region. Don’t make the mistake of assuming your community is any different. To be honest, we haven’t formulated a people attraction and retention effort in Miner County. We’ve dabbled in many of the strategies Ben recommends in his report, but attraction and retention hasn’t been a clear focus. Hopefully, that changes in the future. And when it does, one of the first places I’ll recommend we start is with this report. We can learn a lot from our friends in West Central Minnesota. Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey - Flickr
Tags: Ben Winchester, brain gain, marketing rural communities, Minnesota, people attraction, storytelling
Posted in Community Engagement, Economic Development, Quality of Life, Rural | Comments (4)
Shaping the New Rural with Backbone and Clay
June 10th, 2011
Editors Note: Joe Bartmann returned to the Rural Learning Center in February to become its president. Longtime readers will recognize Joe's writings from his previous stint at the RLC. As Joe settles into his job, we hope he finds the time to write more regularly for Reimagine Rural. Thank you to Karl Stauber for being bold, and spot on. His Old Rural and New Rural concept, shared over the last few days on The Daily Yonder (part one and part two), set down important stepping stones in a path so many are working to build today. We really can turn things around in dying rural communities, and we should.
Sort of like Lady Gaga (minus the flamboyant costumes), many of us feel like we were "born this way." Rural is a part of our being as much as our physical attributes or religion or family. For those communities where leaders stand up and families roll up their sleeves to make change, our great country should rethink the ways it can be there to help. After all, as Karl points out, this is America--land of opportunity for all. Our history tells us that sometimes it takes great effort and guts to convince some groups of people that the others deserve that opportunity too. Getting to "New Rural" takes a movement that helps America reimagine what a small town is and can be. It is a serious shift in thinking that must come before major changes in policy.
It's not hard to understand why many leaders would want to focus scarce resources where there are the most people. That's why, as Stauber also points out, this policy shift we're talking about is not a handout every rural community or person is entitled to just because they choose to live in rural places. We are the change we seek. No rural community, regardless of how much money might get thrown at them, can prosper without seeing their own handprints on the problems they face, and grabbing their own bootstraps to do the slow, hard, messy work of reinventing life and leadership in their own community.
The people of Miner County have made remarkable choices in becoming an example of the "New Rural" Stauber writes of. Leaders, students, seniors and entrepreneurs alike here have learned to continually convince and encourage each other to reinvent their economic opportunity strategies over the past 15 years.
The work here is both backbone and clay. There are rigid principles to follow that serve as backbone --rules that say everyone matters, every person is a resource, we must invest in ourselves, we are part of many regional ecosystems, radical collaboration works, we must celebrate our stories, and so on. And there is plenty of clay here too--room to mold and shape and reshape what it is to live and work in this rural place. The magic in getting to New Rural is being boldly open to what is backbone and what is clay, in our national and state policy making, and in our own rural communities.
Together, we really can reimagine Rural America.
Photo Credit: Scania Group - Flickr
Tags: Daily Yonder, Karl Stuaber, miner county sd, New Rural
Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, Rural, Rural Life | Comments (0)
Telling stories to redefine a region
June 2nd, 2011
I’ve talked previously about the power of stories. Stories help make the message about your community memorable (think Made to Stick). They also help people who live in other places connect emotionally to what your community has to offer (think of stories about people in small towns coming together to help each other). Combined, these stories highlight what makes your community unique and special, both with a human touch.
Last week, Ed Morrison identified yet another powerful reason why we should tell stories about our communities. He writes:
Narratives [stories] are important for guiding open networks. They provide the emotional connections and coherence that enable members of the network to align, link and leverage their resources.” (source: "New narratives in the Great Lakes Nation | Say goodbye to the Rust Belt," Ed Morrison, Ed's Garage, May 28, 2011)
Aligning, leveraging, and linking resources
To build his argument, Morrison shares examples of cities who are building new narratives that he believes will eventually combine to move the Great Lakes region away from its current label as the “Rust Belt.” I tend to agree. What’s interesting is that each example Morrison shares is unique. Youngstown’s emerging narrative is very different from that of Grand Rapids and Detroit. But because they are authentic and tell human stories, they don’t conflict with each other. In fact, they come together in a way that is unifying. That’s significant because tension often exists within traditional regional branding projects. Using stories as a part of marketing efforts is currently all the rage in the business world. Morrison says stories help align, leverage and link resources within a region. The region he describes is multi-state. But the principles would appear to work the same in a multi-community or multi-county area as well. It causes me to wonder how we can build narratives from within our small towns in eastern South Dakota and connect them with narratives from our larger communities, like Sioux Falls, Mitchell, Yankton, etc…. It makes me wonder if doing so will help us feel and act more like a region. We talk a lot of building regional economies in South Dakota, but I see little evidence that we are building a regional identity that will help align, leverage and link resources. Maybe the place to start is with being more intentional about the stories we tell about places within our region. Does anybody have a better idea? Photo credit: joduldi - Flickr
Tags: Ed Morrison, Ohio, region collaboration, regional development, Rust Belt, storytelling
Posted in Economic Development, Rural | Comments (0)
Homework Assignment: Why are people moving to your region?
