Rural Communities

"The thing about technology is you can do it from anywhere,"

Mallet said businesses in rural areas have a main advantage: lower costs.

“You’ve got three ways to grow your community. You can attract in transplants, who are coming for either love or money (marriage or a job); you can get back the boomerangers; or you can keep the homegrowns, with their deep bench of history on the area.”

From a dairy farm in Pennsylvania to the public schools of rural Louisiana, novel technologies are turning up in out-of-the-way places.

“When people become rich, they tend to give things away. We in South Dakota must be some of the richest in the country, because we keep giving away the great minds of our young people.

Fewer of those who grow up in rural communities and go off to college seem to be returning home when they graduate. Instead, many are opting for destination cities. Reversing that brain drain will play a big part in attracting new businesses to the region, conference organizers have said.

You’ve read the headlines: Anycity, U.S.A. is the [fill in the blank: fattest, fittest, most livable, poorest, richest, best for kids, worst for dogs, and on and on and on].

"Telework cuts air pollution, reduces vehicle miles and makes employees happy. State government should lead the way."

Near the sleepy town of Spangle south of Spokane, in a building across the road from a 3,000-acre cattle ranch, is the main office of Gregory I.P. Law, a one-person law firm owned and staffed by patent attorney Randy Gregory.

Schauer budgets more than $25,000 annually to pay travel and hotel expenses that bring potential engineering recruits to the firm, which specializes in pre-design work for projects throughout Washington and Oregon.