A Busy October for Defiance County Economic Development

This past month has been full of wonderful opportunities to connect with business partners, network, make new connections, and elevate Defiance County on a local, state, and even global level. I would like to highlight just a few of the many opportunities I was able to be a part of this month!

The photo to the left, taken 9/30/26, is from Decked's Builder's Day. This event celebrated and recognized the skilled trades. They brought in Mike Rowe (YES! THAT MIKE ROWE!) for a Q&A on this topic, which was a fascinating opportunity to hear him speak. Decked featured a viewing of their new documentary series "The Backbone of Everything: A Skilled Trades Story" with the team behind the film series. Watch Episode 1 here.

The group photo to the right, taken 10/8/26, is from this year's annual Ohio Economic Development Association's conference. Can you find me this group photo?! Northwest Ohio had a strong showing! This is the largest economic development conference in the country with over 620 registered participants! This year's conference was held in Downtown Dayton. The days were packed with tremendous speakers, educational breakout sessions, and so many opportunities to connect with economic development professionals and business partners. Defiance County was recognized for our work on the First Quality project as one of the top projects across the state!

The left photo, taken 10/15/26, is from the Intelligent Community Forum Global Conference held in Dublin, Ohio. The Defiance area community was recognized as a Smart21 Community of the Year. Mayor Mike McCann, City of Defiance, and Dr. Agnes Caldwell, Defiance College, were selected to represent Defiance on a panel during the conference. Read more about this honor in our previous blog post!

The last photo, taken 10/22/26, was from the Advanced Manufacturing Summit at Bowling Green State University. This was another great day to hear from business leaders, educational partners, and college students regarding advanced manufacturing.

It is an honor to show up each and every day, in big ways and small, to highlight Defiance County and all the great things that are happening here!

Cara Boehm

Director of Business Development & Marketing