UNC-TV Hosts Rising Town Hall Meeting for Western North Carolina

Become a Part of the Regional Solution, Wednesday, November 4!
JOIN LOCAL EXPERTS DISCUSSING WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & INDUSTRY DURING UNC-TV’S NORTH CAROLINA RISING TOWN HALL MEETING FROM THE UNITED ARTS CENTER OF CATAWBA COUNTY IN HICKORY, NC

Amid unprecedented changes in our state’s economic landscape, UNC-TV’s North Carolina Rising project examines the challenges and opportunities facing rural regions in our state and how their successes affect all North Carolinians.

As the culmination of the North Carolina Rising project, UNC-TV invites you to participate in a topical town hall meeting Wednesday, November 4, from the United Arts Center of Catawba County in Hickory, NC.  Participants are asked to arrive no later than 7:30 PM. This town hall event will be broadcast live, at 8 PM, on UNC-TV.

Register today to join the live, town hall audience at www.unctv.org/ncrising/townhalls.html or to submit a question to our panelists.

Moderated by UNC-TV’s Director of Production, Shannon Vickery, the event will feature an interactive dialogue among expert panelists, representing local leadership in education, policy and industry, and viewers like you. Experts scheduled to participate, include: H. DeWitt (Dee) Blackwell, Jr., Executive Director, Western Piedmont Council of Goverments; Mike Dugan, Chair, Charles M. Snipes School of Business at Lenoir-Rhyne University and author of The Furniture Wars, How America Lost a $50 Billion Industry; Lew Ebert, President and CEO, North Carolina Chamber of Commerce; Anita Brown Graham, Director, Emerging Issues Institute; and Dr. Garrett Hinshaw, President, Catawba Valley Community College. Topics for discussion will include the future of this area’s manufacturing and furniture industries, as well as recent regional challenges and opportunities.

“UNC-TV is excited about conducting these regional town hall meetings. For more than a year, UNC-TV has focused on the challenges and opportunities rural communities are experiencing as the state's economy continues to change,” says Vickery.“In this final part of the North Carolina Rising project, we are looking forward to hearing from state and community leaders and North Carolina residents about the economic trends they are seeing first hand in communities across the state. I invite all North Carolinians to get involved in this very important conversation.”

The fourth, and final, North Carolina Rising television town hall will occur at East Carolina University, and will be broadcast live, Wednesday, November 18, at 8 PM.

UNC-TV also encourages you to join the statewide conversation online. Visit the North Carolina Rising website (www.unctv.org/ncrising) to share your comments, questions and details about your own economic development projects. Or join our community on Facebook, (www.facebook.unctv) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/unctv) to post your thoughts, inquiries and opinions on the state of North Carolina Rising.

UNC-TV’s North Carolina Rising project is funded by the Golden LEAF Foundation, a nonprofit corporation created in 1999 to receive one-half of the funds coming to North Carolina from a master settlement agreement with cigarette manufacturers. In turn, the Foundation is helping North Carolinians make the transition from a tobacco-dependent economy through grants and investments that will positively affect the long-term economic advancement of the state. Golden LEAF gives priority in its grantmaking to tobacco-dependent and economically distressed counties.

For more information about these shows and other programming on UNC-TV’s family of stations, visit www.unctv.org. A unique partnership of public investment and private support makes UNC-TV’s programming possible. As North Carolina’s only statewide television network, UNC-TV remains committed to producing and broadcasting programs for and about North Carolina, making it the state’s most important source of information about North Carolina.

—UNC-TV—