Shanna Ratner was the featured presenter at the Regards to Rural 2015 Conference Pre-Session, “WealthWorks Northwest,” consisting of three workshops introducing WealthWorks. The first workshop, “WealthWorks Northwest! Building Rural Wealth,” focused on helping participants learn about the WealthWorks framework and how it could help them to build the kind of wealth they desired in their region. Whether participants were interested in strengthening a particular business sector, supporting multiple forms of wealth, maximizing purchase power, or starting a new business, this pre-session shared best practices and provided them with the basic information to get started. The second workshop, “A Sector Focus,” shared information on how practitioners from industries like tourism, agriculture, and wood products are making wealth work in the Pacific Northwest. With Shawn Morford, Shanna presented “Measuring Capitals,” which demonstrated how measuring success is more than dollars and cents. Participants learned about measurements for capturing and assessing financial, social, natural, individual, cultural, built, intellectual, and political forms of wealth.
Innovators in Rural Community Economic Development
