On September 15, 2008, Google Inc. will make an appearance at a conference in Nashville, featuring Downtown McMinnville (my hometown) in their presentation. Here’s the scoop, straight from Main Street McMinnville:

Downtown McMinnville will once again take center stage as an example of how they have utilized the power of Google’s 3D technology and software to put themselves on the map.  The Governor’s Conference on Economic and Community Development brings together as many as 600 private industry leaders, non-profits, chambers of commerce, development organizations and government officials from rural and and urban areas from across Tennessee to learn about downtown, industrial and community development.

Technology giant, Google, Inc. will attend the conference for the first time and will likely dominate the discussion regarding Internet-based tools to promote and develop business districts, industrial and retail locations and cities.  Using Downtown McMinnville as the example as well as Nashville, Google will present how rural McMinnville, Tennessee used 40 volunteers to create a 3D rendition of their downtown using Google SketchUp modeling software and Google Earth. Later attendees will be able to visit the Google booth to see more about how they could do the same as McMinnville.

Credit goes to Brad Kaplan of Capalano’s for sending me the story.