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Greetings! Yesterday Sustain Blaine held an excellent day-long Economic Summit in Sun Valley Resort's Limelight Room. Roughly 200 people attended, coming from diverse business backgrounds, to hear speakers and panelists discuss where Blaine County is now and where it might head in the next few years.
Harry Griffith, Executive Director of Sustain Blaine, provided data on economic trends for each city and the County as a whole. The information is worth reviewing and you should soon be able to find it on Sustain Blaine's website.
Jon Roberts from TIP Strategies, revisited the valley's economy three years after his economic development firm's original report. He delivered some tough love, suggesting that we haven't moved much past the profile of his first visit. We still dwell on tourism as our main sector when, he says, "tourism, on its own merits, is not a good strategy" for sustained, innovative economic development, or what might be called an "innovation ecosystem." He encouraged an added focus on attracting and fostering businesses that are not tourism-dependent, drawing youth to our valley to "rescue our brand," developing more public/private partnerships for development, and somehow finding an avenue to provide the higher education that stimulates "intellectual churn."
Jon also emphasized that our various economic development groups still act as silos: pursuing their own agendas with virtually no collaboration and, often, redundant efforts. The audience agreed with him on this point. An electronic audience participation survey showed strong support for creating one economic development umbrella that ties all economic groups together to promote a single, focused brand that draws people to both visit and live here (e.g. quality of place/quality of life). Jon then challenged us to actually carry out that majority desire.
Joe Kasputys, founder of IHS Global Insight, tackled the "Outlook for the Global & U.S. Economy." Acknowledging a desire and tendency to be optimistic, he suggested that 2013 would be worse than 2012 on the economic front, but that things would start to pick up in 2014. He was careful, however, to state that his predictions were based on assumptions, such as no war with Iran, that could change at any minute. Interestingly, he suggested that a shift in the economic growth model from ever-increasing consumption and resource use to more circumspect and sustainable growth might arise in China which has suffered such intense pollution in its rush to catch up to the West.
Other presentations were also interesting. In line with Jon's sense that we should market "quality of place," rather than just tourism, a panel of small business owners described setting up here because of 1) Great education for kids and quality of life; 2) Grew up here and wants to continue the quality of life; 3) Can create a national brand yet live here for quality of life. Tourism didn't enter the picture. Indeed, Jon asked the audience what we would have left if we didn't have Sun Valley Resort. The answer, obviously? Quality of life!
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Update on "Entrepreneurs Just Do It!" The deadline for submitting written business plans to the competition is next Wednesday, October 17. The competition has had wide media coverage, including advertising by our host, the Ketchum Library.
We may have as many as 22 entries to the competition ranging from start-up ideas to businesses evaluating whether they want to commit to Whole Foods. We have confirmed sophisticated investor panels to review written plans and to judge the finalists' public presentations at the Ketchum's Library on November 7, 9 am - 1 pm.
Please calendar the public presentations. Take this time to celebrate local entrepreneurs and their often solitary, risk-laden efforts to create something new, different and viable as a business. If they are successful, our County will benefit economically and socially. More details will be coming your way soon.
Until next week...Jima Rice | 
