Today the North Dakota Department of Commerce Community Services team hosted community leaders at a free Multi-State Placemaking Best Practices Exchange Workshop at Minot State University’s Student Center.
“Placemaking involves making creative, strategic improvements to create more livable communities,” said Commerce Community Services Director Maria Effertz. “This event is an excellent opportunity to connect with community leaders from across the region to share opportunities and best practices.”
Workshop sessions highlighted winter placemaking, urban placemaking, public spaces and gathering places, planning and implementation, and cross-sector engagement.
Community-driven placemaking plays a key role in creating healthy, prosperous communities where people want to live, work, play, and learn. To support this notion, the Multi-State Placemaking Best Practices Exchange Workshop showcased effective placemaking approaches for communities, introduced attendees to placemaking resources and tools, and connected with placemaking experts from other states.
“There’s no better marketing, tourism draw, or talent recruitment strategy than investing in vibrant places where people want to live, work, and visit,” said guest speaker Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development Planning and Outreach Manager Richard Amore. “North Dakota’s placemaking efforts are enlivening downtowns and rural communities across the state, bringing people, and energy to main street. It’s place-based, people-focused economic development that creates places where people want to be, spend time, belong, and thrive.”
Commerce supports placemaking as a catalyst to enhance the statewide attraction of businesses, promotion of economic activity, and the retention and attraction of talented workers, thus strengthening the economic resiliency across North Dakota communities.
For more information about community placemaking and other Main Street ND efforts, visit https://msnd.link/MainStreetND.