Category Archives: CTAC Presentations

CTAC leads discussion at 2011 MN Broadband Conference

CTAC Founder Bill Coleman was on the planning committee for the 2011 Policy & Progress: Border to Border Broadband conference. The conference was a great success and Bill moderated one of the top sessions: Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities; Demonstration Community Project Coordinators. It was a lively discussion highlighting the broadband adoption projects happening around the state, often with the guidance and support of CTAC staff.

Here is a highlight from the session:

Or you can check out other video updates:

Public-Private Partnerships in Broadband Presentation

Bill Coleman speaks on Public-Private Partnerships in Broadband in a Blandin Foundation sponsored pre-conference webinar

With stimulus funds allocated and clear understanding of the difficulties in obtaining strictly market-based funding, how can underserved areas reach their broadband goals? What are some successful models of public private partnerships?

You can also access an archive of the session.

 

Free webinar on Public-Private Partnership in Broadband

On Tuesday CTAC founder Bill Coleman will be presenting a free webinar for the Blandin Foundation as a lead up to the 2011 Fall Broadband Conference (Policy & Progress: Border to Border Broadband).

Pre-Broadband Conference Webinar – Public-private partnerships in broadband
Date:Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Time:12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Location:Online
Cost:FREE

With stimulus funds allocated and clear understanding of the difficulties in obtaining strictly market-based funding, how can underserved areas reach their broadband goals? What are some successful models of public private partnerships?

Bill Coleman of Community Technology Advisors will present this topic.

This webinar is free but registration is required at: https://blandinfoundation.ilinc.com/register/wwvhkfv

Intelligent Community Forum in Minnesota

Earlier this week I had an opportunity to speak with Bernadine Joselyn of the Blandin Foundation and LaDonna Boyd, board chair of Dakota Future at the DEED conferece on economic development. We were presenting on the Intelligent Community Forum as an economic development framework and how we have deployed it in Dakota Conty and the 11 Demonstration Communities in the Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities project.

Notes from Building the Broadband Economy in NY

Participating in the Intelligent Community Forum’s Building the Broadband Economy has been very interesting and fun. Last night I sat with people from across Canada and learned about the emphasis that their leaders are putting on broadband as an economic development strategy – from the Atlantic Provinces, to Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton. They saw the support of their top government leaders as essential to their successful efforts. On behalf of Dakota Future, I was pleased to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that formalizes a culture of collaboration between communities adopting the Intelligent Community approach.

Today I co-facilitated a session entitled “Five Burning Issues in Rural Communities“. Our five issues were demographics, gaps in broadband services and the difficulty in forming effective partnerships with private sector providers, funding for infrastructure, digital inclusion and application development, creating a culture of use and the many barriers to application adoption for problem solving, and leadership. It turns out that the list from the urban group was amazingly similar!

I am awed by the strategic thinking and doing going on around the world as communities and country’s strive to create and maintain competitive economies. In the same way, people from around the world are very interested in the Blandin Foundation’s approach to our MN Intelligent Rural Communities project. I have been asked many detailed questions and have received very positive feedback. I look forward to reporting lots of progress next year!