Discovery Workshops

• Visit each CFDC region and conduct discussions with community leaders from that region to determine the most pressing rural economic development issues.
• Build relationships between academics and community decision-makers.

Business Cases

• Fourth-year business policy students will work with successful rural businesses to produce business cases that analyze three businesses from each of the 15 EO CFDCs.
• Business cases will be distributed by CFDCs to clients to aid rural business people.

Knowledge Syntheses

• Graduate business students will write five-page practical pieces on topics unveiled in the discovery workshops.

Rural Business Consulting Projects

• Queen’s Business Consulting Group (QBC) will provide consulting services for 15 rural businesses in Eastern Ontario.

Best Small and Medium Enterprise Surveys

• The Queen’s Centre for Business Venturing (QCBV) will invite companies to participate in the Best Small and Medium Enterprise (BSME) in Canada study, which will provide companies with feedback to help adjust their organizational practices and improve employee engagement.

Rural Community Knowledge Hub 

• An internet site will be developed to provide a social space for academics and community members to exchange ideas.
• As well as, it will contain a library of documents to assist academics, entrepreneurs and policy makers. Documents will include summaries of academic literature, the knowledge syntheses and business cases, and how-to documents such as business plan outlines and financial planning spreadsheets.

Conferences

• Annual one-day conferences will be held for researchers, graduate students, economic development professionals, rural business people, and community representatives.