Rural Entrepreneurship Forum to be held April 15

Rural leaders from across Central Texas have the opportunity to learn how they can promote business development by supporting entrepreneurs at a session April 15 hosted by the Texas Rural Innovators Forum. Expert speakers from North Carolina and Georgia will be featured.

"There are lots of resources for individual entrepreneurs," said Carlton Schwab, director of the Texas Economic Development Council and a sponsor of the Forum, "but recent research shows that building resource networks to support communities of entrepreneurs is particularly successful."

The state of Georgia has taken the lesson to heart. With backing from Gov. Sonny Perdue, the Georgia Department of Economic Development has created a program to designate "Entrepreneur Friendly" counties. Mary Ellen McClanahan, Georgia's Entrepreneur and Small Business Office director, will discuss their success at the Bastrop Forum.

Dr. Greg Clary of Texas AgriLife Extension is director of the Texas Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. "The important thing about the Georgia program is they help cities become entrepreneur friendly, and they have to meet certain requirements to get the designation," said Clary. "It's a very meaningful program."

Dr. Deb Markley, managing director of the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, conducted ground-breaking studies for the North Carolina Center for Rural Economic Development, a program that subsequently won a highly coveted $2 million implementation grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

Said Markley: "Local businesses need help from financial, legal, marketing, human resources and many other service providers. We found that business development is very much improved by bringing these people together in loose but conscious networks with entrepreneurs."

In addition to hearing from McClanahan and Markley, forum attenders will participate in a onehour workshop to learn how their communities and organizations can better support business development through entrepreneurship.

The forum is part three of the 2008 series of discussions presented by the Texas Rural Innovators Forum.

The goal of TRIF is to bring leaders from rural Texas into personal contact with spokesmen from the most successful and innovative rural development programs in America, and to bring leaders of rural Texas together with one another to share their own energy and ideas for improvement.

Elected and volunteer leaders in all fields may participate. Registration is required for new participants, and information is available at www.ruraltx.org or by calling (512) 499-8948.