The 2021 Rural Summit featured Granville County in its recent virtual conference, designed to discuss and share policy actions, education and successes with advocates for rural issues.

“The Secrets of NC’s Down-Home Tycoon” featured Granville County native Pratt Winston and Harry Mills, the county’s economic developer. The two Granville county men joined writer Billy Warden to discuss the intersection between entrepreneurship and living in a rural area.

During the 45-minute featured session, the three discussed various topics with a panel of facilitators, including conducting business in a rural area. “They asked what I thought about rural living and (whether) you can do business in a small town,” Winston said Thursday. “And I said ‘absolutely’ you can.”

The session began with a video clip and other pictures highlighting Winston’s life and business career. Although he lived for a few years in the New York suburbs and commuted to the city, Winston said there’s no comparison between there and Granville County. “For one thing, you don’t have to fight a whole lot of traffic” to get to work, he said.

“It really is an interesting story,” said Mills, of Winston and his decades-long career which includes work in far-flung areas across the world and the invention of a quirky looking radio that has maintained somewhat of a cult following since it first appeared on the scene in the early ‘70s.

Warden wrote a story about Winston’s storied career that appeared in the September 2020 issue of Our State magazine. Find the story at https://www.ourstate.com/a-space-age-oddity/

The Rural Summit, a production of NC Rural Center, was held virtually this year. Mills said the summit is just one way to show those who live in more urban areas just what rural areas offer.

In describing the workshop, the agenda stated that Winston is “arguably North Carolina’s most colorful business success you’ve never heard of –and a living testament to the vibrancy and potential of rural entrepreneurship.”

Being an entrepreneur in a rural community may not be that different from being an entrepreneur in a more urban area – it’s really just depends on the individual, Winston noted.  He added that what he hoped listeners, especially young people, learned from him telling his story is to have a goal, and then get about the business of accomplishing it.

“We’re no different (than anybody else),” Mills said. “We just reside in Granville County.” Increased exposure outside the immediate area tends to attract more people to visit and maybe to relocate. The NC Rural Center’s mission is “to develop, promote, and implement sound economic strategies to improve the quality of life of rural North Carolinians.” The Rural Center serves the state’s 80 rural counties, with a focus on communities with limited resources and low- to moderate-income individuals.

Highlighting rural areas, he said, can have multiple effects. In addition to noting the positives, it also sheds light on what rural areas need “and what we should have,” Mills noted.

According to information from the NC Rural Center, about 700 people from 85 counties across the state – from 12 US states and even one international participant – attended the three-day event.

See more online – https://www.ncruralcenter.org/advocacy-and-research/advocacy/rural-summit/