Main Street America and Wyoming Business Council Host Virtual Workshop for Wyoming Makers

Cheyenne, Wyo. (May 2021) – Main Street America and the Wyoming Business Council will host virtual workshops dedicated to supporting Wyoming’s small businesses and craftsmen from May 25 to 27, 2021. Make Wyoming: Growing the State’s Small-Scale Producers, Makers, Artists, and Artisans is free thanks to support from the USDA.

Across Wyoming, entrepreneurs and small business owners are engaged in making, producing, and growing unique products. The Make Wyoming workshop will present trends in consumerism and small business development that attendees can use to further scale their businesses locally, regionally, and nationally. In addition, each of the three days will focus on a core topic including E-Commerce, Exploring Wholesaling, and Retail Readiness.

“The pandemic has resulted in major economic shifts in Main Streets across the country, including a rise in entrepreneurship and small-scale production,” said Main Street America’s Chief Program Officer Matthew Wagner, Ph.D. “Small-scale manufacturing is a powerful tool for local economic growth and a great way to tie opportunity to place. I’m thrilled that we’re able to support these types of growing businesses in Wyoming through the Make Wyoming workshop.”

Featured sessions at the workshop include:

• Trends for Small-Scale Producers, led by Matthew Wagner from Main Street America
• Getting and Growing Online for Small Scale Producers, led by Beyond Main
• Business to Business: Exploring Wholesale, led by 37 Oaks
• Direct to Consumers: Retail Readiness, led by Gadiel Group

The conference builds off Made on Main, a pilot initiative from Wyoming Main Street, a program of the Wyoming Business Council. Launched in 2019, the Made on Main program aimed at placing small manufacturers and producers in vacant downtown spaces to enhance entrepreneurship and business diversity in downtown Wyoming communities.

"Supporting small-scale manufacturing is an opportunity to help realize the goal of diversifying Wyoming's economy," said Linda Klinck, Program Manager for Wyoming Main Street. "Making use of under-utilized building space can be the perfect place for startups. Many downtowns and communities have buildings that might be a good fit. Learning about the resources available at Make Wyoming is a great start"

The workshops will be recorded for future viewing and will be housed on a website focused on additional resources for small-scale manufacturers. Learn more and register here.

ABOUT MAIN STREET AMERICA

Main Street America has been helping revitalize older and historic commercial districts for 40 years. Today it is a network of more than 1,600 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, Inc., a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. For more information, visit mainstreet.org.

ABOUT THE WYOMING BUSINESS COUNCIL

The Wyoming Business Council is the State of Wyoming’s economic development agency. Since its establishment in 1998, WBC has been entrusted with helping to overcome Wyoming's most persistent and difficult challenge: developing a diverse economy. The Council is focused on creating new opportunities for current and future generations of Wyomingites by adding value to Wyoming’s core industries and leveraging them to activate new economic sectors. The vision is to realize diverse, broad, and lasting growth so that Wyoming can prosper no matter the economic climate or status of individual sectors.