Teeny Tiny Summit – Picton - May 1, 2025

We are thrilled to announce the 2025 Teeny Tiny Summit series, themed "Engage and Energize – Empowering Teeny Tiny Places" taking place on May 1st in Picton.  

Teeny Tiny Summits offer community economic development that works for small places including practical examples and tools that can be adopted to small communities as well as share lessons learned from leaders in small communities. Teeny Tiny Summits are your chance to learn from expert volunteers and active community leaders while networking with like-minded individuals who share a passion for small rural places. Whether you are a community leader, a volunteer, a community economic developer or an entrepreneur, the Teeny Tiny Summit is right for you.

Keynote speaker Peter Kenyon, a renowned community enthusiast and social capitalist from the Bank of IDEAS, Australia will speak on “Growing a Sense of Community as Your Community Grows.”  

Peter Kenyon will discuss how to grow the sense of community by exploring how we can engage, energize, and empower through locally driven development actions:

1. Continually growing and diversifying local leadership and capacity
2. Fostering a positive and can-do mindset
3. Actively encouraging healthy community behaviours related to inclusion, conversation, engagement and collaboration
4. Encouraging asset, idea and opportunity obsession
5. Developing community wow-factor
6. Enhancing lifestyle options related to housing, childcare, recreation, education, health, retail services and staying local
7. Creating an environment that supports local-based employment, enterprise and economic development 

The workshop will focus on these seven actions, providing community builders with the necessary principles, frameworks and tools to drive community change.

Community leaders will be sharing on topics will including Getting to Rural Affordable Housing, Nourishing Neighbourhoods: Ensuring Food Security in Small Towns, Downtown Dynamics: Breathing Life into Small Town Centres, Cultural Chronicles: The Role of Storytelling in Attracting Visitors and Strengthen Community.

To learn more and register, visit https://www.thecounty.ca/teeny-tiny-summit-2025/.

Register Here

Peter Kenyon, Director of the Bank of IDEAS, has over 40 years of experience in community and economic transformation. Peter is passionate about small rural town reinvention and has worked with over two thousand rural communities to spark their own ideas and invest in building sustainable economic futures. He has hosted the National Rural Aid ‘Small Town Reinvention’ national webinar program, lectured in graduate ‘Rural Entrepreneurial Development’ units, coordinated the “Community Builders” grassroots leadership program across Australia, formulated 200+ small town ‘Community Action Plans,’ and authored 25+ publications in the fields of community, enterprise, and youth development.

Teeny Tiny Summits started in 2016 as a forum to share practical examples, lessons learned and community economic development tactics. Teeny Tiny Summits have been held in every region of the province and attracted more than 3,000 attendees both in person and virtually. Teeny Tiny Summits are a partnership the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA), the Ministry of Rural Affairs, and our host community of Prince Edward County.