FARMINGTON — Norway was recognized as an Outstanding Maine Downtown Network Community on Friday during the 12th annual Maine Downtown Conference at the University of Maine at Farmington.

Biddeford was named the Outstanding Main Street Maine Community and Augusta was recognized as an Outstanding Maine Downtown Network Community.

More than 300 town leaders and business people from across the state gathered for a day of sessions and speakers at the conference. The theme was Innovation Meets Main Street.

Norway and Rockland were recognized for an outstanding special or retail event. The Mellie Dunham Shoe and String Festival earned Norway the award, and the Lobster Trap Tree was the basis for the Rockland award.

Other awards went to Waterville, Eastport, Bangor, Portland, Bath and Machias.

The awards followed a presentation by Doug Hall, author, inventor and founder of Eureka! Ranch International. The goal of Eureka! Ranch is to develop “systems for creating, communicating and commercializing meaningfully unique ideas,” according to its website.

Students in Hall’s Innovation Engineering course at the University of Maine are told they are put on earth to make a difference and leave a legacy, Hall told conference participants.

“Change the part you care about,” he said.

Innovation, transformation and change were keywords used throughout his message. He encouraged more leadership to transform and move forward at a quicker pace. It’s not the worker, it’s management that can make changes, he said.

“The world has changed. Things are going faster and we haven’t kept up. We need to turbo charge,” he said. 

Fear and delusion are factors that short circuit growth, he said.

Hall, originally from Portland, consults internationally. In 2009 he started giving back to his alma mater by teaching Innovation Engineering at UMO.

Roxanne Eflin of Maine Development Foundation’s Downtown Center, Theodora Kalikow, president of UMF, and Richard Davis, Farmington town manager, welcomed participants. Along with sessions there were walking tours around downtown Farmington.

Volunteers from Farmington Downtown Association were recognized for their work to host the conference on the “greenest” campus of the UMaine system, Eflin said.

The conference is sponsored annually by the Maine Development Foundation’s Downtown Center and hosted by towns across the state.

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