Blue Ridge Rising Two-State Summit II (July 8-10, 2025) | The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center, Curio Collection by Hilton
Cultural Experiences
Blue Ridge Rising Two-State Summit
Join fellow residents and regional leaders from the 29-county Blue Ridge Parkway corridor July 8-10 in Roanoke, Va., to discover new ideas, hear the latest updates and progress reports, learn about upcoming grant programs and other plans, and make new connections as we continue to work together to advance the
Blue Ridge Rising
Action Plan. Representing tourism, economic development, outdoor recreation, planning, nonprofits, and the general public, attendees will connect with people from all across the Blue Ridge Rising area to foster regional unity and growth. We look forward to seeing you there!
Event Sponsors and Supporters
We wish to recognize and thank our many event sponsors and other supporters for making the 2025 Summit possible: C.W. and Dorothy G. Love Foundation,
Soloviev Foundation
,
Appalachian Regional Commission
,
First Citizens Bank
,
Mast General Store
,
Visit Virginia's Blue Ridge
,
Hotel Roanoke
, and
Red Orange Studio
.
Keynote speaker Ta Enos (and book preorder below):
Ta Enos is a writer, mom, and founder and CEO of a regional nonprofit that is helping to revitalize the rural Pennsylvania Wilds region through intentional place-based outdoor recreation development. A fourth-generation native of Warren County in the Pennsylvania Wilds, Ta has worked on the movement for close to two decades and loves what she does. Her memoir,
PROUDLY MADE: A Story of Reinvention in the Big Woods and Small Towns of the Pennsylvania Wilds
is being released in June for Great Outdoors Month under Sunbury Press’ Catamount imprint, which focuses on Northern Appalachia.
Prior to founding the nonprofit PA Wilds Center in 2013, Ta served as the PA Wilds Small Business Ombudsman for five years, helping entrepreneurs in rural PA connect to resources and leverage the region’s public lands and growing visitation. Before that, she helped her sister build an
outfitting business
in the Pennsylvania Wilds.
Ta has been recognized nationally for being on the cutting edge of rural development. She and her team at the PA Wilds Center are building models for asset-based development that have been recognized nationally. Ta has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Public Communications from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Prior to moving home to Pennsylvania in 2006, she spent ten years as a news reporter and editor in Alaska, writing for the
Anchorage Daily News, Anchorage Press, Dutch Harbor Fisherman, Bristol Bay Times
and other publications, earning writing awards from the Alaska Press Club and the Society for Professional Journalists.
Ta and her husband are raising three boys on sixty-five acres in the PA Wilds.
Book preorder:
Sunbury Press now has the book available for pre-order. Now through the end of July, folks can use code BRR2025 for 20% off all Sunbury titles, including PROUDLY MADE.
https://www.sunburypress.com/collections/all-books/products/proudly-made?variant=43291051884637
If folks buy the book ahead of time, Ta will be happy to sign them at the summit. We will also be selling books on site, but at full price, not 20% off.
Host Hotels
: The entire summit (other than the pre-summit field trips) will take place at Hotel Roanoke in Roanoke, Va.;
please use this link
to access our room block there. We have also arranged discounted room blocks available only through these links for
Holiday Inn Express & Suites Roanoke Civic Center
and
Comfort Inn Roanoke Civic Center
. All room blocks are available for the nights of July 8 and 9, and the special pricing is available through June 6, 2025, so don't delay!
Information Source: Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation | eventbrite