Rural Maine’s Next Economy

February 16, 201702/16/17

I carried my podcast recorder to the Rural Maine’s Next Economy Envision Maine conference at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on Friday February 10. The temperature outside was in the single digits, but inside the ideas were flowing. I captured two segments – the Rural Sparkplugs segment of four minute talks, and the One Minute Big Ideas, an off-the-cuff opportunity to pitch the crowd on your idea. Here the guests in order of appearance:

Amanda Beal, President of the Maine Farmland Trust
Lucas St. Clair, Elliotsville Plantation, Inc.
George Smith, Author, Hunting/Fishing Activist
Bonnie Rukin, Slow Money Maine
Leah Cook, Crown of Maine Organic Cooperative
Nancy Smith, GrowSmart Maine
Vaughan Woodruff, Insource Renewables

On the One Big Idea Segment

Ron Brown on Broadband
Matt Delaney from Millinocket Library
Mike Turcotte
Ken from Arrowsic
Matt Polstein from New England Outdoor Center
Robin Zinchuk, Executive Director of Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce
Kay from Lexington Township (note: what Kay wants to do is closely aligned to what Maine Farmland Trust’s Farmlink program does)
Martha Bentley of Maine Technology Institute
Mike Wilson of Northern Forest Center
Jonah Fertig of Cooperative Development Institute
Eric from Appleton with a cool idea: Uber for canoes. Or Zipcar for canoes. Zipcanoe.
Scott Vlaun of Center for an Ecology Based Economy
Brooks Winner of Island Institute
Ivy from College of the Atlantic