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Telling rural tech's story: How three ecosystem leaders reshape narratives of innovation
Cities like Boston and San Francisco are the typical places associated with the term tech hubs, but rural communities are doing just as much innovation — without the recognition.
At 2025 Builders Conference panel 'Innovation is Everywhere: Storytelling Strategies for Emerging Markets,' three leaders from the National Science Foundation's Regional Innovation Engines and US Economic Development Administration Tech Hubs programs discussed how they tell the stories of their communities to build up their tech ecosystems.
Each of the panelists leads a federally backed tech initiative focused on regional strengths: mining in Missouri, agriculture in North Dakota and sensing tech in Montana. These hubs are part of a broader national push to diversify where innovation happens.
For regions like North Dakota, the ecosystem simply has a different strategy for innovation, said Hollie Mackey, CEO of the North Dakota iAgriculture Technology Engine. The natural move is to center the communities that have been around for generations, specifically Indigenous communities, and foster cross-cultural understanding.
'Our story has never been polarization. It's never been silos. It's always been cooperation,' Mackey said. 'We can take everything we know about agriculture and the technologies and innovations embedded from time immemorial and apply those to cutting-edge research and technological advances today, to build something much better together.'
Montana's story tells itself, said Tim VanReken, who leads the Headwaters Tech Hub in Montana. The nicknames 'Big Sky Country' and 'the Last Best Place' set the scene for what people will find in the state and what the land opportunities are. For innovation, it's a great place to test technologies in a rural setting and to find people who innovate, he said.
'Folks roll up their sleeves and solve problems; they make things work,' VanReken said of his region. 'It's part of that frontier spirit that's been there for generations.'
Meanwhile, in southeast Missouri, the challenge isn't just perception — it's historic baggage. Kwame Awuah-Offei, who leads the Critical Minerals and Materials for Advanced Energy Tech Hub, said community opinions of the project are often based on the successes and failures of other mining projects.
Because it's associated with new jobs, 'mining over here is not a bad word,' Awuah-Offei said, describing what one resident told him. However, some conversations about mining often involve a 'history of broken promises.' You have to engage locally and be honest about the risks, he added.
Different communities within a region all contribute perspectives
For Mackey, framing the agtech engine in North Dakota as an 'emerging' ecosystem misses the point.
'We have five, six, seven generations of farmers in our communities who have been innovating long before startups and entrepreneurs and founders were concepts that we celebrate as innovation today,' she said.
Her approach begins with tribal and rural voices — not with founders or scientists from elite institutions. That is the starting point for innovation, she said.
'We go to the communities first and say, 'How can we solve real, actual problems you have? How can we do that through cutting-edge research and providing the resources necessary to be successful?'' she said. 'Then we capture that story in a number of ways.'
VanReken described how 'old Montana versus new Montana' is a bigger tension in the state than the rural-urban divide, especially in fast-growing cities like Bozeman. Navigating that challenge requires consistent conversations with residents.
'It's being present and letting people know they matter to what you're trying to build,' he said. 'Their perspectives, their problems, their livelihoods, their economic mobility matter to what you're trying to build.'
Innovation is tied to place in emerging ecosystems
As these tech hubs grow, their stories must evolve — not just for national audiences, but internally, as they balance competing voices and build inclusive narratives.
Awuah-Offei pointed out that even within his 14-county tech hub, communities worry about resources being concentrated in university towns like Rolla. Despite this conflict, they all have the same goal.
'They all want the same thing. They all want the rest of the world to see the potential and the opportunity we see in our region,' Awuah-Offei said. 'We're all interested in telling that story so that we all benefit.'
What all three leaders agreed on: storytelling in emerging ecosystems is about embedding innovation in place and making the case for local relevance.
'We have to build stories that have an argument, to make it worthwhile, show that we bring something to the table that you don't find elsewhere,' VanReken said. 'We connect our place to what we have to offer.'