May 27th, 2011
I’ve got a homework assignment for you. And it’s going to take a little research. Last week I identified the 30-44 year-old age group as a potential sweet spot for rural communities seeking to attract new residents. At the same time, I challenged people to do their own research and decide for themselves what age group makes sense for community. The challenge begs the question, “Why do people move to your rural town?” Many of us have general answers to this question: It’s a great place to live. Good schools. Lower housing costs. But those answers lack the specificity and details communities need if they hope to be serious about attracting new residents. I know of two projects in the Upper Midwest who are serious about attracting and retaining new residents, and they’ve been doing their homework. The first is located just across the border in Minnesota, where the Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission (UMVRDC) recently conducted a study titled
“Regional Recruitment: Strategies to Attract and Retain Newcomers.” Although the region has typically fared better economically than rural South Dakota, farming and the “prairie pothole” topography dominate. The second effort is a bit further away. Called the Gogebic Range Next Generation Initiative (NGI), this project is located in Iron County, WS and Gogebic County, MI. Although different in geography and environment – iron mining, trees, and low mountains dominant – we share similar outmigration patterns. Like us, the region’s population peaked in the 1920s, and young people are often encouraged to move away.
While both regions deserve an “A” for their research efforts, I don’t believe it is cheating when other rural communities take what they learn from this research and apply it to their own communities. To help, I’ll share a few highlights from my notes.
Newcomers have different characteristics
In the case of West Central Minnesota, the study showed that new residents have slightly different characteristics than current residents. Dawn Hegland, Executive Director of the UMVRDC, recently identified a few of these differences in a report to the Yellow Medicine County Board. She explained that new residents:tend to be well-educated with higher-than-average incomes, and are more likely to buy or start businesses, take leadership positions in the community, and engage in volunteer activities. Sixty percent of them had no previous ties to the area.” (source: "Yellow Medicine County Doing OK," Steve Browne, Marshall Independent, May 11, 2011.)She also noted that some of newcomers moved to the region without having a job in place. That’s an interesting dynamic worth further investigation.
Gogebic Next Generation Initiative
Among the discoveries I find most compelling from the Next Generation Initiative research is a ranking of the “location preferences” that attract new residents to the Gogebic region. Two factors stand out in this research: First, because the study parallels existing research from the Michigan Cool Cities Study, we see that the reasons people move to this rural region are very different from the reasons people move to urban areas. (see image below) As the project leader, Will Andresen notes rural communities who focus on developing and promoting community assets that urban places have in abundance, may be investing in areas that their target market does not seek. A better approach would be to invest in existing assets that attract new residents. Why not make those assets even better? (source: “Voices of Rural Wisconsin Part Four: Shaping a Healthy Future,” Portal Wisconsin, audio interview)
A second take away from the NGI research is that people who move to the Gogebic region do not rank the need for a job as a top priority. This does not imply that economic opportunities are not important. People have to be able to make a living. But it does suggest that communities can’t place all of their eggs in the job creation basket.
Are you ready to get started?
