Mark Your Calendars for the 2010 RDI - CRRF Conference

14-16 October 2010 – Brandon, MB

The 2010 Rural Development Institute (RDI) and the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation (CRRF) annual policy conference will be held in Brandon, Manitoba, 14-16 October 2010.

Across Canada, beyond the city boundaries, there are successes with projects, approaches, and policy. Challenges are being defined, plans prepared, and successes evident and measured. Rural Canada is working to bring together examples, practices, and research as evidence. Practitioners, leaders, decision makers, and academics with local to international interests are making a difference socially, environmentally, economically, and with technology. Some are making headway, advancing with innovations, adding value to resource activities, finding new markets, and welcoming immigrants. Financial institutions, member organizations, and foundations are stepping up and making a difference across rural Canada. These and other responses give a glimpse of what’s on the brighter side of rural Canada. Sharing their pathways based on scenarios, projections, and trends of policy, programs, projects, and practices are critical for others pursuing the brighter sides of rural. This conference features examples of those actively designing rural futures – some do it yourself while others plan, and some are partnering. They are building on and enhancing existing infrastructure, navigating success by discovering and making better use of social, environmental, and economic assets, and finding new ways to engage and enspirit people to sustain rural places. For this conference, looking on the bright side means emphasizing what’s working and describing a fuller range of activities that form pathways to many different futures in rural areas.

We are inviting proposals for presentations, panel discussions, and posters that purposefully emphasize what's working and pathways to a future. Deadline for the first call for presentation and poster abstracts is April 15, 2010.

Further details on the conference can be found at here.