WEBINAR ARCHIVES
Leverage NC's Webinar Archives is a catalog of recorded educational trainings.
We encourage communities to use these recordings to strengthen their local economy.
American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)
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New American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Resources to Help Rural Communities
Rural Economic Development is dependent on strong partnerships. The North Carolina Department of Commerce Rural Economic Development Division (REDD) works with rural communities from Murphy to Manteo, to provide funding, technical assistance, training, and educational programming that helps communities build capacity and bring great ideas to fruition.
Learn more about the new federal resources available to North Carolina towns and cities from the Assistant Secretary of the Rural Economic Development Division at the NC Dept. of Commerce, Kenny Flowers, and his team members.
KENNY FLOWERS
Assistant Secretary
Rural Economic Development Division
NC Department of Commerce
HAZEL EDMOND
LIZ PARHAM
VALERIE FEGANS
Rural Economic Development Division
NC Department of Commerce
CAROL KLINE
Appalachian State University
American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Resources to Help Rural Communities - Part 2
Rural Economic Development is dependent on strong partnerships. The North Carolina Department of Commerce Rural Economic Development Division (REDD) works with rural communities from Murphy to Manteo, to provide funding, technical assistance, training, and educational programming that helps communities build capacity and bring great ideas to fruition.
Tune into to this webinar to learn more about the new federal resources available to North Carolina towns and cities from the Assistant Secretary of the Rural Economic Development Division at the NC Dept. of Commerce, Kenny Flowers, and his team members.
KENNY FLOWERS
Assistant Secretary
Rural Economic Development Division
NC Department of Commerce
HAZEL EDMOND
LIZ PARHAM
VALERIE FEGANS
NICHOLE GROSS
Rural Economic Development Division
NC Department of Commerce
Better Community Planning & Economic Development for NC Series
Secrets of Successful Communities
Better Community Planning & Economic Development for NC Series
Part 1
Every community has its own strengths and weaknesses, but successful communities often share some common characteristics. This workshop will examine the “secrets of successful communities.” It will give you the tools and techniques that successful communities use to thrive and grow!
ED MCMAHON
Urban Land Institute
Speaker
How the Pandemic is Affecting Real Estate and Land Use
Better Community Planning & Economic Development for NC Series
Part 2
The Pandemic is changing how and where Americans live, work, shop and move around. Many of these changes will continue after the pandemic has ended. This workshop will discuss how the pandemic is affecting real estate and land use.
ED MCMAHON
Urban Land Institute
Speaker
Asset Based Economic Development
Better Community Planning & Economic Development for NC Series
Part 3
This workshop will examine how the economic development paradigm is changing. Industrial recruitment, for example, is still important, but today, growing existing businesses is even more important.
ED MCMAHON
Urban Land Institute
Speaker
Redeveloping Suburbs and Commercial Corridors
Better Community Planning & Economic Development for NC Series
Part 4
The suburbs are changing and the old approaches to suburban development no longer work. This workshop will examine the tools and techniques that communities are using to revitalize aging suburbs, dead malls and cluttered commercial strips.
ED MCMAHON
Urban Land Institute
Speaker
Building Block Series
The Historic Preservation Tax Credits
Building Block Series | Part 1
Have you ever wondered how people tackle a historic building rehabilitation project? In this presentation, Restoration Specialist Brett Sturm outlines the income-producing and non-income-producing rehabilitation tax incentive programs available to owners of eligible historic properties. Brett discusses program eligibility, the application and review process, and illustrates examples of how transformative these programs have been in spurring history-conscious economic development in towns and cities of all sizes across the state over the past four decades.
BRETT STURM
N.C. Department of
Natural and Cultural Resources
Speaker
The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation
Building Block Series | Part 2
The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation are professional do's and don'ts for old and historic building work developed by the National Park Service and adopted nationwide as a guide for planning and design of successful building reuse. In this presentation, Jennifer Cathey explores the origins of the Standards, their use in various regulatory and non-regulatory settings, and applies the Standards to various commercial and residential building projects in order to illustrate their use.
