Rockingham County Wins Governor’s Innovative Small Business Community Award

Wentworth, N.C. (November 16, 2011) – Rockingham County is among a select few recipients of the inaugural Governor’s Innovative Small Business Community Award. The Rockingham County Business & Technology Center (RCBTC) was the project submitted to the North Carolina Department of Commerce for the award. Started in 2005, the RCBTC has created a group of business counselors providing free mentoring to entrepreneurs, partnered to develop a community kitchen food incubator and a virtual farmers’ market, secured $1.4 million to capture landfill methane for conversion to electricity, expanded broadband access, leveraged university partnerships and offered virtual incubator services to area entrepreneurs. It is this growing portfolio of economic development work focused on entrepreneurship and technology that led to the award.

The Rockingham County delegation attending Governor Beverly Perdue’s awards ceremony on Monday included Commissioners James Kallam, Keith Mabe, Harold Bass and Tommy Flynt, Interim County Manager Ben Neal, e-NC Authority Executive Director Jane Patterson, Cooperative Extension Director Brenda Sutton, Reidsville Area Foundation Executive Director Craig Cardwell, RCBTC Technology Coordinator Jon Jones and RCBTC Executive Director Mark Wells. “This is a great honor for the work of the Center and especially for the vision of those who created it over six years ago,” said Wells.

About the Rockingham County Business & Technology Center:

The RCBTC is an e-NC Authority Business and Technology Telecenter designed to create an entrepreneur-friendly, technology-enabled environment in Rockingham County. The RCBTC helps entrepreneurs learn how to plan, start and grow businesses, while making sure they understand how to use technology to be competitive in today’s global marketplace. For more information call (336) 342-7853 or visit www.rockinghambusiness.org.