Brent Graden, the Director of Economic Development for the City of Prestonsburg, recently received a prestigious award from Government Technology Magazine for "Most Innovative Use of Technology" for the 2008 Technology Awards in Kentucky. The awards ceremony is held in conjunction with the 2008 Kentucky Digital Government Summit.

"This is an outstanding award because is comes from your peers" says Brent Graden. "It also promotes the City of Prestonsburg in the best spotlight possible, too."

Graden, in conjunction with the city council and Mayor Jerry Fannin, decided to pursue increased economic development with the use of technology. It was determined that they would make the entire downtown completely wireless for free. However, the price tag seemed high at first. "That's when we discoved Meraki and found that we could cover two linear miles for under $8500." says Graden. In just over 15 weeks, the network has experienced over 2800 unique users and has downloaded over 315 GB of data. It has also helped Graden to recruit new business into the downtown. In the future, Graden hopes to build a downtown Technological Business Park and a new local government web site. "Connectivity is the key because today's global economy truly has no borders" says Graden.

The event, co-sponsored with the Commonwealth Office of Technology, Government Technology Magazine, The Center of Digital Government, and leading industry sponsors (Sprint, AT&T, Cisco, Dell, Microsoft, etc …), was held at the Embassy Suites in Lexington, Kentucky. Now in its eighth year, the summit and conference intends to honor those individuals at the Federal, State, and Local level who "use information technology in innovative and award-winning ways" for all Kentuckians statewide.