Full agenda set for Rural Prosperity Summit

TIFTON — This year’s Rural Prosperity Summit will feature policy leaders, senior governmental officials, entrepreneurs and business owners, academics, economic development practitioners and other partners impacting rural communities.

The summit is held to foster what Georgia Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Chris Clark calls the “Rural Renaissance.”

“We (started the summit) to bring about people who cared about rural Georgia,” Clark said of the event, now in its third year.

Taking place Tuesday and Wednesday at the University of Georgia Tifton Campus Conference Center, the summit is an annual two-day event that brings together hundreds of business leaders and elected officials who are passionate about creating vibrant, robust rural communities throughout the state.

Clark said roughly 500 people from six states attended last year’s summit, and that around 400-500 are expected this year.

“This year we are trying to help folks in rural Georgia understand what is going on in the bigger economy,” he said.

The two-day event will feature speakers, practitioner panels and small group conversations presenting possible solutions for challenges facing today’s struggling rural communities. The event offers attendees an opportunity to share new ideas and make connections.

This year’s summit takes place as the 2020 Census approaches. During a census, citizens in rural areas are often especially urged to participate in order to ensure needed representation and resources are not lost.

“(We encourage people to) make sure to take advantage of the census,” Clark said.

Summit topics will focus on health care, rural education and work force, the opioid epidemic, housing, defense, rural economic development trends and tactics, civic health, nonprofits, cybersecurity, manufacturing and entrepreneurship.

“Uncorking, Distilling and Brewing the South” will focus on the growth of the brewery industry in rural Georgia. The concept of Opportunity Zones is also expected to be discussed.

“It is not so much where we have been but where the growth is moving forward,” Clark said.

Clark said there has been a desire in recent years to reconnect with natural resources and that downtown revitalization has been a significant focus in enticing younger generations to be more engaged in their communities.

Starting a business, he said, is the real key to fostering economic development.

“That really will be the biggest opportunity for growth in rural Georgia,” Clark said.

Education plays a role in community development, and Clark said a 30-year-curriculum will not be enough to make the most of resources in rural areas. The idea of the Rural Renaissance is based on maximizing what is available.

“In a rapidly urbanizing world, we are not going to have rural prosperity in every rural town,” Clark said. “(We need to) embrace current resources; they have to think regionally.”

Community leaders who are forward thinking can make a big difference, he added.

“I do think the future is bright,” Clark said.

Clark said medical education expansion and Georgia-Pacific coming into Albany are among the examples in recent years that show prosperity in southwest Georgia is a possibility.

In the end, he said, talent fosters prosperity — and even if Atlanta is the engine, it cannot cross the finish line alone. Being a native of Ocilla, Clark said bringing rural Georgia into the bigger picture is important.

“When I see struggles in rural communities, it does affect me personally,” he said.

Speakers at the summit are expected to include Dr. Michael Sampson, chief academic officer for Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine South Georgia; U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton; Col. Alphonso Trimble, commanding officer of Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany; Judy Fitzgerald, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.

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