JENNIFER CATHEY
N.C. Department of
Natural and Cultural Resources
Speaker
The National Register of Historic Places
Building Block Series | Part 3
The National Register webinar provides a brief history of the historic
preservation legislation that underpins the Register and an overview of the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office’s structure and branches. The main theme of the presentation, however, is the National Register itself. The webinar defines the two necessary components for
National Register listing, which are architectural integrity and historic significance, and the presentation presents the process for National Register listing in the state of North Carolina.
SARAH WOODARD DAVID
N.C. Department of
Natural and Cultural Resources
Speaker
NC State Historic Preservation Office:
GIS Tutorial
Building Block Series | Part 4
HPOWEB is a mapping application that displays more than 125,000 individual historic resources and districts surveyed by the NC Historic Preservation Office.
After watching this tutorial video by Andy Edmonds, you will master the use of the site and be able to easily answer some basic questions, such as: Is my house or building within a National Register or Local Historic District? Is it eligible for historic rehabilitation tax credits? And much more.
ANDREW EDMONDS
N.C. Department of
Natural and Cultural Resources
Speaker
How to Avoid the Negative Economic Impacts of Natural Disasters Series
Be Prepared BEFORE Disaster Strikes
How to Avoid the Negative Economic Impacts of Natural Disasters: Part 1
Increasing preparedness and resiliency is a critical step to fortifying businesses from the devastating impacts of a natural disaster. By understanding and taking steps to reduce risk, businesses can be better prepared for disasters and able to recover quickly should they strike.
This session will address best practices in business continuity, insurance, and workforce preparedness. SBP will share lessons it has learned through more than a decade of recovery experience and provide practical guidance to address real-world challenges commonly encountered by disaster survivors.
ELVIS BALZA
Speaker
Making Historic Buildings More Resilient to Hurricane and Flood Events
How to Avoid the Negative Economic Impacts of Natural Disasters: Part 2
This webinar will share how varying factors can affect the severity of hurricane impacts on buildings, including how wind-driven rain and flooding inflict storm damage to historic buildings; emergency stabilization of buildings; proper methods to safely dry a building; how historic materials may be better at withstanding storms; the preservation of those historic materials; and how to make historic buildings more resilient to high wind and flood events – including elevating them.
JEFF ADOLPHSEN
Speaker
Planning for Recovery: Highlights from the Community Economic Recovery and Resiliency Initiative (CERRI)
How to Avoid the Negative Economic Impacts of Natural Disasters: Part 3
The Rural Planning program of the
NC Dept. of Commerce,
Main Street & Rural Planning Center, launched the Community Economic Recovery and Resiliency Initiative (CERRI) in January 2021. The CERRI is designed to help small towns and rural communities recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and build resilient local economies. It provides a planning process for developing economic recovery strategies and technical services for implementing them.
Ten communities are participating in Round 1. The webinar will highlight their approaches to economic recovery.
DARREN RHODES
Speaker
Knowledge Builders
A Community Guide to Business Recruitment
While the pandemic may be in our rearview mirror, many communities are struggling to regain momentum and attract new commercial activity to their downtown. Learn proven strategies that local governments and downtown volunteers can use to attract new investment to their downtown and fill vacant or underutilized spaces.
Hilary Greenberg (Greenberg Development Services), author of “A Downtown Economic Developer’s Guide to Business Recruitment” will present steps that towns of all sizes can take to recruit new businesses and put buildings back in service. The guide was published by the NC Main Street & Rural Planning Center at the N.C Department of Commerce and is available for download.
HILARY GREENBERG
Greenberg Development Services
A Community's Guide to Business Retention & Expansion
Local businesses aren’t just “in” your community-they are your community. Learn how local governments and downtown volunteers can work together to develop stronger business retention and expansion programs that can attract and support small business activity in the downtown.
Hilary Greenberg (Greenberg Development Services), author of “A Downtown Economic Developer’s Guide for Building Stronger Economic Vitality through Business Retention and Expansion Activities” will present steps that towns of all sizes can take to help existing businesses stay in business and expand their goods and services. The guide was published by the NC Main Street & Rural Planning Center at the N.C Department of Commerce and is available for download
HILARY GREENBERG
Greenberg Development Services
Affordable Housing and the Intersection with Downtown
Every county in North Carolina is facing the challenge of having enough affordable housing for its citizens. Downtowns can play a vital role in meeting that challenge. Prioritizing the development of upper floor housing and reinvesting in existing close-in residential units can provide affordable housing and create new opportunities for downtown buildings and business owners. This session, presented by Donovan Rypkema, will address the challenges and tools for providing affordable housing and propose that downtown advocates should also become affordable housing advocates.
