The AdvantageWest board of directors will conduct its regular bimonthly meeting on Thursday, Dec. 13 at 2 p.m. at the AdvantageWest offices.

AdvantageWest, one of seven regional economic development partnerships across North Carolina, opens board meetings to the public.

The nonprofit, public-private partnership serves the 23 westernmost counties of the state, a geographic area of nearly 10,000 square miles or about the size of the state of Maryland.

AdvantageWest’s program of work focuses on: advanced manufacturing; entrepreneurial development, including the Certified Entrepreneurial Communities® program and the Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council (BREC); agribusiness through Blue Ridge Food Ventures, a food business and natural products incubator and shared-use commercial kitchen, which also runs the Winter Sun Farms community supported agriculture program; the green-collar and clean-energy jobs initiative, AdvantageGreen; and the Western North Carolina Film Commission. Chartered by the N.C. General Assembly in 1994, AdvantageWest is governed by a 21-member board of directors from 16 counties across the region.

AdvantageWest offices are located at 134 Wright Brothers Way in Fletcher, adjacent to the Asheville Regional Airport. For more information, visit www.advantagewest.com. AdvantageWest also has a Facebook presence at www.facebook.com/AdvantageWest.

For more information, call Assistant Corporate Secretary Amanda Baranski at 828-687-7234.

– article submitted by Kathi Petersen