Idaho Mountain Express: Economic summit starts Wednesday

Friday, October 5, 2012

Economic summit starts Wednesday

Panels, speakers to focus on future

By KATHERINE WUTZ
Express Staff Writer

Data has been gathered, business owners have been contacted and Sustain Blaine is ready to host its first Wood River Economic Summit next week, focused on the state of the local economy and what it might look like in the future.

The day-long summit will feature four speakers and two panels of local business owners, all of whom will discuss the nature of the local and global economies as well as the distinct challenges facing businesses in the Wood River Valley.

The most locally based information is likely to be presented by Sustain Blaine Executive Director Harry Griffith, who will give an update on Blaine County’s economic climate as well as an analysis of the economic impact of 25 of the valley’s largest events.

Griffith said last month that he has been collecting data from the major events in 2011 and determining the economic impacts of each one, including how many people came, how much money they spent and how much business the events brought to local businesses.

He will also present city-specific economic data from 2011, some of which may show the economy is slowly but surely improving. Skier days and hotel occupancy rates in Ketchum and Sun Valley were slightly up from 2010, though the numbers of jobs and businesses in the county either held steady or were slightly down from 2010.

Griffith’s presentation will be followed by an audience poll to determine how locals feel about the economy and what their business strategies will be for 2013.

The summit will also include two panels, one on the challenges of operating a business in Blaine County and one on local opportunities. The first panel will feature developer Jack Bariteau, restaurant owner and real estate agent Rob Cronin and Bryan Furlong, area president of Zions Bank.

The second will feature Aimee Christensen of Christensen Global, Pia Ayliffe of Hailey-based biosciences company ORFLO Technologies, Greg Siebert from the Idaho Department of Commerce and Tory Ballard of PACT Apparel, which is opening a branch in Ketchum;

To register, visit www.sustainblaine.com/summit.

Kate Wutz: kwutz@mtexpress.com
viagra canada
viagra espana
viagra online

About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged: