A presentation by Bill Coleman (Community Technology Advisors) at the 2013 FTTH Council Annual Conference

1. Mobilizing Community Collaboration to Drive Demand
Bill Coleman, Community Technology Advisors

2. Learning Objectives
• Learn how to:
– Create linkage between a provider's market
development plan and community goals
– Convene community leaders around
broadband-based community economic
development and vitality
– Build community support for a proposed or
existing FTTH network

3. Melding best practices from 30 years of
broadband and economic development
• Blandin Foundation Minnesota Intelligent
Rural Communities Project
• Intelligent Community Forum Framework
• Art of Hosting
• MN Star City Program
• Nortel Networks Integrated Community
Networks

4. Minnesota Intelligent Rural
Communities Project (MIRC)
$4.8 million NTIA Sustainable Broadband Adoption Grant
$6.0 million total project investment
Partners:
University of Minnesota Extension, State Workforce Centers, MN
State Colleges and Universities, PCs for People, MN Renewable
Energy Marketplace, 9 Regional Development Commissions and
11 Demonstration Communities

5. B
R
O
A
D
B
A
N
D
KNOWLEDGE
WORKFORCE
INNOVATION
M
A
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DIGITAL INCLUSION
Intelligent Community Forum Framework

6. Documented MIRC Outcomes
• Broadband adoption growth rates 15% higher
than comparable rural communities
• Communities improving their Intelligent
Community benchmarks by an average of
15% in just 18 months
• Businesses improving their use of web and
social media technologies by ____% in one
year

7. THE OPPORTUNITY
Creating synergy between a provider’s market development plans
and the community’s development goals

8. “What we have is a failure to communicate!”
“What’s a gigabit? More
importantly, what time is
Cool Hand Luke?”
“Don’t they know how much
I’ve invested in FTTH?”

9. Market Development = Community Development
Provider Marketing Plans Community Development Plans Linkage
Sell high bandwidth and
value added services to
businesses
Help transform existing and new
businesses to be globally
competitive
Tech savvy businesses
are positioned to
succeed and grow
Sell high bandwidth and
value added services to
community institutions
Ensure that schools and
hospitals are community assets
to help to attract new residents
Well connected
institutions deliver
world-class services
Increase broadband
penetration to 100%
Ensure that everyone is
connected for full community
and economic participation
Digital inclusion
expands market and
enables community
innovation.
Invest in a growing
market
Retain and attract new residents
and businesses
Quality broadband is a
marketable asset

10. Four Stage Process
Continue
and repeat
Project
implementation
Planning
Preparation

11. Preparation
• Recruit community champions
• Leverage market development funds
• Engage the community
• Establish partnerships with shared
interests

12. Recruit Community Champions
• Key actors
– Chamber of commerce
– Community/regional foundation
– Economic development
– Health care
– Not-for-Profits
– Schools
– Senior groups
– Social services
– Workforce services
• Key concepts
– Enlightened self interest is OK
– Shared control of process will be required

13. Leverage Market Development Funds
• Commit to a community broadband budget for
project development
– Cash
– Broadband and other services
• Community matching commitment
– Cash
– Project support
– Staff support
• Seek additional funding commitments
– Community, regional or state foundations
– Regional or state agencies and organizations

14. Engage the Community
• Create a steering team
• Recruit local organizations
• Use their language, not yours
• Establish your network as the game-
changing asset for the community
• Get people thinking and talking about your
network and the community opportunity

15. Recruit Those with Shared Interests
• Computer sales, networking and support
• Web and app developers
• Regional networks
• Wireless carriers
• Equipment vendors
Enlightened Self Interest Drives Participation!

16. Planning
• Use Intelligent Community Framework
• Identify community needs
– Benchmark on Intelligent Community and/or other
data points
– Use other community/regional studies and plans
– Community input
• Use facilitation to set goals and desired outcomes
– Based on benchmarking, plans and input
• Project development
– Brainstorming
– Prioritizing through voting and commitment
– Project teams established

17. Providers must tolerate the groan zone!

18. Project possibilities
• Digital inclusion projects
• Wi-Fi Hotspots
• 1 : 1 student devices
• Home health care monitoring
• Computer/internet training
• Workforce online training for
key industries
• Community healthy activities
online portal
• Expanded GIS use
• Technology user groups
• Social media use
• Business accelerator
• E-commerce training
• Community portals
• Web sites
• Mobile app development
• Flipped classrooms
• Community video streaming
• Community hackfests
• Social media breakfasts
• Government online apps
• Senior citizen online coffee
and book clubs
• More!

19. Project implementation
• Project teams develop activities/budgets
with other committed resources
• Projects submitted to broadband fund
board/advisory committee for ranking and
funding decisions
• Selected projects funded and implemented
• Other projects seek other funding or revise
projects to fit existing resources

20. Continue and repeat
• Document and promote success stories
• Continue to cultivate community ideas for
technology use
• Continue to seek funding –
local, state, federal and foundation – for
technology projects for the community and
region
• Be seen as the community partner

21. Market Development = Community Development
Market Development
• Brand
– Community partner
– Quality network and service
• Relationships built via soft
sales environment
• Sales opportunities
– Connectivity
– Equipment
– Services
• Community now acts as
extended sales staff
Community Development
• More broadband use
• More sophisticated
technology use
• Increased tendency to
see broadband
technology as a problem
solving tool
• Community now has a
“culture of use”

22. Scale
• Flexible
• Implemented in a variety of geographies
– Rural regional centers
– Countywide
– Five county economic development region
– Indian reservations
• Untested
– Urban centers
– Neighborhoods

23. Budget and business case
Expenses
Item Cost
Community
Broadband Fund
$25,000 - $100,000
Community
Facilitator/Coach
$5,000 - $10,000
Meeting Expenses $1,000 - $5,000
Total $31,000 - $115,000
Revenue
• Driven by:
– Faster growth in residential take
rates
– Greater revenues from
community anchor tenants
– Revenue sharing with for-profit
vendor partners
• Experience
– *In rural MN, each 1% increase
in take rates yields $3 million in
annual revenue to providers.
– Take rates in MIRC communities
increased 15% faster than other
rural communities

24. Critical Concepts
• “Go slow to go fast!”
• “When you have seen one community, you have
seen one community”
• Enjoy the low-hanging fruit sales opportunities
• Process accelerates existing tech plans
• Opportunity + funding facilitates collaboration
• Digital illiteracy exists at many levels
• Sales opportunities are at the back of the
room, not the front

25. Discussion
• Contact
– Bill Coleman
• Community Technology Advisors
• bill@communitytechnologyadvisors.com
• www.communitytechnologyadvisors.com
• 651-491-2551
• Key online resources
– http://broadband.blandinfoundation.org
– www.intelligentcommunity.org