NADO Innovative Finance Retreat - Cooperstown, New York
**By Invitation Only**
May 2 – 4, 2010
NADO and DDAA will be bringing together 20-30 regional and local development practitioners and professionals with significant experience in business development finance and economic development. The forum will focus on three main issues:
(1) What are the current barriers and opportunities for making substantial improvements to existing federal business development finance programs, including EDA, USDA, HUD, SBA and ARC?
(2) What are the noteworthy practices, trends and innovations of regional and local intermediaries who manage federal business development finance programs?
(3) What new tools, programs and policies are needed at the federal level to ensure regional and local business development finance intermediaries have the organizational, programmatic and professional expertise, capacity and knowledge to be more effective resources for entrepreneurs and business leaders?
The results of the event will be used by NADO and DDAA to develop training, research and other professional development tools to advance the work of regional planning and development organizations in the area of business development finance. In addition, we plan to share our findings and recommendations with federal policy makers and agency officials.