NWBDC Founder Don Sidlowski was one of a small handful of regional leaders invited to serve as a facilitator at the Small Town Downtown Forum conducted in Luck, WI (Polk County) on Friday, September 19. Sidlowski facilitated the roundtable on economic development, placing special emphasis on small towns using broadband expansion and adoption as a means of job creation, growth and retention. “Having a robust broadband infrastructure in your community in no way guarantees success in economic development”, said Sidlowski “but without it you don’t stand a chance of recruiting and retention, not when employers and workers can simply choose the nearby community that has invested itself in getting the job done”. Small towns have unique issues and needs that are often very different from those of larger communities. These forums are intended to bring together those serving and working in and with communities of populations fewer than 1500 to learn from each other through case studies, roundtables and discussion groups. The forums are financially underwritten by the USDA Rural Development Department (USDA-RD), Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), the University of Wisconsin Extension (UWEX) and the Wisconsin Rural Partners (WRP) among others such as NWBDC who support the effort by offering pro bono professional consulting assistance.