QUINSTATE CONFERENCE WILL CENTER ON RIVER

"Mississippi River Your avenue to A Global Community" will be the theme of the 10th annual Quinstate Economic Development Conference to be held at the Show Me Center April 2-3.

Participants in the conference will have an opportunity to visit the Southeast Missouri Port Authority and Missouri Dry Dock and Repair Co.

The river will also be the subject of a number of speakers on the two-day program.

Allan Maki, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Port Authority will discuss "Rollin' on the River."

The April 2 dinner speaker Mark Twain will discuss "Life on the Mississippi by the Year 2000 and a Little Bit `O' the Past."

"Tourism: River Related," will be discussed by a three-person panel comprised of Lyn Muzzy, Cape Girardeau Convention Visitors Bureau director; Judy Stough, assistant director of tourism, Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism; and Bill Kommer, mayor of Metropolis, Ill., site of a future river gambling boat operation. Judge James Everett, executive director of Disaster and Emergency Service, Frankfort, Ky., will serve as moderator.

"River People" sessions, with panelists Woody Rushing, pilot-owner, Rushing Marine Corp., Cape Girardeau; Bill Bush, Corps of Engineers; and Jack L. Bauri, commander, Marine Safety Office, Paducah Coast Guard, Paducah, Ky.

Many other speakers will be on the program during the event, co-sponsored by Cooperative Extension Services of five states Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee; local chambers of commerce throughout the region; Southeast Missouri State University; Union Electric Co.; North Central Region Center for Rural Development; and Southern Rural Development Center.

Registration for the event will be held at 12:30 April 2, at the Show Me Center. Robert Hendrix, president of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, will preside at the plenary session, which starts at 1:30 p.m. Kala Stroup, president of Southeast Missouri State University, will welcome the group. Other afternoon speakers April 2 include Maki and Henry Jones III, president of the Greater Jonesboro, Ark., Chamber of Commerce.

The group will tour Missouri Dry Dock and the port starting at 3:30 p.m.

Dinner will be provided at the Riverview Banquet Center starting at 7:30. Entertainment will be by "Whitey and Slick" and "Mark Twain."

Registration gets under way at the Show Me Center at 8:30 a.m. April 3, with the plenary session to start at 9:30.

Rick Sparks, business and industry specialist with Missouri University Extension, Jackson, and Rhonda Vinson, a member of the Delta Commission, will be morning speakers the second day.

Abner Womack, marketing specialist, University of Missouri-Columbia, will be noon luncheon speaker. He will discuss "European Community '92 World Markets"

The Economic Excellence Award will be presented during the luncheon.

Two concurrent sessions will be presented during the morning of April 3.

"A Natural Highway," a discussion on exports and imports, will be conducted by panelists Trent Roberts, Little Rock, Ark., executive director of the Arkansas Soybean Association, and Joe Gambill, plant manager of Biokyowa, Inc., Cape Girardeau. William Taylor, assistant extension agent at Dyersburg, Tenn., will serve as moderator.

Another session, "International Marketing Center," will be moderated by Phil Kelley, community development specialist of Missouri Extension at Bloomfield. Panelists include Michael R. Reed, executive director of the center for Ag Export Development at the University of Kentucky; Charles Sloan, director of the marketing division, Arkansas Industrial Development Commission, Little Rock; and Robert H. Neuston, president and general manager, Illinois World Trade Center Association, Springfield, Mo.

Three concurrent sessions are scheduled during the afternoon of the second day, including the "Tourism" and "River People" panel discussions. A third panel discussion will be "From Waste to Raw Product," with James R. Peachey, extension agent from Jonesboro, Ark., as moderator. Panelists include Bruno Jasinski, president, United Resource Recovery, Jonesboro, Ark., and Norris Johnson, process engineer-control room supervisor, Lone Star Industries, Cape Girardeau.

The conference was held in Jonesboro, Ark. in 1991.

Additional information on the event is available by contacting the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce at 335-3312.