As development of Marcellus shale natural gas grows in Pennsylvania and New York, businesspeople are being invited to a series of breakfast seminars to learn how it may create opportunities for their businesses.  Energy firms are flocking to the region to extract natural gas from Marcellus, and are creating significant business opportunities for local businesses and entrepreneurs.

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tioga and Chemung Counties are hosting a series of educational webinars entitled ‘Your Business & Marcellus Shale’ to help entrepreneurs and established small and medium sized businesses understand and respond to Marcellus shale-related business opportunities. The series will consist of five weekly early morning webinars, with sessions including how businesses can establish working relationships with natural gas and service companies, how other businesses already are responding, and business planning skills necessary to evaluate and implement possible new business ventures.

In response to interests from stakeholders in the Greater Elmira and Tioga areas, this educational program is brought in collaboration with the EDA University Center at Cornell and Pipeline4Progress.  The series is also co-sponsored by a consortium of universities, chambers of commerce, local planning commissions and regional economic development boards, with leadership from Penn State Cooperative Extension.  Presenters and panelists will include successful local businesses, a natural gas industry representative, and experts from Penn State.

The first four 90-minute sessions meet on Wednesdays beginning at 8am on Oct. 14, Oct. 21, Oct.28, and Nov. 4.  In observance of Veteran’s Day, the final session will be held on Tuesday Nov. 10.

Date

Session Topic
Wednesday, October 14,  8:00 – 9:30 am The Economic Implications of Marcellus Shale (Timothy Kelsey, Penn State University)

  • What is Marcellus
  • Dollars involved
  • Royalty income coming into the community
  • Economic & community implications
Wednesday, October 21,  8:00 – 9:30 am Identifying local business opportunities, and working with the industry (Tom Murphy, Penn State Universi; Janice Lobdell & Mark Scheuerman, Fortuna)

  • Potential opportunities & examples
  • How to make connections with the gas industry (companies & contractors)
    • Who do I call?  Is there a buying dept or supply chain?
Wednesday, October 28,  8:00 – 9:30 am Success Stories – Successful Examples of Business Opportunities

(Jon Laughner, Penn State University; Lester Greevy, Lester Greevy and Associates; Tom Charles, Charles Construction Company, Inc.; Bob Borch, Hampton Inn)
Wednesday, November 4,  8:00 – 9:30 am Preparing Your Business for Success  - Small Business Planning for Marcellus Shale (Mark Douglass, Jon Laughner, Jeff Hyde, Penn State University)

  • Business planning overview
  • Role of business planning
  • Identifying & evaluating opportunities
  • Market research
  • How to decide – can I handle this?
Tuesday, November 10,  8:00 – 9:30 am Your Business Working with Others

(Jeff Lorson, Penn College; Walt Whitmer, Penn State University)

  • Entrepreneurial communities
  • Workforce implications
  • Main Street & other collective responses

How to register:

Register by phone at 607-687-4020.

CCE Tioga is located on 56 Main St. in Owego.  Each session begins promptly at 8:00 am with a short question and answer period following the presentation.

There is a fee of $5.00 per (live webinar) session.