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Giving rural communities the opportunity to exhort the corporate worid to "come look us over" may require over-coming a sense on the part of some that it's not politically correct in a global economy to criticize companies that move jobs overseas as a means of remaining competitive.

But there is increasing discussion in the business community, here and in other urban centers, about me importance, from security and safety stand-points, of dispersing or duplicating facilities outside urban centers but inside this country.

Investigating rural communities as an alternative to offshoring jobs was one of the focal points last week at an Urban Meets Rural breakfast seminar, which Washington Sen. fatty Murray, in welcoming remarks, called part of an effort to "introduce business leaders to new opportunities provided in rural Washington."

The event was put on by the WSU Center to Bridge the Digital Divide and featured CEOs of a group of companies that have moved to rural communities, sprung up in rural communities, or ex- panded into rural parts of the state.

Kathy Brittain White, founder and president of Arkansas-based Rural Sourcing Inc., which
helps prepare rural communities to go after new business and jobs, says rural America is "becoming a viable alternative to sending jobs offshore."

And while out-sourcing jobs to foreign call centers is viewed by many companies as a real-
ity of staying competitive in a global economy, others suggest a backlash is developing terms of consumer reluctance to accept what is too frequently inferior service or response by call centers located offshore.

"A backlash is starting to occur," White said, "not specifically because jobs are being moved offshore^-but because people are not getting the kind and level of service they expect from someone answering their caD.

"At the end of the day, a company has to have a good product and good service to stay competitive, and so absolutely rural America has some emerging opportunities in terms of
service," White said.

"Rural communities can't seek to be the alternative to every kind of out-sourcing," she noted. "Obviously, giant call centers arent going to work in small communities, but call centers of, say, 100 people or less, certainly can. And it's about more than call centers."

John Larsen, CEO of HomeMovie.corn, who moved his company from Everett to Winthrop, says "the promise of offshoring has been greatly exaggerated"

Another CEO panelist, George Date, who founded NCTeleserve, also in Wiothrop, says "some companies are moving back from foreign outsourdng."

Dale, after 25 years in call center development and consulting, joined with a team of investors to create NC-Teleserve as a call center that provides technical and customer service support from offices in Wmthrop. He expects the business to grow to 100 employees over fhe next four years.

But the fact is, according to White, rural community populations are not limited to lower-wage work such as caB centers.

There is a lot of tech-related work that can be handled in rural communities," she says. °m fact, there is little-limit to the abilities of the population you now find in rural communities, particularly as more people seek to return home to their roots and look for Jobs in those communities."