Building rural entrepreneurship Monday, March 10, 2003 Rural entrepreneurship and innovation represents another major trend EDPros should be watching. A good article from Oregon points out that rural innovation is alive and well. An important point: Rural innovation provides fundamentally different challenges and opportunities to EDPros than innovation in more dense metro economies. The National Governors Association recently issued a report on best practices for state policies to promote rural economic development. This report emphasizes the importance of rural entrepreneurship, and it cites innovative practices in Kansas, Nebraska, Kentucky and Wisconsin. The Missouri Center on Rural Entrepreneurship provides some good resources on rural entrepreneurship. Look over the News section. Here's an overview from a presentation to the National Governors Association and a more recent report from the Center. Another important approach to innovation relies heavily on community colleges. The Rural Community College Initiative focuses on building networks based on community colleges. Here's an article from last week on Big Spring, Texas. You might also check out the presentations of the Southern Rural Development Center. This field is still young and largely unexplored, and it still needs both focus and practical tools for EDPros. posted by Ed Morrison |		This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. links Some Background on EDPro Weblog The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it. One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information. So, spread the word...Share the knowledge. Tell a friend about EDPro Weblog. If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site: Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber: Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking. Background on Ed Morrison Download some background information on me here.

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