LEWISTON – Vicki Rackliffe was at a table in a Bates Mill coffeehouse, munching on a wrap while unwinding with colleagues Jan Kubiac and Tim Kavanagh.

They had just completed a walking tour of Saints Peter and Paul Church, one of Thursday’s events offered during the Blaine House Conference on the Creative Economy. The trio was among a group of 19 people from the Bethel area lured to Lewiston by the notion of a creative economy.

“Some of us will attend the conference tomorrow, and others are here because they are just curious about a creative economy,” said Rackliffe.

They had come to the right place. More than 680 people will attend workshops and hear speakers Friday in transformed mill space. The governor and other state officials will be joined by nationally known economists and businesspeople to talk about the potential that lies within communities that attract businesses based on innovation and creativity.

Thursday’s events were living examples of that potential. In addition to the Saints Peter and Paul tour, another walking tour departed Bates Mill every hour with stops at Maine Heritage Weavers, McIntosh & Tuttle Cabinetmakers, Pantheon Guitars and the Franco-American Heritage Center.

At McIntosh & Tuttle, which specializes in upscale, custom cabinetry and furniture, President Jon Tuttle said locating his business in Lewiston was initially a matter of pure economics.

Gesturing around his workshop, he said similar mill space in Brunswick was twice the price of Lewiston’s, and in Portland, four or five times the price.

“This is such good incubator space,” he said.

Local economic developers are hoping the word gets out. There’s more than 2 million square feet of mill space in Lewiston and Auburn, with Bates Mill accounting for roughly 1 million of that.

Tour participants got glimpses of that mill space in various stages of renovation, from completed, occupied space, such as Peoples Heritage Bank in Storehouse No. 7, to the raw mill space of Mill No. 5, the saw-toothed roof mill that local officials hope to one day convert into a convention center.

Stephan Myers, an engineer with Platz Associates who led one of the tours, said it would take between $40 million and $80 million to convert the old weave shed. But it would be a huge economic boon to the area.

“This today proves that people will come here,” he said, referencing the conference.

And come they did.

A steady stream of people walked through the second floor of Mill No. 1, a showcase of Maine’s creative economy. They wandered around displays of pottery, paintings and jewelry, and then into Museum L-A, where the cities’ mill history is revealed through machinery, photos, textiles and other artifacts.

“There’s so much stuff, it’s hard to tell what impressed me most,” said Roger Montminy, who worked at Bates for 40 years.

Rachel Desgrosseilliers, director of the museum, said several groups of former employees were delighted to see the old looms set up; many began to demonstrate their old jobs on the looms.

“I was overwhelmed,” said Cyril Baillargeon, who worked at Bates for 37 years.

Some people perused the exhibits set up by various arts, education and cultural agencies; other booths showcased businesses and technology. Poetry reading and juggling provided entertainment and the coffeehouse gave folks a place to put up their feet and recharge.

Rackliffe, a member of the Mahoosuc Arts Council, said she was looking forward to Friday’s workshops. She and her companions divvied up the workshops and decided to regroup and debrief one another when the conference ends. She’s hoping to come away with some ideas for using the creative economy to help jump-start economic development in Bethel.

“We’ve gone through the cultural tourism phase, so on to something new,” she said.

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