Rural Strategies Lab

The Colorado Tourism Office’s (CTO) Destination Blueprint Program is an 11-month program that provides tourism planning and implementation support for Destination Marketing/Management Organizations (DMOs). This program serves a wide range of partners across the state with various tourism planning needs - from communities in the initial stages of exploring the tourism economy to established destinations reassessing their tourism marketing and management strategies, and destinations taking the next step on priorities identified during their first Destination Blueprint Program or other planning efforts. (Applications open May 5, 2026)

Apply for the Destination Blueprint Program

The Rural Technical Assistance Program (RTAP) aims to revitalize Colorado’s rural economies by leveraging their local outdoor recreation opportunities through the OREC Rural Technical Assistance Program. RTAP partners with graduate students from the Masters of the Environment (MENV) program at CU Boulder, CSU Extension, and the US EPA’s Recreation Economy for Rural Communities (RERC) program to provide planning and strategy assistance for outdoor recreation and Main Street development in selected rural communities.

Express your interest in applying

Call Yourself Creative is a do-it-yourself program that helps communities organize successful Colorado Creative Districts. This online program is free of charge, self-paced, and open to anyone who wants to develop and sustain creative communities and districts. The three stages in the process help you align, connect, and activate your community.

Apply for Call Yourself Creative

The Global Business Development Bootcamp is a half-day or full-day workshop delivered in communities requesting support. The program is intended to help local partners connect with our work at the State of Colorado, build regional profiles and a Business Retention and Expansion plan, and identify opportunities for business attraction.

In practice, the individuals participating in this will already be familiar with the Rural Ready curriculum, explaining why economic development is critical to the success of the community. The takeaways there are that Market Studies, RFI Readiness, and State connectivity/Incentive familiarity are essential components for building a BRE program. This workshop will be a day of programming where GBD will conduct a deep dive into these BRE pieces.

Desired Outcomes

1. Align the regional economic profile understanding between the local economic development organization and the State.
   1. Key demographics and workforce indicators.
   2. Industry Strength and Growth Opportunities.
   3. Gaps or constraints impacting business attraction.
2. Identify business attraction and expansion opportunities.
   1. Target industries and companies.
   2. Supply chain opportunities.
   3. Alignment with state priorities and programs
3. Improve readiness to engage with OEDIT on business recruitment.
   1. Understanding incentive programs.
   2. RFI readiness and best practices.
   3. How to partner effectively with state teams
   4. Understand how the state can engage with this community more effectively

Agenda

1. State Overview
   1. Intro to our office and different teams in OEDIT.
   2. SIC Proactive Focus.
   3. Did you know? Video
2. S&A Regional Economic Profile Discussion
   1. GBD will create an Economic Profile for the region we are visiting that identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) based on inputs from local partners and OEDIT’s own market analysis.
   2. Data to include:
      1. Residents, Residents over 15, Labor Force (count), Labor Participation Rate, Employed (count), Unemployment rate.
      2. Population Centers Map.
      3. Industry Breakdown: NAICS 2-digit industry (job count, industry density, growth relative to nation, LQ).
      4. Company and Asset list.
   3. Discussion:
      1. What are we missing from this picture?
      2. Recent wins?
      3. Ideal target description, what the community would like the state to advocate for.. Etc.
      4. We will invite discussion of what our data says and how the community views itself.
   4. Co-Develop SWOT for the Region.
      1. Market Study - Bring in Expert on how this is done - deep dive.
3. Leveraging State Incentives and Use Cases - Business support to AI, STEP and EZ to JGITC, CITCO, others (presentation)
   1. Case Studies for each of our programs, how the lead came to us, how they worked with the local community, and how they benefited from the program.
   2. Company testimony.
   3. Brainstorm with locals for businesses within their region that could benefit from these programs.
4. RFI Readiness - Presentation and testimony from other CO community (NoCo)
   1. Working with Companies and Site Selectors Best Practices - Try to reach out to Rural Growth Strategies for testimony/content.

Sign up for the Rural Strategies Lab: Global Business Development Bootcamp

Engage your community and neighboring counties in an action planning session to understand how to identify and leverage existing resources, co-develop business-led talent goals, and connect with local partners as an “easy button” to enhance existing effort through this opportunity.

The Colorado Context & Rural Opportunity

• The Stats: Colorado ranks 5th nationally in labor force participation (67.8%), but rural growth requires local focus.
• Leveraging Data: Primary Employers by County & Colorado Future Jobs.
  • Understanding the demographics and data locally.
• The Shift: Moving from being "exporters" of talent to becoming "hubs" for innovation.

Hire Colorado

• The Model: Scaling the success of programs like "Boulder Hires Buffs" into a "Hire Coloradans/Hire Local" framework.
  Local Connectivity: Identify existing collaborators in each county, community colleges,  BOCES, workforce centers, chambers and EDOs, connections between communities, workers, and local business owners.
• Strategy, Skills-First Hiring: How AI and Robotics are being applied in autonomous ag-tech, drone-based infrastructure inspection and AI-assisted healthcare sectors.

Future-Proofing: AI & Rural Innovation

• Tech in the Field: How AI and Robotics are being applied in sectors—autonomous ag-tech, drone-based infrastructure inspection, and AI-assisted healthcare.
• Innovation Examples:
  • Opportunity Now: Rural examples and why these are innovative/effective.
  • Rural Tech Hubs: Lessons from Durango (SCAPE) and statewide (SCALE) on building a high-wage tech ecosystem in a rural setting.

Action Plan: Using Data to Lead

• Talent Market Signals: Using state data dashboards to identify exactly where jobs and supply gaps exist in your specific community.
• What we learned from regional Summits?
  • Engaging local stakeholders (School Boards, Chambers, Commissioners) to address the "Foundational Four": Workforce Training, Housing, Transportation, and Childcare.
• Action Planning: Build a business/industry/education/workforce team and identify SMART goals/priorities.
• Collaborating: Support business and industry partners for advanced and foundational industries.

Sign up for the Rural Strategies Lab: Talent Innovation