The West Central Minnesota and the Gogebic projects offer us a glimpse into why people are moving into two rural regions. I’d be interested in hearing how closely what they have discovered matches with what you’ve experienced in your community. I also hope that you will share the results of any research you’ve conducted. Having access to your research won’t eliminate the need for communities to do their own homework. But it will give them a jump start on the process. Photo Credit: jsorbieus - Flickr
Tags: brain gain, Michigan, Minnesota, Next Generation - Gogebic, people atttraction, UMVRDC, Wisconsin
Posted in Community Development, Community Engagement, Economic Development, Rural | Comments (0)
Looking to Quebec for Inspiration
May 19th, 2011
Tomorrow I will be speaking at a rural community development conference in Montreal, Quebec. My talk will focus on how and why we are “reimagining rural” at the Rural Learning Center. The presentation has also provided me an opportunity to reflect on what we mean when we call on rural communities to reimagine their futures. To begin, rural communities must have a purpose to exist. Most of the rural communities in our region were created as retail centers in an era when farms were small and numerous. As the opportunity to serve as retail centers has diminished, many of our rural communities have not discovered a new purpose – a new reason to exist. That has to change, or our rural towns will cease to exist. And that’s why we call on rural communities to reimagine their futures. Create a vision for the community that looks to the future, rather than the past. There is little chance for our communities to recapture what we once were. But we can become something new, something different. There are plenty of communities who are achieving success, and we need to learn from them. That’s why we try to publish their stories here on the Reimagine Rural blog. I’m excited to visit Quebec because it will provide an opportunity to discover some bright spots in Canada. If you are at the conference, I hope you will look me up and share your story. It might be the inspiration another rural community needs as it attempts to reimagine its future.
Tags: Montreal, Quebec, ReImagine Rural
Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, Rural | Comments (4)
It’s 30-44 year olds, stupid!
May 18th, 2011
Your community wants to attract new residents, right? “Live, Work, Play,” proliferates on websites today. But who are you trying to attract? Too often the answer is “everyone and anyone.” The idea being that we can’t afford to miss any opportunities. But marketers everywhere know better. Trying to create and promote a product for everyone is a surefire way to create and a product that nobody wants. But who should you target? That’s the tough question. Jim Russell from Burgh Diaspora believes he has the answer: It’s people ages 30-44.Why 30-44 year olds?
For those who don’t know, Russell is a “geographer with a special interest in diaspora economics.” He believes retention strategies are “a colossal waste,” that economic development happens when talent is abundant, and that cities can benefit from the talent they export. He’s passionate about Pittsburgh, even though he doesn’t live there.
There’s usually no middle ground with Russell, but he shares innovative ideas – and usually supports them with research. He’s definitely worth following if you want to better understand the attraction game.
In a recent post titled “Retention Efforts Target Wrong Age Group”, he cites Australian research suggesting that college graduates leave to see the world, but they often return, sometime between ages 30-44. This leads Russell to write:
“I've advocated for the attraction of the 30-44 cohort. They are likely to stick around once you get them there. Good luck retaining a recent college graduate who moved to your city. You might call them place sluts. Hipsters are particularly salacious, following the scene wherever it might pop up. The good news is that they pave the way for thirtysomethings, who price out all the twentysomethings your town spent so much money trying to retain.”
The message is: Younger adults are going to leave because it’s in their DNA to leave. But they might seek to return in their thirties or early forties when it’s time to raise a family.
Minnesota research concurs
Several years ago, Ben Winchester, a research fellow with Minnesota Extension, discovered a trend that supports Russell’s analysis. In a paper titled “Rural Migration: The Brain Gain of Newcomers”, Ben shared research showing that rural counties in West Central Minnesota were losing high school graduates, but were gaining college educated adults who were migrating to small towns to raise their families. But here again, we see an opportunity to narrow the field as we seek to build and market our communities.Does one size (or age) fit all?
While focusing on people age 30-44 makes sense in most cases, there may be situations where other age groups should be considered. Perhaps conditions in your community are unique, enabling you to focus on younger adults or Baby Boomers. The point is, do your research and figure out what makes sense for your community. And above all, don’t fall into the trap of trying to be something for everyone. That’s a surefire recipe for disaster. Photo Credit: Doug Wallick - Flickr
Tags: Ben Winchester, brain gain, marketing rural communities, Minnesota
Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, Rural | Comments (5)
How to Create an Engaged Tourism Social Media Community
May 16th, 2011
Editor’s Note: Tourism will be ramping up in the Upper Midwest soon, and the question emerges, “Has your community created an vibrant online community as a part of your marketing plan?” A few weeks ago, I discovered the Explore the Bruce Facebook page. The page was filled with conversations from residents, visitors, and business leaders in Bruce County, Ontario. It’s easy to create a Facebook Page and post a few links to what’s going on in your region. But it take something more to build the type of engagement that produces results. With that in mind, I invited Gem Webb, who heads up content creation for the Bruce County Tourism, to write a guest post explaining what they have done to build this interaction. . My name is Gem Webb and I am the Content Creator for Southern Ontario's top rated vacation spot, Bruce County. I work for Bruce County Tourism DMO, and have been nurturing our vast social media communities for over a year and a half with most accounts reaching towards and over 10,000 people. Our
networks have very engaged and active community members, who promote, share and engage our brand. Yet, how would someone else do this? Let me start by explaining the difference between an audience and a community.
