{"id":12744,"date":"2025-04-30T14:02:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T18:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/?p=12744"},"modified":"2025-04-30T14:02:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T18:02:50","slug":"maryland-department-of-housing-and-community-development-announces-2025-main-street-maryland-conference-location-theme-and-dates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/2025\/04\/30\/maryland-department-of-housing-and-community-development-announces-2025-main-street-maryland-conference-location-theme-and-dates\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Announces 2025 Main Street Maryland Conference Location, Theme and Dates\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The conference will return for its second year, in Downtown Easton\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>EASTON, MD (April 30, 2025) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2013 Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary Jake Day today announced that the Town of Easton has been selected as the host of the 2025 Main Street Maryland Conference. The theme of this year\u2019s conference is, \u201cGreat Places Win: Powering People, Places and Possibility.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe Main Street Maryland Conference is a unique platform for local community leaders and economic developers to come together to learn more about how we can support a growing Maryland \u2013 specifically by investing in our historic centers,\u201d<\/span><b> said Secretary Day<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u201cThe Town of Easton is a prime example of the payoff of that investment, and I\u2019m so excited to recognize them as the host of this year\u2019s conference.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The conference, hosted by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and the Maryland Economic Development Association (MEDA), will be held on Tuesday, October 7 and Wednesday, October 8, 2025, in Downtown Easton, which features a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">central theater and distinct breakout spaces to allow for a diverse agenda of engaging panels, sessions, and activities. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Easton Main Street, which was one of the first Maryland Main Streets to be designated at the start of the program in 1998, was selected through a competitive application process open to each of the 34 designated Main Streets across the state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe Town of Easton is honored to have been chosen as the host of the 2025 Maryland Main Street Conference,\u201d <\/span><b>said Easton Mayor Megan Cook. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe are thrilled to have this opportunity to represent Maryland&#8217;s Eastern Shore; and to share the storied history, vibrant culture, and local flavors of Easton with our fellow Main Street Maryland partners as we gather together to educate and inspire each other. Fall can&#8217;t come soon enough!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The department\u2019s first-ever Main Street Maryland Conference was held in 2024 in Downtown Frederick, drawing a crowd of over 400 Maryland Main Street managers, community development partners, local government leaders and more. The conference serves as a space for stakeholders to converge in recognition of Maryland\u2019s beloved Main Streets and the warm, authentically local experiences cultivated in them<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This year\u2019s theme, \u201cGreat Places Win: Powering People, Places and Possibility,\u201d builds on the department\u2019s priority to create lovable places. The conference activities will highlight the importance of Main Streets as community anchors and economic engines for the State of Maryland.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Easton is honored to host the 2025 Main Street Maryland conference! Conferences like this play a crucial role in the ongoing success of the Main Street initiative,\u201d<\/span><b> said Executive Director of the Easton Economic Development Corporation and Easton Main Street Manager Holly DeKarske.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u201cIt\u2019s essential for us to celebrate our victories while also sharing our challenges, as this helps us learn from one another. Together, we can foster growth and nurture the next generation of Main Street leaders, paving the way for vibrant downtowns and thriving communities.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Main Street Maryland, a program of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development\u2019s Division of Neighborhood Revitalization, strives to strengthen the economic potential of Maryland\u2019s historic main streets and neighborhoods. Since 1998, the program has leveraged more than $1 billion in public and private investment and assisted in the development of more than 4,000 new small businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For more information on Main Street Maryland, visit<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/mainstreetmaryland.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">its website<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The conference will return for its second year, in Downtown Easton\u00a0 EASTON, MD (April 30, 2025) \u2013 Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary Jake Day today announced that the Town of Easton has been selected as the host of the 2025 Main Street Maryland Conference. The theme of this year\u2019s conference is, \u201cGreat<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/2025\/04\/30\/maryland-department-of-housing-and-community-development-announces-2025-main-street-maryland-conference-location-theme-and-dates\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":12745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,295,20,26,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-development","category-day-trip","category-main-street-maryland","category-neighborhood-revitalization","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12746,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12744\/revisions\/12746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}