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Northwest Oklahoma Rural Community Economic Development Summit

By Becky McCray

The Making Place Matter in Northwest Oklahoma Rural Community Economic Development Summit was held in Alva on June 3, 2010.

Marci Penner leads a break
out session on rural tourism

An estimated 85 people attended the event in person. Over 100 more people participated online. Three event participants live tweeted during event with the hashtag  #ruralok. Those participants were @beckymccray, @okiej (Jeanne Cole), and @lauragirty. Tracking the clicks on links tweeted during the event, over 100 people clicked on a single link.

Twitter users retweeting and participating in the discussion came from:

  • Spain
  • Portugal
  • Alberta, Canada
  • Toronto, Canada
  • British Columbia, Canada
  • Oklahoma
  • Texas
  • Kansas
  • Montana
  • Missouri
  • California
  • Iowa
  • West Virginia
  • Georgia
  • Ohio
  • Colorado
  • Tennessee
  • New York
  • Indiana
  • Washington
  • Hawaii

A PDF of the live tweets, and the list of participating states and countries, is available here: #RuralOK Tweets PDF.

Coverage of the event includes: 

  • Wildheart’s Web 2.0:  What Can Topeka Learn from Rural Communities? 
  • Alva Review Courier: Economic development summit offers challenges, information to participants 
  • Small Biz Survival: Northwest Oklahoma population changes
  • Small Biz Survival: Rural community building ideas
  • Small Biz Survival: USDA is more than just ag – Keynote address by Glenda Humiston  

Event co-chairs were Kay Decker and Patti Wilber from Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Speakers included representatives from USDA Rural Development, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry, the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, the Oklahoma Main Street Center, the Kansas Sampler Foundation, USDA Agricultural Research Service, the Workforce Investment Boards of Northwest Oklahoma and North Central Oklahoma, Preservation Oklahoma, East Central University, the Oklahoma Municipal League, and the Oklahoma Association of County Commissioners. The keynote speaker was Glenda Humiston, California USDA Rural Development State Director.

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Becky McCray

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.

www.beckymccray.com
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June 9, 2010 Filed Under: entrepreneurship Tagged With: events

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