The seventh annual SDSU Energize Conference was held in Platte May 6-7. Wagner was well-represented with seven community representatives and one guest speaker. Locals attending the event were City Administrator Debbra Houseman, Wagner Area Growth Executive Director Margaret Doom, City Council President Brenda Jaton, Wagner Boys and Girls Club Health and Life Skills Coordinator Amy Doom, Fort Randall Federal Credit Union team members Jenni Dvorak and Jenna Weisser, Mayor Alyssa Mathis, and Jason Kuhlman. Dana Sanderson was a guest speaker for a breakout session entitled “605 Unity Jam ‘A Jamboree of Art & Music’ A Multi-Cultural Celebration.”

The Energize! Exploring Innovative Rural Communities Conference is designed to energize South Dakota’s rural communities by inviting them to network with community leaders from across the state to share success stories, get new ideas, and take action to improve their own communities. With this year’s conference being held in Platte, it was nice to be able to explore another local rural community that is thriving. Platte has a beautiful Main Street with four to five blocks of non-stop shops and beautifully restored buildings.

The conference started out with keynote speaker, Rebecca Undem, who is from a small town in North Dakota of about 1,800 people. Undem spoke about the love of doing what you enjoy when building a business, in addition to always being open to asking others.

Jenni and Jenna attended the “RedCan Graffiti Jam,” put on by Julie Garreau of Eagle Butte. Margaret, Amy, and Alyssa attended the “How Burke Funds Projects” session. It was very interesting to see how Kelsea Kenzy Sutton and the Burke community have continually strived to build and grow Burke as well as the kinds of funding they were able to obtain in order to assist in the projects.

The next session that many from the Wagner group attended was the Farm Life Creamery: Blending Rural Tourism, Education, and Community Impact. It was a great session presented by Laura Klock of Ethan. Klock shared a lot about her business, including how they first began their business of making cheese, how they have expanded, some of the obstacles that the business has had to overcome, and advice to other business owners.

Among the last two breakout sessions were the keynote speaker’s session, which gave more details about building small towns businesses through entrepreneurship. The final session attended by all the Wagner representatives was Capitalizing on Who You Are, which was presented by Freeman newspaper owner/editor, Jeremy Waltner. He spoke of the history behind Schmeckfest and the South Dakota Chislic Festival, both native to and held in Freeman. He spoke of how the first year of each was kind of an epic failure. Instead of giving up, the community persevered and proceeded to grow them into the exciting events that bring people from far and wide to their little town of Freeman.

Overall, it proved to be an informative conference and each of the Wagner representatives left with new and interesting ideas that will hopefully take shape in our own community over the course of the next few months.