2011 Main Streets Conference: May 22-25, 2011, Des Moines, Iowa

The 2011 National Main Streets Conference will take the next step from showing and celebrating the Power of Main Street to taking your Main Street to the next level by continuing to grow your support, your economic strength, and the national movement.

In Des Moines we will focus on the recruitment, retention, strengthening and supporting your local businesses; showcase how being green and open to all will help with these efforts; and, of course, learning about the Main Street Four Point Approach from the basics to the new, cutting-edge ideas that are being put in to practice in our Main Streets across the country. In Des Moines, you will find:

* Four days of educational and networking opportunities;

* Daylong Main Street Four Point Approach® training;

* Mobil workshops that focus on revitalization successes in Des Moines and surrounding Main Street Iowa communities;

* Expo hall filled with products and service providers that specialize in commercial district revitalization; and

* Opportunities to network with colleagues who are experiencing similar successes and challenges in their communities.

http://www.preservationnation.org/main-street/training/conference/2011-des-moines/

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Using Economic Gardening And Asset Quilting To Turn Your Main Street Into A Power Place

Find out how Fairfield Iowa used asset quilting and economic gardening techniques to turn empty downtown storefronts into a thriving shopping, cultural and entertainment district with more restaurants per capita than San Francisco, the Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts and Iowa’s only musical theater company. The area is now teeming with art galleries, specialty shops; has a robust music scene and a monthly art walk that draws up to four thousand people per month.

Learning objectives:

* Change your mindset from hopeful to can-do

* Learn basics of economic gardening, how to create economic gardening hotspots, how to support art-preneurs, how to asset quilting to connect people, resources and money in new and creative ways.

* Revitalization and micro-enterprise loan strategies

Featured speakers will be Burt Chojnowski, President of Fairfield First! and Ed Malloy, Mayor of Fairfield

Turning Fairfield, Iowa into a Rural Renaissance City http://matr.net/article-42272.html