Tag: Conference
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Intake 2 of the Rural Economic Development Program is Open for Applications
The Rural Economic Development (RED) program helps rural communities remove barriers to community economic development, through support for planning and implementation projects that benefit rural Ontario. The program is now open and will accept applications until September 29, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern). As part of continuous improvement, several minor changes have been made to…
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Agriculture economic development is a team sport!
The Agriculture Economic Development and Planning, Community of Practice (AED COP) was developed as an opportunity for planning and economic development practitioners to share ideas and best practices, voice challenges, and seek new opportunities for collaboration.
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Teeny Tiny Summits Create a Big Impact!
Small communities have particular needs and assets when it comes to building strong economies. This was the topic of conversation at the June 28-29 Teeny Tiny Summits, which drew over 200 volunteers, staff, local councillors, and support organizations. Participants were treated to an inspiring dialogue with keynote speaker Peter Kenyon, a social capitalist and community…
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Budgeting for Downtown Revitalization?
Continuing with our series of blogs on the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ (OMAFRA) Downtown Revitalization Program (DR), this entry will take a look at the estimated costs a community could expect to incur, and strategies to manage the cost of the initiative. Like all economic development activities, downtown revitalization is a long-term…
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What Running Has Taught Me About Setting Goals
I enjoy running … most of the time. To help stay motivated I sign up for races. Without a race to train toward it’d be easy to skip runs on cold-rainy days. This year, surrounded by 15,0000 other runners, I ran the Ottawa half-marathon, for the second time. Races are wonderful motivators, they are hard,…
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Chairing Effective Board Meetings
Meetings are an essential part of conducting the business of any board or organization. Meetings provide the forum for discussion and making decisions on programs and initiatives. Having a structure for running meetings will minimize distractions (i.e. participants talk off topic, monopolize discussion time, have difficulty making decisions or fail to respect the contributions of…
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Refresher for Downtown Revitalization
The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) Downtown Revitalization Program takes a comprehensive four-stage approach to support the efforts of rural communities who want to revitalize their historic downtowns. As part of the program, OMAFRA provides the Downtown Revitalization Coordinator’s Manual, which is designed to support communities that have identified downtown revitalization…
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Celebrating Direct Marketing this Local Food Week
For the very first time, the 2016 Census of Agriculture asked, “did this operation sell any agricultural products directly to consumers for human consumption?” With this simple question, we now have a glimpse into direct sales of Ontario’s local foods that we’ve never had before! Ontario leads the country with 7,474 farms reporting direct-to-consumer sales,…
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Thoughts from the Main Street Now Conference
Place seems to matter more than ever, and Main Street areas across the United States are finding ways to re-assert their economic importance despite emerging ‘disruptive’ advancements in retail (e.g. e-commerce). That was the underlying theme in many of the sessions I attended at the recent 2017 Main Street Now conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Attended…
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Input-Output Predictive Scenario Report
Using Analyst’s Input-Output Scenario report you can predict the expected impact of a business loss or gain in your community in terms of jobs, sales, or wages, and how that event would impact other industries regionally. It gives you the ability to “shock” an economy and measure the impacts. It also gives you the predictive ability to see:…