Tennessee Tech Hosts Second Upper Cumberland Economic Development Summit

Tennessee Tech’s Center for Rural Innovation will hold its second annual Upper Cumberland Economic Development Summit in Stonecipher Lecture Hall August 3rd.

Director of the Center for Rural Innovation Michael Aikens said the event is an opportunity for business students and leaders alike to meet and speak about economic policies in our area. Aikens said there are three key areas at the center of this conference: tourism, the workforce, and industrial development.

“This is a summit that’s developed by economic developers and business leaders for economic developers and business leaders,” Aikens said. “And then, I think it’s incredibly important for students to attend because it really helps them to make connections between what they learned in academics and the real world.”

Aikens said the connections between the current business leaders and those of the future can be created here, and everyone can benefit from the formation of fair policies. He said the conference allows businesses to set up booths for others to interface with and conclude with a power panel of three state commissioners.

Aikens said he encourages people to research their talking points before the event and know what they want to ask. This helps facilitate discussions and make the most of the single-day conference.

“Come prepared to network and interact because one of the most important things about this summit is this is not planned to talk at you, this is planned to talk with you,” Aikens said.

Aikens said there have been other conferences for rural development before the inaugural summit of this iteration happened a year ago. He said Covid and restructuring got in the way of the continuation of past conferences, but the need for an event like this event prevailed.

“We as economic developers in the university and the community, we got back together and we said we really need to do these again,” Aikens said.”

If you wish to attend, you can register at TnTech.edu/summit for $35. There are no prerequisites required.