| The summit will begin on Oct. 6 with a tour of the Castle Valley Outdoors. |
The second annual Castle Valley Economic Summit will be held in Castle Dale on Oct. 6 and 7 at the Museum of the San Rafael. Workshops will also be held in the county building. The summit will begin with a tour of the Castle Valley Outdoors on Oct. 6. They will meet at the Museum of the San Rafael at 4 p.m. for a bus ride to the ranch near Moore. After a tour of the ranch a barbeque will be served and cowboy poetry and music will be presented.
On Oct. 7. the day will begin with registration and breakfast from 7-8 a.m. From 8-9 a.m. will be the breakfast keynote speaker, Gayle McKeachnie from Gov. Jon Huntsman’s office. From the museum, participants will breakout into sessions which will focus on tourism and customer service, seven habits of successful farmers and ranchers and entrepreneurial opportunities in gas, oil and mining. This session will be followed by a break. A second breakout session after the break will include: tourism and public land use, saving the family farm by marketing, not selling, and entrepreneurial opportunities in government contracts. After the breakout session the group will return to the museum for lunch and the keynote speaker, Rhett Roberts.
After lunch, the local session will convene with local businesses presenting their business with some information on its operation Locals will include: Pro Rehab, Hatt’s Pheasant Ranch, Green River Coffee, Rising Sun Horse Ranch, Loveless Ash, Nielson Construction, Star Theatre and Extreme Automotive.
Presenters at the breakout sessions include: Donna Law from the Cedar City Shakespearean Festival, Jay D. Olsen, farm and ranch manager for Snow College, John Baza, director of the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, petroleum engineer who leads efforts in the areas of petroleum, coal mining, and mineral mining along with reclamation work, Val Payne, public land policy analyst, Doc and Connie Hatfield from Oregon County Beef will present their ideas for staying on the farm and being profitable doing so, Daryl Bosshardt will speak on opportunities in government contracts.
Anyone interested in local business and opportunities to expand and grow should attend the summit. Valuable information will be presented to help further entrepreneurial endeavors in the area. Cost of the summit is $20 which includes the breakfast and lunch. The ranch tour is a separate fee of $15 which includes a steak dinner. Call 381-5576 to register for the summit or just register at the door on Oct. 7.
The Economic Development Council is excited to bring two businessmen to speak at the breakfast and lunch sessions. Gayle McKeachnie primarily practices in the areas of business, governmental law, and natural resources law. Gayle lives and practices in rural Vernal, making him uniquely