DONOVAN RYPKEMA
PlaceEconomics
Speaker
Building Healthy Places
Many factors affect human health, including genetics, personal behavior, and medical care, but this workshop will explore the relationship between health and the built environment. It will look at the many ways that the design of our buildings and communities affects our physical health and mental well-being. In many places, physical activity, once part of our everyday lives, has been designed out of our daily routines.
This webinar will examine what communities can do to create healthier buildings and neighborhoods. It will set out fundamental principles for building healthy places and showcase numerous examples of what both builders and local communities are doing to make healthy choices easy and more profitable.
ED MCMAHON
Senior Resident Fellow
Urban Land Institute
Civic Pride & Civic Apathy - What is Driving Your Economic State?
Thousands of communities have been devastated by the effects of apathy and unless we do something drastic, the problem is only going to get worse. Apathy destroys everything it touches and cannot be mitigated with planning or money. Residents' lack of care and concern cannot be fixed by continuing down the same path. We must take a new approach and help restore people’s relationship to their town. Only in fostering a sense of civic pride, can we begin to beat back the effects of apathy.
We must bring people together, restore beauty, foster affection, and give people more meaning. By taking a small scale, simple and incremental approach, we can begin to replace apathy with pride. The key is getting to work. There is no silver bullet needed and no one is going to come along and fix it for us. We simply must do our part, every resident, every day, taking part in making the community just a little bit better. When everyone participates, we can all have something truly special, a community we can be proud of.
JEFF SIEGLER
Revitalize or Die
Proud Places
Destination Creation in Any Size Community: One Business at a Time
In this webinar, Destination Business Expert Jon Schallert will show why communities large and small are refocusing their efforts to create, attract, and support Destination Businesses in their marketplaces. After the workshop, Jon will take questions from the attendees.
Attendees will learn:
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The seven (7) different types of businesses that can become Destinations for Consumers, capable of pulling both locals and out‐of‐town consumers to spend their dollars in your community.
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The four (4) primary reasons communities prefer to have Destination Businesses in their local trade area.
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The one (1) customer‐attraction tool that could be utilized by every business in your city or town but usually isn’t, and why it costs your community thousands of dollars in tax revenue every year.
JON SCHALLERT
Destination Business Expert
Downtown Real Estate: How to Activate Retail Vacancies
Retail and restaurant options play a big part of a vibrant downtown, but it can be challenging to know what the biggest real estate opportunities are for city leaders. Whether you have a completely vacant Main Street, have recently had positive momentum downtown, or are fearful that long-time businesses may shutter in the coming months, our approach is to provide guidance to create and implement a sensible retail plan for your downtown.
In this webinar, Elliott Cook, director of real estate for Downtown Strategies, provides answers to some frequently asked questions he hears from community leaders that are focused on maximizing real estate assets in their downtown.
ELLIOTT COOK
Downtown Strategies
Economic Development: Planning for Investment
It is important to factor in your community’s fiscal realities when thinking about your economic development future. Municipal leaders are often having to consider ‘Investment X’ against ‘Investment Y’ or, the other alternative, ‘No Investment’. Planning for your investment will help guide these decisions and enable you to determine the best course of action with your limited resources.
In this session, Mooresville Town Manager Randy Hemann will look at case studies and discuss successful economic development plans and some concepts and questions that should be on the mind of every municipal leader as these conversations occur.
RANDALL HEMANN
City Manager, Mooresville
Festivals and Events
What does the future hold?
COVID-19 has changed the way we do festivals and special events. How will COVID change the way we do events in the future? What are the safety precautions? How do we do events virtually? How do we use this disaster to make improvements to community gatherings?
STEPHANIE SAINTSING NASET
NC Association of Festivals & Events
TOM HARRISON
Washington County Travel & Tourism
SHARON JABLONSKI
City of Morganton
Speakers
Fostering Public-Private Partnerships
In an era of economic uncertainty, many communities struggle to attract the right style and density of development necessary to revitalize main street corridors. Communities must foster a more robust public/private partnership portfolio to correct this issue.
