The eighth annual MarketPlace rural entrepreneurship conference will be held at the Nielsen Community Center in West Point, Nebraska on Tuesday, February 11, 2014. The conference will offer training, networking, and professional development opportunities for startup and existing small businesses, service providers, rural communities, and family farmers and ranchers.

“We greatly appreciate receiving this grant. MarketPlace is making a difference helping small rural businesses improve their bottom line and expanding their businesses. One small rural business adding one or two new jobs has an impact in rural Nebraska. This grant allows this kind of growth to continue,” said Kim Preston, with the Center for Rural Affairs and MarketPlace organizer.

According to Preston, “Our work with small rural-based businesses has resulted in starting over 10,000 new businesses throughout rural Nebraska. Our MarketPlace event draws small rural-based business owners, those who want to start a small rural-based business and has traditionally drawn a good number of high school students.

“MarketPlace was worth $10,000 to me in the first hour alone! I am sharing that information with by brother too, so it might have been worth $20,000 to my family,” commented Allen (Steiny) Steinmeyer owner of Steinys General Store in Lyons, NE. Steinmeyer has attended several MarketPlace conferences throughout the years.

MarketPlace is an event focused on energizing small businesses and rural communities. The conference features strong, hands-on learning opportunities for potential and existing farm, ranch, home-based and store front business owners, as well as community leaders and young people interested in entrepreneurship.

This year’s conference is loaded with breakout sessions covering marketing, agriculture, financing, community development, social media, business development, innovation, youth, and policy.

A day full of educational and interactive sessions will include a networking luncheon that will feature produce sourced from local farms and businesses.

MarketPlace will also feature an exhibit hall filled with successful small business men and women, service providers and other valuable resources. Attendees will be able to meet these folks throughout the day to ask questions, gather information, make connections, network and gain exposure to key customers and unique businesses.

For more information on MarketPlace and a look at this year’s program or to register, visit: http://www.cfra.org/marketplace/ne-14.

Those interested in an exhibit booth or sponsorship information should contact Kim Preston, kimp@cfra.org or (402) 687-2103 ext. 1008.