Only fifty tickets remain for a major economic conference in Northern California.
The CSU, Chico Center for Economic Development will be holding its 12th Annual Economic Forecast Conference in Oroville on January 12th, 2012. The event has grown well beyond its original tri-county (Butte, Glenn and Tehama) region and now serves as the premiere Economic Forecast Conference for all of Northern California. After 11 successful years, the Center for Economic Development has expanded the event to incorporate a much broader audience to include communities from as far away as the Oregon border down to the Sacramento and Central Valley region. In addition to looking at the economic forecast for the region, this conference will be a catalyzing event to discuss regional cooperation, regional issues, and regional solutions through individual breakout sessions that will benefit the business community, the Native American community, and the public sector.
The Economic Forecast Conference will kick off by providing an in-depth and candid look at where the national, state and North Valley economies are heading in the near and long-term future. The economic forecast portion of the program provides detailed economic analysis provided by three well-known economists. The first speaker is Gary Zimmerman, Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, followed by Dr. Robert Eyler, Chair of the Economics Department at Sonoma State University; and concluding the morning session with Dr. David Gallo, Economics Professor at CSU, Chico.
In addition to the featured economists, the Conference will have two speakers who will speak directly to issues that affect the region and North State, regional collaboration and agriculture. Tom Murphy, the former Mayor of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and current Senior Resident Fellow at the Urban Land Institute will speak on regional economic development and public/private cooperation utilizing anchor institutions. The Keynote Speaker will be Brian McGowan, CEO of Atlanta Development Authority and former Deputy Assistant Secretary / Chief Operating Officer at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration.
Traditionally, this conference has drawn a diverse crowd from businesses, utilities companies, non-profits, governments, universities, and elected officials from Butte, Glenn and Tehama counties. However, based upon feedback from a number of elected officials, this conference program has been fashioned to create an excellent opportunity for private and public attendees to network and meet each other, share ideas on growth and development, and figure out ways to work together to develop new jobs and promote economic growth throughout the entire north state.
Additionally,
One of the ways the conference has been changed is to add a series of breakout sessions after lunch. These afternoon sessions represent a significant addition to the conference that previously ended at noon. With the addition of these breakout sessions, specific areas of interest have been targeted to address the needs of the Native American communities, the business community, and the public sector policy makers.
Drawing upon resources from the Federal Reserve Bank, the Economic Development Administration, the Small Business Administration, the Procurement Technical Assistance Centers, and the Native American Chamber of Commerce in California a special two hour breakout will address the variety of economic development and business lending issues facing the Tribes throughout northern California.
For the business community, separate breakout sessions will address agricultural and culinary tourism, small business lending, lessons learned in growing a business, and marketing intelligence information available to small businesses.
And, for elected officials and public policy makers noted speakers from through the state will provide lessons learned in breakout sessions on leveraging partnerships, building blocks for regional partnerships, infrastructure development, and small business regulatory reform.
In a special effort to bring together as many elected officials as possible, the Center for Economic Developing is inviting any elected official to attend the conference at no cost. This offer appears on the conference web site and in each individual letter of invitation sent out to every elected official in northern California by the Mayor of Oroville, Linda Dahlmeier.
The date of the Economic Forecast is January 12, 2012, and it is located at Gold Country Casino, 4020 Olive Highway, Oroville, Ca.
Conference and registration information can be found at http://www.cedcal.com/2012-economic-forecast-conference/.