The following was originally printed in the April 16th edition of the Herald Dispatch (www.herald-dispatch.com).

Huntington will host a growing conference this fall that focuses on improving West Virginia’s economic conditions and standard of living.

The 2009 Create West Virginia conference will be in town Sunday through Tuesday, Oct. 18-20. Much of the conference will take place at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena, although some activities are planned at locations throughout downtown.

West Virginia Public Radio’s “Mountain Stage” also is tentatively scheduled to open the conference with a concert at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center.

About 500 people are expected to attend the conference, said Jeff James, Create West Virginia’s chairman.

The mission of Create West Virginia is addressing how the state can build a creative community, James said. That means fostering a community that embraces creativity, innovation, technology, research, diversity and the arts, he said.

Create West Virginia’s two previous conferences have been conducted at Stonewall Jackson Resort and Snowshoe Mountain Resort. James said Huntington was chosen for this year’s conference because of growing interest in Create Huntington, the local equivalent of the statewide group.

“Huntington wasn’t on our radar until members of Create Huntington approached us at last year’s conference and encouraged us to give them a shot this year,” James said. “The more we thought about it, the better it sounded.

“We are taking our conference and immersing it in a community that is transforming itself using the very principles that we are promoting. We think it’s a fantastic idea.”

The conference consists of seven sessions ranging from education to technology to diversity and inclusion. At each session, participants hear from nationally renowned experts and from local officials who have had success with the creative community concept.

“You can walk away with some real tangible tips about how to make this happen in your own community,” James said.

The Cabell-Huntington Convention and Visitors Bureau helped Create Huntington bring the conference to town, though it wasn’t easy.

Create West Virginia was worried that the Big Sandy Superstore Arena didn’t have enough space to host the conference, said Tyson Compton, president of the Cabell-Huntington CVB. The conference needs enough space for seven meetings that run concurrently and have up to 100 attendees each. The arena can host only three or four of those meetings, Compton said.

Rather than give up, Compton said he turned the weakness into a strength.
 
“They wanted to have the conference in Huntington because it’s quickly becoming a living, breathing example of a creative community,” he said. “So we figured it would make sense to take some of the various breakout sessions and spread them throughout the downtown.”

That’s why some of the meetings will be at the Marshall Hall of Fame Cafe, Funny Bone Comedy Club and the Palms. The conference also might conduct a session in a vacant storefront, Compton said.

In addition to giving the downtown an economic boost, the conference could help propel Create Huntington to a new level, Huntington resident Thomas McChesney said.

“This new energy will give our group and our local leaders the ability to envision what this community can become,” he said. “It also gives us a deadline to finish some of our projects so we can demonstrate our accomplishments.”

About six months ago, McChesney organized a weekly roundtable discussion called Chat ‘N Chew. The meetings, which are held in the lobby of the Frederick Building, allow residents to brainstorm community projects ranging from a dog park to community gardens to a citywide recycling program.

“How the conference came here should in and of itself be a lesson,” he said. “Quite literally, it was a group of regular citizens who took the initiative to ask Create West Virginia to strongly consider Huntington. With the help of Tyson Compton, we were able to put a great pitch together.

“That’s the embodiment of what a community can do with a little bit of vision and hard work.”