Keynote Speaker Sarah Waring at the 2026 Southern VT Economy Summit, Photo Credit: BDCC Staff
Over 300 Southern Vermont community and business leaders, representing close to 200 different organizations from across the state and region, joined hosts Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC) and Bennington County Regional Commission (BCRC) at Mount Snow in Dover, VT, on May 12 for the 9th annual Southern VT Economy Summit.
Materials from the event, including press coverage, session recordings, slide presentations, and photos, can now be found at www.sovermontzone.com/summit.
The theme of this year’s Summit, “Envision. Act. Grow.” was explored in a keynote address by Sarah Waring, Executive Director of the Northern Border Regional Commission. In her keynote, Waring addressed how we might think of the path towards action and growth across many stages of community and economic development in our communities. By thinking about deploying capital and other resources into communities in the same way we deploy capital and technical assistance for business development, more communities can be brought from an early, or ‘seed’ stage, where assistance and support is needed, up to a ‘mature’ stage where they can continue to attract investment and opportunities on their own based on past successes and the ability to scale projects. Important in this process are rural development ‘hubs,’ which can provide assistance by being economic development champions who are able to be responsive to the needs of their communities.
Following her address, Waring engaged in conversation with the Executive Directors of the two host organizations, BDCC’s Adam Grinold and BCRC’s Bill Colvin. Both acknowledged the difficulty of driving projects forward based on available funding resources alone, citing fragmentation and the need for funders to choose ‘winners and losers’ vs helping projects create sustainable project models with diverse funding streams.
After the plenary, 15 breakouts took up all aspects of the Southern Vermont Economy. From sessions that discussed actionable use of available data resources, strategies for making sure rural areas are not left behind in the age of A.I., to a ‘community project roadmap’ session, attendees got both big-picture ideas and hands-on tools to use in their own communities.
This event continues to draw a genuinely cross-sector audience with strong representation from nonprofits, economic development organizations, businesses and entrepreneurs, government/public sector stakeholders, and younger emerging professionals.
Many attendees noted this in their post-event comments, saying that the best thing about this event is “Connecting with colleagues and meeting new people,” “Networking with like minded people who are interested in making Vermont better,” and also citing “The variety of topics for break out sessions and knowledgeable presenters/panelists.”
BDCC and BCRC host the Summit yearly, on behalf of the Southern Vermont Economic Development Zone. The Summit is part of the Southern Vermont Economy Project, which helps build capacity, expertise and resources in the Zone, with support from the USDA Rural Community Development Initiative.
The Summit is made possible in part by this year’s Summit Sponsor Brattleboro Savings and Loan, keynote sponsor MSK Engineers and session and special event sponsors Vermont State University ROAD to Success Program, the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development, the STRIVE program, M&T Bank, the UVM/Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships, VELCO, Weston and Sampson Engineers, Community College of Vermont, Vermont Community Foundation, The Richards Group, Vermont Economic Development Authority, Efficiency Vermont, Deerfield Valley Fiber, the Vermont Community Loan Fund, Stevens and Associates, M&S Development, Merritt & Merritt, Green Mountain Power, the Better Business Bureau of New England, Minuteman Press (Brattleboro), Vermont News Media, Front Porch Forum, and Landmark College. Find a full list of sponsors at the Summit website, www.sovermontzone.com/summit.
