Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 8, 1994 TAG: 9411080088
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The idea behind it: "We're trying to get people to think how telecommunications can help them," said Daria Dittmer, a regional planner with the New River Valley Planning District Commission.
The meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the college's Richardson Auditorium in Rooker Hall.
The past three Community Vision 2020 meetings have seen participants break up into huddle sessions to brainstorm on topics such as education, leadership and the all-important economic development. This year's meeting will take a different tack, with explanations of technology's role in communicating information about the valley.
Speakers include Robert Templin, president of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology. The center was established a decade ago to help businesses and universities work together to develop high technology. Last week a government reform commission, looking for ways to cut costs, suggested that the center be abolished.
The Planning District Commission will demonstrate its multimedia - read "computerized" - version of the economic adjustment strategy it has been working on for more than a year to help the valley's employment base survive defense cutbacks.
The commission, which has been working off $197,800 it was awarded by the Department of Defense last year to prepare the strategy, hopes to tap into a $25 million fund administered by the U.S. Department of Labor to help educate, retrain and improve the job-hunting skills of workers.
Also, a representative of Virginia Tech will talk about telecommunications opportunities in the the valley, and specifically about the Blacksburg Electronic Village, an experiment set up by the university, the town and Bell Atlantic to establish a network of computer users with access to a wealth of information in the worldwide computer network called the Internet.
Tom Wilkinson, director of distance education and learning resources at New River Community College, will talk about the college's electronic classroom capabilities, which allow it to transmit classroom lectures around the state, or bring in programs from around the country or overseas to educate workers, economic developers, business owners and managers. The college has evolved into a primary retraining center for workers who have been laid off by major industries.
by CNB