Iowa’s Gathering to Talk Rural Development

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In an effort to spark a resurgence of rural prosperity you should never be afraid to try something new. That is what Iowa has done as they have held the Iowa Rural Development Summit for the past five years. This year’s summit will be held August 18-20 in Cedar Rapids. The event, which is being put on by the Iowa Rural Development Council (IRDC), has grown in popularity each year.

As stated on the website, the Iowa Rural Development Summit was created to “empower invited Iowa community leaders to use informed research, data and all available resources to develop a comprehensive vision focused on prosperity for the future.” Through a series of sessions over three days representatives of Iowa communities are able to learn about a variety of topics affecting rural communities. There’s also a number of breakout sessions and networking opportunities where communities can discuss issues and share ideas.

Iowa Rural Development Summit 2021

It Takes a Team

But there’s one key requirement to registering for the summit. You can’t come on your own. They require a three-person team to attend per community. This requirement has obvious benefits. Experiencing the summit as a team helps jumpstart the conversation on the topics amongst your community members while you’re at the summit. It improves the chances of a post-summit impact over just one representative attending. The requirement also adds some familiarity within the crowd attending, increasing comfort, and therefore increases the possibility of contributing.

“We thought that there was real value in community teams,” said Bill Menner, Executive Director of the Iowa Rural Development Council. “The concept seems to work well and we cut a registration deal to make it work better.”

This Year’s Offering

The honorable Hellen Miller leads things off for this year’s summit with a keynote speech. Helen is an eight-term member of the Iowa legislature with an impressive list of involvement over those 16 years. “Helen has such a great story to tell about being a black woman in Iowa. The challenges and the opportunities,” Menner states. “She’s been a fighter for small towns for her entire career.”

There’s also a number of sessions on the agenda that certainly can catch the eyes of any representative looking to help their rural community. This includes sessions on dangerous and dilapidated buildings, driving entrepreneurship, and philanthropy’s role in the community (which has been discussed on RR before). There’s also a session entitled, “Connecting Ag and Community”. Could there be some mention of Agritourism in that session?

Former actor Gary Kroeger closes things out with his own keynote speech. A former cast member on Saturday Night Live, Gary will describe the journey to the late night skit show. He will also discuss what brought him back to Iowa. How he wanted his family to have the same quality of life he had growing up. Gary’s speech will emphasize the assets rural communities have that drew him back and what communities should be talking about.

Iowa Rural Development Summit

A Taste Test is Available

Although we don’t need yet another reminder of COVID-19s impact, there may be a little silver lining in relation to the Iowa Rural Development Summit. As with other summits and conferences during the pandemic, the Summit went entirely online last year. The Iowa Rural Development Council (IRDC) made last year’s sessions available on YouTube for everyone to check out. This provides a great “taste test” to what you can possibly get out of attending the Summit. For those who reside elsewhere in the Midwest, they are good learning opportunities, regardless if they are Iowa-centric.

A Growing Concept

Started in 2016, the Iowa Rural Development Summit has already outgrown two of the venues they’ve used. With a capacity of 500, the Kirkwood Center on the campus of Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids should be big enough for this year. But the summit continues to grow in popularity.

Similar events are held in Illinois, Maryland, Vermont, and North Carolina, providing great information for rural communities. Rural-focused entities in other states may offer similar offerings as well.

If you’re part of a community in Iowa that’s serious about improving, the Iowa Rural Development Summit looks like an ideal way to learn and get better at it.