This webinar will focus on how each community can cultivate strong PPP relationships, increase trust and responsibility among parties, drive economic initiatives, and provide measurable key performance indicators (KPIs). The delivery of this webinar will focus on two aspects. The first portion will provide background information about building substantial PPP’s. The latter half will provide a toolkit of actionable items each person can use in their communities, regardless of population.
BEN LEVENGER
President
Downtown Redevelopment Services
From Vacant to Vibrant: Building a Business Recruitment Strategy
With the pandemic soon to be in our rearview mirror, the timing is right for community leaders to reassess their business recruitment strategies and adopt new tools that can support local businesses and attract new investment. Drawing upon years of experience working with communities across the country, Hilary Greenberg (Greenberg Development Services) will review a "go to" list of essential tools that your community can use to build a stronger commercial district.
HILARY GREENBERG
Greenberg Development Services
Speaker
How to Be a Better
Grant Writer
Grant funding can advance institutions, evolve towns, and make lasting changes to an organization. Grant applications, however, can prove far less exciting. Rather, it can often be a daunting and confusing process. Learn the best approach to take and how to make your application more successful.
TED LORD
Golden Leaf Foundation
OLIVIA COLLIER
N.C. Department of Commerce
ROBERT MARINERS,
RAM Consulting Services
Speakers
How to Cultivate an Economic Champion
Regardless of your town’s size, you need someone who has economic development on their mind, someone who can connect the dots and is willing and able to serve as your economic development leader! Learn how to cultivate this champion for your community.
SHERRY ADAMS
N.C. Department of Commerce
Speaker
Keys to
Sustainable Tourism
Tourism is big business! Tourists spend over $25 billion a year on travel and recreation in North Carolina. Tourism can provide communities with many benefits: new jobs, a larger tax base, enhanced infrastructure, improved facilities, and an expanded market for local products, including food, art, and handicrafts. In short, tourism can be a valuable tool for community revitalization.
Yet, tourism can be a double-edged sword. Suppose it is not carefully planned and managed, in that case, tourism can create problems and burdens for communities: crowding, congestion, noise, increased crime, haphazard development, degraded resources, and a loss of community character. This webinar will focus on tools & techniques that communities can use to maximize the benefits of tourism and minimize potential problems by establishing Ten Principles for Sustainable Tourism.
ED MCMAHON
Senior Resident Fellow,
Urban Land Institute
Mapping the Dollars and Sense of Land Use Patterns
In this presentation, Joe Minicozzi will highlight several examples from his firm’s work across the U.S. and beyond to change the way people think about the cost of development, sprawl, and the value of land.
The presentation will guide participants towards a better understanding of the link between economic productivity and community vitality through land use, and the power of Esri software to reveal the ways in which tax systems are the biggest barrier to creating financially resilient and sustainable communities.
JOE MINICOZZI
AICP and Principal
Urban3
Mitchell Silver
Parks & Public Spaces
How Parks and Public Spaces Healed a City, and Can Change Yours, Too
New York City was for decades a “tale of two cities.” Mitchell Silver helped bridge that gap through public space. The Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation – and previously the Chief Planning Officer and Planning Director in Raleigh for nine years – Silver shifted the department’s values and commitment to care, and leveraged the parks and public spaces to advance equity, inclusion, and access. In doing so, he helped heal a community from decades of neglect, a global pandemic and generational trauma.
Join us for this webinar as Mitchell Silver shares valuable lessons and tips to the communities of North Carolina—a setting he is intimately familiar with.
MITCHELL SILVER
FAICP, Hon. ASLA
Speaker
MASTER PLANNING
ON A BUDGET
Every community is unique, requiring a specific planning process to ensure the community gets a valuable and implementable plan document to follow and utilize. In this webinar, you will obtain information on identifying your downtown planning needs, highlighting, or prioritizing necessary plan elements, and associating applicable costs or budgets to each task. Additionally, this webinar will discuss preparing Request for Proposal documents, soliciting proposals, and conducting a fair or equitable solicitation and review.
The information learned will help streamline the planning process and ensure that each community has a plan that meets their individual needs, not just a copy of what the neighboring community received.
