Creative conference focus on Southwest Virginia assets

Building Southwest Virginia's success through regional collaboration and finding what assets to market is the focus of an ongoing conference in Abingdon.

The 2013 Southwest Virginia Creative Economy Conference kicked off Thursday afternoon at Heartwood, and speakers talked about some of the current economic initiatives underway.

"There's a transformation going on in Southwest Virginia," said Betsy K. White, a local author who headed up Thursday's events.

Bill Shelton, director of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, said that economic support alone does not turn around a community.

"Everybody's got assets," he said. "You've got to think about what's marketable. When we funded the Ralph Stanley Museum in Dickenson County ... people said, 'How's that going to make a difference?' If we'd only done that we would not have been successful. We needed a coordinated strategy to really make a difference."

He said the region's real asset is its high quality of life.

"We need support for a regional approach. I think we all need to work together and work collectively," he said. "We need a coordinated investment in venues and attractions. We need to continue to focus on our downtowns. They define who our counties are. And we need to tell the story. We need to do a better job, push that story out even better. Ultimately, it's about drawing visitors to the region, but it's important to tell the story to ourselves, too."

Drawing people to a better quality of life - whether for a vacation or for a lifetime - is about Main Street, not Wall Street, said Rita McClenny, president and CEO of the Virginia Tourism Corp.

"We have something that's so precious," she said. "When people come back, when they talk about what they've heard in our music, what they've seen in our mountains ... when you put that together, that's a family vacation. That's the reason for a business to move here."

She said tourism was up 4 percent across the state in the past year.

"The indicator is tourism is increasing, growing across Virginia," she said.

During the conference, 'Round the Mountain: Southwest Virginia's Artisan Network and the Barter Theatre were recognized by the Dominion ArtStars program. 'Round the Mountain was awarded the 2013 Dominion ArtStars Statewide Rising Star Award for its work promoting the sustainable economic development of the region. Barter Theatre was awarded the Statewide Shining Star Award.

The conference continues today, starting at 8 a.m. at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center. U.S. Sen. Mark Warner is scheduled to speak, along with keynote speaker Stuart Rosenfeld, Earl Gohl, federal co-chairman of the Appalachian Regional Commission, state Sen. Bill Carrico and U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith.

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