French Lick summit focuses on rural economic development
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A national rural economic development is kicking off today in French Lick.
The 2024 Stand Up Rural America Summit is taking place at French Lick Resort, with some 200 officials from economic development organizations, chambers of commerce and industry attending to share best practices and discuss key challenges facing rural areas throughout the country.
“I wanted to create an event that was specifically for rural communities, because there’s a lot of great economic development events out there, but I didn’t feel like that there was enough content that was specifically for rural communities,” said Lorie Vincent, President of Acceleration by Design, which is organizing the three-day event. “We just have different challenges, different opportunities, different needs.”
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Vincent said rural communities around the U.S. share a lot of the same challenges.
“Our communities are aging. Our infrastructure is aging. Our populations are aging. Our housing is aging. So we’re going to be talking about a lot of things that are pretty critical for us for sustainability and for growth,” she said. “We’re going to talk about downtown revitalization [and] community development. We have a panel on innovative housing. We have a best practices panel that’s going to talk about business retention and expansion.”
Radius Indiana, the economic development partnership that represents eight counties in southern Indiana is hosting the summit along with the Orange County Economic Development Partnership.
Kristal Painter, CEO of Discover Southern Indiana for Radius, said having a specific focus on rural communities is what makes the summit unique.
“So often we attend conferences that are addressing the same sorts of challenges, but you’re lumped in the room with these larger metropolitan areas,” Painter said. “And even though we’re both facing challenges with housing or workforce, it’s just not the same, because rural communities face different challenges when it comes to funding and the available resources that some of the larger areas don’t face.”
Painter cited issues such as a lack of housing and childcare options, as well as a dwindling workforce and population are common challenges for rural communities in Indiana and other areas.
“Having this conference that’s totally focused on rural communities allows us to network with our peers, to really hear what they’re doing, and in situations that are very similar of ours with resources that would be similar to ours.”
Other topics being discussed at the summit include entrepreneurship, innovative marketing, rural retail development, and rural tourism. The latter will have a larger focus this year, given the summit’s location, which is a tourism hot spot for southern Indiana.
“I absolutely love getting to know this whole area,” said Vincent. “The people that come, they’re going to love it. I’m surprised I had never heard of [French Lick Resort] before because I’m a golfer. But it just means we need a bigger megaphone. I think we are very guilty of that in rural America, not telling our great stories.”
Painter noted that since French Lick was announced as the summit’s location last year, her organization has emphasized to potential attendees that they can bring their bring their families with all of the nearby amenities.
She said one of her goals with the summit is to network with the organization’s peers and showcase what’s been done in the region.
“We want to learn from peers in other states and situations so that we could further improve some of what we’re doing here,” said Painter. “We’ve done a lot here in the Radius region, especially with population and workforce attraction. So I think we’ll be able to shine a spotlight on some of what we’re doing as a regional organization that helps support our local communities too.”
You can learn more about the Stand Up Rural America Summit by clicking here.