Articles

When it comes to deploying rural broadband, wireless is often the best  (and sometimes only) option. In these cases, regions need to look at their vertical assets: a list of towers, tall buildings, silos, smokestacks and steeples that can provide sites for antennas.

That's exactly what's taking place in Central Virginia, where a study is underway to identify these vertical assets. You can learn more about what's going on here.

The head of Wisconsin's Technology Council offers some useful insights into how rural areas can shift their economic development strategies. Among his suggestions:

• Promote farmshoring (a concept developed by Virginia Tech. There's more background here, here and here);
• Encourage more collaboration among educational institutions on workforce development (always a good idea); and
  
• Improve broadband (another common sense strategy).
  

Missing from the list: Building stronger, networks to support entrepreneurs and fast growth "stage 2" companies...And stronger emphasis on education innovations in STEM education and project-based learning.(As we head into chronic skill shortages, companies will be looking for communities that innovate in education.)

I'd bag the tax incentives. They do not work all that well in most cases, and tax expenditures are extremely hard to measure for effectiveness.

Read more.

Indiana has launched a series of pilot projects to deploy Hometown Competitiveness (HTC), a useful strategy model for rural communities. Developed in Nebraska, HTC focuses civic leaders on key "pillars" that will form the foundation of their future competitiveness.

Here's an article that illustrates how one county in Indiana, White County, is beginning to deploy the model. Read more.

You can learn more about Hometown Competitiveness from their web site. Check out the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI) site, Energizing Entrepreneurs and the Heartland Center's publications.

A promising new regional partnership is forming in southeast Arizona. The Southeast Arizona Economic Development Group includes a wide range of constituencies form the public, private and education sector.

The group is designed to coordinate economic development activities in Cochise County. A founding member notes: "SAEDG's primary goal is to bring opportunities to cities in Cochise County that have never been represented before aqnd become an economic development "one stop" for the entire county".

You can read more about the new group here .

You can visit their web site here.

Not too long ago, I shared a stage in Ponca City, OK with Jack Schultz, author of BoomtownUSA. Jack gives a powerful presentation and inspires us to see our rural communities, our smaller towns in a new light. 

Here's an article on Jack's recent presentation in California. Read more.

You can also keep up with Jack's blog here.

You can sign up for frequent updates on his Agurban newsletter from his web site.  

Last October, Arkansas unveiled a DeltaMade, a branding program to strengthen local economies in the Arkansas Delta.  

Here's an overview of how the initiative works.  Read more.  

You can also visit to the Arkansas Delta made web site here.

In northern Michigan a new broadband cooperative is coming together to accelerate the deployment of broadband in that region.  You can learn more about what's going on from this article.  

You can visit the collaborative's web site here.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development has been promoting a new strategy for rural counties in that state.  The initiative, Strategic Entrepreneurial Economic Development (Seed) focuses on counties that have lost population or have unemployment rates higher than the state average.  Read more.

The initiative reflects a growing trend of focusing on entrepreneurship in rural counties.

You can learn more about the Seed initiative, which still requires legislative approval, from its web site.

Here's an example from rural Washington of two educational institutions coming together to form the core of a new economic development team. One is a private college. The second is the extension arm of Washington State University. Learn more. 

These type of partnerships can lead to new economic development opportunities. And, as places like East Stroudsburg University  (PA) demonstrate, your college and university base does not have to be big to have a regional impact.