The largest rural development and policy conference in Canada was recently held in Nelson, British Columbia. The Different by Design: Innovation for Rural Prosperity conference was co-hosted by the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation and Selkirk College. During the conference, faculty and students from the University of Guelph made a strong contribution. The following oral presentations, panel discussions, and poster presentations were shared at the conference:

  • Paul Kraehling (Rural Studies PhD student) delivered a presentation titled “The Case for Using Green Infrastructure in Land Use Planning Framework for Resilient Rural Communities”
  • Laura Schreiner (RPD graduate) and John Devlin (SEDRD faculty) delivered a presentation titled “Agricultural Systems Planning: Farmland Conservation Policies in Oregon and Ontario”
  • John Devlin (SEDRD faculty) delivered a presentation titled “Structural Boundaries to the Expansion of Organic Agriculture in Canada”
  • Ryan Gibson (SEDRD faculty) and Neil Stoop (RPD student) delivered a presentation titled “Connecting the Dots: Knowledge Sharing among Rural Economic Development Actors in Southern Ontario”
  • Neil Stoop (RPD student) and Alex Petric (RPD student) presented a poster titled “The Definitions of Rural and Its Implications”
  • Valencia Gaspard (Rural Studies PhD student) and Ray Bollman led a panel discussion titled “Exploring Rural Precarious Employment: The Case of Ontario”
  • John Devlin (SEDRD faculty), Matteo Vittuari, Bill Reimer, Ray Bollman led a panel discussion titled “Intentional Comparative Rural Policy: Learning from Diversity”
  • Ryan Gibson (SEDRD faculty), Emmy Neuls, Heather Exner-Pirot, and Audra Krueger led a panel discussion titled “Partnerships for Prosperity”
  • Ryan Gibson (SEDRD faculty) presented a poster titled “What makes good provincial rural policy?”
  • Ryan Gibson (SEDRD faculty), Neil Stoop (RPD student), Bojan Fürst, Sean Markey, Kelly Vodden presented a poster titled “Place-based Endowments in the Periphery: Changing the Dynamics of Rural Planning”

In the coming days, each of the presentations and posters will be made available on the conference website: www.kootenays2017.crrf.ca.