March 7, 2002

Conference Will Feature Entrepreneur Stories

Stories of rural entrepreneurs who grow new crops, add value to their production, or use their land base in productive business pursuits in addition to the production of commodity crops will be highlighted at the Third Annual Alternative Enterprise and Rural Tourism Conference Thursday and Friday, April 4 and 5, at the Armory in Bottineau, N.D., according to Tom Hanson, NDSU Extension Service sustainable agriculture coordinator.

"This conference will provide a host of ideas for rural families to augment their incomes by using their land resources in different ways or adding value to what they already raise," says Hanson.

According to scheduled keynote speaker Ted Eubanks, North Dakota has a tremendous amount of natural beauty which many residents take for granted. These scenes are desired by urban residents who long to experience prairie nature and way of life. That opens new opportunities to market the prairie scenery and experiences and augment farm and ranch family incomes. Rural communities benefit by keeping these families in the community and receiving visitor monies directly.

Although he lives in Texas, Eubanks touts the many beauties of North Dakota in his work and travels. He is involved in studying and promoting experiential tourism as a sustainable economic approach for communities. He will begin the conference with his address at 12:30 p.m. on April 4.

C.J. Harel of Regina, Saskatchewan, will also be a keynote speaker at the conference. Harel runs Great Excursions Company, a firm specializing in staging tourism, heritage, and communications experiences. He has 20 years of broadcast media experience in science, agriculture, and society within the Canadian prairie regions and has won numerous awards in Canada, the United States and Great Britain.

In addition to the stories of North Dakota residents who have developed businesses in rural settings, funding sources including federal, state, and private agencies will present their programs for developing land and entrepreneurial start-ups. Another segment of the program will focus on marketing products and experiences. Participating in these panels will be Kathy Tweeten, community economic development specialist with the NDSU Extension Service. Tweeten has been involved in previous conferences and regularly helps guide new business ventures. She has organized and conducted several agritainment and rural enterprise workshops.

Also, an array of booths will display products and business enterprises North Dakotans have developed on their farms and rural communities which add value to existing crops or new alternative crops or cultivate human interest.

The conference admission charge is $10. For more information contact Tom Hanson, 701-857-7679 or Rich Mullaney, Upper Dakota RC&D, 701-839-8297.

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Source: Tom Hanson, (701) 857-7679, thanson@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Gary Moran, (701) 231-7865, gmoran@ndsuext.nodak.edu