Community -VS- Audience
It all depends on which direction their seats are facing when you share your social media content (text, video, photo and audio). If you just talk AT people, they become an audience, like going to see a movie. But if you place their seats (metaphorically) towards each other, they will interact with each other. You always hear the expression, “Social media communities are the same as a party.” So treat others like you would in the real world. You don't start saying, "Visit Sauble Beach and rent our Sauble Beach cottages because here are some great photos.” The average partygoer would walk away, say something negative or liken you to an obnoxious, pushy salesman. There are online practices and politeness that you should always use. I like to call the online social media communities "places of thanks.” Always thank people when they comment on or about your content. Make them feel heard and "engaged with.” This makes your community feel respected, heard and a value to everyone by getting public praise or at the very least, recognized. Imagine walking up to a person at a party and introducing yourself, then that person walking away. This would not feel good would it? Understand that this is not a tactic but a sincere practice of mine, as I don't use the social networks as a ‘markety’ angle. If you are selling things using these insights, it won’t stay hidden for long as you can “fool some of them some of the time, but not all of them all of the time.” I honestly enjoy my community and am always looking forward to what people really bring to the table so that I can unlock their talents or interests. This now leads to the second big thing to understand.What is a Brand Ambassador?
People keep asking me how I get the people on our ExploretheBruce “Bruce County” Facebook fanpage to engage as much, if not more, than we do. I basically empower our community around the topic they believe in which is our top vacation spot across Bruce County town. I can go on and on about what the industry says a brand ambassador is defined as, yet let me give you real examples.
Brand ambassadors are people who love things about your brand, product or service. Who better to talk and promote your stuff than people who believe in it? But, how do you find these people and what do you do with them next? A shy or new community ‘content poster’ might be brave enough to post one photo on our wall. I realize that for some people, this might feel like standing in front of six thousand people and so I ‘like’ their work and recognize their efforts. Once a few people have liked their content or commented on it, their confidence improves and they feel welcome to share more content. There are already lots of avid photographers who are shooting great photos of the area, you just need to provide a friendly environment where they feel safe to share their content.
Encourage people to post more photos and videos and also help them improve. It isn't just about being a 'butter, butter' social media community, where you always butter peoples egos. Treat it like a classroom some days, and then toss a few rewards in when great examples of work surface unexpectedly. Give away free stuff to people who contribute in popular ways. Maybe a new person posted a great shot so show the love by publicly acknowledging their efforts with a prize. This sticks in people’s minds and hearts. I mean I remember winning a tool set at cub scouts for tying the best knot? It is the same in the digital world.
How Could one Part-Time Employee Do All This?
Social Media content creating can be part-time, yet certain aspects will make it easy or hard to accomplish creating results. The goal is to become a trust builder online for your community. This is going to take time, so start with a 1-2 year commitment. As you start seeing that your social networks become your greatest website traffic driver, you will know that it is working.- Be clear on the goals of your website.
- Put in place a simple plan with schedules. How often will you post on networks along with Blog posts?
- Outline topics for posts in an excel sheet and try to plan at least 1 month ahead.
- Create a list of tweets for Twitter which are seasonal focused.
- Remind yourself to comment a few times a week on other people’s blogs in your similar industry to grow relationships. Always take time to respond to emails, as people need to trust and get to know you.
- Track your results so you can see what’s working for you. It can be easy as a screenshot.
3 Useful Tips for Social Media Community Building
- Create a Social Media Policy that outlines do’s and don’ts while representing online.
- Keep a log of what topics were the longest comments on or around. This helps get to know what activates your community based on interest.
- Don't invest all day managing your social communities. Pop in for a few minutes every couple of hours and continue working at your other duties. Monitoring your social media can suck you in as you build real friendships, relationships and even business ideas but keep an eye on the time you spend.
- Social Media community building takes time, yet the rewards are exponential with growth and positive embracement of your brand, product or service. Oh, yah and people can become lifetime connected to you and your brand.
Tags: Bruce County ON, Explore the Bruce, marketing, Ontario, social media, tourism
Posted in Economic Development, Rural | Comments (7)