Director of the Montana Department of Commerce Meg O’Leary is excited about Main Street Montana Project

Main Street Montana http://mainstreetmontanaproject.com/ has been the most encouraging experience that I have been part of in government. The first year, we were in a process of gathering information. We heard from every single county by surveying. We went to about eight different listening sessions across the state and we said, "Okay what’s working, what’s not working?" That was super helpful, and then phase two was going, "All right, we’ve got to take a deeper dive, and we’ve got to identify industries and then let these people come to the table." It truly is a private-sector-driven situation.

We’re in phase three of the Main Street Montana Project and that phase, to me, has been the most exciting because it is 13 key industry networks–the 13 different industries across the state that are driving our economy–and the platform has been to bring these private business owners and CEOs together and say, "Okay what is it that you need to improve or grow or enhance your industry?" We’ve found lots of commonalities between the industries. We’ve found there are areas for government to get out of the way. We’ve found that we can help prop up by just gathering the stakeholders.

Traci Rosenbaum, [email protected]

Full Story: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/money/2016/03/01/oleary-excited-main-street-montana-project/81156072/

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State of Montana Consolidated Plan – A Plan to Help Meet the Needs of Montana’s Communities and Residents – Webinar on 3/25 http://www.matr.net/article-70530.html