Statewide participation is new element of this week's GrowSmart Maine 2020 Summit

Photo / Maureen Milliken Stevens Commons, in Hallowell, is one of the six sites of this year's GrowSmart Maine 2020 Summit.

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By Maureen Milliken

GrowSmart Maine's 2020 Summit Thursday will have two of the features it's known for — two keynote speakers who have a dialogue with the audience, and "city experience" walking tours.

But it will also have one that makes it largely different from past summits — aside from its Zoom option, it will be held at six locations, with breakout sessions that focus specifically on regional issues and draw in more participants from the far corners of the state.

"Accessibility has definitely increased with the satellite locations," said Nancy Smith, GrowSmart Maine executive director. In fact, the new feature brings such an added dimension to the state conference, which focuses on development, that it will likely stay when the traditional format returns post-pandemic, she said.

She said that participants can still expect "the two unique components" that the summit has featured. The keynotes with audience conversation, as well as the city experience walking tours, which offer a way for participants to get out of their seat and see development concepts in action.

"We've all been in conferences with windowless rooms," Smith said. "This gives people the chance to see smart growth outcomes."

The conference is from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, and registration to attend online is open until 1 p.m. on Oct. 21.

Because the conference is half-day, instead of a full day, there will be an added session Thursday, Oct. 29, to recap regional breakout sessions.

Six locations, many perspectives

All the locations have attendance limits to conform to the state's COVID-19 guidelines, but Smith said there is still room for walk-in participants at each site. The primary location, the Pepperell Mill in Biddeford, was the site of last year's event. Other locations are:

Northern Maine Development Corporation, Northern Maine Community College, Presque Isle;
Eastern Maine Development Corporation, Jeff's Catering, Bangor;
Sunrise County Economic Council, Machias;
Kennebec Valley Council of Governments, Stevens Commons, Hallowell;
Snow Pond Center for the Arts, Sidney.

Biddeford participants will, like last year, have the choice of several city experience tours that look at different development topics.

The Hallowell city experience will be a tour of Stevens Commons, the former state school for girls and, later, a state office campus that is being redeveloped by Mastway Development, of Hallowell. In Sidney, participants will tour the Snow Pond Center for the Arts, the historic home of the New England Music Camp and, more recently, the Maine Arts Academy and $6 million worth of renovations and development on its 175-acre campus.

Smith said that the Bangor, Presque Isle and Machias tours will depend on the participants and how familiar they are with the area. There will be a GrowSmart Board of Directors member at each location, some of whom requested locations they're not familiar with, she said. Other participants, too, may be traveling to see a part of the state they'd like to know more about.

Before the walking tours, there will be breakout sessions at each location to discuss how home rule in regards to smart development applies in that area.

"It's an opportunity to talk about regional versus home rule and what it means in their part of the state," Smith said. GrowSmart Maine partnered with regional planning commissions for the location-specific portion of the program, and breaking the conference down into regional discussions is an opportunity provided by the pandemic that gives the conference an extra, valuable dimension, she said.

Online participants who didn't have a location preference are assigned randomly to breakout sessions, giving them a chance to listen to specifics of an area they may not know much about.

Local control roots, specifics

The full group will participate in the keynote addresses, which take both a long view of local control in Maine, as well as look at specifics of it.

The addresses are by journalist Colin Woodard and Anthony Flint, a senior fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Woodard will talk about "Home Rule in a former Massachusetts colony: The roots of local control in Maine and how it’s shaped our past, present and future." Flint's topic is "A symbiotic view of regionalism and local control."

The audience participation portion with the two speakers will be moderated by Jeff Levine, former Portland and urban development and now a lecturer on economic planning and development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Smart Growth Awards, another traditional element of the summit, will be presented during lunch after a 12-minute video about the winners created by GrowSmart Board Chair Ethan Boxer-Macomber.