Belle Plaine City Administrator Bill Daily attended “Rhythms of Revitalization”, the 24th annual Iowa Downtown Summit held August 24 and 25 in Davenport.
During the summit, prominent downtown development experts from across the U.S. provided training sessions designed to help attendees acquire practical information and ideas, and learn strategies for historic preservation-based commercial district revitalization that is relevant to rural, mid-sized and urban communities.
Daily attended sessions on marketing and child friendly downtowns presented by national, Midwest, and local experts in downtown development. Daily was also a guest presenter on Re-inventing Your Downtown in relation to Belle Plaine’s pending Façade Master Plan Project.
“Iowa has been at the forefront of the move to revitalize city cores as cultural and entertainment hubs and retail centers,” said IDED Director Bret Mills. “This year’s summit gave city officials, economic development professionals and others with a stake in downtown revitalization a chance to share their best ideas and success stories necessary to move Iowa forward.”
“I have been attending the Downtown Summit for five years now and I must say that it is the best conference I have found in relation to downtown revitalization. It certainly was an honor to be invited to share with people from across the state the efforts and accomplishments that Belle Plaine has achieved over the last many years. This Summit gives me the opportunity to continue to build a network of professional resources that can assists us with our downtown revitalization efforts. I would encourage anyone that has a sincere interest in downtown to take advantage of this opportunity and attend the Summit, it’s open to all,” stated Daily.
The Summit was sponsored by Iowa Department of Economic Development’s Iowa Downtown Resource Center (IDRC), and the Federal Home Loan Bank, Des Moines, with additional conference contributions provided by MidAmerican Energy.
The IDRC coordinates the Main Street Iowa program, provides fee-based services to all Iowa communities, and has an extensive resource library on downtown revitalization tools and techniques. For more information, visit www.iowalifechanging.com/community, e-mail downtown@iowa.gov, or call 515.725.3058.
