Professor Jessica Shoemaker organized and moderated an extended session, "Governing the Land: Maximizing Rural Places Locally and Globally," at the Rural Futures Conference in Lincoln in November. The conference had 540 people from around the world attend. The highly interactive session incorporated the expertise of scholars from abroad, including work from the international Office of Economic Cooperation and Development's Rural Working Group, as well as regional experts on topics ranging from energy development to water concerns, land use planning to natural resource management.