Keeping you informed

We’re excited to be out and about both in the rural and online too, and we want to make sure you can find us too.

Poster

The Glasgow World Community Development Conference accepted our 10 Year Survey of Rural Challenges poster as one of only 16 poster sessions for their event starting June 30! If you find yourselves in Scotland, check it out. And if you’d like to include us in a poster presentation for your event, let’s talk about it!

Deb Brown Schedule

July 2026, Community Engagement for Community Economic Partners, Dumfries, VA I’ll be visiting with residents, businesses and organizations about their ideas for tourism.

August 10-11, 2026 Keynote Network Kansas KEYS Summit

Designed to inspire, connect, & equip communities & entrepreneurs across Kansas. Keynote: Filling Empty Buildings

September 2, 2026, San Juan County Economic Development, Utah Innovative Rural Business Models Webinar for San Juan, Utah Chamber members, recording to be placed in their resource library.

September 24-25, 2026 Growth Spark Summit

Southern Palmetto Chamber & Foundation, South Carolina

Keynote: Shaping What’s Next A people-centered approach to shaping what’s next for your towns—tourism, downtown revival, new businesses, and more. Workshop: Idea Friendly Projects

October 23-24, 2026 Minnesota Brownfields Conference

Headed to Rochester, MN to Keynote at the Brownfields Conference

Keynote: You Can’t Just Wait for Someone to Show Up

National Travel Center and Community Economic Partners Organization:

I’m on the board for NTC and assisting with the

Moshannon Valley, PA Project travel in November
Morris County, NJ Project
Upcoming project with Travel Nevada

I am currently booking November and December 2026, as well 2027 keynotes and visits. Let’s have a conversation about your event or idea!

Deb in front of Dreamland (the original location) in Tuscaloosa, AL.

“I had some pretty darn good BBQ after teaching BRE at the University of Alabama Community Development Institute!”

Becky McCray Schedule

This fall’s schedule looks like this:

Community meeting, Greater Salina Community Foundation, keynote on the Idea Friendly Method, Kansas, August 27, 2026

Rooted & Rising: Rural Forum, Compeer Financial, keynote speaker on the Idea Friendly Method, Owatonna, Minnesota, September 14-16, 2026

Teeny Tiny Town Summit, Northwest Oklahoma Alliance, keynote on Filling Empty Buildings, October 20, 2026

Rural Renewal Symposium, Oklahoma State University, October 27-28, 2026I have a couple of other inquiries pending in Oklahoma and Kansas for August.

I’m also gearing up for our next round of the Survey of Rural Challenges, which will open for responses this fall. We’ll keep you posted!

Becky touring the Pendleton factory in Pendleton, Oregon.

And did we mention books?

Check out our two books on our Idea Friendly Method:

From Possibilities to Reality: Save Your Small Town by Deb Brown – your graphic workbook, full of repeatable recipes to choose from and try right away, available in paperback. The Burney, CA, Book Club is on fire, creating all kinds of beautification projects using the book. There are 16 book clubs right now!

The Idea Friendly Guide by Becky McCray – your guide to understanding the Idea Friendly Method and putting it into action, available in ebook, paperback, and large print

Ask about the discount for book clubs and other group purchases! It only takes 5 copies to start.

Rural Strong Podcast

We’ve partnered with the Rural Strong podcast, hosted by Joe Barker, to be regular monthly guests. July’s topic is Small Business Support, and August’s is Childcare.

Look for us on the first Monday of each month, and add Rural Strong to your favorite podcast subscriptions. Here’s the link to Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2dwg1pcuZRmUPaBRkGXqa3
Here’s the link to Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ruralstrong/id1853878133

Want to invite us to speak on your podcast? We’d love to!

Find Us on Medium

We’re sharing more stories at Medium at Small Towns, Real Ideas. John C. Shepard submits stories as well. Come on over and check it out!

Rural Action Cohort – community builders and entrepreneurs, together in one cohort.

Have you heard about the Rural Action Cohort? We’ve partnered with Andrew Button from MashUp Lab and we tell you all about it here: https://learnto.saveyour.town/webinar-rural-action-cohort

You can reach us at:

Becky@SaveYour.Town or Deb@SaveYour.Town