Glimmers of Hope at enterpriseSeattle 40th Economic Forecast Conference

enterpriseSeattle 40th Annual Economic Forecast Conference

On Thursday, on behalf of ZINO Society, Mary Holmes and I attended the 40th Annual Economic Forecast Conference presented by enterpriseSeattle as guests of The Regence Group Vice President and fellow enterpriseSeattle Board member, Cary Badger.  The day was kicked off by Jeff Marcell, President and CEO of enterpriseSeattle, with greetings also from Board member, David Allen of McKinstry, who is leading the new enterpriseSeattle Campaign. 

An economic forecast for 2012 was provided by a panel of three economists; Dick Conway of Puget Sound Economic Forecaster, Michael Dueker of Russell Investments and Ken Goldstein of The Conference Board.  Though Ken Goldstein was more pessimistic than the other two economists, they all shared glimmers of hope and projected small growth in 2012.

Next was an Aerospace Student Showcase and remarks by Dow Constantine, King County Executive and then a panel discussion on "The Future of Aerospace in the Region" moderated by Glenn Farley of KING 5 TV.

Governor Chris Gregoire

The conference concluded with a Keynote lunch featuring two awards.  First, the Puget Sound Business Journal Executive of the Year Award was presented to Jeff Raikes of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the enterpriseSeattle Economic Development Champion Award was presented to J. Tayloe Washburn of the Washington Aerospace Partnership & Foster Pepper PLLC.

Keynote remarks were provided by both Governor Chris Gregoire and Bill Ayer, Chairman and CEO of Alaska Airlines.

Governor Gregoire urged the attendees to put pressure on their legislators to get the budget passed ASAP and pass her 1/2 cent sales tax increase proposal to help decrease the deficit and then focus on education and transportation issues.

Bill Ayer

Bill Ayer shared four principles to live by of which I can remember only three which are definitely worth remembering:
* Don't buy things you can't afford.
* Don't borrow what you can't pay back.
* Don't do deals that you don't understand.

Then he also shared the eight guidelines to run a successful company that he uses at Alaska Airlines.  These are great guidelines that I can use at ZINO Society!

* Be customer focused.
* Get the right people on the team and be both realistic and optimistic.
* Instill a sense of urgency to do the right thing.
* Recognize that what you measure gets done.
* Focus on what you can control.
* Work on only one or two big ideas at a time.
* Develop strategic partnerships to increase relevance.
* Be adaptable and ready to capitalize on opportunities that arise.