The eXtension site frequently offers great small business education, and you can’t beat the price: no charge. Dave Shideler, from Oklahoma State University, sent along a link to the Economic Gardening workshop coming up October 8, 2009.
On Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 2:00pm (EST);1:00 p.m. (CST); 12:00 p.m. (MST); 11:00 a.m. (PST) the eXtension Entrepreneurs and Their Communities webinar topic will be Economic Gardening – Two Decades of Economic Development Local-Style.
Join Chris Gibbons, Director, Business/Industry Affairs, Littleton, Colorado for an informative session for an update of a popular community-based economic development strategy. Chris kicked off the Economic Gardening project in 1989 with the idea that it was a better approach for Littleton (and perhaps many other communities) than “economic hunting.”
Economic Gardening is grounded in the belief that many communities do better growing their own jobs through entrepreneurial activity instead of recruiting them. The idea was based on research by David Birch at MIT that indicated the great majority of all new jobs in any local economy were produced by the small, local businesses of the community. The recruiting coups drew major newspaper headlines but they were a minor part (often less than five percent) of job creation in most local economies.
Join us as we check in with Chris on what two decades of Economic Gardening has done for Littleton, CO. To learn more about Economic Gardening prior to the webinar go to http://www.littletongov.org/
bia/economicgardening/.
I am a huge fan of this approach. Growing your own is much easier than trying to compete with every other town out there recruiting. It’s a long term strategy, without the big headlines. But it makes up for it with results.
Mary Peabody, UVM Extension Specialist, gave some instructions for participating:
Help us to spread the word about this session. No pre-registration is required and there is no fee to participate.
About 10 minutes prior to the start time simply go the Adobe Connect Pro meeting room at http://connect.extension.
iastate.edu/ecop/. You will be presented with a login screen that has an “Enter as Guest” option. Enter your first name, last name and state, then click “Enter Room” to join the conference. To hear the audio of the workshop and participate in the Q and A portion of the workshop we will be using a built-in teleconferencing capability of Adobe’s Connect Pro conferencing software. Once you log into the meeting you will be presented with the option to enter your call-back number, your phone will automatically be called. After entering your number you will be automatically called and joined into the audio portion of the Web conference on your phone.
Newcomers to online learning are welcome!
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
So the facts to support economic gardening have been around for more than 20 years?! Yet we still have so many towns gambling all of their economic development resources hunting for the big company that will require every conceivable tax abatement.
Thanks again, Becky.
Bobbie, the economic gardening method has been around for 20 years, but it took awhile to build up the evidence that supports it. I hear more about it all the time, so I have hopes that small towns will continue to adopt it.