Ben Levenger
President
Downtown Redevelopment Services
Mitchell Silver
Place Making, Place Keeping & The Power of 10
What You Need to Know to Create GREAT Places
Creating a place where people want to be is a key economic driver for places of all sizes. People have options on where to live, and people of all ages are looking authentic spaces that draw them in and encourage them to return. Regardless of your budget or the size of your community, you can add elements that offer a unique experience that encourages social interaction that can and evoke positive memories. Placemaking also has a role in building bridges in effort to make places more equitable and inclusive.
MITCHELL SILVER
FAICP, Hon. ASLA
Speaker
Mitchell Silver
Planning for Today & Tomorrow
With changing demographics, fluctuating political landscape, shifting consumer preferences, outdated governance structures, and new demands for water and energy - what's the new role for the planning profession? Hear from a nationally renowned planner, Mitchell Silver, about what significant pressures communities are, and will be, facing that could impact their futures and the ability to meet the needs of their citizens. Learn more about the value of planning and how multi-focused planners' perspectives should be to adequately advise municipal leaders to develop more sustainable and enriched communities.
Mitchell Silver
10 Critical Elements That Will Make Tomorrow's Communities
The world has changed, and consumer preferences have changed with it. People are reconsidering the definition of home, where they live, how they live, how they interact when using technology, and so much more. This session will provide insights into the future that should impact how to plan, design, and develop tomorrow's communities. Hear from a nationally renowned urban thinker, Mitchell Silver, about the ten critical elements you need to know about to prepare for tomorrow.
MITCHELL SILVER
FAICP, Hon. ASLA
Speaker
New Data Insights on Main Street Resiliency and Recovery
Where do your businesses on Main Street stand today? Jon Stover and his firm, JS&A, use emerging new data sources to assess retail trends and changes in customer spending in cities and downtowns across the country. This interactive session will share our findings and identify key takeaways for Main Street and municipal leadership to know about where their businesses stand as we emerge from the pandemic.
Importantly, we will discuss opportunities for businesses moving forward and ways that local programs and other partners can aid in local recovery efforts. And finally, we will help articulate Main Street’s impact on local economic resiliency and how communities can leverage existing information to build awareness and secure additional financial support.
JON STOVER
Founder and Managing Partner
Jon Stover & Associates
Now is the Time to Scale Deep with Small Businesses
Harvard Business Review research shows that we can create bigger, more lasting impacts on wealth creation and sustainable economic growth in our community by investing in slower growing local small businesses versus the quick hit venture capital strategy. This means that our smaller cities and towns have a competitive advantage to building vibrant and lasting local economies. But the steps to get there are different from what we did before. Join this webinar to discuss why this is an essential strategy - for your local economy, your downtown, and your community.
ILANA PREUSS
Business Counselor
Recast City LLC
Successful Small-Town Series: Elkin, NC
The Successful Small-Town Series will demonstrate that your community does not have to be big to be innovative and achieve economic success. In fact, any small town that focuses on the three key ingredients can create successful projects that can be leveraged for greater economic prosperity throughout their communities.
Our first segment of the Series will feature Elkin, NC, a community with a population of 4,200, situated in the foothills of the Yadkin Valley Wine Region, one hour north of Charlotte. This segment will explore 3 of Elkin’s most transformative projects that were catalysts for downtown Economic Development over the past 10 years: The Reeves Theater, The Liberty Renovation, and the extensive trails system throughout town that connects outdoor enthusiasts to their Main Street.
DARREN RHODES
N.C. Department of Commerce
LAURA GAYLORD
Town of Elkin
Speakers
Tap Into Your
Commerce Partners
Rural Economic Development is dependent on strong partnerships.
The North Carolina Department of Commerce Rural Economic Development Division (REDD) works with rural communities from Murphy to Manteo, to provide funding, technical assistance, training, and educational programming that helps communities build capacity and bring great ideas to fruition.
Join us for this session to learn more about Team REDD and the programs that are offered, including: the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), the Main Street & Rural Planning Center (MS&RP), Rural Grant Programs, and the Utility Account.
