MDF’s 46th Annual Meeting & Champion Awards Celebration

How are individuals, businesses, and communities making Maine a magnet for young workers & their families? Join us for MDF’s 46th Annual Meeting & Champion Awards Celebration and find out! This year’s event is a breakfast festivity and will serve as a kickoff to the 2024 Magnetize Maine conference, hosted by Uplift LA in conjunction with MDF’s Realize Maine Network.

During our Annual Meeting, MDF will present the Champion of Rural Economic Development Award (celebrating an outstanding effort to promote economic development in Maine) and Champion of Education & Workforce Development Award (honoring an organization that invests in people and the development of workforce opportunities, and demonstrates continued investment, innovation, and commitment to excellence).

Register

We are thrilled to partner this year with Magnetize Maine, a statewide conference now in its 6th year and hosted by one of the regional chapter groups who make up MDF’s Realize Maine Network. This year’s conference is hosted by Uplift LA, and will run 9am-5pm – we hope you will stay the whole day and participate in Magnetize. The Magnetize opening remarks will include the presentation of MDF’s inaugural Dirigo Rising Young Professional Award to recognize a young professional in Maine who has demonstrated exceptional leadership and dedication to strengthening the state’s economy and/or their community with efforts to attract and retain young people in Maine. You can find more information and register for Magnetize here.

Agenda: Friday, September 13, 2024

7:00 – 7:30 amRegistration and Breakfast
7:30 – 7:50 amWelcome & CEO Plenary Remarks
7:50 – 8:00 amAnnual Business Meeting
8:00 – 8:25 amChampion Awards
8:25 – 8:30 amWrap-up & Transition to Magnetize Maine Conference

Thank you to our lead sponsor:

Thank you to our event sponsors:

Thank you to our Champion of Education and Workforce Development Award sponsor:

Thank you to our Champion of Rural and Economic Development Award sponsors:

Thank you to our Dirigo Rising Young Professional Award sponsor:

Thank you to our partner sponsors:

Thank you to our supporter:

MDF’s 45th Annual Meeting & Champion Awards Celebration | “Aspire: Unlocking the Potential of Maine to Thrive and Prosper”

How are individual Mainers, businesses, and communities working to ensure each of us can achieve what we aspire to? How have these efforts helped you realize your dreams and full potential during the past year?

Join us for a celebration of leaders, businesses, and communities who are driving more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable economic improvement across Maine.

Agenda: Wednesday, September 27, 2023

7:30 to 7:45amAlumni Breakfast registration opens & breakfast available
7:45 to 8:55amAlumni Breakfast program
9:00 to 9:20amAnnual Meeting registration opens, continental breakfast
9:20 to 9:30amWelcome, Opening Remarks & President’s Award: Yellow Light Breen
9:30 to 9:55amKeynote Speaker: Charlie Hewitt, Artist, The Hopeful Project
9:55 to 10:30amCEO Plenary Remarks & MDF Business Meeting
10:30 to 10:40amCoffee Break
10:40 to 11:10amMDF Board Chair Remarks & Table Speeches
11:10 to 11:50amAwards
11:50am to 12:45pmLunch Buffet & Networking
12:45 to 1pmClosing Remarks: Yellow Light Breen

Alumni Breakfast

In addition to the traditional networking and connecting with classmates while sharing a meal, we will be joined by Julia Trujillo-Luengo, State of Maine Economic Development Plan Implementation Director. She will present the key points from the 10-Year-Economic Strategy Progress Report 1 (2020-2022) and gather Alumni input:

  • Which actions do you still consider most relevant and important in today’s economy? Why?
  • Which supplemental actions can enable systemic changes and opportunites across all or some strategies?

Keynote Speaker

Charlie Hewitt is an American painter, printmaker, sculptor, and public artist. His works are part of the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, New York Public Library, and Library of Congress, among others. He has also been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Hewitt is renowned for his fearless approach in the studio and all aspects of life. Learn more at www.charliehewittstudio.com.

Champion Awards

We will continue the MDF Annual Meeting tradition of honoring individuals and organizations with our Champion Awards:

Register Now!

as·pire / verb:

one’s hopes or ambitions towards achieving something

Thank you to our sponsors:

Lead Sponsor:

Keynote Sponsor:

Lunch Sponsor:

Business Media Sponsor:

Other Sponsors:

Board Training: The Four Point Approach

This is the second of two Board Trainings offered annually by the Maine Downtown Center. Please join us to dive in deep to the Main Street Four Point Approach: Promotion, Economic Vitality, Organization and Design. This is the work that our Main Street, Affiliate, and Municipal organizations are implementing at the local level. We encourage groups to participate in the training together. Please register to receive the ZOOM link for participating in real time or to receive the recording to view later.

Thanks to the generosity of Kennebec Savings Bank, the Maine Downtown Center is able to offer $50 participation stipends to downtown leaders and volunteers from Augusta, Gardiner, Hallowell, Brunswick and Freeport. The stipend of $50 is meant to allow participants to attend more fully by receiving a stipend to use for a babysitter, take-out dinner because you are not able to cook that night, or generally to allow more people to participate in this training. More info is available in the registration form.

Strength in Community: MDF’s 44th Annual Meeting & Champion Awards Celebration

How do you define community? How have fellowships – whether they be place-based, affinity-based, or goal-oriented – helped you navigate the challenges and opportunities of the past year?

com·mu·ni·ty / noun a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.

Join us for a celebration of leaders, businesses, and communities whose efforts have benefited entire commnuities, inspired economic resilience, and furthered progress toward equity and inclusion.

Keynote Speaker

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Dr. Gabriela Alcalde, Executive Director, Elimina B. Sewall Foundation. Gabriela is a public health leader with 20+ years of experience and commitment to equity and social justice. Gabriela joined the team of the Sewall Foundation as Executive Director in the summer of 2019 and in this capacity leads the integration of environmental, human, and animal health and welfare as the foundation works to center equity and community voices in all of their work and strategies.

We will continue the MDF Annual Meeting tradition of honoring individuals and organizations with our Champion Awards:

Download the 2022 MDF Annual Meeting Program here

Thank you to our sponsors: