DMA Power Hour – Small-Scale Manufacturing as Growth Catalyst

Join this discussion to learn about how we can flip the model on economic development and do it in a better way. One that invests in people and places. One that focuses on action now and not just long-term plans. This conversation will show you how to build a strong and resilient economy through concrete steps to include all types of talent in your entrepreneurship efforts, why (and how) to focus on small-scale manufacturing businesses as a catalyst, and how new real estate models for main street (and downtown) can be essential to your success.

Author and Speaker: Ilana Preuss – Founder of Recast City, and author of Recast Your City: How to Save Your Downtown with Small-Scale Manufacturing (Island Press, 2021). Preuss works with local leaders, real estate developers, city and other civic leaders to integrate space for small-scale producers into redevelopment projects and place-based economic development through its premier program, Recast Leaders. She is passionate about making great places and sees that small-scale manufacturers are a missing piece to local success. Over the past 10 years, Recast City has worked with 184 communities in 44 states and the District of Columbia to revitalize their downtowns and strengthen local economies through small-scale manufacturing.

Featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Governing Magazine, and Next City, Ms. Preuss is a dynamic speaker. See her TEDx presentation, “The Economic Power of Great Places.”  She has also given keynote speeches at planning, main street, and downtown conferences and at national conferences with the International Economic Development Council and Main Street America.