13th Ports-To-Plains Conference

Join us in the Black Hills of South Dakota for the 13th Annual Ports-to-Plains Conference

  

You are cordially invited to attend the 13th Annual Ports-to-Plains Conference scheduled for Sept. 8-10, 2010 at the place where our Alliance Partners, Heartland Expressway and Theodore Roosevelt Expressway connect - Rapid City, South Dakota. Texas Department of Transportation is co-hosting this year's event again and further demonstrating their confidence and commitment to the Ports-to-Plains Alliance.

 

Make your travel plans to be in Rapid City on the morning of September 8 for a pre-conference tour and then later that evening (5 p.m.) we will travel together to the Black Hills of South Dakota (23 miles) to have a reception and dinner with Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln and visionary leaders of the Ports-to-Plains Alliance at inspirational Mount Rushmore.  There will also be an evening spent in historic Deadwood, an old mining town where attendees will have a money making (or losing!) opportunity at the casinos.

 

Kathy Ruffalo will kick the conference off at Mount Rushmore by sharing the role of rural communities in shaping the next Transportation Reauthorization bill.  Kathy is a lobbyist for NADO on rural transportation issues. More importantly, she is a former senior staffer for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for Chairman Max Baucus and she served on the National Surface Transportation Finance Commission last year.  She also served as transportation advisor for Governor Kempthorne in Idaho. 

 

Hear what the Ports-to-Plains Alliance is doing to look out for rural America in the next transportation reauthorization and learn more about opportunities involving tourism, energy, and agriculture. Farmer, rancher, and radio host Trent Loos is confirmed as keynote speaker during the conference and has a passion for spreading the word about the many positive things in production agriculture. Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer with a passion for the rural lifestyle.

 

The conference will conclude at noon on Friday, Sept 10.