Fall Broadband Conference: Building Our Connected Future November 13-14 in Duluth: First webinar Sept 27

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We’re getting excited for the annual fall broadband conference co-hosted by the Blandin Foundation and Connect Minnesota. The theme this year is: Building Our Connected Future: Minnesota’s Better With Broadband. The purpose as always is to increase Minnesota’s economic competitiveness through the adoption and use of broadband technology. (You can get all of the notes from the 2011 conference online.)

The 2012 Broadband Conference will:

  • promote synergy around direct community planning and adoption projects;
  • support the Governor’s Broadband Task Force to achieve the state’s broadband goals;
  • raise awareness of existing and new tools available to close the digital divide;
  • identify how Minnesota can leverage national policy to meet its broadband goals.

By attending the 2012 Broadband Conference you will:

  • have a better understanding of mission and tasks that support Governor’s Broadband Task Force;
  • recognize issues that will have impact on your community, as they trickle down from the federal level and bubble up from the state level, based on what’s happening with the national plan;
  • be able to implement strategies around digital inclusion, which are focused on broadband application, access and adoption;
  • take away tools and process to use at your community level for increasing Broadband availability and adoption;
  • access a wealth of new resources, tools and opportunities to use in planning and decision making;
  • have an opportunity to network  through open space sessions that focus on various themes.

Confirmed speakers include two prominent national and regional experts – Craig Settles, broadband business strategist and municipal broadband expert, and Tom Koutsky, Chief Policy Counsel, Connected Nation.

Pre-Conference Webinars

Blandin is also hosting a series of four pre-conference webinars leading up to the conference. The first session, “Blandin Community Broadband Programs” will be offered September 27 from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Learn how your community can access new funding and technical assistance opportunities to improve broadband infrastructure, adoption and use. Understand how Blandin Foundation is continuing its broadband focus in Minnesota over the next two years. Presenters: Bernadine Joselyn, Blandin Foundation and Bill Coleman, Community Technology Advisors.

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