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You are likely already plugged in to the local assets and needs of rural residents. Through a design thinking activity, facilitators with SmallBox will help you bring information and ideas shared earlier in the day into your own context. This excercise will help define what prosperity looks like in your community and how it can be achieved, while crafting meaningful points of discussion for your work ahead.

Rural demographer Emily J. Wornell of the Indiana Communities Institute at Ball State University will lead an interactive morning session centered on the latest research, trends, and drivers of sustained rural prosperity. Despite popular economic development wisdom of the last century, research is increasingly showing that quality of life, not being “business friendly,” is the linchpin of sustainable, successful communities.