I had the pleasure recently of attending the Midwest Rural Assembly in Sioux Falls, SD. This assembly was the first regional follow-up to the National Rural Assembly organized by the Kellogg Foundation as part of their Rural People, Rural Policy program. The Assembly brought together over 170 participants from 13 states to discuss social and policy issues facing rural areas.

The conference began with a World Cafe discussion of the reasons people were attending, and their desires for outcomes. It quickly became clear that attendees represented a wide range of organizations and viewpoints - in short, a good representation of "rural" in America. It was also very clear that this group was willing to work across political and social divides to improve rural life. You can see a sampling of outcomes from the opening session here.

At lunch we were joined by keynote speaker Dallas Tonsager, the USDA Under-Secretary for Rural Development. Under-Secretary Tonsager gave a good overview of the Obama administration's priorities for rural development, including regional food systems, alternative energy and broadband. You can view Under Secretary Tonsager's remarks here.

Afternoon of the first day consisted of breakout sessions on the following topics: Stewardship of Natural Resources, Health of Our People, Quality in Education, Investment in Our Communities, and Broadband and Rural Communities. I sat in on the Investment session, a panel discussion moderated by Cornelia Flora. We heard great stories from some successful community development efforts in Holt County, Nebraska and Bemidji, Minnesota. The panelists made it very clear that community and economic development doesn't just happen, it's something that requires a lot of work and community involvement. Victor Vasquez, the new USDA Deputy Under-Secretary for Rural Development, also offered some remarks. I was impressed by USDA's commitment to this event, shown by the attendence of two top officials from Rural Development.

After a brief wrap-up of the day's activities, we had some time for networking prior to a fantastic dinner. All meals throughout the event were made up of locally grown and produced foodstuffs. The organizers of the event asked the Sioux Falls Convention Center to do this, but were informed that the Center already used locally sourced products for their meals. Kudos to the Center for producing some of the best meals I've ever experienced at a conference, and for using local products to do it.

The second morning of the conference started with greetings from Mark Ritchie, the Minnesota Secretary of State, who spoke about making ideas happen. Throughout the conference I was pleased with the focus on real-world action rather than just creating ideas.

I sat in on the second morning breakout session on Community Leadership and Change, moderated by Milan Wall of the Heartland Center for Leadership Development. Milan offered a lot of good stories from his efforts working with communities on change efforts.

Prior to lunch, we listened to a panel of younger people working in rural areas to get a different perspective on things. The panel was facilitated by Marcie McLaughlin of the Rural Policy Research Institute. Throughout the conference, organizers had been making use of social media online tools to share photos and discussions from the conference. This panel took it one step further, accepting questions from the audience via Twitter. I was really impressed by this, and by the overall use of social media by the organizers. Working in the technology industry I'm used to seeing this kind of back-channel discussion at conferences, but this is the first non-technology conference I've attended that has used social media so well.

During another wonderful local-foods lunch, we listened to Garat Ibrahim, who works with immigrant groups around Minnesota, and to Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, South Dakota's lone U.S. Representative. It was an interesting juxtaposition to listen to Ms. Herseth Sandlin's discussion of health care policy issues immediately after Mr. Ibrahim's discussion of the issues facing immigrants in the Midwest, including access to health care.

The afternoon session was focused on small groups discussing possibilities for future action. I again sat in on a group discussing community investment. Like the rest of the conference, our small group represented a wide range of viewpoints. We've been corresponding via email since the conference in our attempts to provide follow-up action.

The Midwest Rural Assembly was a really fine conference, very well run, with a lot of very engaged attendees. I look forward to seeing what comes from this and future assemblies, but I know that it was a success simply because it brought people of differing viewpoints together and helped develop a wider understanding of those viewpoints for all of us.

You can learn more about the Rural Assembly at the following web sites:

• Presentations from the Midwest Rural Assembly
• Midwest Rural Assembly social network
• Midwest Rural Assembly web site
• IATP on the Midwest Rural Assembly

Dennis Deery