KENNY FLOWERS
Assistant Secretary
Rural Economic Development
NC Department of Commerce
PROGRAM DIRECTORS
Assistant Secretary
Rural Economic Development
NC Department of Commerce
Redevelopment projects come in different forms, from the mom-and-pop, single building development, to professional developers rehabilitating large scale properties and multiple buildings at a time. Learn how cities and town governments, Main Street directors and developers can work collaboratively to put the deals together, from concept through construction and bring redevelopment projects to fruition for long term operation.
JOSH BARNHARDT
RAY GIBBS
PATRICK REILLY
DIANE YOUNG
Speakers
THE POWER OF PLACE
In this webinar, Destination Business Expert Jon Schallert will explain why the most advantageous businesses any community can possess are Destination Businesses, capable of pulling customers from hours away. After the workshop, Jon will take questions from the attendees.
When we think of placemaking, we typically imagine how we dress up our favorite public space, but the concept of place is so much bigger. Place is ubiquitous. It affects everything we do, and it is one of the largest determinants of the type of life we lead. We are always surrounded by place. How places are built, how they function, and how they are designed dictate how people go about leading their lives.
Attendees will learn:
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How developing Destination Businesses in your community can be the easiest way to change an entire marketplace The 3 consumer groups that every community should be concerned about attracting
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How any city or town can minimize its marketing expenditures with a process that is 12 times more powerful than any form of advertising
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How to target and attract the most profitable consumers to your community while reducing your marketing costs by 93%
Jeff Siegler
Revitalize or Die
Proud Places
The 12 Advantages Of A Destination Business In Your Community And How To Nurture One
In this webinar, Destination Business Expert Jon Schallert will explain why the most advantageous businesses any community can possess are Destination Businesses, capable of pulling customers from hours away. After the workshop, Jon will take questions from the attendees.
Attendees will learn:
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How developing Destination Businesses in your community can be the easiest way to change an entire marketplace The 3 consumer groups that every community should be concerned about attracting
-
How any city or town can minimize its marketing expenditures with a process that is 12 times more powerful than any form of advertising
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How to target and attract the most profitable consumers to your community while reducing your marketing costs by 93%
JON SCHALLERT
Speaker
The Role of Economic Development in Main Street + The Role of Main Street in Economic Development
This webinar will help you understand the importance of the economic vitality focus of the Main Street approach to downtown revitalization, whether you are a community that practices this nationally recognized method to downtown revitalization or not.
Joe is also prepared to share how the Main Street approach or downtown revitalization, of any size, supports broader, regional economic development efforts making it easier for your community to achieve healthy economic goals for your entire community.
JOE BORGSTROM
Speaker
Upper Level Residential Development in Your Downtown
For too many years, the upper stories in our downtown buildings have been vacant or used for storage. Fortunately, there is new demand and a resurgence in desire to live downtown, which is having a positive economic impact.
This ‘how-to’ webinar on renovating downtown historic buildings for residential use will share experiences and guidance with design issues, navigating the building code, and the economics, all balanced with meeting the requirements for historic tax credits.
You Need an Economic Workplan
The first and most important step in developing an economic work plan is recognizing the need for a formal strategy and embracing that responsibility. This will help you be off to a great start and learn those next steps.
LIZ PARHAM
N.C. Department of Commerce
Speaker
What's Next for Retail?
Let's Explore the Options
What’s next for the retail industry?
How do we attract the attention of expanding brands? Are there more
ways I can help my local businesses? There are many questions around the future of retail and restaurants, and how to best position our communities to compete for new commercial investment dollars. Let's explore them.
AARON FARMER
CHARLES PARKER
The Retail Coach
Speakers
Why You Should Get To Know Your SBC and SBTDC Resources
The Small Business Center Network and the Small Business and Technology Development Centers are just two of the resources available to towns and counties to assist entrepreneurs with developing plans for success. What services do these organizations provide? And how can potential, new, and existing business owners take advantage of these programs?
Join us for this session as we learn more about these organizations, their locations, and how towns and counties can grow new and expanding small businesses.
ANNE SHAW
State Director,
Small Business Center Network (SBC)
HALLIE HAWKINS
Business Counselor, Small Business Technology Development Center,
East Carolina University
CONTACT US
LIZ PARHAM
NC Main Street & Rural Planning Center
